January 4, 2025

Jim Ortlieb

JIM ORTLIEB

Dr. Cristol (the Absentee Dentist)

Director’s Note: My first theatrical outing after the COVID lockdown was a performance of “Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight” (presented by Circle X Theatre and Vs. Theatre), a one-hander with Jim Ortlieb engaging the audience in a leading conversation. Not five minutes in, I knew I had FINALLY found my vampire hunter, but that’s a whole different story. Literally. A whole different story (I’m still working on it).

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had also found my over-his-head dentist for THIS story (not realized at the time because I had written it two years prior and didn’t decide to bring it to life until two years later). We were about to go into casting when the EUREKA! gods smacked me over the head with a thunderbolt (mix metaphors much?) and I realized I already had the PERFECT Dr Cristol!

(oh, and he was!)

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