Paul Browde & Murray Nossel

PAUL BROWDE & MURRAY NOSSEL: TWO MEN TALKING

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3/1/2011 4 4:13:00 PM Storie es with legs

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March 0 04, 2011

by Lisa T Traiger Arts Corr respondent Get Murr ray Nossel o and his p partner Pau performa ance where Universit ty of Maryla public to onight throu So, what t's Nossel's "I went t to a Jewish us, but life was very In 1974, a teacher a to tell the other a st have a story," said t springbo ok - South A about his s family's hi all but on ne family m that pers sonal stories them gro owing up. Nossel vividly recalls up boys on one side "Murray in the midd called "fa aggy," said "We didn n't talk for y Browde, a psychiatr their sha ared backgro their live es since that They fou und that the therapist ts was so su general p public. Wha return to o many of th story con nstantly evo friendshi ip." Two Me

on the phone, and he ca an't resist te elling you h l Browde do o in Two Men n Talking, a an evening-l personal stories stand at the core. The pair, i nd's Clarice e Smith Perf forming Arts s Center this gh Saturday y in the intim mate Kogod d Theatre. is story. Th ength unscr n residence s week, per

at's what he e ripted e at the rform for the e ileged and g gay. s raging aro ound ing each partner story. "I do on't h star and a a 't hear muc ch World War I, lost Nossel believes he didn't he ear er lined the c class , called out, , eminate and d d betray him m. hologist; couldn't ignore al stories of f p of Australian how for the ontinue to ther so "the rformance o of our

story? He grew up in Jo ohannesbur Day school - that's whe ere I met Pa y sheltered," " Nossel said. rg - white, Jewish, privi aul - and ap partheid was

at King David Jewish Da ay School paired up he er class, ask tory. After B Browde wove his tale, h he asked No ossel for his the boy in the khaki sch hool uniform m appliqued with Jewish Africa's natio onal animal - on the poc cket. At hom me, he didn istory. His g grandfather, , who left Lit thuania sho ortly after W member in th he Holocaust and never r spoke abou ut the past. s have beco ome such an n integral pa art of his life e, because h

s a schoolya ard incident four years e, girls on th he other. Bro owde, trying le." Mortifie ed Nossel, w who was ofte he couldn't believe the boy he tho later, when n the teache g to be the class clown en teased fo or being effe ought of as a an ally could

years and ye ears," Nosse el said. He b became a cl rist. Decades s later in Ne ew York, the ey met by c ound and hi istory. Talking, listening g and revea t churlish ch hildhood rem mark finally healed the inical psych chance and c aling person men's rift.

ir stories ha ad legs. The eir joint keyn uccessful - a and dramatic - that the t's unique, Nossel shar red, is that w he same sto ories, on stage they liste olves and we e incorporat te our lives n Talking is never the s same. note addres ss to a group y developed d it into a sh while he and d Browde co en intently t to one anot into the uns scripted per

"One of the most important things about telling your story," he has said, "is who is listening." Together on stage, night after night, Nossel said, "when Paul tells his story, I am 100 percent focused on him. ... I'm there like a safety blanket for him and he can tell me absolutely anything." That same sense of trust includes the men's audience of listeners, who often become rapt by their true-life confessional tales.

Performing in the Washington area for the first time, Nossel senses that the politics that permeate this region will, in yet unknown ways, influence the stories he and his partner will share. One issue he wishes to highlight on the college campus is bullying, which remains at the core of Nossel and Browde's friendship as the force that divided and now binds them. Two boys' estrangement became two men's reconciliation. He hopes Two Men Talking can serve as a model for others to address bullying and heal frayed relationships.

"The issue of bullying is often on my mind. I was bullied in school and while Paul had one moment in which he bullied, he also often felt like a victim himself." As minorities within a minority in South Africa - Jews in a minority white population - they felt like outsiders, and their latent homosexuality as boys made life in a Jewish day school that much more challenging.

But once-painful stories can heal. "Every story counts," Nossel insisted. "Every human being counts and every life counts. I'm sure there are shades of Jewish philosophy in that idea. Storytelling is a spiritual matter."

Two Men Talking is onstage March 4-5 at 8 p.m., Kogod Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park. Tickets, $30, $9 full-time students are available at 301-405-2787.