Ron Campbell Roams the World

Not even a week after departing the multiplicitous shores of Pericles, Cal Shakes Associate Artist Ron Campbell (left, as Antiochus and below as Cleon) embarked upon the globe-trotting travels afforded him by his Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship recognizing Distinguished Achievement--first to study Mask in Greece and Italy, then to learn physical techniques in Japan, and finally to study Voice in Sweden.

And, being Ron Campbell, he's blogging about it with tremendous aplomb.

Below is just a sample of what you can expect to find on Ron's blog:

"There is something about going on a journey with intent. This is to be a quixotic journey.

Quixotic; fittingly coming from Don Quixote, who inspired me so many years ago when manifested by Richard Kiley in Man of La Mancha. But the intent, the impossible dream in this case involves the human face. The universal mask. And as I walked the history drenched cobblestones of Dublin and now the whitewashed alleyways and bustling waterfronts of the Greek islands of Poros and Aegina prior to my arrival on Hydra where I will be training, I have begun to see every face, from the grizzled ferryboat worker I befriended to the harried waitress at the Electra Taverna as a mask.

There are two distinct looks I've begun to notice in the people of Greece. Just like the comic and tragic masks that were born here, the men and women seem to me to (through the forces of gravity or hardship or just the salt tinged air) settle into distinct categories. For the men there are two avenues: either they follow the Appian way into what can only be described as a kind of Zero Mostelish jowleyness, thick lipped and liquid eyed, perfect for arguing and debating, or they fold in on themselves in a Spencer Tracy-like gern, a perpetual squint and squeeze around glinty eyes that sparkle with mischief."

We'll continue excerpting Ron's blog in this space from time to time, but we strongly recommend you bookmark (or subscribe to) it to get the whole story.