Charlie in Dickensenian Mode

If you are a “Pinky and the Brain” fan, or if you are a theater buff, or if you are looking for a good cause, my son Charlie Howell has made an offer you’ll be hard pressed to refuse:

DONATE at least $35 to Theatricum Botanicum in the next week, and get a funny PERSONALIZED IAMBIC PENTAMETER SONNET written by Yours Truly, Emmy-winning comedy writer and producer of Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and other shows. All about y…ou! Donate at least $35 though the link below to my donation page, and you will get a Shakespearean mini-sonnet about you – a funny, four-line heroic stanza in rhyming iambic pentameter plus a final rhyming couplet. If your donation is $75 or more, you’ll get a classic, full-length, three-quatrain-plus-couplet sonnet. All about you! All in funny, Shakespearean iambic pentameter, posted to your facebook page! For those whom I only know slightly, or from long ago, or only through facebook, I may post a request for details or anecdotes about your life on your facebook page. You must make your donation through my Theatricum donation page linked below (this is a fundraising competition, after all), by midnight, next Sunday, July 21^st.  The link:  http://www.theatricumfunddrive.com/participant/48495  

Pinky and the Brain

In case you didn’t know (Google Charles M. Howell IV for his filmography) Charlie was head writer and three-time Emmy winner for “Pinky and the Brain” and has recently added a second career to his repertoire – acting.  He is part of the prestigious Theatricum Botanicum Company in Los Angeles and his current “offer” is in support of their first-ever-in-forty-years fund raising opportunity.  Here is what he wrote me about that:

The Theatricum is one of just over a dozen Equity houses in Los Angeles. And while others like the Pantages or the Ahmanson rely on traveling productions of Broadway shows like Avenue Q or Mary Poppins to fill their season, The Theatricum is committed to mounting original productions of Shakespeare and classic theater as well as contemporary, socially-relevant plays. This year I’m in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, as well as Merlin, an original play based on the King Arthur stories
     This wonderful outdoor theater company also hosts thousands of school children of all ages every year to see the plays, and they have classes for youth drama camps. These kids are from public schools, religious schools, special needs schools, inner city schools, private schools – for many it’s not only the first time they’ve seen a play, it’s the first time they’ve seen a lizard, or a caterpillar!  The Theatricum was started by Will Geer when he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, as a place for creative people to perform, and finally became a professional venue 40 years ago.

As proud-mom-with-bragging-rights, my understanding is that the proceeds from this fund-raising effort will be used to provide scholarships for kids’ classes and youth drama camps – a worthy cause, indeed.  And besides, you may get a personalized mini-sonnet suitable for framing!