Actor brings Einstein to life

COUNCIL BLUFFS — It's not often that a student today can meet both Albert Einstein and Edgar Allan Poe.

Professional actor Duffy Hudson portrayed the scientist as well as the writer in separate performances this week at Abraham Lincoln High Schools.

Laurel Ronk, the executive director of the Bluffs Arts Council, said the council and the Bluffs Arts Foundation sponsored Hudson's performances at the schools, as well as a Sunday performance at Community of Christ Church, as part of a lecture series and Artists in the Schools program.

“He lives in Los Angeles and travels around the country performing these characters,” Ronk said. “He writes his own material and his characterizations are excellent.”

Einstein has been described as the father of modern physics. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921, and his various theories include the theory of relativity. He published more than 300 scientific works before his death at age 76 in 1955.

Poe, a short-story writer and poet, is best known for his tales of the macabre. His death at age 40 in 1849 remains shrouded in mystery, and possible causes discussed over the years have included alcohol abuse, tuberculosis and foul play.

Hudson performed his one-man show as Einstein for the Abraham Lincoln science classes and portrayed Poe for the Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson High School English classes.

Hudson also gave his Einstein performance for science students at St. Albert High School.

“He contacted us last year,” Ronk said. “People were so excited and so positive about his performance that we decided to bring him back.”