Inside Bay Area - Daisey is one man conquering 'Great Men of Genius':
Daisey is on his way back to Berkeley Rep with a new monologue — actually four new monologues — called "Great Men of Genius." Each show is devoted to a historical figure Daisey considers great: Nikola Tesla (a scientist who worked with electricity), P.T. Barnum (the circus showman), Bertolt Brecht (the German playwright and poet) and L. Ron Hubbard (the sci-fi writer who created the Church of Scientology).
"I've known I wanted to talk about these guys for a really long time," he says. "The synaptic jump was when I realized I should do all four of them together."
Each show is about 90 minutes, and Berkeley Rep convinced Daisey that on Sundays during his run, he should do all four in a marathon — something Daisey has never attempted to do.
"Most shows have an eight-show week, so this means I'll do four shows between Wednesday and Saturday and then have half of my week all in one day on Sunday," Daisey says. "I'll really have to keep my energy and stamina up."
In putting the four shows together, Daisey realized he was creating one big show about the nature of genius. What kind of environment creates genius?
"Is genius a product of social order where we declare genius, or is it a force reaching beyond the human to do things we didn't think possible?" Daisey asks.
1:31 PM
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