“Do not, then, my friend, keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.” Plato wrote this in The Republic. Who would have thought Plato would have come up with a statement as bold as this?

I’ve always harbored the ambition to be the very first to do something or other. And though minor, here it is at long last: Finding an opportunity to use “Plato” and “Yogi Berra” in the same sentence.

When I was 21, I was trying to decide whether to become a doctor or a philosophy professor. My older brother, whose advice I usually followed, asked me why I wanted to study philosophy. I was evasive.

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES adapted from Plato’s Apology by Nick Mancuso, directed by Hrant Alianak, with Mancuso. Presented by Alianak Theatre and Mainstage Productions at Artword (75 Portland). Runs to ...