Entries by Misha Berson

Avaaz: Succeeding Against Enormous Odds

In a workshop on playwriting some years ago, Michael Shayan was instructed by the leader, noted dramatist Luis Alfaro, to put a hand over his heart, to feel the heartbeat of a character – and to “just listen.” The voice he heard was one Shayan had known all his life. It was that of his […]

The Lehman Brothers

In 2008 the prominent Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers had 25,000 employees around the world. It carried $639 million in assets, and was the fourth largest investment bank in the United States — and one of the oldest. But when its massive portfolio of mortgage-backed securities lost value and the nation’s over-inflated housing bubble burst, […]

Henry’s Ex-Wives Get Their Say (and Sing) in SIX

What is so funny about a rich and powerful man who disposes of most of his six wives – who wind up “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived,” as British children learn to memorize in history classes? The marital track record of Britain’s King Henry VIII is not a pretty one. And it is not […]

A Christmas Carol: The Gift That Keeps Giving

In the winter of 1843 a novella appeared that captivated London readers. The first book run of the slim volume of 6,000 copies sold out quickly. A century later, two million copies had been purchased. And today it is hard to imagine the winter holiday season – or the American theatre — without Charles Dickens’ […]