RESUME YOUR ENTHUSIASM
A tip of the hat to Larry David first… and then you can view my background

An old friend of mine — after I lamented the lack of citizen response to my most recent project… which I had pitched to one and all with unbridled excitement — tried to help me understand: “Enthusiasm’s not in, Richard.” Look at my background below, if you will, and then tell me what you think my reaction was. If you’re reading this, you’re probably someone who I’m trying to introduce to TOSCA (http://oxtogrind.org/archive/364). I’ll be looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience. Don’t curb your enthusiasm, please.

Special note:: Please forgive the format below. What was beautifully set in my Word Document has been transplanted here poorly. And I don’t have the heartbeats to re-create the appropriate margins, etc. at the moment. Still, I believe, you can get the essence of what I’m trying to send your way. The excessive name-dropping has zero to do with ego, and everything to do with personal obligation which I feel compelled to pass on to you. With a great sense of urgency.

Richard Martin Oxman (born 09/21/42)
1713 Jennifer Drive (in the Vienna Woods), Aptos, CA 95003
tosca.2010@yahoo.com and 831-688-8038 (at any hour)
Married with Marcel still at home (9), Noelle in NYC (38) and Aja (25) on Maui/Kauai. Sylvie is my out-of-this-world partner (www.sosylvie.typepad.com).

This is a resume of sorts with only highly select experience spotlighted. Additional information can be provided upon request, of course. In short, I have had 40+ years of teaching experience worldwide on all levels, great learning experiences in a range of blue collar jobs, and sales/marketing, tour guide and investigative journalism stints. I am currently trying to produce my new full-length play, Millay Song Against the Day.

Education:

1960/61 Founded Patrice Lumumba Justice Club, University of Wisconsin-Madison

1962 Creative Writing study with Wendell Berry, New York City

1963 Private instruction with Bernard Grebanier, Brooklyn College, NYC, studying
Shakespeare and Playwriting.

1964 B.A. in Dramatic Art and Speech, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey

1965 M.A. in Speech and Theatre, Teachers College, Columbia University, NYC.

60s-70s Doctoral work in Educational Theatre+ at Columbia University and New
York University. All course work completed for Ed.D., including individual
study with Shakespearean scholar John McCabe (Shakespeare, Laurel and
Hardy, and biography)

1989 Royal Society of the Arts/Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults equivalent training, St. Giles College, San Francisco/UK+.

Select Teaching & Work Experience:

1989-2009 Director of businesses whose primary purpose has been to help others to self-educate overseas+. See archived sites: www.cancerfreeitaly.com, www.parisgraves.com, www.frenchpaintbox.com, www.useutravel.blogspot.com, and www.ctravelc.blogspot.com. Our latest project www.nativeitaly.org is unlikely to be fully active (the site is not currently completed) until we can definitively identify toxic hot spots on the Italian peninsula. All of this has included ESL work, and writing articles (500+) on current events/cultural topics worldwide. Playwriting instruction the last five years, all levels, virtually all ages. Involved in Campaign to Free Leonard Peltier in late 2000.

Early 90s Director of Wyland Art Galleries, Maui, Hawaii. Record sales for twenty galleries which still stand. Theatre Arts Director for Lahaina/Hana Players (separate children and adult groups).

1988-1990 St. Giles College/John Adams Community College, San Francisco, CA.
I prepared immigrants for the TOEFL SAT and GRE exams. In addition, my responsibilities included the placement of students in host homes.

1986-88 TESOL Director for International Education Research and Analysis Corporation in Osaka, Japan. Also, I directed plays for cultural outreach programs throughout Japan, and taught playwriting.

1984-86 Investigative Journalist for The Russian River News and The Paper of West Sonoma County in Guerneville/Forestville, California.

Early 80s Fundraiser for Massachusetts Fair Share. Community Organizer.

70s/80s Taxi Driving, NYC, encounters with Adrienne Rich, Ridley Scott, et. al. Met Peter Brook while raising funds for Teatro Campesino transition/productions.

Late 70s Research Project in the Caribbean on the British Slave Trade+. Witnessed
widespread protests against repression of Haiti’s press, and severe violence.

1964-74 Professor of Theatre, Cinema History, and Comparative Literature Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey, Bronx Community College, Long Island University, Seton Hall University, and New York Institute of Technology, among others. I also taught Creative Writing, and was involved in educational outreach in connection with The Parkway Playhouse (Burnsville, North Carolina) and The Paper Mill Playhouse (NJ). Special studies under the auspices of Dario Fo and Franca Rame in Italy. Boxing articles for Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleischer in NYC.

Late 50s Hitchhiked, as teenager, from NJ to CA (RT), and from NJ to GA (RT).

1950s Co-writer/performer with L.Russell Brown, Fury Records+, Harlem, NY.

1952 Long stay at Kid Gavilan’s training camp in Pennsylvania. Witnessed first
bout between white and black man in segregated Miami, Florida.

Great Influences/Moments in My Life:

September, 1949 Experience of Paul Robeson concert/riots Peekskill, NY

September, 1950 Private Meeting with Edna St. Vincent Millay Austerlitz, NY
Contact with Robert Fitzgerald and Flannery O’Connor Redding, CT

1957 Recorded with L. Russell Brown/Fury Records Harlem, NY

Summer, 1961 Several visits with Flannery O’ Connor Milledgeville, GA

1961-67 Mentored by George Weber, Lester Moore and members of The Royal Shakespeare Co. Contact with Alan Schneider and Samuel Beckett on set of Film; viewed Buster Keaton films with them at Museum of Modern Art, NYC. Interaction with members of La Mama and Theatre Genesis. Time with Wilt Chamberlain, James Baldwin and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Nkrumah) at Small’s Paradise, Harlem discussing Lorraine Hansberry and U.S. foreign policy, etc. Opening night at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (NYC).

July 12-17, 1967 Survived destruction of my birthplace Newark, NJ

60s/70s Encounters with Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell, et. al., 1st Chomsky read! CA+/UK

Late 60s/early 70s Mentor contact with Tennessee Williams — Abbie Hoffman after Attica Prison Riot, NewYork+++

May, 1976 Witness to repression/riots in Haiti+ Hispaniola

1986 Moviemaking/Interview with Francis Ford Coppola, California

1988 Time with I.F. Stone, Andy Goldsworthy Boston, MA/Japan

July, 1988 Companion to Emil White* Big Sur, CA

*Emil was a longtime intimate friend of Henry Miller’s

1990s Observation of Aftermath of Gulf War Iraq+
Fund raising for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria

2003-2004 Produced One Dance: The People’s Summit Santa Cruz, CA
See http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02102004.html This Ralph Nader-inspired event, organized for over a full year at a 24×8 pace, was arguably the biggest cultural/political happening in the history of Santa Cruz, California (well-known for such gatherings), and was accomplished with virtually no experience and… less of a budget. Mickey Z, our MC, dedicated his The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda to me and Sylvie.
Met Iris Chang, San Jose, CA/ Began reading Derrick Jensen

2007-2008 Interior Design/Vintage Furnishings business Los Gatos, CA