We never fail to notice that actress Kimbrough is of African-American parentage. This is not nontraditional casting. She’s supposed to be black, although no other Egyptian or member of the cast shares that heritage.

Melissa writes to Andy, “You’re always doing the right thing—all the time.” And more teasingly, given her abilities as an artist, “I’ve drawn pictures of us with our bathing suits off.

There are families, and then there are dynasties. Asked to name an acting family linked to Central New York, most people would cite the Baldwins, Alec, William, Daniel and Stephen. To embrace both genders and more than one generation, you have to look elsewhere, to the Barbours.

Don’t feel left behind if you have never heard of the original film or its director. In the mid- to late-1920s, before Stalin exerted his murderous grip, Soviet cinema was the most innovative in the world, led by such stillrevered names as V.I. Pudovkin, Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein.

Earlier planners at Syracuse Stage used to call January the “suicide slot.” With older subscribers snowbirding it south and locals sometimes too timid to venture out on frigid nights, almost anything Syracuse Stage attempted faced rows and rows of empty seats.

Odysseus (in Latin, Ulysses) is the hero of Homer’s second epic who survives 18 adventures trying to find his way home. Much of what we usually think of as suspense has just evaporated: a man comparing himself to Odysseus and facing certain death examines his life.

Syracuse journalism legend Joan E. Vadeboncoeur left us last week, dying at home after a brief, painless illness. She was 78 and still busy at her keyboard a few weeks before the end.

Smith is what can be called a derivative playwright, drawing on reliable models like Georges Feydeau and Ray Cooney, as well as Benny Hill. As an actor himself what he really likes to do is to give each performer a chance to show off. In a sense, everyone is a lead.

We learned that show folk can be more given to support than back-stabbing. When architect and set designer Navroz Dabu had his arm and leg crushed in a May 16 auto crash, hearts were opened all over town. Karis Wiggins offered her house for recovery. Dabu responded so well he could play (mostly sitting) the patriotic immigrant in Twelve Angry Men.

The No. 1 Syracuse impresario Murray Bernthal liked to declare, “There will be no retirement.” He was a man of his word. Bernthal remained engaged with running Famous Artists, the company that brings touring Broadway shows to Central New York, until a few weeks before he left us last Thursday, Dec.