James Sherman on Ben Hecht - Live talkback at Piven Theatre July 3 2016
James Sherman II
On Sunday July 3rd, I had the opportunity to join James Sherman for a talkback following his performance as Ben Hecht in The Ben Hecht Show currently playing through July 17th at the Piven Theatre, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, Evanston, Illinois. For tickets to The Ben Hecht Show visit www.grippostagecompany.com. You can hear the entire Conversations podcast HERE.
James Sherman on Ben Hecht’s A Guide for the Bedeviled as inspiration:
“By the time I’m five pages into it, it just grabbed me completely. He was just a brilliant writer … and I’m relating like crazy to this story. So by the time I finished the book, I said ‘I’ve gotta do this.’”
James Sherman shares some Ben Hecht stories not included in the one-man production:
“[Hecht] grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, and then he went to college in Western Michigan. He was very well read. His father gave him a lot of the classics. So he went to college … he went to register … said ‘I already read all of these books.’ So he left. He went to college for one day and then just got on a train to Chicago … His first job was a photo chaser at crime scenes.”