READERS WANTED: Reflections on Finding an Audience

"Does it matter if you have a large readership?  Do you want more hits? If you do, then why?  The answer to that question is very important." My friend Jenny always asks good questions. To have a moment of theatre, you need two things.  An actor and an audience. Does it need to be a …

Focusing Wonder, Narrowing Mystery

Help me out here. The project?  Focusing my blogging, narrowing my subject matter.   Answering the question: what is all this blogging about?  I mean the blogging in the jeffberryman.com world.   If you've been reading my work for awhile, tell me what you think I'm up to. It's not that I don't know...exactly--after all, …

Theatre Spiked Sunday Morning: On Experiencing “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”

Race.  Labor.  Civil War.  Apple.  Corporate responsibility, art, and Christ.  The present moment, Sabbath, friendship, taking on the world.  Somewhere in China, men, women, boys, and girls, each having singular, personal names just like we do, sacred mysteries all (see yesterday's post), will go to work today, and the only thing keeping them from flinging …

The Sacred Mystery of Each

"Every person is a sacred mystery."  A few years back, Ron Austin caught my attention with this little statement in a brief talk at Act One: Screenwriting for Hollywood.   He was reminding us that each person has an essential beauty and mystery, and that to see each person we meet as sacrament is to heighten the …

Hunting for Books: Lead Me To A Good One

There were hundreds of books, and as always, the stakes were high.  But you can't think about it that way.  Who wants to remember that every single time you read a book, you--and the world--change? Choosing a book is like choosing anything these days.   There are uncountable choices, and we are given that crazy …