The Adventures of Tintin

Belgian graphic designer Georges Prosper "Hergé" Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983) created the young, intrepid reporter Tintin (pronounced tan-tan, thank you) and the series of adventures which bear his name.

You know, there was a period during my childhood when my mother thought it would be a good idea to make family vacations out of my father's occasional international working excursions (he was in foreign exchange for Cleveland Trust) which brought me to England, Paris and Norway in the years 1977, 1978 and 1979. This comfy culture shock exposed me to Tintin, Rupert, Asterix and even the Smurfs years before my American contemporaries.

This explains my cosmopolitan world view, bizarre sense of humor, and my general sense of arrogance.

Did you know Inspector Thompson and Inspector Thomson are not brothers, let alone twins?

Tintin adventures stretched from 1929 to the mid-1960s though for me they always had a pre-war vibe. It makes perfect sense that Spielberg would choose to create a movie based out of this material, because the end-product is like Indiana Jones, only with a lot more reasonably acceptable slapstick. The CGI-effected performances make some of the more extreme physical violence a lot more funny and a lot less "Oh my GOD!"
What was most enjoyable for me was that the film plays like a Tintin novel, beginning with Tintin landing in the middle of a mystery, and progressing with great speed to a ship, to the middle of the ocean, to a desert to a non-specific Middle Eastern emirate ... it just goes and goes, no backstory, no Hollywood time wasted explaining who Tintin is, where he came from, even what paper he even works for. Just go-go-go.

And with the exception of an entire absence of tobacco products of any kind, its pretty damn faithful. Guns, whisky, blood ... and only one female character at all, the venerable Madame Castafiore. Tintin is a "boy's own" story, you want more girl characters, adapt something else.


For Christmas I got some of the new editions of Tintin, which are easier to hold but not to read (they are small) but include introductions to key characters which made leaping into what feels like an extended narrative much easier. Just reading half of Red Rackham's Treasure made my six year-old's idea of attending the movie much less fraught.

However, I will want to pick and choose which volumes to acquire or share with the kids, and not just because of the smoking or winking attitude towards Captain Haddock's obsession with drink. A number of them are pretty damn racist. Hergé famously had a world-view alteration from a Tchang Tchong-jen, a Chinese-born companion, which drove him to recreate most of his early work, especially the hideous Tintin in the Congo.

One Man Show

It's like he knows me.

(Many thanks to Tom Weaver for passing this along.)

Winter rehearsal period, Thursday

"O happy dagger!"
Romeo and Juliet, V.iii


Maybe ten years ago, we brought Kelly Elliott on board to create new stage combat for our fight scenes. Actor-teachers fight each other as Benvolio and Tybalt, Laertes and Hamlet, Macbeth and Macduff, in classrooms, gynmasiums, school parking lots, and sometimes even on actual stages. Kelly crafted fights which do not take up a lot of space, to allow for these challenging spaces, making the fights thrilling -- but entirely safe -- for students to watch and experience.


Kelly was an actor-teacher herself from 2006-2009, and since that time has returned in the fall and winter to coach and clean up her choreography to new members of the team. While those who love her were thrilled when she was acceted into a grad program in Staunton, Virginia, Lisa and I were also understandably bitter and disappointed that she would not longer be available to us.


Lucky we! She and her husband Josh have returned to Cleveland for the holidays and she contacted us to ask if we needed her! Of course we do! Always! In addition to the aforementioned fights, women learn how to stab themselves correctly (Juliet) and men learn how to gut a student (Young Siward.) There is also careful instruction on choking.

At the moment, everyone is slapping each other.

Winter rehearsal period, Wednesday

"I found it in his closet, 'tis his will."
Julius Caesar, III.ii



"What were you doing in his closet?"
Today we read Julius Caesar. Our people indulged in all manner of bizarre "old man" voices. Apparently all of the conspirators were dribbly septuagenarians. In spite of all of the political talk, Caesar is a pretty swift read.

One cannot help make comparisons to events in the 20th and early 21st century, and through the course of the reading the entire team managed to make allusions or engage in brief discussions about the Iraq War, G.W. Bush, F.D.R., Vladimir Putin, the Arab Spring, Ai Weiwei, 9/11, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Bill Clinton, Grover Cleveland, John Kennedy, Barack Obama, Joseph McCarthy, Al Gore, Ross Perot, G.H.W. Bush, the Persian Gulf War, Osama bin Laden, Dwight Eisenhower and Martin van Buren.


"Come on my right hand."
Julius Caesar, I.ii
Upon completion of the text, we engaged in a discussion about our beliefs. As we ask of our students, let us not make what we discussed within these walls source for further discussion in the halls, the lunchroom, or after school. We will keep it to ourselves. But I can say I treasure the opportunity to have an open discussion about important personal matters without fear of judgement or rancor.

Winter rehearsal period, Tuesday

"To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus."
Macbeth III.i


Today, we read Macbeth. The dynamic is different. We’ve been reading for a day, and getting a little brazen. Actor-teachers enjoy different voices and exciting interpretation. And get a little goofy. People get on their feet, play out scenes while reading, engage in an impromptu swordfight, and rip their shirt off. Well, Brian did.

Macbeth is a creepy bloodbath, with apparitions, witches and demons, and blood, blood, blood. Reading this text lends a certain zaniness. Yesterday, following the reading, we had a deeply personal discussion about relationships, trust and the power of love. There’s an understand between this team that made it possible to share some very intimate thoughts. But I found expressing the foundation of our emotional desires a much easier conversation than what came today. This is as true in the classroom as it was around our table.

It is sometimes a challenge getting students to take Macbeth serious from a discussion standpoint. More than one actor-teacher has had to have a conversation with a student who will dismiss a hard question because they have no personal experience with murder. Fair enough. But what about ambition, everyone hopes to achieve, how far will they go in pursuit of their goals.

"Well … I wouldn’t kill anybody."

Of course not. I mean, I might, but I get you.

Answer me this … what is the worst thing you have ever done? Take a moment. Think about it. You don’t have to say it out loud. Why did you do it? What did you get out of it? Were you caught or punished? What does right or wrong mean when there is no human constant of right and wrong? I have no problem with eating hamburger.

But meat is murder.

Winter rehearsal period, Monday

"The two five hours traffic of our stage."
Romeo & Juliet, Prologue

Over the winter holidays schools are closed which affords members of the Great Lakes Theater School Residency Program, our actor-teachers, the opportunity to go back into rehearsal and dig deep into new lesson plans or to revisit familiar ones.

In late December, that means we read Shakespeare! All eight actor-teachers (and we, their supervisors) sit around a big table, surrounded by texts — facsimiles of the folios and quartos, lexicons, dictionaries and varies editions of the plays — and read one entire Shakespeare a day! The entire play!

Today, we read Romeo and Juliet from beginning to end, pausing after every scene to make sure everything is clear, that we all understand decisions that were made, and by whom, and that it all makes sense. Often an actor will want to take a little more time to get everyone’s feedback on a certain issue.

For example, Brian really, really wanted to understand why the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt even happened, and we broke it down, step-by-step. The general assumption is that Tybalt wants to kill Romeo, and Mercutio comes to his defense. However, that is not the whole story and it was worth taking the time to make it clear.

We know that Tybalt sent a letter to Lord Montague, challenging Romeo to a duel, presumably because Romeo crashed their party the night before. Tybalt is ignorant of what transpired between Romeo and Juliet at that party, that’s not the issue for him. Romeo never goes home that night, and never receives this challenge. His challenge ignored, Tybalt and his second hunt down Romeo, and encounter Mercutio. Mercutio is in a mood, and commences ridiculing Tybalt. However, when Romeo arrives, Tybalt entirely drops this line of conversation with Mercutio. Mercutio is not worth his time.

Now, there are various rules regarding duels, but it should be understood that the point of a duel is to fight, but not necessarily to kill. And by turning down his challenge, twice (three times, by simply ignoring the invitation) Romeo has lost his “honor,” and Tybalt may well have let it go after that, having proved his point about Romeo being dishonorable. Mercutio steps in, outraged by Romeo’s behavior, and Tybalt accepts that challenge. Tragedy ensues.

Why is it necessary to get all this straight? Because on Day 3 of the Romeo and Juliet lesson plan, which is received by high school freshman all across Northern Ohio, we teach a stage combat workshop and then coach students to read these lines, and perform this pivotal fight. If our actor-teachers do not ask themselves these kinds of questions, we may be stuck when a student asks us the same questions.

1936 Berlin Olympics Boycott

"The Black Eagles"
The Pittsburgh Courier, July 11, 1936
by Holloway

Jesse Owens: “If there is discrimination against minorities in Germany, then we must withdraw from the Olympics.”

Jeremiah T. Mahony, President of the Amateur Athletic Union: "There is no room for discrimination on grounds of race, color, or creed in the Olympics."

Journalist Heywood Broun: "I think that one of the most useful kinds of protest that can be made against the fascist regime of Hitler lies in our staying away from the Olympic Games in Berlin."

Ernest L. Jahncke, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Navy and IOC Member: "Neither Americans nor the representatives of other countries can take part in the Games in Nazi Germany without at least acquiescing in the contempt of the Nazis for fair play and their sordid exploitation of the Games."

Judge Jeremiah T. Mahony: “The Nazi government wants more than American participation in a sporting contest. It wants to bring the American dollar into the very weakened Nazi treasury. And it wants to picture Htler with Uncle Sam standing behind him and saying ‘We are with you, Adolf!’”

The Philadelphia Tribune: “The AAU shouts against the cruelties of the other nations and the brutalities in foreign climates, but conveniently forgets the things that sit on its own doorstep.”

OSU Track Coach Larry Snyder: “Why should we oppose Germany for doing something we do right here at home?”

United States Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage: “The very foundation of the modern Olympic revival will be undermined if individual countries are allowed to restrict participation by reason of class, creed, or race. Certain Jews must understand that they cannot use these games as a weapon in their boycott against the Nazis."

Frederick Rubien, Secretary of the U.S. Olympic Committee: "The Germans are not discriminating against Jews. The Jews were eliminated because they are not good enough athletes."

Coach Larry Snyder: “Jesse Owens is sitting on top of the world today. If he continues to participate in this activity (the boycott) he will be a forgotten man.”

Jesse Owens: “I see no reason to get into a controversy about the Olympics. The games have been awarded to Germany, all preparations have been made, and now some people want to have American withdraw just because some of the German polocies are not approved by them.”

Ernest Jahncke was expelled from the IOC for his comments. He remains the only person ever expelled from the IOC.

Sources:
Triumph (Jeremy Schaap)
Nazi Games (David Clay Large)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington Post