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Characters On The Couch

How a psychologist thinks about your favorite Film & TV characters.

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The Phantom of The Opera A Girl Who Can't Grieve Her Dead Father

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A Girl Who Can’t Grieve
Her Dead Father

September 8, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Loss can be a dead place. If you move forward, you’ll know the person you love is gone. As I sat spellbound in the Majestic Theater watching the brilliant performances of James Barbour as Phantom and Julia Udine as Christine Daad, I knew that The Phantom Of The Opera isn’t only the story of a …

Read moreTHE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
A Girl Who Can’t Grieve
Her Dead Father
BENT Being Cruel When Love Is A Scary Thing

BENT
Being Cruel
When Love Is A Scary Thing

August 18, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Spoiler Alert: Some Plot Details Revealed Cruelty comes in different forms. We can’t escape the obvious in BENT: the unimaginable inhumane cruelty of The Nazi Party towards Gays and Jews. Yet, we see more than the Nazi’s cruelty in this brilliantly acted, honest, heart-wrenching, and inspiring play (written by Martin Sherman and directed by Moises …

Read moreBENT
Being Cruel
When Love Is A Scary Thing
Immediate Family The Way Things are "Supposed to Be," But Aren't

IMMEDIATE FAMILY
The Way Things Are
“Supposed To Be,” But Aren’t

April 27, 2015 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

Paul Oakley Stovall’s Immediate Family, directed by Phylicia Rashad, is now playing at the Mark Taper Forum. Don’t miss this sensitive, very funny, and oh-so-real depiction of a family coming to grips with things not going as expected. And, even more importantly, the people they love not being who they thought they were. They fight …

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The Way Things Are
“Supposed To Be,” But Aren’t
Buyer and Cellar An Actor's Personal History Matters

BUYER AND CELLAR
An Actor’s Personal History Matters

September 8, 2014 by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

If you haven’t seen Jonathan Tolins’ hit off-Broadway play Buyer and Cellar at the Mark Taper Forum in Downtown Los Angeles run don’t walk (or, should I say, Google the show? Get tickets as fast as you can before the comedy concludes its LA run on Sunday, August 17th. You absolutely don’t want to miss Michael Urie’s laugh-out-loud, …

Read moreBUYER AND CELLAR
An Actor’s Personal History Matters

Inspiration

“We come to Film and TV to find our hidden stories. If we look deeply into a character’s psyche, there is much to see about ourselves.”

Recent Posts

Everything Everywhere All At Once Breaking Out of Someone Else's Box
Nomadland: A Lonely Nomad in the Land of Loss
The Power of the Dog Why Phil Burbank’s Cruelty is About What He Hates in Himself
SOUND OF METAL How Silence Stops A Man From Running

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