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the official online home of Stephen T. Wangner
 
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What's New :

Steve's review of the iPad
(5/7/2010)

Current / Upcoming Projects

Nothing scheduled at the moment!

 

Tidbits

 

Steve makes his Broadway debut!

Steve (center) with Jesse Tyler Ferguson (left) and Jose Llana (right), after appearing as "Contestant #4" in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" (1/14/06)

Reviews

In "ASSASSINS"

"'Assassins' makes a stunning Long Island premiere at Cultural Arts Playhouse...at once chilling, tragic and monstrously funny...each assassin is convincingly drawn...Stephen Wangner is deadly serious as Leon Czolgosz, who takes deadly aim...and murders President William McKinley."

-Steve Parks, Newsday (September 29, 2005)


In "BARRY MANILOW'S COPACABANA"

"Among other good moments are 'Who Am I Kidding?,' in which Sam, who owns the Copa, talks himself into rescuing Lola...Stephen Wangner as Sam nearly steals Act II"

-Steve Parks, Newsday (April 8, 2005)

in "SYLVIA"

"Stephen Wangner, who plays three roles and three genders (male, female, and somewhere in-between), is especially funny"

-Michael Bracken, Newsday (Jan 10, 2003)

in "OTHELLO"

"In the critical role of Iago, Stephen Wangner...settled into a convincing and entertaining portrayal"

-Michael Bracken, Newsday (Aug 16, 2002)

in "GROSS INDECENCY : THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE"

"Besides Lord Alfred, the only character who wears the same hat, so to speak, throughout is Wilde, played with a convincing blend of arrogance and naivete by Stephen Wangner. His Wilde is at once a man who knows it all but hasn't a clue."

-Steve Parks, Newsday (Jan 20, 2000)

 

"Wilde, played with great passion by Stephen Wangner"

-Mark Donnelly, TotalTheater.com (February 2000)

in "TWELFTH NIGHT"

"Stephen Wangner makes an exquisite foil as the yellow-stockinged, cross-gartered fool Malvolio"

-Steve Parks, Newsday (Aug 8, 1997)

in "INNOCENT THOUGHTS"

"the dialogue, convincingly delivered in this taut Arena Players production, sounds natural enough that we might well recognize things we have said or thought about race relations ourselves...Stephen Wangner's Weinberg grows from a pathetically cowed figure when he first encounters Aldridge in the jury room of a Chicago court to a stubbornly proud liberal whose moral indignation matches his adversary's"

-Steve Parks, Newsday (Feb 23, 1996)

 

 

 

 

 

Reverend Wangner's most current sermon

In Matthew chapter 9, verses 10 through 13, we hear a story about Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners. When asked why he was eating with them, he responded : "It is not those that are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means : 'I desire compassion, more than sacrifice.'"
The significance of this is too often overlooked. There are many, many places in the New Testament when Jesus calls for sacrifices, but here he says, "I desire compassion, more than sacrifice." Here he places compassion above sacrifice.

The definition of compassion is "Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it". This is where we must start. We need to have compassion, and not just for people it's easy to have compassion for. We need to have compassion for all people, even those who are our enemies, and those who wrong us. If they are suffering, relieve their suffering. If they have grievances, address their grievances.

Only when we have this compassion, only when we do these things, will we have the quality that Jesus, in these verses, places such a high value on.

Reverend Wangner is a fully ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. The Universal Life Church is interfaith and non-denominational. It promotes freedom of religion, and its principal tenet is to "Do That Which Is Right". The responsibility to determine what is right is the individual's, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others and is within the law.

Reverend Wangner is based in Hicksville, New York, on Long Island, and is available for officiating ceremonies such as :

  • Weddings (traditional or non-traditional)
  • Commitment ceremonies
  • Baptisms
  • Absolution
  • Funerals

Reverend Wangner's ordination is fully recognized by every State in the United States. For weddings, additional time may be required in some States, due to the fact that some States require ministers to register with the State/County Clerk and/or obtain a license before performing marriages.

Many other ceremonies/duties are available. Please contact Reverend Wangner here for further information.

If interested in having Reverend Wangner officiate a ceremony, please contact the Reverend far enough in advance to allow for planning, especially if travel is involved.

Visit the Universal Life Church official site here.

 

(posted 5/7/2010)

Steve's Review of the iPad

OK, so I've got my hands on one. Actually, it was delivered at 11am on April 3 (thanks, UPS!).

So, after a month with it, what's my verdict?

It's an (almost) unqualified success.

When I first watched Steve Jobs introduce it in January, I wasn't sure what the usage model was. What was this going to do for me that my MacBook and Blackberry didn't already do? I couldn't tell. But I decided to pre-order one anyway.

Fast-forward a little over 2 months, and there it was in my hands. Setup was a breeze. It arrived at 11am, and by noon it was all set up and going. I quickly bought and downloaded the iPad versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote (for all of you non-Macs out there, those are Apple's competitors to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint). They work really well, and import and export MS Office-compatible files. I wouldn't want to write the Great American Novel on it, but for shorter documents they are more than adequate.

Of course, getting files onto and off of the iPad leaves some room for improvement. The best solution I've come up with so far is to email them to myself in both directions. I know that the iPad has import/export through iTunes, but it's clumsy and kludgy at best (IMO).

One of the biggest criticisms I've read so far of the iPad is "it's really just a giant iPod touch". Now - to a large degree that IS true. It does run the same OS as the iPod/iPhone line, and all iPhone/iPod apps work on the iPad.

What the people making this criticism are failing to realize is this: the screen size makes ALL the difference.

All those things we thought were cool to do on an iPhone/iPod, like reading books, newspapers, web browsing, remote desktop (yes, I've used my iPad to connect via VPN and Remote Desktop to my workstation at the office, and while I wouldn't want to do my everyday work that way, it's fine for the occasional time I need to pop on and check something) - they never really worked on the iPhone/iPod, because they were difficult to do on the small screen.

With its gorgeous 9.7" screen - all those things DO really work on the iPad - and they're actually enjoyable.

Also enjoyable is Netflix streaming right to the iPad (there's a native Netflix iPad app) and various games (including "Worms" - one of my all-time favorites).

Another very cool thing I've found is "Penultimate" - it's a notebook app that lets you use the iPad's touchscreen to handwrite quick notes - and export/email them as PDFs as needed. Let's just say that between the built-in "Notes" app and "Penultimate", I haven't written a note on an actual physical piece of paper lately.

All in all - the iPad - with a size and weight 1/3 that of my Macbook Pro, and its instant-on capability, has replaced the Macbook for casual browsing, email reading, and things like that around the house. Sure, I do my work on my Macbook - but I now do a LOT of stuff on the iPad that I used to do on the Macbook. Steve Jobs was right about it being a new class of device, and I'll admit that I didn't really "get" that until I really started to use one. It's difficult to describe until you experience it.

But once you do, it almost is "magical".

 

 

 

Friends on the Web

  • Ed Huether - director, actor, and writer. Always good for a laugh, an interesting review, or just something unexpected.

  • Rodney Hakim - multi-talented director, actor, writer, etc.

 

Other interesting places