Paul Goldfinger. February, 2021.
Los Angeles.
“Now d’ya hear about Louie Miller?
He disappeared, babe
After drawin’ out all his hard-earned cash..”
Lyrics to Mack the Knife by Bertolt Brecht. (Music by Kurt Weill) in 1928 for The Three Penny Opera.
When I was in a freshman English class at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, my professor was Charles Angoff, the Editor of the American Mercury magazine as well as a full Professor at FDU.
He insisted that we all go into New York City, individually, (20 minutes away by bus) to see the Three Penny Opera in the Village. I had never seen a New York stage production before. My girlfriend at the time was an English and Russian major. Her head was filled with Dostoyevsky, so this was exciting for her also. I tried to provide thrills whenever possible, and she taught me a few words in Russian, but I can’t reveal them; and off we went.
I can’t express the impact which that live theater production made on me.
If you have a child ready for college, consider sending them to a NYC university, or one nearby.
SOLOMON SONG by Ellen Greene. From the 1976 NY Shakespeare Festival revival of the Three Penny Opera.
We did take my own advice: Our oldest son Stephen is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts; Dramatic Writing program based in Greenwich Village.