A Story About Churchill, The Play

The other night Dr. Patty Ann joined me in attending a behind the scenes talk about Churchill, The Play. Ronald Keaton the performer who becomes Churchill and who wrote the play discussed his fascination with Winston Churchill, how this all came about and his personal story. Woven in between the talk, Ronald Keaton performed a few tantalizing tidbits for our small group in order to entice us to run and purchase tickets to see his show.

Churchill, The Play is currently playing at New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St. NY, NY 10019.

We enjoy going into New York City to see shows on Broadway. In recent years a few shows we have seen are Jersey Boys, Book of Mormon and Beautiful. Each show was a unique experience and full of entertainment. The concept of almost two hours of one person performing as Winston Churchill was not something typically high on my list. After witnessing Ronald Keaton go into the role and share a few brief segments my interest level was raised.

The amount of research which Keaton conducted was amazing. He described the volumes of books and records he read through and various clips and recordings he was able to review. He was without a doubt deep into his mission of learning about Winston Churchill. One story he shared with our group was when he performed the show one evening. In the audience was a Granddaughter of Winston Churchill. A half hour prior to the start a staff member told him she would be in the audience. From the stage he knew immediately who she was as she sat right in the center fairly close up to the stage and had fire truck red hair on her head. After the show she went up to greet Keaton and exchange a few words. For his role Keaton wears a Blue Pinstripe Suit and a Blue Tie.

She said right to Keaton: “You know one thing about Grandpa, that suit you wear, he would not have liked that suit too much. Grandpa hated the color blue – hated the color blue. In fact he did not own one stitch of blue clothing.”

For our group this began a discussion thread about the type of points people bring up to him after each performance. From my perspective what struck me was how is it possible with all of the years of reading and research, speaking with people, viewing film and more, that not once was Keaton able to discern that Winston Churchill despised the color blue?

Which brings me to a few points – when you ask an easy question should you ask the other question? What is your favorite color? A common question young children ask each other. We may see this on a survey. What color do you not like at all? Do you ever hear this question? Wonder why not? If my business was built around selling clothing this would be good information. How about putting together a website or marketing materials?

The other point, is do we sometimes get so caught up in the agenda we find ourselves deep into what we are doing that we miss the most basic pieces of information which are right in front of us?

Mitch Tublin is a business consultant, advanced certified personal and executive coach who resides in Stamford, CT.

If you find yourself caught up in your agenda, fighting fires every single day and you are concerned you might be missing the exact opportunities you are looking for, contact Mitch for an appointment.