Billi Pod Reflects on The Shadow Box and Ray Coker

First, let’s start this posting with a big shout out==>TGIF for all of my Worker Bee friends.

And then ...

Billi Pod’s report card on last night's THE COMPLETE & CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL==>A<==it lives up to the advance buzz and favorable reviews.

Very funny and very well performed by an extremely talented ensemble cast. It clocks in at 80 minutes and the time flies by.

Bottom-line==>See it if you get a chance.

Tonight the Yankees begin a 3 game series vs. Toronto with our ace CC Sabathia on the mound.

We now lead the AL East by 4 1/2 games and the Boston FuckSox are fading fast. They are now fighting The Rays for the Wild Card. Go Rays!!

Before moving on I want to share with you loyal and faithful readers the results of a recent NY Post poll regarding the five greatest Yankees of all time. The results ...

1. Babe Ruth - 20,822

2. Lou Gehrig - 17,353

3. Joe DiMaggio - 17,120

4. Mickey Mantle - 15,963

5. Mariano Rivera - 10,411

Billi Pod totally agrees.

Tonight’s entertainment event is ...

8:00==>THE SHADOW BOX - “This Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play is set in a northern California hospice for the terminally ill and tells the story of three families attempting to cope with the impending death of a loved one” (Off Broadway - complimentary ticket).

I want to give you a brief synopsis of the characters ...

Brian (terminally ill) and his devoted lover Mark receive a surprise visit from Brian’s ex-wife;

Blue-collar Joe (terminally ill) must help his wife and teenage son accept a life interrupted;

Felicity, an elderly, cantankerous, woman (terminally ill), is being cared for by her devoted daughter; and

Their stories are developed through interaction with the largely unseen Interviewer.

In the early 80s Theatre Winter Haven, Winter Haven, FL, received the first permission granted to a “nonprofessional” theater company in Florida to do the show. Because of the theme, profane language and homosexual characters it was, needless-to-say, very very controversial. The Director, Norman Small, made almost no changes in the original script.

I was cast as the Interviewer. This didn’t please several of my older colleagues and that is putting it mildly.

The production received rave reviews but the theater was picketed every night by very vocal church and conservative groups.

We subsequently won first place in a state competition and took the show to the national competition level (but, unfortunately, we didn’t win).

Then in 1994 I was cast as Joe when the show was done by a theater group in Plant City, FL. Our production also received rave reviews, but this time no picketing.

Needless-to-say this is one of my favorite shows and I am really looking forward to seeing this production.

I hate to end this posting on a sad note, but I have to reflect that 8 years ago today I lost Ray Coker of Lakeland, FL, one of my dearest friends. Yes, drug and alcohol addiction is an equal-opportunity destroyer, make no mistake about that.

My thoughts go out to his family: Bud and Louise; Debbie; and, Hac and Sarah and to his longtime friend Ginger Flowers. May God Bless You All.

GO YANKEES AND GO GATORS!!

Billi Pod

“Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.”

ALEX-23