Monthly Archives: December 2009

Bedside with Mrs. Beale and Edie

I’d like to welcome you all to my new site, I hope you enjoy your visits.  I have always toyed with the idea of putting up a site like this with which to present myself and my work.  I’ve decided the timing is right now for this site as there are many new developments in my life that I feel like sharing with others.

Sometimes I look back at my life and can hardly believe some of the experiences I’ve had.  I have seen many countries, met and worked along side some incredibly colorful individuals and I feel blessed to still be in touch with many of them.  The friendship of others was often times the only thing that got me through the toughest trials of my life.  I’ve experienced as many vibrant highs as I have crushing lows, somewhere in the middle I stubbornly cleared myself a path.

I feel as though the time is right to add yet another new chapter to this incredible story of mine.  This time you’re invited to come along and have a look over my shoulder.  I promise I’ll tell you some wild tales and maybe, just maybe, there will be a lesson to be learned from all of it.

I invite you to subscribe to this blog, this way you’ll be notified each time I make a new post.  I plan to enrich this site in many ways and I would love to hear your opinions on it.  Feel free to comment on my posts and be on the lookout for some new material soon!

Regards,,, Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun

It was the sunsetting on my 29 th year that I found myself with my thoughts , on the windy piers of Manhattans West Side. They were dilapidated and relics of a very busy New York Harbor reflective of the grand days of Ocean liners., so many lives have since touched down and set off to there own destinations. Ive remained looking at a river with no piers embracing all of us who remain .It is this very moment in our lives that I embrace , please except this token of my respect for all who read this and my hopes for the best a new year must bring us all.

It now is now the last week of this 2009 and some 25 years have passed. A friend once said that there is a thin line between the past and the present, I find myself wanting the past to be reborn and my present to reflect the ideas of this idealistic Marble Faun.
Let the years count, this new years project are ones that will with the guidance I have always sough from a source greater then myself,once again I stand at the windy crossroads of a setting sun.

Hello dear friends,,,

During the week between Christmas and New Years Eve 1978, Little Edie Beale took to the stage of a famous backroom nightclub called Reno Sweeney’s and made the only LIVE appearance of her lifetime.  I am so pleased to see that the following performance is coming to New York.

After the Garden – Edie Beale LIVE at Reno Sweeney will bring that show back to life!

Jeffrey Johnson as Edie Beale

Ganymede Arts is pleased to bring its World Premiere HIT production to the prestigious Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre in New York City on Tuesday, December 29th at 7:30PM.

Written by Gerald Duval, Miss Beale’s manager for the original Reno Sweeney shows, After the Garden recaptures the laughs, the tears, the songs and the stories that filled the air those seven nights between Christmas and New Years Eve 1978.  Seven nights that have now become cult legend.

–Johnson “lovingly brings to life her enduring fey charm, curious accent, and pathological need for the spotlight.”  Washington Blade

–Johnson’s “spot-on performance brings Beale back to life”  MetroWeekly

Come see the show critics call:

“BRILLIANT”  Metro Weekly
“GRAND AND GRATIFYING”  CityPaper
“SPOT ON!”  Washington Blade

I’ll be attending with some friends and I encourage anyone who is in the New York area next week to come and relive this little moment in time, exactly thirty-one years later.

For tickets to the Joe Pub’s performance please visit their site JoesPub.com

More information on the production of After the Garden can be found at GanymedeArts.org

Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun

The wooden homes along our street had been standing far longer then I have lived. It is my belief that there was`nt a straight line of fancy anything in our neighborhood. We made wooden carts out of abandon baby carriages, decorated them with bottle caps.
These were our go carts,our source of entertainment. The traditional marble tounament along our street curbs always caused alot of excitemnet . , the winner walked aways with the marles of his or her choice.
There was Greenwood cemetary, the only green place in which we kids could play.It has rolling hills lined with gravestones and masoleums.There are three small lakes in this graveyard.There were carp and turtles who thrived in these bodies of water.They were fascianting to me and the only wildlife I had known for most of my childhood.
It was here that I first felt the presence of stone carving and stared into the monumets and well buillt tombs of wealthy people.
Our gang of neighboor boys would run though the cemetary drawing the attention of the guards who would give chase.
How well we knew these hills and hiding places,how we just roared with laughter in alluding the old gentlman who would just not know what to do with this bunch of Brooklyn Kids.
We always did out run this gentleman he knew he could never catch us although we never cared.
I still visit Greenwood Cemetary wondering where all my childhood pals have gone off, I`m still here guys.

Having had to transfer at Queensboro Plaza, a station above ground linking the 7 Flushing bound subway with the Astoria bound North.  It is an elevated subway station with the clearest unobstructed view of the great City of New York.  The lights are lined up withinn a safe flying distance descending into the greater New York .
The neighborhood street lights are bright and the traffic everywhere seems so very determined. Manhattans skyline is with reach the CitiCorp Tower with it’s graceful slant is red abounding that this is the Christmas Season.  Just beyond this tower is the Waldorf twin peaks, the first ever to be lit at night.  Just aside these noble relics to a grander time stands The Chrysler Tower on the corner of Lexington Ave & East 42 St.  This town is my home I’ve driven here for years, ran the streets, making friends finding a way, yearning for the greater change that would be almost unattainable in the asphalt jungle.  It is the sky lights that I find myself glancing up at once again. From a distance there is harmony, yet there is the uncertain future that man dictates.  May my Almighty God watch over this great nation this crowded city this troubled planet.  Guide us this day lead us back into thy greater plan, on this the season of your birth.

Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun

Radio City was the place my mother had taken me when I was just a few feet tall. I can remember a strong hand holding mine as we navigated the streets of Manhattan.

Then I’d find myself climbing about the seats of this great Radio City Music Hall.  It was 45 years later that I would once again find myself in this great hall.  Grey Gardens was up for some Tony awards and I sat with Al Maysles.  Then before they annouced the winners, a youthful Matt Chavanaugh rose from the pit of the orchestra.  Dressed as the ragamuffin Marble Faun of Grey Gardens.

Let life happen!
Traditionally there used to be a feature lenght film before the Holiday Show, I remember the movie Old Yeller.  My mother was a hard working good human being, I’m lucky to have been a child of this woman.  I dedicate this to you mom and the memory of Radio City Music Hall.

I will always miss you, your son Jerry

Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun

Through all the years and to all those who have guided me I’m here tonight to express my gratitude for the lessons taught.  Reaching out during trying times, those who truly cared for me and for the greater good that is life, I was listening.

During a trying and very sad affair a friend said to me “Never forget how much you have been loved by me”.  I never have forgotten Mrs.Beale, I dedicate my work to our memory of our Grey Gardens.

It is here that my lessons have brought me, to various stations in this present life, presently carving  stone, writing a book of this mans life.  On board are two dear kindred spirits, friends for whom I’ve been waiting for a very long time.  Through these young men whom I am blessed to have come to know, my life’s story will be presented to the public.  It is a gift to those who have held their dreams at bay, a hope to those who have none, that life is worth each challenge, friendships are what make the world go round.  I am blessed to be at this point in my life, these three projects when completed will touch the lives of those who have the weight of the world on their shoulders.  I have known this weight for most of my life, I’m lessening my burden by telling my story.

Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun