Author: Neal Saye

Marveling this morning at my grandson Daniel‘s convincing performance as a REALLY messed-up teenager in his latest play, this time at the Tybee Arts Association Black Box Theater on Tybee Island near Savannah.

The play: Marvin’s Room.

Daniel’s character: Seventeen year-old Hank. (D is also seventeen.)

Here’s what Google’s AI says about Hank:

Whew!

Hank, onstage, with his psychiatrist on the right and his emotionally distant mother on the left:

As a grandfather, it was actually (and probably foolishly) somewhat difficult to see the normally exuberantly positive and usually smiling Daniel portraying such a severely damaged young man. (Hank doesn’t smile very much in the play.)

For a moment, I forgot what actors actually do. Act.

Daniel’s now been in over thirty plays, and his specialty seems to be the romantic lead in musical theatre (Prince Topher in Cinderella, Marius in Les Mis), Raoul in Phantom of the Opera.)

Sitting in the audience for Marvin’s Room, I kept having a bit of conflict between watching that mentally challenged CHARACTER I just met and denying to myself that the young ACTOR I knew so well could have ANY of Hank’s negative qualities.

But, uh oh. Maybe we haven’t burned down a house, but haven’t we all pushed a button or two to provoke a reaction from someone else?

Haven’t we all occasionally struggled to express our emotions openly?

Haven’t we all used sarcasm?

And haven’t we all felt (or acted) a little … crazy from time to time?!

The play ends (thankfully) on a positive note with Hank seemingly on his way to a better life.

And here’s Hank — I mean Daniel (!) — smiling his usual smile with HR and me after the performance.

Chatting and joking about his crazy character, we asked Daniel what he was going to be doing after this play ran its course.

“Oh, I’ll probably burn down my high school.”

O