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Getting the Point...
Now he's a produced
playwright! Meet David Zinman
Contributed by Ruth
Fenner Barash
 On the gorgeous Saturday afternoon of June 8th, three one-act
plays by Point Lookout resident David
Zinman were given their first public performance at the Long
Beach Library, by the Long Beach Theatre Guild. Despite the lure
of the boardwalk, the auditorium was filled with enthusiastic
theatre-goers, including a quite a few from Point Lookout. The
applause and audience participation in the feedback session
following the presentation must have been extremely gratifying
to the playwright, as well as to everyone else involved in the
production.
Retired Newsday reporter and one-time indefatigable
triathloner Zinman talked with me the following day.
The plays, under the umbrella title "Games of
Life", are his second effort in this genre. The first was
"Who Killed the Kingfish: The Huey Long Murder Case,"
adapted from his book of the same name. The current one-acters were written earlier this year in South Carolina.
They began as narratives, David said, but he became fascinated
by the challenge of telling his stories in
dialog form. His neighbor, Ginny Kelly, the coordinating
director, was instrumental in bringing the plays to the stage.
And now David is totally hooked by the theatrical form, the
give-and-take, the evolution of a work as it's
exposed to the creative input and special talents of the other
artists.
Each of the plays, running about 20 to 30 minutes, had a
slightly different feel, due to the different directors. The
first, "The Medium's Game", was directed by Deborah
Belvedere; the second, "The Reporter's Game", by
Randy Drake; and the third, "The Celebrity's Game", by
Peter Triolo. (The entire Drake family was involved in the
enterprise; we were particularly taken with young Jessie Drake,
a pig-tailed redhead who not only acted with aplomb in "The
Medium's Game" but was efficient and fleet of foot as a
grip throughout. We foresee a Broadway career for sure - break a
leg Jessie!) "The Celebrity's Game" was the biggest
crowd pleaser, perhaps due to the bravura performance of Mike
Beaury, who took David's stage direction, "He
conducts," to heights far beyond the author's
visualization. Hey guys, this is fun!
Now that David has smelled the greasepaint, we're sure to
hear more from this "emerging"
playwright. He's decamped for his and wife Sarah's summer slot
at Chattauqua in western New York, a summer cultural center,
where he is teaching a course in classic films for the 21st
season. He allows as how he also plays golf up there - and is
starting to write his third play. Stay tuned!
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