Biography Timeline

High School.
After a painful year at my neighborhood high school, my mother had the good sense to transfer me to a school downtown, Cass Technical High School, where students majored in a subject much to their liking and had academics around it. I majored in commercial art. One art teacher made the difference, Leonard Johnson. One day in his class I suddenly GOT IT! From that day on I was straight A art student. I flunked all my academics. Did summer school every year to make up.

Back home in Detroit get a job in an ad agency.
Campbell-Ewald, one of the biggest in the world. Up close I saw how boring a field this was. That cured me. I’m outta here!

Arrive in Paris and begin mime study with Etienne Decroux. Classes meet six days a week 3 to 4 hours a day. After a few months he formed a company. I’m in. After two years I become his assistant and remain so for two more years. Leave him in 1967 but stay on in Paris. Perform in children’s theatre and tour the French provinces.

Return to U.S. and settle in Berkeley, CA.
Open private studio of instruction in physical theatre. Classes go on year round.

Attend a concert of Balinese dance and music. Didn’t know what to expect. Said to my friend, “If this is boring, let’s leave in the middle.” Left the theatre dizzy and disoriented. I had never seen such beauty before. Close my school and travel to Bali to study mask dance with I Nyoman Kakul. He invited me to perform with him in village and temple celebrations. Return to Berkeley with a collection of masks and change the course of my work to center around physical technique and mask performance.

Create one-man show with George Coates, “2019 Blake.”
This is the show that puts me on the map. We get the review of our dreams. Crowds descend en masse. Do three runs. The last run were midnight shows in San Francisco. The last performance had a waiting list of one hundred. Did an additional show at 1:30 am.

Create one-man show, “Doppo Clown of Yesteryear.” Doppo is a retired French circus clown. This is a mask character. I carved the mask from redwood. Perform in San Francisco. Although the show is all talking, and in French, I perform at the North American Mime Festival, in Syracuse, New York

Co-create and perform in “Are/Are” with GCPW.

Co-create Life On The Water theatre in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center along with Ellen Sebastian, Joe Lambert, and Bill Talen. We produce original stage work performed by the artist/creators, including Avner the Eccentric and Spalding Gray.

Create one-man show “Spleenix” with director Ellen Sebastian. Perform at Life On the Water and in NYC at P.S. 122.

Travel to Campinas, Brazil with Not For Real.

Movement consultant for Jurassic Park. Work with animators.

Create two person show “Seduction” with Ruth Zaporah, directed by Rinde Eckert and Jim Cave.

A busy year.
Create two person show with Ed Holmes, “Fo, Faux Fo & No Fo.” Directed by Arne Zaslove. Begin work on second Paris book. Create Berkeley Chocolate Club, the only chocolate tasting club in America. NPR does a feature story on the club in 2008.

My book about 17th century Irish healer Valentine Greatrakes is published. A Small Moment of Great Illumination. Went to Ireland every year for 8 years to do research.

Available on Amazon, but support your local independent bookstore.

Paris Postcards: The Golden Age comes out. With 1000s of vintage postcards from my own collection I tell how the invention of the postcard in 1869 changed the world.

Available on Amazon, but support your local independent bookstore.

Along with James Donlon opened The Flying Actor Studio in San Francisco offering a full time one year program in the art of physical theatre. The school operated for 3 years.

Uncle Arthur and I traded letters weekly for 20 years. His are a riot. His three passions are 1. Getting me married, 2. His finding a woman to either chase after or marry, 3. Fruit. He was an avowed fruitaholic. His fruit raptures are a singular joy.