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Friday, May. 02, 2003 | 12:07 PM The Road Travelled and Not
So my plan is this. After Cabaret is over (shudder.) I�m going to try out for Into The Woods, Sondheim�s ingenious deconstuctionist musical fable (although really it�s a lot more like opera.) Into The Woods�s first act concerns various fairytale characters, their interactions with each other, and their search for Happily Ever After. The second act is about what happens after Happily Ever After, and it�s not so pretty. The show is satirical and funny and menacing and dark and prickling beneath its sheen of intelligence is an aching vulnerability (just like all of Sondheim�s greatest shows�part theoretical math and part confessional poetry.) There are many wonderful roles�my two favorites being the Baker�s Wife and The Wicked Witch. Technically speaking it�s a hell of a show to pull off, and very different from anything I�ve ever done before. Into the Woods opens in late August and runs September. Then in the Fall I am either going to A) take the Director�s Lab at the American Repertory Theatre, B) A scene study class at the ART, or C) Try out for Ragtime, which would be a helluva fun musical to be part of. I�d love to play Emma Goldman in that�she was a leftist anarchist in turn of the century New York who eventually got deported to Russia. Yet again I�d have to learn another fucking accent, but it�s one great part. I also would really love to do some straight theatre. I want to try everything�classical Greek and Shakespearean theatre, Brecht, absurdism, farce. And of course every single Sondheim musical ever written. Here�s a list of roles I am going to play before I die: - The title role in Medea
- The title role in Antigone
- May in Sam Shepard�s Fool For Love
- Harper in Angels in America by Tony Kushner
- Lady You Know Who in Shakespeare�s play about the Scottish king, the title of which is very bad luck to mention.
- Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing
- The title role in Ibsen�s Hedda Gabler
- Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (no I am not kidding. Shut up.)
- Nora in Ibsen�s A Doll�s House
- Joanne in Sondheim�s Company
- Countess Charlotte in Sondheim�s A Little Night Music
- Vivian Bearing in Wit by Margaret Edison
- Mama Rose in Gypsy (I�ve done it already but wanna do it again)
- Martha in Albee�s Who�s Afraid of Virginia Wolf
- Mary in Sondheim�s Merrily We Roll Along
- Several of the roles in Sondheim�s Follies including Carlotta, Phyliss, and Sally Durant
And there are probably a billion more. I just have to keep looking.Yesterday night I did an exercise where I read through every line I have in Cabaret and, free wrote my spontaneous reaction (from my character�s point of view) concerning the subtext. It was very helpful. For instance, I sing one line about having spent summers by the ocean as a girl and I had a very clear image of the cottage I ( or �my character� rather) lived in. So I�m going to keep that image and use it when I sing that line. There was a bunch of stuff that came up for me like that, and it helped clarify the direction I�m going in certain scenes, what my objectives are, and the deliberate choices I�m making dramatically. It occurred to me how much acting is like living. On stage, in order to give a visceral performance and be present in the material, you have to make clearly defined choices based on your natural impulses. Otherwise, your performance will be directionless and wishy washy. The choice itself doesn�t even so much matter�it�s the making it that counts�the bolder the better. And in life it�s the same thing. If you don�t present yourself as an immediate element in the dramatic action of your own Story, if you don�t make clear choices, your life loses its dramatic momentum. How many of us know people who chose not to make any decisions but rather �wound up� doing things? Wound up in a job or in a relationship? Wound up coasting along through the material as an unfocused actor might autopilot his way through a script? One great thing I�ve learned as an actor is not to be afraid to make big decisions based on instinct. To allow your body and heart to be open to any stimuli that comes your way and act on it. Acting again has taught me how to live organically and boldly. And I wouldn�t trade that for anything in the entire world.
time capsule from heaven - Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011
31 - Saturday, Mar. 15, 2008
Dead/Alive - Monday, Mar. 10, 2008
Do not trustTIAA-CREF-- they are fucking their customers - Friday, Jul. 28, 2006
Shilling - Tuesday, Jul. 11, 2006
Before After
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