A play reading of THE MASTER AND THE MAGICIAN

A Play Reading of THE MASTER AND THE MAGICIAN Written and directed by Julius Galacki

When: May 22, 2021 at 3:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Free, but you must Register in advance for this reading:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrcOqqqzgvEtMjqJ2HwIrI1qA1ccQ7KAu4

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the play reading.


“I must snare this hare before she becomes rabidly aware.”

In the style of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and other classical comedies, the play is chock-a-block with word play, alliterations, internal rhymes and couplets, physical buffoonery and mistaken identities. “THE MASTER AND THE MAGICIAN” is a fractured fairy tale for adults.

On the final night of a magician’s life, she seeks to pass on her knowledge to an heir, while at the same time playing a last game of hearts with a puckish fairy spirit in which they use four lovers as pawns.

However, underlying the comedy and farce are serious disquisitions into love, gender, the nature of leadership and especially the metaphor of the artist as magician.

Starring: Gabriella Biziou, Riley Conrad, Will Dixon, Caroline Quigley, Demitra Sealy,
Roy Vongtama and Mari Weiss. Stage directions: Judy Victor

Rehearsal photos:

Caroline Quigley, Roy Vongtama and Gabriella Biziou in a scene from the play
Will Dixon as Prince Daufon

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R.I.P. Michael Brooks

Very shocked, surprised and saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Michael Brooks – writer, leftist political commentator and humanist – at age 37. I didn’t watch all of the time, but when I did I was always impressed by his intelligence and knowledge. I particularly liked his interviews with professors like Cornelll West, Harvey Kaye and Adolph Reed, leaders like Lula and other like-minded folks.

I’m surprised how much I’m crying today. I listened to a lot of remembrances today. A common refrain was how many people said how giving he was, how encouraging, how helpful to other people. He didn’t see them as competition but rather as allies. In unity, there is strength. One of the things I learned that he never spoke about when I listened to his show: he grew up very poor, and fought very hard to not just rise up out of it, but that it was something he wanted no one to go through. So, his progressive values, which could sound so intellectual because he was so well-read, came from a deep emotional belief and genuine compassion. I always thought that was true, but to know the history, it just made it more real. He also had a great laugh. (I’ll admit that I didn’t find him as funny as other people did, but I found his sense of humor and joy very enlivening.)

Here’s one of the best things Michael Brooks said, and lived by: “Be ruthless to systems but be kind to people.”

Read more here: https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/michael-brooks-dead/

Meagan Day at Jacobin remembers: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/michael-brooks-remembrance

Michael Brooks (1983-2020) got a chance to meet former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva early this year after advocating his release from prison.

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A Reading of THE FRISCO FLASH – Oct. 14, 2018, 2 pm

I’m doing a reading of my play THE FRISCO FLASH. It will be on Sunday, October 14 at 2 pm at the Second Stage at the Broadwater , 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. (between Lillian Way and Vine) in Hollywood. Free. Starring Gregory Battle, Josh Breslow, Jordan Farris, Marieve Herington, Jared Poe, Brian Pope, Adam J. Smith and Ingrid Walters

Description: Cecil Lewis “Young Jack” Thompson twice won the World Welter Weight Boxing title in 1930, becoming the second African-American to win a boxing title, and the first after Jack Johnson. His career closely intersected with two other more well-known white champions. Yet today, Young Jack Thompson is completely forgotten. Based on my own original research, I attempt to right this wrong and relate it to today’s issues of racial injustice.

The gravestone of Cecil (Young Jack) Thompson and his mother – photo by Julius Galacki

West Adams Historical Association – work done on a living history monologue

Sunday September 23, 2018 was the annual West Adams Historical Association living history tour in the Angeles Rosedale Cemetery. (Anyone with any interest in Los Angeles / California history should try to make next year’s tour.) I’ve written monologues twice for them but I didn’t expect to do anything this year, however I ended up helping with casting and doing revisions (and thus getting a credit in the program) on the monologue for Henry Fook Chew played by Roy Vongtama (who did a fine portrayal by the way).

Roy Vongtama performing – photo by Julius Galacki
Unlike most of these monologues, the Chew one was inside the Chapel near his actual gravestone.

Henry Fook Chew’s gravestone – photo by Julius Galacki
The theme for this year’s tour was immigrants. While the Angeles Rosedale doesn’t look as pretty or sleek as other Cemeteries in the area, what I really like about it is that it has ALWAYS been an inclusive cemetery open to all races, religions, ethnicities, and nationalities. Thus the immigrants featured in this year’s tour were people of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Latino, Armenian, German and French backgrounds