brian mitchell and joseph nixon
review: the opinion makers by brian mitchell and joseph nixon at colchester mercury until november 9 .
new perspectives theatre company presents' those magnificent men' by brian mitchell and joseph nixon. touring february - may 2010. urltoken
this latest comedy slam down from brian mitchell and joseph nixon examines the enormous success that these two competitors had over their spectators .
a british heavyweight champion comedy drama, written by brian mitchell & joseph nixon, starring ross gurney - randall & dave mounfield .
spy, brian mitchell and joseph nixon, presented by the ornate johnsons, pulse festival, wolsey studio, ipswich, sunday june 8 .
in brian mitchell and joseph nixon’s excellent new play big daddy versus giant haystacks, the history behind these two giants of the ring is enthusiastically created .
the plays have been penned by brian mitchell and joseph nixon whose big daddy vs giant haystacks won the buxton fringe award for best theatre production in 2011 .
promotional video for the foundry group / ornate johnsons play
those magnificent men
by brian mitchell and joseph nixon. www. urltoken. @ foundrygroupuk info @ urltoken
review: the opinion makers by brian mitchell and joseph nixon at colchester mercury until november 9. | what' s on and things to do in suffolk - east anglian daily times
promotional video for the foundry group / ornate johnsons play
those magnificent men
by brian mitchell and joseph nixon. www. foundrygroup. co. uk. @ foundrygrou ...
whether there will be a wittier, better crafted or more entertaining show at the fringe this year remains to be seen, but brighton boys brian mitchell and joseph nixon have set the bar high .
award - winning playwrights brian mitchell and joseph nixon’s performance seven studies in salesmanship forms the ideal introduction and user’s manual to the high - octane world of salesmanship, covering every angle from the hard sell to celebrity endorsement .
benjamin stratton brian mitchell daniel boys daniel buckroyd david mountfield joseph nixon julie atherton justin edwards made in colchester mel giedroyc mercury theatre philip gladwell richard reeday sally rapier sara perks stacey ghent the opinion makers tom kelly tom lishman .
tagged with: benjamin stratton brian mitchell daniel boys daniel buckroyd david mountfield joseph nixon julie atherton justin edwards made in colchester mel giedroyc mercury theatre philip gladwell richard reeday sally rapier sara perks stacey ghent the opinion makers tom kelly tom lishman .
brian mitchell and joseph nixon were born in mansfield about a year apart. they attended junior school together, where they began writing. they have written for jo caulfield, live and kicking, jerry sadowitz, basil brush, joanna neary and numerous others .
from the writers of the fringe hit big daddy vs. giant haystacks and those magnificent men, brian mitchell and joseph nixon, comes this evening of short comic plays to entertain, provoke - thought and send you on your way with with something to chew over .
for further information on seven studies in salesmanship, interviews and photo opportunities please contact brian mitchell at info @ urltoken or on 07435 035771 .
one thread always ran through everything in his life: his families, one named mitchell, the other named nixon newspapers .
brian mitchell' s musical collaboration with children' s author philip reeve returns in a new production by the foundry group... .
brian mitchell and joseph nixon' s brilliant little play about alcock and brown, which used the story of those pioneer aviators to explore history, the nature of fame, and the recent trend for using real - life figures as the basis for plays which explore history and the nature of fame. their latest work ,
i went over my analysis of nixon and agnew’s threat with loeb and we agreed it was not libelous, and told willis that. it seemed to me to be a political ploy. nixon and mitchell were making unsupported allegations. these allegations were similar to the ones nixon made against voorhees and douglas and the same as nixon would later make against the times during the pentagon papers case .
as early as the 1930s, joseph mitchell was weighed down by decreasing attention spans. the theme figured into his writing over the subsequent three decades .
ross gurney - randall and david mounfield are stroud' s manic colleagues tackley and shanks while brian mitchell, one of the writers, plays the role of scientist aston .
brian mitchell and joseph nixon' s unashamedly populist play is a series of sketches combining close - up sweaty ring action (and it' s very close - up in the tiny box venue at assembly), cultural history ranging from tiswas to world of sport, and the story of how daddy met frank sinatra and haystacks hob - nobbed with paul mccartney .
he and writing partner joseph nixon are currently working on a screenplay for an italian film director and mitchell is also directing joanna neary' s new edinburgh show. the heavy schedule has helped to banish the memory of his recent fringe show at the udderbelly .
critically - acclaimed writing duo brian mitchell and joseph nixon have assembled a wonderful cast of characters for this brand new musical comedy, including: the hapless fernsby and his useless sidekicks; a beatnik advertising phoney and his jazz flute playing muse; a scottish laird with a dark secret and a glamorous american gold - digger wife; and an insane home secretary - in - waiting .
this was a fun examination of the dark arts of sales - personship although it touched on some painful truths, illustrated by references to exploitation of world - suffering for individual gain and the developing problem of the market worming its way into personal lives and infringing privacy conventions. seven studies has proven to be another triumph for brighton writing duo brian mitchell and joseph nixon .
the following is a tribute fellow colleague ray moscowitz wrote about john mitchell around the time of his death. it was published july 24, 1993 in the frankfort times. mitchell was a long - time executive of nixon newspapers .
mitchell and nixon met and went to school in shirebook and have gone on to forge a life - long writing partnership that has seen them write for bbc1 and 4 and radio4 and locally for new perspectives theatre company and derby theatre .
a rollicking adaptation of outrageous, absurd and hilarious stories and ballads by the master of ‘topsy - turvydom’ sir w. s. gilbert, brought lovingly to the stage by the ornate johnsons’ david mounfield and brian mitchell .
with a script that will no doubt re - ignite the nostagia of long lost childhoods, mitchell and nixon’s latest fringe outing will be equally as entertaining for the less informed attendee .
big daddy vs giant haystacks is all about nostalgia. brian mitchell and joseph nixon’s two - man play is a dewy - eyed homage to british wrestling’s golden age, cast in the form of a slapstick - ish caper about two of its great icons: the titular big daddy (real name shirley crabtree, played by ross gurney - randall) and giant haystacks (martin ruane, portrayed by david mounfield) .
joseph nixon co - wrote the hit edinburgh show ‘the cruel hand of fate’ with comedian glen richardson, and wrote sketches for ‘joanna neary’s magic hole’ (assembly rooms). he regularly contributes material to brighton’s acclaimed radio city group .
the white house had no reaction. president richard nixon had not even read the article. attorney general john mitchell hadn’t read it either. the headline, apparently, had put everyone off .
brian mitchell wrote the book for this brand new musical comedy with songs by jerry rulf. it opens in brighton fringe next week in a production by the foundry group, starring fellow old ornate johnsons david mounfield and glen richardson .
when rothman and i first met, we discovered a shared fondness for joseph mitchell, so his response to suttree didn’t surprise me. mitchell’s collection, the bottom of the harbor was published in 1959, roughly the same year mccarthy began working on suttree, which could also have been titled “the bottom of the river. ”
he will say, “hi, i’m john mitchell, ” and the smile will not leave his face .
secretary of state william rogers was next to call nixon. their conversation was mostly about the coverage of tricia nixon’s wedding. admitting that he hadn’t read the story yet—wedding coverage was a higher priority—nixon brushed it off as a story about the former administration of president lyndon b. johnson, not his. a few minutes later, henry kissinger, nixon’s national security advisor, called the white house. perhaps nixon had read the story by this time. he agreed with kissinger that printing the pentagon papers was an unconscionable thing for a newspaper to do. “it’s treasonable, there’s no question—it’s actionable, i’m absolutely certain that this violates all sorts of security laws, ” kissinger said. he told nixon not to ignore the story: “it shows you are a weakling, mr. president. ” nixon told kissinger to call attorney general john mitchell to discuss what to do .
the phenomenon of british wrestling in the mid - part of the twentieth century, and in particular the relationship between these two wrestling men, is the focus of the fringe play ‘big daddy vs giant haystacks’, which comes to edinburgh this august. the show stars ross gurney and dave mounfield (pictured in character), though we spoke to the men behind the play, brian mitchell and joseph nixon, to find out what motivated them to revisit this very british ‘sporting’ phenomenon through a two - hander play .
“as funny as we’ve come to expect from mitchell and nixon, but it’s never just funny: they have a deep sympathy for the people they write about. * * * * * ” - philip reeve, the solitary bee
in the watergate tapes, nixon bragged to his national security advisor henry kissinger several times that he brought down alger hiss by attacking him in the press. i had followed nixon carefully ever since that case. hiss was a diplomat and, once, the secretary general of the united nations charter conference, who was accused of being a communist by whittaker chambers, a renounced communist american writer and defected soviet spy. chambers had shared this information with nixon’s house on un - american activities committee when nixon was a congressman .
brian mitchell once called a show by his comedy sketch troupe the ornate johnsons
an epoch - making load of old b * * * * cks
. he has slightly loftier ambitions for his latest work, the comedy - drama the october revolutions .
in 1964, at age fifty - nine, joseph mitchell published “joe gould’s secret” in two installments in the new yorker ’s september 19 and september 26 issues. mitchell was in his prime, and the magazine recognized it: the long essay took up nearly 40 percent of the two issues’ combined page counts. what would mitchell do next? he planned an expansive book - length work blending thoughts and observations from his four decades in new york city with his upbringing and life in fairmont, a farming town of three thousand people in north carolina’s coastal plains, where members of his family had lived since before the american revolution. mitchell and his wife, therese, spent summers in fairmont throughout their marriage; they are buried there today, next to mitchell’s parents and relatives .
when the late joe nixon recruited him some 25 years ago, john had no experience in journalism or in the newspaper business .
many of joseph mitchell’s stories feature cemeteries; one of his most famous is called “mr. hunter’s grave. ” cemeteries begat in mitchell a reflective and creative state of mind—a heady potion made up of time, space, familial generations, and silence. i often feel the same way around cemeteries, which is probably what drew me to mitchell. my proximity to this graveyard, even as i focused on big ears, sparked in me a strong and unexpected sense of the slow passage of time, which was perfectly reflected in what we were shooting .
since big ears, joseph mitchell’s 1952 new yorker magazine story “up in the old hotel” has loomed large for me. the story centers on mitchell’s friendship with louis morino, the owner of a bustling seafood restaurant in the fulton fish market in lower manhattan. the restaurant is situated on the ground floor of a building that was formerly a hotel, but the upper floors are vacant and have been sealed for decades .
seven short plays forming the ideal introduction and userís manual to the high octane world of salesmanship. the comedy is sharp and well - observed throughout and covers every angle from hard sell to celebrity endorsement, call centres to captive markets. written by acclaimed writers brian mitchell and joseph nixon the show is more than just a satire of selling techniques, it also grapples with narcissism, betrayal and obsession. from urban romantic entanglements to sci - fi vignettes and skewed roald dahl - esque morality tales, these stories frequently take unexpected twists and turns. the production was a hit at this yearís brighton festival, winning the award for best female performer. n. b. contains some strong language .
last fall, we traveled to new york to work on two different projects: one on joseph mitchell and the other on an eclectic experimental music festival in knoxville, tennessee. we spent one day in a private room on west thirty - seventh street documenting rehearsals by radiohead’s jonny greenwood and the fifty - piece wordless music orchestra, led by conductor ryan mcadams. at the end of the day, we walked over to the offices of mitchell’s longtime employer ,
they’re called the ornate johnsons because brian mitchell (pictured second from left) and joseph nixon (not pictured) included a character with the name ornate johnson in a play they once wrote about america in the 1920s. ‘when we were chewing over what to call the sketch group, we chose this pretty much at random, ’ mitchell says. ‘as you can see, we are not ornate. and in the united states “johnson” means “penis”. ’ in that context, it’s peculiarly appropriate that four members of the current team appear to have been blessed with the male appendage. the core group, consisting of mitchell, dave mounfield, laurence relton and glen richardson, came together at the university of sussex back in 1988. many others have worked with them since, clea smith is the latest addition. ‘it’s enormously difficult getting everyone together, as we all have our own projects, ’ mitchell explains. ‘for that reason, the ojs have progressed in fits and starts. we’ve taken several sabbaticals. but we’ve done about 15 different shows over the years. ’
performed by radio 4 regular david mounfield (soon to continue his long association with gbbo’s mel giedroyc in ‘count arthur strong’s radio show’ with new series ‘rum bunch’) and brian mitchell (‘those magnificent men’ and ‘the ornate johnsons’), gilbert (no sullivan) is the perfect night out for ‘savoyards’ and a great introduction to one of england’s wittiest writers .
they formed production house the foundry group in 2010, which is bringing ‘seven studies in salesmanship’ to the area for its november tour. the foundry group’s first production, mitchell and nixon' s ‘big daddy vs giant haystacks’, won several awards and featured in a recent bbc4 documentary and is coming back to create in february 2014 .
this rise and fall is poignantly captured in big daddy vs giant haystacks, a new play by comedy writing duo brian mitchell and joseph nixon. this is just the latest example in a resurgence of interest for a spectacle still mocked by many, even as it gave way to the far glitzier fare propagated by wwf (now wwe). yet before itv’s head of sport, greg dyke, removed uk wrestling from our tv screens in 1988, it was essential viewing for millions of fans. it was too low - rent, claimed dyke, ignoring an audience that existed beyond the chattering classes. in this respect, dyke was making as much of a political statement as daddy and haystacks themselves .
joseph mitchell is not the first author one thinks about in terms of music. his prose isn’t overly lyrical or musical; although he adored james joyce, particularly finnegans wake, he never attempted the sonic invention in joyce’s work. mitchell was a correspondent reporting from the field, and even when he wrote fiction, it came out of his journalistic instincts. but from this platform he achieved something mysterious. at his pinnacle, in long, deep pieces such as “mr. hunter’s grave” (1956) and “the rivermen” (1959), mitchell builds a scaffolding of details and facts only to make it dissolve, leaving us to question what just happened .
when i began this introduction last week, ivan weiss and i were assembling our team in knoxville to document this year’s big ears. the festival—like this series, like joseph mitchell’s writing—is a slow boil. none of the artists in the festival’s lineup are chosen because they can draw large crowds; it’s about listening and paying attention. big ears asks a lot .
the caldwell case was a dramatic stage - setter for the pentagon papers case, and it was a central part of nixon’s war against the press. as soon as nixon was inaugurated, his justice department started subpoenaing the press for its sources and other unpublished information. this was unprecedented. the reverberations from this fight can be felt to this very day .
by brian mitchell and joseph nixon age 7 + chris neville theatre awards - best fringe production 2013' an up, up and away fringe hit! spiffing perfection.' - the daily telegraph the thrilling true story of the first ever non - stop transatlantic flight as told by acclaimed writing duo mitchell and nixon in this side - splitting new production. last upstairs in 2014 with big daddy vs giant haystacks, this award - winning theatre company the foundry group (big daddy vs. giant haystacks) and bbc4 sketch group the ornate johnsons have joined forces for this brand new staging of the hit play about british pioneering aviators capt. john alcock and lt. arthur whitten brown and their daredevil dash across the atlantic in the tiny open cockpit of a converted vickers biplane. in this glorified kite they flew from newfoundland through dense fog, sleet, snow and hail – sometimes upside down – to ireland and worldwide celebrity. how on earth can a couple of actors tell it all with just cardboard, two chairs and some left - over props? chocks away for a night of thrills, spills and uproarious comedy. part of dave' s leicester comedy festival
what’s left are the people and things that mitchell cares about, the deep histories he traces in his work, while searching for a past that never materializes .
the production sees mitchell continue his longstanding relationship with the nightingale theatre, where he has previously staged ornate johnsons shows and his spoof cold war thriller, spy .
in his phone call with nixon, haig called it, “a devastating... security breach of the greatest magnitude of anything i’ve ever seen. ” nixon was much more worried about the leak than the story. he suggested an easy solution: he would just start firing people at the department of defense—whoever could be held responsible .
while i was naive about how the social world of washington worked in terms of lunches and dinner parties, i was not a naif about washington politics and the relationship between the press and the government. the new york times had been fighting nixon since the 1968 election. nixon had gone on national television to threaten the times with a libel suit for an editorial entitled “mr. agnew’s fitness. ” this marked the beginning of nixon’s war against the press which continued until he resigned. nixon was the first president in memory to use or threaten to use the legal process to get his way with the press. it is one thing to engage in a verbal attack against the press, another to convert that animosity to legal action .
the play premiered last year as sunken, after mitchell was told the october revolutions
sounded too much like alan ayckbourn' s the norman conquests
.
i was particularly sensitive to the attacks of right - wing republicans such as nixon and senator joseph mccarthy. a close friend of my family, george faxon, who ran a camp i attended, was driven out of his teaching job because he refused to say under oath whether he had been a member of the communist party. additionally, my friend from grade school, louisa edsall kamin, and her husband, leon, were forced to flee to canada by senator joseph mccarthy for the same reason. kamin was a harvard researcher who also refused to say whether he had been a communist. he later became chair of the department of psychology at princeton university .
for the first time and on the 180th anniversary of his birth, three of his funniest tales and two of the best - loved ‘bab ballads’ take to the stage in this inventive new adaptation by mitchell & nixon, writers of the hit shows those magnificent men and big daddy vs. giant haystacks. staged simply and flexibly, the show is ideal for rural touring and will fit comfortably in almost any small theatre, village hall or community centre .
but on sunday, laird called neither mitchell nor nixon. he did, however, prepare for a tv appearance on meet the press, assuming the program would be entirely devoted to the pentagon papers. he did not receive one question on the story. it may have been because the producers of that show hadn’t read the story, either. laird did, however, call mitchell the next day. that call set off a chain of events that led to one of the most important supreme court cases ever .
with the carnegie - medal - winning author philip reeve, brian mitchell wrote the acclaimed musical comedy ‘the ministry of biscuits’. a classically - trained composer, his songs for the perrier - nominated show, ‘joanna neary is not feeling herself’, have been broadcast on radios 1, 2 and 4 and have played bloomsbury theatre. ‘the october revolutions’, his first solo play, recently toured the south - east, winning rave reviews .
brian and joseph met at primary school in derbyshire. in 1992 they founded the award - winning sketch group the ornate johnsons. they share a string of writing credits for the stage including the edinburgh hit plays ‘big daddy vs. giant haystacks’ and ‘those magnificent men’ and the award - winning comedy musical ‘the opinion makers’. they also co - wrote ‘the cheeky guides to student life’ and ‘to love’, were head sketch writers on radio 4’s ‘jo caulfield won’t shut up’ and bbc1′s ‘live and kicking’, and as well as the tv comedy shows ‘slightly filthy’ (lwt) and ‘the ornate johnsons’ edwardian spectacular’ (bbc 4) .
his campaigns against congressman jerry voorhees and congresswoman helen gahagan douglas were liberal nightmares. nixon was accused of using every dirty trick imaginable against voorhees and slandered douglas with gutter tactics. for example, nixon pioneered an early version of “robo - calls” during his campaigns in 1946 against voorhees. in these calls, an anonymous person would call a household, say “we just wanted to inform you that the congressman who represents your district, jerry voorhees, is a communist, ” and then hang up. in his campaign against douglas, nixon insinuated she was a communist by referring to her as “the pink lady” and cited her supposedly communist - leaning voting record in congress .
general alexander haig, the president’s deputy national security adviser, had read it, however. he reached nixon in the afternoon to discuss the progress of the vietnam war. nixon asked him, “is there anything else going on in the world today? ” to which haig replied, “yes sir—very significant—this, uh, goddamn new york times exposé of the most highly classified documents of the war. ”
at the end of the week john mitchell, head of the republican campaign, demanded another retraction from the times. james “scotty” reston, the times’ executive editor, had written a column that said “nixon’s radio and television appearances with citizen - interviewers were ‘nearly always in a controlled situation, with the questioners carefully chosen, the questions solicited from the whole states or regions, but carefully screened. ’”
the play tells the story of fogeyish scriptwriter philip, described by mitchell as
29 going on 40
, and 19 - year - old kath, an art student with wisdom beyond her years .
concert, with greenwood’s score lodged in our brains, we took the new jersey transit north jersey coast line out of penn station to visit mitchell’s eldest daughter, nora mitchell sanborn, at her house near the shore. nora and her younger sister, elizabeth, who lives in georgia, maintain their father’s odd collection. archivists are interested in mitchell’s papers and, to an extent, his wife therese’s photographs, but no one seems to know what to do with the objects. nora uses many of them to decorate her house and yard. she’s curating and preserving her father’s life in this manner, but she seems puzzled by the
to many, the word politician carries a negative connotation. but, john mitchell always saw the word as webster primarily defines it: one versed or experienced in the science of government .
and because he understood that the art of politics is just that - an art - john mitchell was an incredibly effective man who made life better for everyone fortunate enough to be involved with him whether it be at the methodist church, or the department of natural resources, or the statehouse, or nixon newspapers or wesley manor, or the ymca, or the chamber of commerce, or the hoosier state press association, or inland press association, and on and on .
future. we’re not sure mitchell would have said what he was doing was “collecting, ” in the sense one collects art or stamps or 78s of early music, with a desire to preserve and showcase them. there is a tradition of collecting as performance, as public presentation, but mitchell didn’t treat his acquisitions this way. according to nora, her father hid the objects, stuffed them under beds ,
near the back of the space, in the media lab, is a table containing a mini - installation we’re calling “mitchell’s objects, teeming, ” which has been arranged by artist and rock fish stew collaborator victoria ralston .
i was the chief counsel for the new york times. as the newspaper’s top lawyer for all its business, including journalism, i had been closely involved in our internal discussions with editors, reporters, and the publisher about whether we could or should publish the pentagon papers. i had told the times that in my view there was a high probability that secretary of defense melvin laird would call for mitchell or nixon to take action against the times .
because through it all the students days at purdue, the stint serving uncle sam, the years on the farm, the sessions of the indiana general assembly, and more than two decades of newspapering john mitchell was a politician and proud of it .
nixon himself responded to the editorial the next day on cbs’ face the nation. the editorial was “the lowest kind of gutter politics that a great newspaper could engage in, ” he said, and “a retraction will be demanded at the times legally tomorrow. ” yet nixon refused to go into detail about which, or any, of the allegations he thought were incorrect, stating “i am not going to do anything that might injure mr. agnew’s case with regard to the times. ”
mitchell himself directs and does a good job in the cramped space. such a cracking show deserves a longer run (there are only three dates), a much better venue and some proper financial backing. a larger band would flesh out the music and radio mics would benefit the singing .
but agnew rejected calls to tone down his rhetoric when he was criticized for being too incendiary. nixon told the press he would not censor agnew, and agnew himself defiantly declared, “i intend to be heard above the din even if it means raising my voice .
the pentagon papers case cannot be understood without fully understanding its context. and its context was that nixon, a lawyer, looked to the courts for redress. he accompanied this approach with withering attacks on the press in an attempt to create a favorable climate for his administration .
his subjects lamented change and the speed of modern life, which they felt prevented them from experiencing it properly. mitchell’s stories—particularly the later ones, written after the advent of television—unfold at a crawl, if they unfold at all. the stories have little in the way of narrative or plot, and he lets his characters talk as long as they please. “mr. hunter’s grave” is fifteen thousand words, twelve thousand of which constitute quotes attributed to mr. hunter. digressions are everywhere. mitchell focuses on a side character, or he lays out a multicentury history of a peripheral detail. mitchell was a lifetime walker, a wanderer, and his essays evoke the feeling of a long, casual stroll, with no particular destination .
at some point that week, though, the word ear began, well, ringing in ours. the knoxville music festival is called big ears, recalling mitchell’s “bent” ones. we now wonder whether the type of careful, concentrated sonic experience on display at big ears—where the audience is invited to move outside their comfort zones and immerse themselves in new sounds—is analogous to mitchell’s old - fashioned manner of venturing out into the back alleys of new york to hear people talk .
this past summer, we sifted through hundreds of mitchell’s objects and have been placing them in a progressive installation at the contemporary art museum (cam) in raleigh. the installation, which accumulates work during its run (it closes in january 2016), is also called “big, bent ears, ” and though the installation was not something we envisioned when we began the online series, we think of it as extending the network of connections we’ve begun making here. in the cam show, we’ve placed videos of radiohead guitarist and composer jonny greenwood thirty feet from one of mitchell’s old brooks brothers boxes filled with fragments of a shattered porcelain doll; a panoramic photograph of an entranced big ears audience, by kate joyce, faces an old red fire alarm, another mitchell find; a snapshot of mitchell and his grandchild amid rubble in lower manhattan is mounted on a wall outside a screening room where our film about nazoranai, perhaps the loudest, most challenging band in a challenging festival, plays on a loop .
mitchell, too, found the balance of place and distance to be a crucial enigma: when he didn’t feel at home in new york city, he’d retreat to fairmont; when he stopped feeling at home there, he’d go back to the city .
the idea to explore connections between joseph mitchell and the big ears music festival was hatched a year ago in new york during a conversation with the paris review ’s managing editor, nicole rudick. we explained to her that we don’t want outcomes to dictate policy. instead, for us, the form the final work is a function of the process itself. she replied that george plimpton had once described his e. m. forster interview for the first issue of the review as “an essay in dialogue on technique, ” and she thought the magazine was the perfect home for our ambitious project .
nixon seemed to be right in this particular case, but i developed an extraordinary loathing for him. he symbolized for me everything that was wrong with the republican party. he was extremely threatening to what i thought was the best part of america—the liberal eastern establishment .
along with the new title comes a new cast of lloyd thomas, mitchell' s first choice for the role but who was unavailable last year, and laura corbett, chosen after impressing the writer with her performance in red at upstairs at three & ten .
the ambitious work never materialized—at least not in written form. according to numerous first - person accounts, mitchell showed up daily at his new yorker office for three decades without submitting another story to the magazine. some reported that he could be heard typing behind the closed door of his office. over the years, this mysterious routine became legend. after mitchell’s death in 1996, his biographer thomas kunkel found only three pieces of the memoir—fragments, really—among his papers .
in september, dell inc. won shareholder approval to buy back its stock and take the company private, a $ 24. 8 - billion offer ceo michael dell was able to make thanks to the backing of some of the biggest financial players in the world—the private equity behemoth silver lake ­partners and a handful of banks including bank of america, credit suisse and, surprisingly, royal bank of canada. rbc’s involvement in the deal is a sure sign that nixon’s investment banking–focused strategy has made the company a major presence on the international stage, and nixon’s compensation reflects that: last year he raked in $ 12. 6 million, more than his u. s. counterparts at the bank of ­america, jp morgan chase and citigroup. rbc has posted record profits during nixon’s tenure (reaching $ 7. 5 billion last year) and grown to 80, 000 employees. in august, he announced that katie taylor, a 12 - year veteran of the rbc board, would take over as chair in january, making his bank the first in canada to appoint a female chair. up next: nixon is chief instigator behind aequitas, a proposed new stock exchange to rival the tmx. the effort is backed by heavy hitters like ci financial, igm financial and barclays .
on this particular evening, however, nixon was with his pal bebe rebozo in florida. vice president spiro agnew stood in for him. most of the members of nixon’s cabinet were there, as well as governors, senators, publishers, supreme court justices, and the like. i was thirty - seven, one of the younger men in attendance, and one of the few without a national reputation in government or media. i was there because i was vice president and general counsel of the new york times co. it was an impressive title, but among the glitterati at the gridiron, it counted for little .
mitchell’s renowned exercise of wandering the back alleys looking for stories was the same method mccarthy used for suttree. knoxville psychologist and historian wes morgan has produced extensive research indicating that suttree ’s characters are substantially based on people mccarthy knew. one character’s real name and phone number were published in the novel .
i am not a radical liberal and never had been, but my attitude to nixon informed every move when i advised the times in the pentagon papers case. i thought i knew what he would do, how far he would go, what his legal strategies would be. it turned out i was right .
on that same trip to new york, we visited michael lieber in jackson heights, where he lives in the same building as “big, bent ears” photographer richard rothman. lieber produced a film adaptation of “joe gould’s secret” in 2000. in the eighties, he reached out to mitchell about adapting the work and to lieber’s surprise, mitchell, whose books were out of print at the time, welcomed the idea. the two became friends. they took long walks together around midtown, near the new yorker ’s offices .
at that point agnew became nixon’s attack dog against the press even before inauguration. in a speech before the republican governor’s conference, he accused the times of distortions and inaccuracies. smiling, he described the new york times and newsweek as “executionary journals. ” he said there were other publications that were “fit only to line the bottom of bird cages. ”
i had two theories about why i was there. first, i was being thanked for several successful years. i had been leading the press’s fight against nixon’s attempts to subpoena reporters and it had been my idea to take the new york times co. public while retaining the control of the times in the sulzberger family .
the basics: sammi is the artistic fellow at the american repertory theater where she will direct “violet” on a moving bus this spring. she recently directed a concert of songs from “ragtime” on ellis island featuring a cast of 48, including brian stokes mitchell, brandon victor dixon, and laura michelle kelly. assisting credits include “the great comet of 1812” (dir. rachel chavkin) and “in the body of the world” (dir. diane paulus). directing credits include “les misérables, ” “machinal, ” and “evita. ” pa credits include “finding neverland, ” “porgy & bess” (1 st natl .), “beautiful, ” and the tonys. ba, stanford university, m. ed, harvard university. proud sdc associate .
on october 26, 1968, a week before nixon won the presidency in a landslide, the new york times ran an editorial accusing nixon’s running mate spiro agnew of various misdeeds. the times said agnew was party to questionable land deals. it charged that his position as a director of maryland bank while governor of maryland involved “clearly repeated conflicts of interest. ” the editorial concluded: “in his obtuse behavior as a public official in maryland as well as in his egregious comments this campaign, mr. agnew has demonstrated that he is not fit to stand one step away from the presidency. ”
hiss was tried again, and in the second case he was convicted of perjury and sent to prison. as a teenager i followed the hiss case as carefully as an average kid might follow his favorite baseball team. i knew all the players and all the events. in the liberal circles of cambridge, massachusetts, where i grew up, nixon and chambers were viewed as villains. they were out to destroy the liberal establishment .
he accused the times of being prejudiced because it had endorsed nixon’s democratic rival, hubert humphrey, for president. “everyone knows that the times endorsed vice president hubert humphrey and is actively supporting him, ” his statement read. “the fact that the times waited until a week before the election to distort the facts and make its inaccurate charges against me compounds the libel. ”
work perhaps disguised by his beautiful, plain prose and comic hints of nostalgia. contemporary novelists bored by mitchell’s sympathetic treatments of fishermen and other obscure characters might be more satisfied by mccarthy’s fictional derelicts, suicidal drunks, thieves, and watermelon humpers. in any case, it’s the same cast portrayed in the same postwar era, when culture at large is eager to leap toward the future and erase the recent past .
nixon had smeared the times, accusing it of libel as he had smeared voorhees and douglas. there was no way for the public to know the times had not libeled agnew. if a presidential candidate takes time on a national tv show a few days before the election to accuse the times falsely, there was realistically no way for the times to defend itself .
is even more ambitious that its predecessor. actors ross gurney - randall and david mounfield don' t just portray big daddy and giant haystacks, but an immense supporting cast of lesser wrestlers, managers, and tv executives; there are even walk - on parts for paul mccartney, frank sinatra and princess margaret. this constant switching from one role to another, one accent to the next, must be hard work for the actors, and would be hard work for the audience too if the writing were not so accomplished. as it is, the characters are always careful to remind us who they are, to keep up to speed on what they' re doing and what' s happening in the wider world of wrestling at each particular moment. it' s all as funny as we' ve come to expect from mitchell and nixon, but it' s never
what really interested mitchell, i believe, were not the artifacts of life—but life, people, flesh and blood. yeah, there’s the old hotel, yeah, there’s mcsorley’s saloon, yeah, there’s sloppy louie’s. but what he was fundamentally interested in, as far as i could tell, was the human drama .
while garfield’s book was dramatised in 1998, wwe icon mick foley has turned into a stand - up, and writer / performer rob drummond trained himself for a show that culminated in him taking part in a fully fledged bout of drop - kicks and flying buttresses. also at this year’s fringe is the return of the wrestling, a show produced by comedy duo, max and ivan. as for the wrestling itself, it’s still there if you look hard enough in shows promoted on the summer holiday camp circuit by crabtree’s arch - rival, brian dixon. ‘it’s not a huge revival, ’ mitchell observes, ‘but people have noticed that it hasn’t gone away, which is a good thing. i approve of a country that allowed the wrestling to exist more than the one that didn’t. ’
indeed, the nation’s press on that sunday was more interested in tricia nixon’s wedding the previous evening. i had watched excerpts of it on tv. i noted with interest some of the high - placed dignitaries who were there, and wondered how they would react to the bombshell story right there on the front page the next morning, next to coverage of the wedding .
when on december 2, 1948, chambers produced microfilm of state department documents given to him by hiss, which chambers stored in a pumpkin, nixon crowed that the “pumpkin papers” showed the perfidy of liberal democrats. hiss, having denied knowing chambers, was indicted for perjury. hiss won the first perjury trial with a hung jury .
the six - foot - five german cut an imposing swath through the city’s cultural scene when he took over as artistic director of luminato. weisbrodt brought worldly connections and discernment to the ­amorphous multidisciplinary festival, anchoring the 200 - event schedule with such big - name draws as marina abramovic´ and joni mitchell. (that the reclusive and enigmatic mitchell performed is a testament to weisbrodt’s powers of persuasion .) the result was a festival that broke attendance records, selling upwards of $ 1 million in tickets, and made critics swoon. friends in high places: he and husband rufus ­wainwright are an art - world power duo. guests at their montauk wedding last year included abramovic´, carrie fisher, ­julianne moore, antony hegarty, lou reed, yoko ono, laurie anderson, the fashion designers victor and rolf, and jorn and rufus’s daughter, viva cohen (granddaughter of leonard) .
i sent a letter addressed to mitchell saying that we wouldn’t retract what reston had said. throughout the rest of the campaign, the libel suit against the times was mentioned frequently by republican candidates. many who covered the election for the press said they felt under threat with everything they wrote .
from august to december 1895, the magazine’s circulation rose from 120, 000 to 250, 000. hoping to increase his circulation even more, mcclure turned his magazine into a home for a series of reform articles by such writers as tarbell, ray stannard baker, and joseph lincoln steffens. these pieces on the history of the standard oil company and corruption in city government contributed to the rise of muckraking journalism at the turn of the century and helped boost the magazine’s circulation to approximately a half - million readers .
with the carnegie - medal - winning author philip reeve, brian wrote the acclaimed musical comedy the ministry of biscuits. a classically - trained composer, his songs for the perrier - nominated show, joanna neary is not feeling herself, have been broadcast on radios 1, 2 and 4. in 2009 the october revolutions, his first solo play, co - developed with mill studio and nightingale theatre, toured the south - east to rave reviews. brian is a founder member of the theatre collective the foundry group, and brighton five pound fringe, and is represented by noel gay. awards: buxton fringe award for best theatre production - 2011 / fringeguru editor' s choice award - 2011 (both for big daddy vs. giant haystacks) / best comedy, brighton festival awards - 2006 (for the ornate johnsons) nominations: buxton fringe award for new writing - 2011 / perrier best newcomer - 2004 (for joanna neary is not feelng herself )
mitchell the storyteller rarely used inciting incidents, rising action, or climaxes; his works reject resolution. often there is not even a main character. he compiled quotes, facts, images, details, words—lists of things he didn’t want to be forgotten—and arranged them in sequences that feel effortless, a poetry of plainness unique to him .
the protagonist of “mr. hunter’s grave” is an eighty - nine - year - old african american man who lives in a once - bustling neighborhood on staten island founded by freed slaves. when mitchell finds it, the neighborhood is hollowed out and decaying. all that’s left are remnants of forgotten buildings and neglected people, like mr. hunter, who is jovial and pleasant but saddened by change and loss. mitchell quotes mr. hunter describing a walk he took in staten island’s boondocks, where he inspected wildflowers before making a wrong step and ending up knee - deep in mud: “i floundered around in the mud a minute, getting my bearings, and then i happened to raise my head and look up, and suddenly i saw, away off in the distance, miles and miles away, the tops of skyscrapers in new york shining in the morning sun. i wasn’t expecting it, and it was amazing. it was like a vision in the bible. ”
david mountfield and ross gurney - randall portray these two giants with gusto and spirit and quickly get the audience chanting “easy easy”, big daddy’s theme, and soon we were all cheering and booing.
brian mitchell and joseph nixon are a british comedy writing team . they were head sketch writers on bbc radio 4 ’s jo caulfield wo n’t shut up and bbc1 ′ s live and kicking , and also wrote the tv comedy shows slightly filthy ( lwt ) and the ornate johnsons ’ edwardian spectacular ( bbc4 ) . yet their main work is in the theatre . their plays include spy , moonlight over india , eurovision , seven studies in salesmanship , the opinion makers , those magnificent men and the multiple award-winning big daddy vs giant haystacks . the author and illustrator philip reeve , a friend and collaborator , has written : ' two of the best writers i know are friends of mine from my brighton days ; brian mitchell and joseph nixon.their expertly wrought comedy sketches decorate many an edinburgh festival and improve a few otherwise lacklustre radio 4 comedy shows , but to see them at their finest you need to seek out their plays . ' brian mitchell also managed the brighton open air theatre during its first season in 2015 .
brian mitchell and joseph nixon are a british comedy writing team. they were head sketch writers on bbc radio 4 ’s jo caulfield wo n’t shut up and bbc1 ′ s live and kicking, and also wrote the tv comedy shows slightly filthy (lwt) and the ornate johnsons ’ edwardian spectacular (bbc4). yet their main work is in the theatre. their plays include spy, moonlight over india, eurovision, seven studies in salesmanship, the opinion makers, those magnificent men and the multiple award-winning big daddy vs giant haystacks. the author and illustrator philip reeve, a friend and collaborator, has written:' two of the best writers i know are friends of mine from my brighton days; brian mitchell and joseph nixon.their expertly wrought comedy sketches decorate many an edinburgh festival and improve a few otherwise lacklustre radio 4 comedy shows, but to see them at their finest you need to seek out their plays.' brian mitchell also managed the brighton open air theatre during its first season in 2015.
brian mitchell and joseph nixon are a british comedy writing team. they were head sketch writers on bbc radio 4 ’s jo caulfield wo n’t shut up and bbc1 ′ s live and kicking, and also wrote the tv comedy shows slightly filthy (lwt) and the ornate johnsons ’ edwardian spectacular (bbc4). yet their main work is in the theatre. their plays include spy, moonlight over india, eurovision, seven studies in salesmanship, the opinion makers, those magnificent men and the multiple award-winning big daddy vs giant haystacks. the author and illustrator philip reeve, a friend and collaborator, has written:' two of the best writers i know are friends of mine from my brighton days; brian mitchell and joseph nixon.their expertly wrought comedy sketches decorate many an edinburgh festival and improve a few otherwise lacklustre radio 4 comedy shows, but to see them at their finest you need to seek out their plays.' brian mitchell also managed the brighton open air theatre during its first season in 2015.