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Kay Williams is a professional actress who has played leading roles at territorial theaters around the U.S., including the San Francisco Actors Workshop and the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Among her a heap of credits are the title role in “Miss Jairus,” Cybel in “Great God Brown,” and Georgette in “The Balcony,” all plays that are portion of the repertory of the 42nd Street Theater in “Butcher of Dreams.” She has also performed in many, a good deal of new plays off-Broadway in Manhattan and knows how difficult it is for gifted new playwrights to get produced and gifted new actors to get noticed. She has acted in radio, television, and films. For assorted years, she worked behind-the-scenes as assistant producer with an award-winning independent filmmaker in New York. Kay is a co-author of “One Last Dance: It’s Never Too Late to Fall in Love,” a novel started by her father, Mardo Williams, and finished by her and her sister Jerri Lawrence. The book won a Best Regional Fiction Award from the Independent Publishers Association and was a Finalist in a National Readers’ Choice Award, sponsored by the Romance Writers of America.

Eileen Wyman is a writer of short fiction and has edited a good deal of books and film scripts. She has had a career in radio/television and is a gifted comedy writer, crafting jokes for speech writers and comedians, humorous fillers for respective magazines, and captions for cartoonists. She has written further and added dialog for films. During her long career, Eileen has held a assortment of odd jobs to make ends meet-teacher, social worker, office temp. When she grows up, she wants to be either a wizard or a world class tennis player.

Tyler: Thank you, Kay and Eileen, for joining me today. It’s always a treat to have two writers to talk to. Let’s get started by having one of you just tell us fundamentally what “Butcher of Dreams” is about?

Eileen: “Butcher of Dreams” is a suspense adventure story set in the 1980′s Hell’s Kitchen when porno shops, girlie shows, prostitution and crime ran rampant. With this seedy and unfortunate Off-Broadway theater district as the backdrop, sensitive, gifted actress Lee Fairchild is attempting to get started a repertory theater in an abandoned burlesque house.

Grieving for her husband, who not long back passed from physical life of a heart attack (and missing her daughter who’s away at college), Lee is vulnerable and, versus her better judgment, falls into a passionate affair with a younger man. After a ritual Aztec mask is stolen from her home for the duration of a cast party, bizarre, seemingly unrelated events plague the theater. A homeless person is found dead on the third floor, his ring finger missing; an actress is poisoned; an actor stabbed. Strange marking are found painted on a set in construction. Is the stolen Aztec mask with it is ancient curse in some manner connected?

Who is the madman behind the destruction that is threatening the future of the theater (Lee’s dream-come-true)? Lee’s mercurial cast and crew become suspects as events escalate to ritual murder, and Lee herself becomes a target.

Tyler: Wow, that sounds like rather a plot. Will you tell me a little bit more in regards to the Aztec mask and the curse affiliated with it? Is the ritual murder related to the Aztec culture?

Kay: The mask has two grotesque half faces, three bright blue fiercely staring eyes, a long black tongue hanging out of it is mouth. (The long black tongue signifies thirst, a thirst for blood perhaps.) When Lee and her family visited Mexico, an Indian reluctantly sold the mask to her husband Richard, saying it would fetch bad luck to anybody who owned it. Supposedly, it had been stolen from the Tomb at Monte Alban, the City of the Dead, and had been employed in Aztec sacrifices. Six months later Richard was dead of a heart attack. Maybe the Indian was right, Lee thinks. Richard was too young, too healthful to have had a fatal heart attack.

At the cast party later, the actors, intrigued by the mask, take it down from the wall, and as a lark, assorted try it on. Alan confesses, “The mask took me over.” His friend Walter asks to borrow it for a talk he’s doing on Indian rites and occult exercises for the Society of Medical Anthropology. At the end of the party, Lee discovers the mask is missing. And that’s when the mayhem begins. Detective Green thinks somebody may be attempting to scare them out of the theater which, with the gentrification of Hell’s Kitchen, may soon become a desirable property. Green likewise postulates that a cult is involved.

Aztec/Mexican symbols, rites and rituals, including the Cult of the Animal Protector, are intrinsic to the plot right up through the chilling climax.

Tyler: Eileen and Kay, I’m always curious with regards to writer collaborations? What brought the two of you together and how did the two of you work together to write “Butcher of Dreams”?

Kay: We’ve known each other for a long time. We were having dinner at a Greek restaurant in our neighborhood, drinking wine. Acting roles for me seemed to be drying up. I’d just taken a permanent occupation that wouldn’t concede me to do auditions for the duration of the day. Eileen came up with the idea. “We ought to write a novel.” It sounded to me like it was worth a try. The beauty of it was that we could work on it before and after work and on the weekends.

We have dissimilar intensities and we felt we could collaborate very well, complementing each other. For instance, Eileen is great at writing humor, exceptionally satirical and black humor; she excels at short pithy reputation descriptions and terse, meaty descriptions of places, and her capacity to come up with off-the cuff quips and funny one-liners for characters is uncanny. Over 25 years as an actress made me strong at reputation development and narrative line. As we brainstormed, we knew it would have to be a story in regards to the theater. And with regards to New York-in fact, regarding our fascinating, seamy, grimy, scary neighborhood-where a number of little off-Broadway theaters eked out an existence. You’re supposed to write with regards to what you know, right? We also knew we wanted to try suspense.

Together, we drafted a plot-that mutated as we went along. But we did recognise precisely how we wanted the story to begin and how we wanted it to end. We decisive to tell the story through the eyes of an actress. She had to be very with regard to emotions vulnerable. So we came up with a back story for her. The antagonist had to be sneaky and scary, a world class liar, slippery as a bar of soap. We wanted the reader to wonder whom to believe amidst this band of actors-all introductory class dissemblers. We knew we didn’t want the story to revolve around actors working on Broadway, actors who’d made it. We wanted to show the reader what a struggle it is to make a name in the theater (or in any other artistic endeavor, for that matter).

We likewise wanted to include Aztec/Mexican rites and rituals. And for that, we did exploration at the library.

I normally did a basi pass at a draft. Eileen would make changes. We’d get together and argue and discuss. Through Mystery Writers of America, we found a writers group. So we’d read 10 pages at a time to the group, get feedback and make changes based on their suggestions.

Tyler: Tell me a little bit in regards to the main character, Lee Fairchild, and why you think she is an beautiful reputation to the reader?

Eileen: Lee is smart, tough, talented, capable to manage and act with great success in her own off-Broadway theater. She’s independent, but vulnerable. She’s caring and imaginative. She’s lonely. We thought of her as a combining of Holly Hunter and Emma Thompson. She has the intuition of an artist, seeing everyone’s side. Lee is so empathetic her husband once told her, “You could distinguish with a mailbox.” That is her strength and her weakness.

Tyler: Does Lee get herself into any dangerous situations, and if so, will you give us a little hint of one?

Eileen: One night Lee works late at the theater. When she leaves, she discovers the battery from her car has been stolen so she has no choice but to stay overnight. (She’d converted a little room on the theater’s second floor into a bedroom but hadn’t applied it after the body of the derelict was found.) In the middle of the night, she hears sounds coming from the third floor construction area. She goes upstairs to investigate. Lighted candles are everywhere. A giant figure draped in a long white robe (an actor’s costume, from “The Balcony”), finish with cothurni (high, thick-soled laced boots, likewise part of the costume), is wearing the hideous Mexican mask that was stolen from Lee’s home. The figure stands before a mirror, a bird, painted blue-green, in his hand. He performs a ceremony with the live bird, cutting it is wing, crooning to it softly. He discovers Lee hiding behind a shelf of paint cans. As they struggle, Lee tries to lift off the mask to see the face behind it. The last thing she feels are hands around her neck. She survives, suffering only a little cut amongst her thumb and forefinger. Her next encounter is not so benign.

Tyler: The subtitle is “A Suspense Novel regarding the Theater.” What regarding the theater appeals to you, peculiarly as a subject for a mystery?

Kay: In the theater, film and TV, where we’d each had years of experience, we’d met a great deal of temperamental actors with overblown egos, actors with a heart of gold, actors living alternate lifestyles, brilliant but erratic managing directors and playwrights. We knew they would make unforgettable characters, characters easy to be distrustful of. In “Butcher of Dreams,” we have Alan Dunbar, Lee’s Artistic Director, who has troubling gaps in his resume; Ernst Kromer, her other director, who is a tyrant, rigid and uncooperative. In the acting company, we have wraithlike Fleur Mahoney, whose primary role is a dead girl-and she almost is; Barry Blackwell, gifted actor, compulsive practical joker; Harry O’Brien, company stage manager, who’d kill for a role; gorgeous Samantha Read, Barry’s live-in lover. Other major characters from the “real” world are just as quirky: Michael Day, Lee’s sexy and mysterious assistant; Alan’s lover, Walter Kaplan, eccentric psychiatrist and medical anthropologist; Heather, Lee’s 18-year-old daughter, who has a surprising mystery life; pock-marked, cynical NYPD Detective Mordecai Green, who moonlights as an actor.

Tyler: What quintessentially when it comes to the 42nd Street Repertory Theater, the setting for the book, makes it a great setting for a mystery?

Eileen: The fact that it’s an off-Broadway repertory theater-almost an anomaly in New York City; that it’s under-budgeted and under-staffed leaves room for a great deal of faults and mishaps. The time is the mid-eighties. Small, engaged in a struggle off-Broadway theaters lined 42nd Street. The theater was just three blocks from the Hudson River where an enclave of the homeless lived in cardboard boxes. At that time, the neighborhood was crime-ridden. Live nude shows, (erotic|sexual pleasure|sexually arousing bookstores, x-rated movies were just a block away from our apartment complex (we live in Manhattan Plaza, housing for performing artists). Crack cocaine was sold by dealers in the streets. Prostitutes blatantly solicited.

(By the time we finished the book, the Disney Corporation had renovated the Amsterdam Theater, moved in “The Lion King” and Hell’s Kitchen was well on it is way to being gentrified. Now our area is one of the safest, cleanest neighborhoods in New York City.)

Tyler: What would you say were your biggest influences in writing mysteries?

Kay: We love stories with an odd twist; characters who are somewhat askew. These writers are amid our favorites: Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, P.D. James, Elizabeth George, Dorothy Sayers, Patricia Highsmith.

Tyler: What do you think sets “Butcher of Dreams” detached from the a heap of other mystery novels out there?

Eileen: The book’s mixture of temperamental actors, undercurrents of the supernatural, and a madman on the prowl set it detached from the numerous cozies, police procedurals, legal mysteries, high tech thrillers that dominate today’s mystery world. This one is with regards to humans whom you like and learn to dislike, dislike and learn to like, real humans in believable-if somewhat bizarre situations. After all, it is the theater so that added theatrical flair is a must.

Tyler: What do you find most difficult regarding writing a mystery?

Kay: To give sufficient clues but not too numerous so that the reader will guess the culprit right off the bat. It’s great to have a writers group as your introductory audience because if they say, “I suspect so-and-so,” you know you have to be a little more subtle and pull back on info you’re giving the reader. Also it’s difficult knowing what to disclose when. Again, it’s a outstanding aid having a writers group to bounce introductory drafts off.

Tyler: What did you most take pleasure in regarding writing and collaborating on “Butcher of Dreams”?

Eileen: Collaboration gave us more than one voice.

Also, Kay tended to overlook the flaws in the performers because she identified with them so strongly. I, as a theater-goer and lover of theater, wanted them to behave better. We feel we reached a happy medium.

Tyler: What will your next writing projects be? Do you plan to collaborate on writing more books?

Eileen: We’ve started a sequel to “Butcher.” It opens in Leningrad in 1991-filmmakers competing at the Leningrad International Film Festival, versus the chaotic backdrop of a disintegrating Russia. Then the action moves to New York and deals with the Russian Mafia in Brighton Beach and the 42nd Street Rep as it’s evolved in the past five years. Also the reader will get a glimpse into the world of making independent films.

Tyler: Do you both plan to stick to writing novels now, or will you return to the theatre-maybe even turn one of your novels into a play?

Kay: We may undertake a screenplay of “Butcher of Dreams.” But original we have to get further into our Russian book.

Tyler: Thank you, Kay and Eileen, for joining me today. Before you go, will you tell our readers with regards to your website and what further and added info may be found there with regards to “Butcher of Dreams”?

Eileen: Our web site is: http://www.calliopepress.com/butcherOfDreams/index.shtml

Additional selective information on the internetlocation includes: suggested book discussion questions, remarks in regards to the book from reviewers and readers; authors’ pictures and bios; excerpt; ordering information.

Tyler: Thank you, Kay and Eileen. I hope you have some more successful collaborations together.

Broadway Michael Kantor Laurence Maslon

Along with jazz and abstract expressionism, the Broadway musical is one of the few in a unique manner American art forms. A associate to the six-part PBS documentary series, BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL is the firstborn comprehensive history of the musical, from it is roots at the turn of the 20th century through the smashing successes of the new millennium. The compelling, in-depth text is lavishly illustrated with a treasure trove of photographs, sheet-music covers, posters, scenic renderings, production stills, rehearsal shots, and caricatures, a heap of antecedently unpublished. Complementing the narrative are lively sidebars that spotlight the stars, the shows, and the songs–the key ingredients that make the musical great. Each chapter likewise included essays written by galore of Broadway’s most arousing and attention holding luminaries, past and present. An agreeably diverting amalgam of unpublished material, candid and production photographs, and a trunkful of anecdotes and Broadway lore, BROADWAY will appeal to eighth-graders in their primary high school musical as well as to connoisseurs of the art form.

ReviewIf you enjoyed the PBS series Broadway: The American Musical but wanted a bit more detail and substance, undertake curling up with the associate book to the series. Expanded from Michael Kantor’s script by Laurence Maslon, it follows the same six-part structure but it is 470 pages give it more space to stretch out with the history of key musicals and the historical context behind them, or add substantial trends such as revivals. What makes the book easy to pick up from the coffee table are the a heap of subheads, the photographs (e.g., Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady) and poster art, and the sidebars and supplemental features. Occupying a page or two, the sidebars delve into such topics as primary cast albums or shows that were glossed over or ignored in the series, such as Gypsy and 1776. A particularly effective use of the text is reprinting the lyrics of sure songs, examining the structure of “Soliloquy,” providing historical annotations for “You’re the Top,” and illustrating “Broadway Baby” with pictures of Ethel Schulte on stage in Follies and 50 years earlier. Archive sectionalizations offer vintage essays from key figures (Sondheim on Kern, Hart on Rodgers), and Who’s Who blurbs spotlight performers or creators (Fanny Brice, Barbara Cook, Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald). While Broadway: The American Musical can’t compete with more encyclopedic work on the subject, it’s an pleasurable and suitable reference overall, and does provide a year-by-year list of substantial shows, a chosen bibliography, and maps of the theater district ca. 1928 and 2001. –David Horiuchi

From Publishers WeeklyThose critics and theatergoers who have for some time lamented the death of the Broadway musical may take heart: thanks to this glorious paean, the hills are once again alive with the sound of music—and much more. Though this nostalgia-laden tome is designed as a associate book to a forthcoming PBS series, it stands on it is own as a particularly striking and comprehensive take on a in a unique manner American art form. The copious illustrations alone are worth “the price of admission,” as history unfolds through archival and contemporary photos (Fred and Adele Astaire in 1924; Tommy Tune swooning over Twiggy in 1983′s My One and Only); sheet music covers (the Prohibition-era ditty, “How Are You Going to Wet Your Whistle When the Whole Darn World Goes Dry?”); and vibrant photographic spreads (Paul Robeson in a 1928 production of Showboat; Patty Lupone in Evita).The meticulously researched text spans the years 1893 to 2004 in six information-packed chapters, each of which opens with a “Who’s Who”—brief vignettes regarding the period’s most celebrated personalities—and is followed by a “Broadway and” section, which covers, depending on the chapter’s time frame, such topics as Tin Pan Alley, radio, Hollywood, firstborn cast albums, etc. “Spotlight on” examines a substantial musical of the amount of time (from The Follies of 1919 to Sunday in the Park with George). The chapters conclude with in particular interesting “Archives” segments—essays by theater veterans past and present. Even the book’s endpapers reflect Broadway’s evolution: both are photos of the theater district’s famed Shubert Alley, but theater posters indicate that the firstborn shot is circa 1962, the second is 2004. And, just as in real life, everything on Broadway that’s old is new again. The current blockbuster Wicked (based on Gregory Maguire’s novel twist on The Wizard of Oz) and 1975′s African-American version, The Wiz? Old news: Broadway audiences saw this classic’s introductory musicalization in 1904. And those recent strikes by Actors Equity that have more than once threatened to close down the Great White Way? Nothing new there: the initial Equity pickets were brandished in 1919.With it is beguiling blend of amusement and history, this magnificent work is a must-have, whether you’re a musical-comedy devotee (i.e., you know that Barbara Cook’s Broadway debut was in 1951′s Flahooley) or a neophyte (you’re not sure who Barbara Cook is).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a section of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist*Starred Review* Packed with color photos, printed on nice, thick, shiny paper, and weighing in at a little over seven pounds, this gorgeous behemoth is the extreme coffee-table book for lovers of the American musical, even though it is smarter and better written than such a glib description suggests. A associate to Kantor’s six-part, Ken Burns-like PBS series–the six chapters roughly correspond to the six sequences in the series–Broadway is a great read in it is own right, consisting of Maslon’s well-researched, well-written history, which draws on material from Kantor’s film, supplemented by 110 years’ worth of excerpts from scripts, capsule biographies of remarkable theater people, and contemporary consultations with outstanding stars. Just in case you can’t read, hundreds and hundreds of drop-dead finelooking photographs, a great deal of of them rare and seldom reproduced, make this a outstanding grazing-and-gazing experience, too. If the history has a flaw, it is that it focuses so tightly on the Broadway musical it slights noteworthy musical-theater events that took place elsewhere, such as the long, long running off-Broadway hit The Fantasticks. And, of course, it also overlooks much of Broadway’s nonmusical history. Guess you could scarcely suppose one volume to integrate all of America’s rich theatrical history. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Broadway Michael Kantor Laurence Maslon Pic

Broadway Michael Kantor Laurence Maslon Image

Broadway Michael Kantor Laurence Maslon Photo

Broadway Michael Kantor Laurence Maslon Pic

Most helpful client reviews

58 of 60 humans found the following review helpful.
Give My Regards to Broadway!
By Janan Neilson
I was in Barnes and Noble and had watched Broadway the American Musical the week before, I saw this on the shelf and started leafing through it. Before long I had to take the thing home.

5 of 6 humans found the following review helpful.
Great Book
By M. Good
If you’re into theatre, this book is a must-have! You won’t find any other book that gives you such a elaborate and exact history of Musical Theatre. The pictures are outstanding and the reading is outstanding!

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