Here We Are

Act Human

Boys, Girls, and They of ALL AGES…

I’m Richard DUBIN. Most call me DUBIN. Please call me DUBIN.

Acting Human - live life alive has been a long time coming, so, congratulations to us, we’ve survived the torturous wait, and at long last we’ve gathered.

A BIT OF BACKSTORY

You can blame Louis Armstrong for ACTING HUMAN. (After all, what good is life without someone to blame?) “Pops” popped out of a tiny black and white television in the Bronx. He radiated pure joy, spirit, and a sizzling sound. Instant inspiration. A lifelong light. 

Far away on the Island of Coney we find my emotionally fragile cousin Ronnie. Son of my mother’s twin sister. He had a newly immigrated Polish trumpet playing uncle on his father’s side. Uncle Willie’s financial needs were such that all his nephews were obliged to take trumpet lessons. Willie’s teaching was harsh. Trumpet lessons triggered Ronnie. He ‘acted out,’ leaving zero doubt of danger. It was soon a wrap on Ronnie and Willie.

Ronnie’s desperate acts of self defense dropped a welcome trumpet in my paws. 

You’ll get the unexpurgated Ronnie story (pyrotechnics and all) in naked detail. You can count on entertaining stories in ACTING HUMAN - each as they serve a learning purpose. We are here to learn together - stay tuned - BIG fun ahead. Guaranteed.

With years of avid practice and the help of excellent teachers, I learned to play the trumpet. I sat for hour upon hour, day after day, taking air in and blowing it out through plumbing, a curlicue of brass pipe called a trumpet. 

I learned to breathe music.

While practicing the trumpet, I began to meditate without knowing I was meditating. Meditation on the breath. Music as mantra. The tandem of mindfulness and trumpet practice snuck up on me and stuck.

Later, study and practice in wisdom traditions of nearly every kind, along with adventures in expanded consciousness of many kinds (never licked a toad) led me to accept Socrates’ invite to an “examined life.” (Another someone to blame.)   

I saw more and more clearly that a fully lived life roots in and grows out of intention, study and practice. Astonishing experiences confirmed that extraordinary life was possible.

We can all escape the vortex, the suck of default mode, we can live our way free of rigid conformity and common expectations, we can co-create vibrant and wondrous lives for ourselves and each other.

A month after my thirteenth birthday I was admitted to The American Federation of Musicians, Local 802  in New York City, an acknowledged professional, a bonafide trumpet player. 

With intense desire and incredible good luck I found generous friends and mentors. Older musicians that embraced me wholeheartedly. They were accomplished (many iconic) players of jazz, orchestral, and commercial music; first calls in what was then a thriving music business. They encouraged me. Nurtured me. They taught me to handle the musical parts smartly and, modeled how to “make the hang.” How to belong in strong company. 

When I was ready they greased the skids. Right out of the gate I slid into first-class work, playing in vaunted venues, from Vegas showrooms and Broadway theaters to Carnegie Hall.

It’s been moment to moment, surprise after surprise, ever since. I’ve played varied roles in music, theater, television, film, and academia. It all connects, dynamically. Everything adds up, though without sum. 

While creative life may from time to time involve arithmetic, it rarely presents in strict columns of numbers. That’s called accounting.

Here’s a facsimile in words, an accounting of sorts:

BIOGRAPHY IN PROGRESS (still alive)

Dubin, a veteran writer/director/producer, his chest festooned with hard earned purple hearts, is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, Director’s Guild of America, SAG/AFTRA, Actor’s Equity Association, and ASCAP. He has been elected to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

He has written for and directed a slew of brand name actors and one nameless chicken on ABC, CBS, NBC, FBN, and UPN. His studio affiliations include Disney, Warner Bros., Viacom, Tri-Star, HBO Productions, Fox TV, MTM, MGM, and Columbia Pictures. 

In all the confusion Dubin garnered Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, as well as Humanitas, Mentor, NY Film and Television Festival, Television Critics, Viewers for Quality Television, and NAACP Image Awards . He also enjoys the honor of a B’nai Brith Humanitarian Award. 

At just thirteen he barged into show business as a trumpet player. He’s played with Nina Simone, Otis Redding, The Shirelles, Tony Bennett, The Crystals, Lena Horne, The Marvelettes, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, and The Rockettes along with many other ‘girl’ groups, as well as a stellar array of big name men and women too numerous to list without turning this page into a hoarder-like mess.  

As an educator, Dubin has lectured and run workshops for writers and actors at UCLA, The American Film Institute, University of Southern California, and New York University. 

From 2000 - 2018 Dubin held an appointment as Professor of Television and Film in The S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. His time at Newhouse overlapped continuing work as a writer/creative consultant in network television, on studio films, and independent productions. Dubin has been twice honored for Teaching Excellence at the Newhouse School. 

Nowadays, Dubin writes about and develops media (Substack is media, right?) to introduce Acting Human, a practice rooted in ageless wisdom traditions, cutting edge science, both natural and social, the humanities from anthropology to zootomy, with an emphasis on all the arts, fine and not so fine.  

Dubin enjoys writing about himself in the third person.

SO NOW WHAT? 

We have gathered here to recognize and explore ourselves as co-creators of our so-called selves. To get beyond default persons. To actively learn how to live.

We all act all the time. 

We create ourselves as living story in daily life. Each of us play many roles in endless and varied situations, moment to moment, day in, day out. Who is the actor acting the myriad roles we act in the stream of scenes that amount to our lives?

We can inhabit an unlimited actor so that together we live as bouyant, vibrational, and creative HUMANS. We live life connected and feel fully alive.

We must appreciate our emerging world and our rapidly changing roles in relationship to its kaleidoscopic character .

Especially now, as existential challenges loom large. 

Acting Human offers skillful means to show up and play ourselves in “real” life.

To live vibrantly alive as authentic, generous, and whole humans.

To live as vital humans, impossible to mistake for conventional, superficial, or artificial life forms. 

True humans create humanity.

WE LEARN WHAT WE LIVE

We all know that the path is winding, often perilous, and uncertain. There’s no way we won’t benefit from shared wisdom in a caring community. One that ignites actionable learning. 

That’s what we’re here to do. Learn to live fully creative lives. To Act Human. To story. To do our whole lives skillfully. Together.

As poet Muriel Rukeyser said, “The Universe is made of stories not of atoms.” We, each and all of us,  play dynamically related stories in a Universal Theater. 

Acting Human intends to set in motion an ensemble of mutually supportive players. To earn and spread trust in truly creative living. To prosper as an inspirational company of skilled, imaginative and courageous actors in all aspects of our lives. 

I’ll send (at least) a weekly edition of this newsletter. The manner and methods of our collaboration will unfold as we improvise in the comments. 

For those of us who have done something like this before in classrooms, on bandstands, in recording studios, and on theatrical or sound stages, I’m delighted we’re doing it together again. 

For those of us together again for the first time, know you are welcomed. 

Please spread the word. 

Lights Up!

Join the cast and crew…

We are a “theater ensemble” helping one another create whole humans, dynamic actors, and craftspeople with eclectic skills. We are here to imagine and inhabit a world that encourages genuine connection, energetic empathy, active compassion, and abundant joy.

As we play ourselves truly in the real world, we will see existential challenges. They shout for attention in this tumultous and simultaneously fertile time. We must respond to this clarion call for profound and life saving creativity. It’s imperative we avoid the dread “closing notice.” The show must go on!

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