PAY ATTENTION: ADHD IN HOLLYWOOD, ON THE ROCKS WITH A TWIST

In his engaging solo show, writer-actor Frank South describes himself as beset by "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, hypomania, alcoholism, and issues with authority." Despite - or perhaps because of - that baggage he survived 20 years in Hollywood as a writer-director-producer for such TV classics as Melrose Place, Cagney & Lacey, and Baywatch. Like a metaphor for his affliction, South unflappably jumps from one tale to another and back again, giving us a taste of his often-jumbled world. Under Mark Travis' direction, South chillingly personifies his affliction as a screeching imp who constantly orders him to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. South's stories about two of his mentors, the maverick director Robert Altman, who lectured the insecure South to trust his own judgment, and the consummate Hollywood insider Aaron Spelling, whom South claims stabbed him in the back, are hilarious, instructive, and poignant. At times struggling for lines and almost forgetting the name of an actress with whom he worked, South overcomes these dilemmas to deliver a funny and bittersweet tale of someone who, while not conquering them, has at least been able to keep his demons in check.

Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 Fourth St.; Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; through June 7. (323) 960-7738. A guest production. (Martín Hernández)

http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/stage-news/stage-raw-the-singing-skeleton/

Making it to the “grown-up table” can be a challenge in life for many of us. But add ADHD, alcoholism and a bit more and you have Frank South’s personal journey currently staging at the Santa Monica Playhouse, “Pay Attention: ADHD in Hollywood, On the Rocks with a Twist.”
Frank South is a writer, performer and actor, and previously wrote/produced for Hill Street Blues, Melrose Place and many other successful shows after entering the world of theatre, by way of being a waiter.
In close to two non-stop hours mixed with hilarity and horror, South careens from a high school talent show with guitar over shoulder, to mentorship with Robert Altman, to the sometime deadly rollercoaster world of network television with generous doses of personal and family life thrown in.
Facing his demons, or at least recognizing them, he catapults through arguments, Vietnam, meeting his wife, taking the fall for Melrose Place via his court testimony and more.
He also instills a bit of knowledge of what everyday life, even the simple things, can be for those with ADHD and other conditions.
It took me part of the early moments to get into the story, which at two hours is long for a one-person show, but as the show continued it became increasingly entertaining and insightful; a compelling storytelling done in an energetic style.

“Pay Attention: ADHD in Hollywood, On the Rocks with a Twist” runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 6pm through June 7. Tickets are $25. To order tickets, visit www.plays411.com/PayAttention or call (323) 960-7738.
For group sales, visit www.FrankSouth.net or call (808) 382-8283. The Other Space at Santa Monica Playhouse is located at 1211 4th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90491.

http://tolucantimes.info/2009/05/06/%e2%80%9cpay-attention%e2%80%9d-seeks-attention-at-the-santa-monica-playhouse/

Do you remember the good kids in school? Always on the right page, had their homework in the right folder, turned in history projects on time, brought in field trip permission slips before the deadline? "Why can't you all be that way?" we were asked. Normal.

And then there were kids like Frank South. Weird. In his own world. Off the wall. Unable to focus. Got beat up. A lot. Normal? By most standards back then, definitely not.

In Frank South's new play, Pay Attention, we meet Frank, the main character, back when he was in high school. Later, we discover that Frank does not suffer [only] from teen weirdness, but also from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Not-so-coincidentally, Frank the real-life playwright and Frank the actor both also have ADHD. In effective and subtle transitions between them, we see evidence of all three on stage at different points during the play.

It's actually easy to recognize which Frank is speaking, since Frank the actor moves skillfully from "re-living" his former self (i.e. showing us how he used to do things) to being his insightful, "metacognitive" self, (i.e. thinking about and telling us why he did things). Frank the playwright had adroitly and wisely avoided writing schizophrenic caricatures, perhaps because Frank is multi-faceted enough in his own right.

Throughout the play, we see, for example, anecdotes of his life from 1969, and how young Frank perceives the Vietnam war. Then he jumps to 1983 as a Hollywood filmwriter often wondering if he fits in. (Frank the actor also realistically plays other people in brief dialogues, notably the voice of his childhood friend, Frankie, the other weird and marginalized kid in school.)

As Frank acts out other red-letter dates in 1972, 1997, the present, or back and forth across time, making free associations in classic ADHD circuitous style, he is funny when he could have been self-pitying. In re-living a professional injustice, he is funny when he would have been justified in being furious. When he bares his most tragic flaws, he is funny instead of pitiful.

At a few points during the play, Frank the actor stops his story. The audience is silent. Frank reaches for his reading glasses, and speaks to us as he flips pages in a notebook. Is this part of the play? Is he showing us what a person with ADHD must do to stay focused and organized, even on stage? Did Frank write himself a safety-net into his play so he can stay in character while searching forgotten lines? Is Frank's ADHD manifesting itself, God forbid, in the middle of his play?? We do not know. All we can do is watch.

The story resumes, and we see Frank the character squander amazing opportunities, but instead of being funny, he is now infuriating. Frank the playwright's honest, often unflattering depiction of his own past self alternates with jokes and lost moments, thereby giving the audience a taste of the many emotional and cognitive ping-pong games that must constantly play out in the minds of ADHD people. It's dizzying.

At just such moments in the play, Frank comforts the audience with his brief metacognitive explanations. He has spent years with therapists, loved ones, and his own demons to figure out how ADHD has impacted his life. Can he ever be normal? As a child, he determined that he wasn't normal, but his friend Frankie had always been there to try to protect him. So even in Hollywood, Frankie's voice tried to keep Frank safe, though in a way he wouldn't understand until many years later, when he was able to finally "pay attention" and explain it to rest of us.

What we see, then, in the form of a compelling, non-linear, personal story, is how this man's unique mind works. Whether "normal" or not, Frank South has advanced the fields of education and performing arts, the nature of human relationships, and research on the human condition, not just by telling the world how an ADHD man thinks, but also by showing us.

So, Frank the playwright, the character, and the actor, no; you're not merely normal. And like your play, that's a very good thing.