Guess who decides to drop by today at the performance of Ethel Sings but Robby Meeropol himself! Son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who with his brother Michael was then adopted by the Meeropol family when their own relatives wouldn't take them in as children, Robby spoke to the audience about the 50th Anniversary of his parents' execution, his current advocacy work, his feelings about his cruel manipulative grandmother and his contact with the sole surviving relative in this whole saga, uncle David Greenglass (none). He spoke too about Elia Kazan during the red scare, and the fitting irony that is Hollywood. About Sidney Lumet's "Daniel", an adaptation of EL Doctorow's loosely based biography of the Rosenberg children in which Mandy Patinkin played his father, he looks out into the audience. "I'm looking for the Asian actor who played me". I obliged and waved.  He smiles. "In the film, I was played by Amanda Plummer!"

So today I took some time off our run of "Ethel Sings" to shoot a web commercial. A comedic take on the documentary "Intervention", I get to play a concerned but somewhat bashful Paul who tries to convince his co-worker it is time to give up his childish ways, and switch to Capital One. No, I don't get to act opposite Alec Baldwin, though I do get to speak into the camera like Kevin Spacey does in House of Cards - ooooh =). 

The cast of concerned friends and family couldn't be more delightful to work with. I'll include the link, soon as it's dropped, so do watch this space.  Meantime, I'd like to give a special shout out to producer Kenji Edmonds and director Christian Jackson over at Roley Poley Productions, who ran an incredibly tight, swift, brisk, patient and easy shoot. We even got to wrap early! My injured back a couple of days prior on "Ethel Sings" thanks you!