Frank Attwood's Blog Entries
Playbill -- The Annie Russell Theatre - Winter Park, Fl
May 13, 2008
Following a successful fifteen-year career of owning and managing real estate businesses, Frank Attwood decided to reinvent his life and explore some of his ideas tied to this thing they were calling ‘The Information Age’. One of those ideas was in the area of publishing educational information. Having worked closely with companies like AT&T, Westinghouse, Lockheed-Martin and AAA, he saw the important role education played in the buying decisions of not only families, but their employers as well. In 1991, drawing from his experience of self-publishing a book for the real estate industry, Attwood began publishing a magazine solely devoted to providing information on public and private education. That same year with his background as a multi-business owner, manager and trainer, Frank began speaking and putting on seminars focused on personal development, sales and personal marketing. In early 1992 he decided to take a couple of acting classes to become a more colorful speaker…certainly not to become an ‘actor’. However, as Attwood relates, “The next thing I knew I was on a movie set with Martin Sheen and Vince Van Patten.” The acting bug began to bite. Although only barely appearing in this film and one other with Denzel Washington, he has appeared in many independent films, industrial training films, numerous television commercials, voice-overs and several stage plays. Attwood began writing, producing and acting in his own work following the sale of his magazine in 2003. To date, he has written three plays, “Thomas Edison...Man of the Millennium”, “I’ll Light Manhattan” and “Thomas Edison Invents!” The later was co-authored with Mark Brotherton; theater professor at UCF and premiered at the Orlando Repertory Theatre in 2006. Most of Frank’s appearances as Thomas Edison are now at business conferences, conventions, schools, universities, clubs, civic and community organizations. His programs are custom tailored for each client, but always emphasize Edison’s hard work, ceaseless optimism and tireless stick-to-itiveness. Attwood refers to himself as an ’actorpreneur’, who conducts his Edison productions as a business to inspire, educate and entertain audiences from a variety of fields and interests. As examples, Frank just returned from doing a program at Rutgers University in New Jersey for Dr. Paul Israel, director of The Edison Papers. This summer Edison will give a keynote address to New England’s 75 public power companies in Bretton Woods, NH. And now, Thomas Edison…Man of the Millennium Sit back, relax and picture yourself back in a time where there were no lights, no fast ways to communicate, no machines to play music and no moving pictures! Enjoy this intriguing story of how one man’s vision and relentless determination impacted mankind and changed our world forever!
Why Thomas Edison?
May 13, 2008
I am excited about joining Edison Nation and this blog to learn more about inventing and to improve my favorite inventions--plays and programs portraying Thomas Edison. I hope to share with you here some of the things I have learned over the years from studying and portraying America's greatest inventor and visionary. But first, a little background about how this came about. Over the last several years of portraying Thomas Edison in plays and presentations, I have been asked on occasion why I began my one-man play and how I happened to chose Edison over so many other available and fascinating characters. Many of these inquiring minds have known me only as a businessman and entrepreneur, so these inquiries have often come with a somewhat puzzled and perplexed gaze. Edison was my choice for many reasons, but chief among them is that he has been my life-long hero. I have held him in such high esteem probably because of his nearly supernatural accomplishments in spite of such an ordinary and rather limited cultural and educational background. As to relating to the brilliant technical genius of Edison, I have found no similarity or credential to even touch the hem of his lab coat. The historian, Thomas Hughes writes; "Only Leonardo da Vinci evokes the inventive spirit as impressively. But, unlike Edison, Leonardo actually constructed only a few of his brilliant conceptions." Another historian, Ruth Cowan writes; “Edison from the beginning wanted to build a technological system and a series of businesses to manage that system. By the time he applied for any patent, Edison had already envisaged how he could translate the invention into a tangible, commercial product; indeed, he would not begin the research otherwise. Still, he was a classic innovator.” I have personally authored and co-authored three plays and one program/keynote, “Edison…Man of the Millennium”; "I'll Light Manhattan!"; “The Edison Perspective” and "Thomas Edison Invents!" The first is a two act play about the life of Edison from 'birth to bulb'. The second, the incredible story of what took place in taking electricity to the world. The third, is a program done in character highlighting the entrepreneurial side of Edison. The fourth is "Thomas Edison Invents!" This I co-authored with Mark Brotherton, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida Conservatory Theatre. It had it’s world premier October 2006 at the Orlando Repertory Theatre where several thousand students from public and private schools attended this show which was written and produced with a younger audience in mind. If you haven't already done so, let me encourage you to investigate this great man for yourself I know of no greater authority than ‘The Edison Papers’. This is a work primarily of Rutgers University and directed by Dr. Paul Israel. See: http://edison.rutgers.edu/ My website: http://www.attwoodasedison.com Blog: http://www.pleasemayibefrank.blogspot.com email: info@attwoodasedison.com In my next posting, I will give you a bit more background from an excerpt out of a recent playbill. Remember, "There's always a way to do it better...find it! Thomas A. Edison.
