A Portrait by the Postman Roulin

“Would you like to share my bottle of wine and talk?  

      Sometimes strangers can have the most  intimate conversations.”

The scene is simple:  two chairs and a table, a baguette in a country basket, a bottle of peasant wine, two glasses, a corncob pipe.  The host announces:  “We are in a café in Auvers, France. The year is 1890, the day of Vincent van Gogh’s funeral.” Joseph Roulin, the Postman, comes forward and sits in one of the chairs.  For several seconds he poses, silent, still, the embodiment of van Gogh’s painting of Roulin in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Then, the portrait comes to life!

For the next hour, Ted Zalewski as the Postman captures the spirit of van Gogh the man and the essence of van Gogh the artist.  The presentation is filled with humor, passion, and joie de vivre.  Roulin the postman is a “counterpoint” character to Vincent, the creative artist.  Married with three children, the older, robust Joseph is rooted and stable.  Vincent, solitary and vulnerable, leads a peripatetic artistic life.  Yet the two men find a great, enduring friendship.  While in Arles, Van Gogh creates 25 pictures of the Roulin family.  

To create an inspirational and educational theatrical experience, Ted Zalewski draws on his extensive background as a special educator, crisis counselor, playwright, and member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).  In addition to his portrayal of the Postman Roulin, Ted’s nationally acclaimed portrayal of Teddy Roosevelt has thrilled audiences at such venues as the National Theater, the Smithsonian Institution, the Roosevelt Study Centre in the Netherlands, and U.S. presidential libraries.  Ted has performed The Postman for museum and library audiences in New England, the Midwest, and Florida.

“… such a good soul and so wise and so full of feeling and so trustful.”  

--Vincent van Gogh writes of his friend, Joseph Roulin, to his   brother, Theo, 1889

A Portrait by the Postman Roulin

“Would you like to share my bottle of wine and talk?  

      Sometimes strangers can have the most  intimate conversations.”

The scene is simple:  two chairs and a table, a baguette in a country basket, a bottle of peasant wine, two glasses, a corncob pipe.  The host announces:  “We are in a café in Auvers, France. The year is 1890, the day of Vincent van Gogh’s funeral.” Joseph Roulin, the Postman, comes forward and sits in one of the chairs.  For several seconds he poses, silent, still, the embodiment of van Gogh’s painting of Roulin in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  Then, the portrait comes to life!

For the next hour, Ted Zalewski as the Postman captures the spirit of van Gogh the man and the essence of van Gogh the artist.  The presentation is filled with humor, passion, and joie de vivre.  Roulin the postman is a “counterpoint” character to Vincent, the creative artist.  Married with three children, the older, robust Joseph is rooted and stable.  Vincent, solitary and vulnerable, leads a peripatetic artistic life.  Yet the two men find a great, enduring friendship.  While in Arles, Van Gogh creates 25 pictures of the Roulin family.  

To create an inspirational and educational theatrical experience, Ted Zalewski draws on his extensive background as a special educator, crisis counselor, playwright, and member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).  In addition to his portrayal of the Postman Roulin, Ted’s nationally acclaimed portrayal of Teddy Roosevelt has thrilled audiences at such venues as the National Theater, the Smithsonian Institution, the Roosevelt Study Centre in the Netherlands, and U.S. presidential libraries.  Ted has performed The Postman for museum and library audiences in New England, the Midwest, and Florida.

“… such a good soul and so wise and so full of feeling and so trustful.”  

--Vincent van Gogh writes of his friend, Joseph Roulin, to his   brother, Theo, 1889