Jerry Kaufman

Jerry Kaufman,
The Idea Man
by Elizabeth Perry

A paragraph you say
Is it possible
A paragraph about Jerry?
Is that possible?
This man who dreams in sagas?
Well, he’d say, I’m an Idea Man

Endless spinning, sculpting, supposing…
Ideas, imaginings, preposterous,
Presumptuous, unrestrained
You, Jerry, a paragraph?
How do you contain
An Idea Man

The tumult of thought
Here’s a tip
Write this down
Make a list
Get on the phone
In that cub reporter tone

Not so fast, Jerry
But I’m an Idea Man

You tossed them out like
Rice at a wedding
Tickertape on a parade
And then swept up like leaves
In a gust of autumn
They spiraled about you
The ideas, damn good ones,
As you took off
For unknown parts

A paragraph, she asked
Oh no this is not, no not
A minor tribute to
An Idea Man
Sometimes a tome
Must be condensed to a poem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Media

GoodCounselor
Jerry Kaufman Award founders, Carol and Arthur Goldberg, with winner, Kathryn Grant,
and director, John Wooten, at the world premiere of The Good Counselor

Kathyrn Grant’s The Good Counselor received the 2010 Premiere Stages Play Festival Award and a production at Premiere Stages, Kean University, in July of 2010. Reviewing for The New York Times, Anita Gates wrote, “Kathryn Grant’s unsettling new drama… doesn’t fall into the trap of oversimplifying her characters… and they leave us with a mystery that is as big as the leap into parenthood itself… fascinating both legally and psychologically… excellent work.”


Lawnchairs

ARTC members Frank DeGregorio, Deb Armelino, Nancy Hasty, Lauren Robert, Byron Loyd at the premiere of Nancy Hasty’s Lawnchairs. The play received its world premiere at the Electric Theatre Company, an Equity resident theater in Scranton, PA in March, 2009. “A deliciously dark comedy that gets at human truths… ” Kelly Clisham, NE Pennsylvania‚ Weekender


Zinzi

Playwright, Phyllis MacBryde, with Carol Goldberg and actors Lyric Watson (young Zinzi), and Venida Evans (Lavinia). Zinzi the Musical, book by Phyllis MacBryde, music by Roger Bartlett, has received developmental grants from the Puffin Foundation and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.


Fran Handman

Adding Machine, the Musical, by Fran Handman, 2008 Jerry Kaufman Award finalist, won the Moondance International Film Festival musical theatre award in 2008 and was a finalist for the Building Theatre in Chicago. It also was selected for two staged readings by TRU in their New Voices Musical Series.

PhotosVideo