Caesar review in Backstage.com!
Friday, September 2, 2005, 12:56 PM
Well, we got some nice reviews for Caesar. Here's the first, from Backstage.com:
Off-Off Broadway August 15, 2005
Julius Caesar
Reviewed By Gwen Orel
Presented by ShakespeareNYC at the Lion Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC, Aug. 7-20.
Brutus (Geoffrey Dawe) is a fat cat good ol' boy in the American South, in which Rome is the capital city, in Beverly Bullock's insightful production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." It's a concept that brings the conspiracy drama close to home without ever becoming too strained or cheesy.
We first see Caesar on what appears to be an election stump; band music, Miss Mississippi, and a cheerful crowd accompany him. The poster of his face beneath a straw boater haunts the set throughout the rest of the play.
The conspirators' seemingly low-key plotting typifies the South's deceptively slow pace and makes the stabbing that follows all the more shocking. Bullock wisely avoids one-for-one parallels to American history, except for some hillbilly accents in the crowd scene (which includes an unfortunate hanging rope) and jarring Dixie exit music.
John Montague as Caesar is a lovable but clearly megalomaniacal Huey Long type. His jock buddy Mark Antony (Marcus Dean Fuller) knows how to work a crowd, charm the ladies, and ingratiate himself, as any Southern football star must. He's fascinating and appalling by turns. Similarly, Susanna Harris' Portia and Ellen Seltz's Calpurnia are recognizable iron magnolias. Portia's line about the "vile contagion of the night" conjures up Southern mosquitoes. And playing Casca (Jeff Riebe, who doubles as Octavius Caesar) as a sly little dandy who likes to hear himself talk is particularly smart.
The setting is convincing all through the first half and much of the second, since the South is a place that, like Shakespeare's Rome, cherishes folklore (Lillian Small's soothsayer is faintly voodoo Creole), worships its heroes, sentimentalizes death, and often privileges nepotism and personality. The war scenes are less effective and the point of view harder to see. Nevertheless, this is a solid production of a complex play.
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Hopefully, if you missed this show, you can catch my next one. I'm planning to play Kate in Taming of the Shrew with the nice folks at ShakespeareNYC in March, 2006!
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Friends, Romans, countrymen!
Monday, August 1, 2005, 05:52 PM
It's been a busy, exciting time - and here's the latest. I've found yet
another lovely bunch of playmates, called ShakespeareNYC. I'll be appearing
with them in "Julius Caesar". You can read all about it at their website,
ShakespeareNYC.com . I play Calpurnia, Caesar's wife - quite a politician in her own right.
The setting is in a mythical version of the American South in the 1930's -
and the comparison really works! The parallels with real-life politician
Huey P. Long are stunning (and if you're a history lover, I highly recommend
Ken Burns' video biography of Long: Ken Burns' America: Huey Long.
Come see us! Here's all the details:
August 7 - 20th
The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
Wheelchair Accessible
Tickets can be ordered on line 24/7 at www.TicketCentral.com ,
by phone at 212 279 4200,
or at the Theatre Row Box Office
410 West 42 Street, between noon and 8:00 p.m
This show is an Equity-Approved Showcase.
Schedule:
Sunday August 7 6:30
Wednesday August 10 8:00
Thursday August 11 8:00
Friday August 12 8:00
Saturday August 13 2:00
Saturday August 13 8:00
Tuesday August 16 7:00
Wednesday August 17 8:00
Thursday August 18 8:00 * Talkback follows
Friday August 19 8:00
Saturday August 20 2:00
Saturday August 20 8:00
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Opening Night
Friday, April 29, 2005, 02:58 PM
After a week of previews, the official opening of Childrens' Crusader at the Metropolitan Playhouse is TONIGHT! It's been a wild ride, getting script cuts and changes from night to night (and expecting more sometime today) - good discipline for working in soaps, where you get your "pages" the night before, and on Broadway, where the purpose of previews is to refine the show!
I love the excitement of working on a new script, and this one is quite a challenge to everyone - the writer, director, actors... Florence Kelley and her associates are such amazing people, and their life's work was so important and gut-wrenching, but how do you balance the audience's need for context and exposition with the need to be emotionally and visually compelling? How do you make sure they know what's at stake and what's happening, without devolving into a dry history lesson?
I'll tell you, it's made me absolutely ruthless in approaching Stone Soup. We're getting ready for a staged reading with music the first week in June, and I don't think there's a page of script without hash marks. If the next action in the story CAN happen without these words - cut 'em! My goal for this reading is to lay bare the bones. If members of the production team - or preferably audience members - say "I needed MORE ...(character development, emotional stakes, time to explore that point, whatever)", I'll stand up and cheer.
But for tonight, I've got my party shoes on, and after we finally "birth" Crusader - we're going to celebrate!
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Booked!
Friday, March 25, 2005, 11:38 AM
Another opening, another show....
I've booked a really interesting role in the new play Children's Crusader at Metropolitan Playhouse. The play is about Florence Kelley, a social reformer in the 1890's who changed the face of labor relations, social justice, and even legal precedent in the U.S. She was instrumental in the creation (and court ratification) of laws protecting women and children from exploitation in sweatshops and factories.
I play Jane Addams, the founder of Hulll House in Chicago, a longtime friend and co-activist with Florence. Jane was the first American woman - and the second woman ever- to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm just starting my research, but I'm already falling in love with Jane's gentleness, humility, humor, and pragmatism.
You can read more about Jane Addams at the Nobel organization:
Nobel Peace Prize
And find more info and schedules about the show at the theater's website:
The Metropolitan Playhouse
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Why Didn't I Write That?
Wednesday, March 16, 2005, 11:52 AM
I know I've found a kindred spirit here. For months now, I've been a member of FlyLady - a Yahoo group that sends daily reminders and encouragement to help you manage your household, get rid of clutter, and organize your life. Her system of "babysteps" is so liberating, I wanted to find a way to apply it to my acting career. Constant, small progress, breaking my addiction to the "zoom, crash, burn" cycle of psyching up to tackle a huge project and being overwhelmed by it.
Now, I've found a wonderful article on just that topic - by Karen Kohlhaas, an director and teacher here in New York. It's called "Why FlyLady is Great for Actors" and Karen gave permission for me to link to it here:
Karen Kohlhaas - The Monologue Audition
You can read more about FlyLady and her system at:
Flylady's Home Page
Enjoy, and happy FLY-ing!
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Overture, Curtain, Lights...
Friday, February 25, 2005, 11:33 PM
So much for the “production journal”. One important thing I forgot about playing Edith is how EXHAUSTING she is. Life becomes a very small circle of rehearsing, doing basic life-sustaining activities, and riding the subway in between.
The show was wonderful. We had a beautiful big theater to play in, an attentive, appreciative house of about 450 people (this estimate from a friend in the audience), and we got a standing-O. There were some technical glitches (we probably could’ve used a preview), but the story and characters were right there. Mr. Arthur Giron, the playwright, was kind enough to come up, and said it was “the best yet.” Can’t ask for more.
There was a nice feature article in the local paper on the Sunday before the show. I haven’t heard word of any review yet, but if you know of one, please drop me a line.
You can read the article at the paper’s website, www.eagletribune.com. It appeared in “Lifestyle” on February 13. You can also see a copy of the text in the LINKS section on the top right - “Remembering Edith Stein - Feature Article.”
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Stimulating Creativity
Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 03:18 PM
One of the best sites I have found - that helped me so much as a writer - is The Snowflake Model for Novel Writing by Randall Ingermanson. This approach is not just for novels, but any writing project.
My dear friend Christy English, author of two novels, tells me she never sits down to write without knowing what she will be writing about. Every day when she finishes writing, she sets up her task for the next day.
She's never had writers' block.
This transformed my whole approach to the muscial, treatments, screenplays, articles, even this blog. I used to think writing was some kind of "burst" of creativity that flows spontaneously from an inner muse. Well, maybe sometimes it happens that way, but waiting for inspiration to move you to the paper is like waiting for the "muse of exercise" to come lace up your sneakers for you.
Of course, the same thing applies to acting. When I was studying with Michael Howard, the first question he would ask after students finished a scene was, "What were you working on?" You didn't just get up and play a scene. You were expected to be working on a specific creative problem or experimenting and discovering a specific aspect of the scene - relationship, physical circumstances, character body, preparation, etc.
Just last night at "Edith Stein" rehearsal, I told the AD I was going to work on my character's body in the next scene run, and would he observe for me. The difference was tremendous.
I'd love to hear stories of "intentional creativity" - how has setting yourself "homework problems" helped open up your work?
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Logic and Creativity
Wednesday, February 2, 2005, 02:52 PM
One of the most interesting questions I took at the Stone Soup reading was from a young man - about eight years old - who wanted to know whether it was "hard to make things up." He was learning creative writing in school.
As so often happens with children's questions, it got me thinking about some very deep issues - first, is it hard or easy to be creative and what is the nature of creative thinking?
Second (which I will deal with separately), is - how does the way we define a task ("hard" or "easy") affect the way we deal with it and our ability to be successful?
The answer I gave that young man was that it is a lot of work to write a play or a story, because you have to take the time and really write it, not just think it up in your head. (Stephen King points out in his book, "On Writing", that this simple requirement - the physical act of writing - keeps millions of self-styled "creative types" from ever becoming real authors. You have to actually write it down. You have to finish it. You have to keep rewriting it until it's good.)
I also told my young questioner that the most important part of writing is to have people who will ask you good questions. Once you have the questions, then you have a list of things to write - "like doing homework problems."
I realized later that this question/answer relationship is also the inner dynamic of the artist's mind - logic and creativity. Logic sets the "homework problems" and creativity answers them.
Creativity is our God-given ability to solve problems. He gave it to us, not just for "self-expression" or delighting each other, but for our very survival. "I'm trapped in a cave by a sabre-toothed tiger - how am I going to get out?" We get creative.
In fact, creativity demands obstacles. I remember working on "Measure for Measure" with the very lovely and talented Ann-Marie Falvey. She was incredibly frustrated by her role, almost to the point of giving up. I tried to explain to her that "there is no creativity without frustration." If our usual responses and methods work, there is no need to be creative - we can just keep on in our habitual way. Only when our first instincts fail - and we experience frustration - is the creative mind stimulated to solve the problem in a new way, a way we have not tried before. Only when we have exhausted all the "logical" approaches to a situation does that subconscious mechanism kick in and offer us the elegance and vibrancy of a truly creative solution.
I read once in an interview with Anthony Hopkins that when he is preparing to film a scene, he works alone on the script by running all of his lines at least one hundred times. That's why his acting is so brilliant - he's tried and used up all the obvious choices.
Many people speak as if the logical mind and the creative mind are in opposition, but in fact, they are symbiotic. The logical mind must frame the problem - "how do these two characters relate?" "how do I get my mother in this scene to hear me and forgive me?" The creative mind, properly stimulated, will provide a solution. The more specific the question, the more specific the answer.
So, my young friend, the answer is - it's a lot of work but no, it's not hard.
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Facing Edith on the Page
Tuesday, January 25, 2005, 04:58 PM
Rereading the script of Edith last night, I started getting really excited about the chance to tackle it again. There were three particular sections that I never felt like I fully "got". The director and the audience seemed to like them, but I always had that nagging feeling that I was just playing an arbitrary choice - I was not convinced inside that it was the "right" choice.
Of course, whatever choice you make, you must commit 100%. That will carry you through a lot. But that voice, the inner truthteller, what my first acting teacher used to call "the little dickey bird on your shoulder", knew it wasn't quite right.
How do you know the "right" choice, anyway? For me, it's an inner sensation, like a taste or a smell. A feeling of solidity, a conviction.
So now I hope that coming back to the script with fresh eyes, I'll be convinced of my choices in those trouble spots.
And I'll let you know how it goes.
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New Website Design Live!
Tuesday, January 25, 2005, 04:52 PM
Well, this is it. Today the redesign on my website goes up. I think it's gorgeous (possibly because I did it mostly myself).
If you have any trouble using the links or viewing any of the media, please drop me an email!
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