Phil Pluta
Acting~Writing
How are Phil Pluta’s acting and writing hobbies connected? He explains, “In having to work out the blocking in a scene for the character you are playing, the writer in you gets a better feel on how to portray his characters on paper. Sometimes dialogue is flat because it just hangs out there with no visual connection to a place. An actor has to move around and not just stand there and make a speech. If he gets up and walks across the room there is a reason he does this; maybe to get a drink. In writing you can apply this for pacing.”
Last year Phil helped organize TAG, the new Tanglewood Actors Group. He has played the parts of Manolo Costazuela in Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” (female version), and Prince Charming in “Cinderella Wore Combat Boots”. It’s hard to believe that Phil never acted before coming to Tanglewood.
TAG meets the first Friday of each month to discuss current and future projects. There are many different levels of involvement, from makeup and stage crew to advertising and acting, production manager, etc. Rehearsals are conducted within a month or two of the performance.
Meanwhile, Phil continues to improve his writing by participating in the WritersOnlineWorkshop, writing and critiquing others’ works. He has completed the course, “Breaking into Print”, which is a professional program of instruction in writing articles and short stories for publication through the Long Ridge Writers Group.
What does it take to be a good writer? According to Phil, it takes “an imagination, the ability to be articulate in the language in which you are writing, a desire to write that is compelling, and a typewriter or word processor.” He has published two poems, but no stories.
Phil has been interested in writing all his life. In 4th grade he wrote a story “The Monkey and the Banana Man” and read it to a 6th grade class. Tanglewood Resident Times has samples of Phil’s writing in “Around Tanglewood” and in the “Poetry Corner”. He has stories and poems on Lastwords.com under the handle Ezwriter and on Gather.com under the handle Novicewriter.
Before coming to Florida, Phil lived in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. “My wife and I met 51 years ago at her Church picnic. This is a subject of a short story I wrote LARK ON THE WING and a poem, THE SUMMER OF ‘55.”
They first came to Tanglewood to visit Phil’s brother, who had lived here since it began nine years ago. Now Phil and his wife, Lori, are full time residents, except for short visits in the summer and at Christmas time. “We have two children. Our son is now a Certified Financial Planner with his own firm. He and his wife, Judy, have three girls, all teenagers.—lucky them. Our daughter is married to a successful dentist and she and Bryan have two boys and a girl. Their daughter, our granddaughter is now married and we have our first great grand child.”
When Phil isn’t busy with his acting and writing, he is enjoys Tanglewood Friday Bowling. He’s an active member of the Computer Club and the Computer Maintenance Committee.
You may contact Phil at 2500 Cloud Nine Parkway, by phone at 863-382-1563, or by email at ezwriter@earthlink.net.