I went to an interesting reading last night at the William Morris Agency by Jack Hofsiss, the Tony Award winning director of “The Elephant” and nameskae of the upcoming one-man show “Jack From Above,” written by Ethan Silverman.

Jack, an established character in the Broadway theatre scene among a sea of Warhol-esque celebrities of the late 70s in New York (think: Studio 54), had a sudden and life-altering twist to his tale.

In 1985, while summering with friends at a party on Fire Island, Jack dove into the pool head first and collided with the incline of the deep-end, which led to a stroke, and ultimately the paralization of his body from the waist down.

Today, Jack’s story, a soon-to-be play, written by friend Ethan Silverman, is about how he got out of the deep depression this turn of events put him into, and last night, he read aloud a few small portions for our small group, a story so powerful it was able to make an impact on me, in under 20 minutes.

Basically, after this terrible accident, Jack travels to communist China in 1986 in search of an all-healing acupuncture therapy. He is lured to China under the guise of a faux-doctor, “Dr. Ha,” who promises him that in China, he will find the help he needs to walk again. After a series of hilariously unbelievable events, he eventually realizes that Dr. Ha was not a doctor at all and that this supposed life-changing trip was a total hoax.

It is then, and only then, that he faces his total delusion that he would somehow be able to get back to being the man he was before the accident. He believed in Dr. Ha because it gave him hope. Once he realizes that he can still live a happy and full life while confined to his wheel chair, he does return to New York with what he initially set out to find: recovery and peace.

The take-away? Your life can change in an instant, and we all face our own “China” at some point throughout our journey. China is symbolic of the delusions we often allow ourselves to believe in, because it’s easier than facing reality. An audience member piped in that she could absolutely relate to Jack’s experience. That she, too, had certain situations in her life, where she believed that someone or something would eventually change, and she allowed herself to subscribe to that illusion for so long that it became detrimental.

I believe that some people exist to inspire others, and Jack Hofsiss is certainly one of those people. Realizing what we stand to lose in the blink of an eye, it makes you want to do/see/learn as much as you can now and live each day to it’s fullest.

Ethan, the writer of Jack’s true story, was actually Jack’s assistant (when he directed“The Elephant”) at the age of 19, and now here he is, helping to capture Jack’s story on paper. I bet he would have never guessed that this is what he would be doing right now, if we asked him way back when.

Ironically, the first play Jack saw on Broadway was The Miracle Worker, the story of Helen Keller, probably the most famous disabled person in American history, and he received the Tony Award for his direction of The Elephant Man, the true story of a remarkable individual who triumphed over incredible disabilities.  Life works in mysterious ways.

For more information on Jack, you can visit his Wikipedia page.

[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]

Tags: Alyson Campbell, It's All Very PR, Jack Hofsiss, The Elephant, Tony Award Winning

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 7:12 pm and is filed under people to watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.