From: Jed A Levine
Sent: Monday, November 15, 2010 4:05 PM
To: frank@fzpi.com
Cc: Lou-Ellen Barkan
Subject: Comment to be read tonight
President and CEO Lou-Ellen Barkan and I send our regrets for this evening, prior commitments prevent us from being with you.
Every week unsolicited screen plays, documentary ideas, music videos, songs, and artwork all related to the experience of caring for a relative with AD cross our desks. It is rare to get something as well written and on target as Taking Leave which portrays a truthful and balanced image of one critical moment in time at one stage of the illness for one person with dementia Mr. Jackson really "gets it". Cordelia's empathic approach to her father exemplifies acceptance and how to "be with" a person with dementia.
With 5.3 million Americans currently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and a projection of 11 - 16 million by mid-century, works like "Taking Leave" can play an important part in raising awareness by realistically portraying the struggles of living with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's and caring for the individual. We have a long way to go to making Alzheimer's a National Priority; works like Taking Leave can help engage the public in critical dialogue about a disease that threatens to
bankrupt our health care system and has the potential to be the public health crisis of the 21rst Century.
Jed A. Levine. M.A.
Executive Vice President
Director, Programs and Services
Alzheimers Association, New York City Chapter
360 Lexington Avenue, 4th floor
New York. NY 10017
646-744-2900
646-744-2902 (Direct)
800-272-3900 24 hour helpline
NAGLE JACKSON'S TAKING LEAVE*
PREMIERED AT THE DENVER CENTER THEATRE COMPANY
AND THE NATIONAL PRESS RESPONDED:
"...a multi-layered play which combines a sunny outlook on the perils of Alzheimer's with the poignant struggles of a family as it contends with a parent's loss of integrity. The play is engrossing, vivid in its dramatization of illness as it is in its awareness of how a family can self-destruct ...Jackson's writing is always assured and strong in theatrical values"
- Allen Young for VARIETY
"...a rich new dramatic comedy...Directed with a subtle, expert touch
by Jackson, Taking Leave provokes a great deal of compassionate
laughter, but it also manages to be heartbreaking as Eliot rages in his
study as surely as Lear did in his storm"
- BACKSTAGE WEST
"This witty play is no tragedy, nor is it merely a maudlin disease-of-the-week exercise. Without trivializing a difficult problem, the play forcefully reminds the viewer of the professor's personhood."
- CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
"The whole effect is one of gentleness rather than rage at an implacable enemy. 'Heartwarming' is the operative word...an exceptionally fine production."
- THE DENVER POST
"Another world premiere of a new play...one that hopefully will be
seen in Anchorage someday, is Nagle Jackson's Taking Leave, a
comedy about a family dealing with Alzheimer's that's loosely
patterned on Shakespeare's 'King Lear'. While the subject matter
seems far from comedic, Tony Church's portrayal of the faltering
college professor turns the plot into a celebration of life."
- ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS
Nominated for BEST PLAYS - 1998 by American Theatre Critics' Association
*Featured on THE JIM LEHRER NEWS HOUR, PBS, 6/10/98
