In Memoriam: Alvin Epstein was my friend, mentor, collaborator and inspiration.

Alvin Epstein, friend, mentor, collaborator, died the other day. I feel so fortunate to have had him in my creative life since I was a precocious 13-yr-old eager to learn all I could from this master actor, director and philosopher. I'm re-posting this tribute to Alvin below. And I include for your viewing pleasure an excerpt from his performance in my 2009 film, We Pedal Uphill. Alvin was the best kind of teacher. He never shied away from making clear choices and was always open and eager to put them to the test in rehearsal. I'm so grateful to my sister, Leora, for her having helped to facilitate my own last visit with him in October. I will miss him as long as I live.

Lessons from Actors: Alvin Epstein

Alvin Epstein, actor and director, has been one of my mentors. Over the 40+ years I've known him he's taught me many lessons. I'd like to briefly describe three of them here.

1. The Sign of a True Professional = More Rehearsal.

Alvin appeared in my film, We Pedal Uphill, which we rehearsed in New York but shot in various locales all across the country. It's a tapestry film, composed of thirteen short slices of life, each with a specific point of view set in a specific context chosen as a reflection of some aspect of the culture of fear that permeated the landscape in post-911 America. Alvin and Molly Powell's scene was all about the commercial railroads, their decay, graft, neglect and we shot this portion of the film in Omaha. We spent a few weeks rehearsing in New York, then our tiny crew flew to Omaha for about 4 days of shooting, most of which involved Alvin driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck with Molly in the passenger seat and Yours Truly in the backseat shooting. Although I had known Alvin for years and had even written one stage role with him in mind I had never had the pleasure of directing him in a performance. I quickly noticed something kind of wonderful about him.

Alvin could never get enough rehearsal.