Simon Plays

by David Rosenthal

Simon Martin is coming up fast on his fiftieth birthday… and he’s a mess! …He has a job he could care less about, he’s in therapy, his last true love was twenty years ago, and he has a nagging addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine. David Rosenthal, the commercial actor, drama coach, voice-over talent, and author of Simon Plays now portrays this likeable, yet damaged, artist, Simon Martin, with all of his charm as well as his terrible foibles. Simon finds himself waking up on a city street in the middle of the night after having been knocked unconscious while on yet another bender; his wallet and watch, stolen! On his long walk back home, Simon tries to fit the many loose strands of his past into some semblance of a life that makes his beginnings as an only child, growing up with alcoholic parents in Florida; his admiration for both his therapist, the insightful Dr. Berman, and his mentor, the famous clarinetist, William Cantor; his turn as a jazz player, making the San Francisco scene; his still painful feelings for his one true love, Laura Finney; and his numerous slip-ups into a world of drugs and deceit. All he’s hoping for is… one more chance to start over again!

330 pages, Paperback

Published August 15, 2003