On Sunday, while millions prepared to watch the Oscars hosted by Broadway darling Neil Patrick Harris, I wrapped a 3 foot scarf around my neck, donned the rest of my winter armor and braved the cold as I headed to Lincoln Center Plaza to see my very first Julliard production - Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? - by the 4th Year Drama Division. In the minutes leading up to the start of the 2002 Tony Award winning play about bestiality, other taboos and intolerance, I flipped through the program and was struck by the following quote from the playwright:
What I wanted people to do is not just sit there being judges of the characters. I wanted people to go to the play, and image themselves in the situation. Put yourself there. "How the fuck would I react? Why am I making this judgment about those people? Because I probably wouldn't make it if it was happening to me."
After the play, as I walked back across the Plaza, I have to admit - I judged. While I think that I'm an open person, I just couldn't quite understand. This morning, as I enjoyed the simple pleasure of sipping my morning cup of coffee, I picked up the latest copy of New York Magazine and flipped through it - of course starting with the approval matrix and then skimming to the front of the magazine, making a mental note of the articles that I planned to read one day. It was around this time, my eyes landed on the article - I lost my virginity to a horse. Had I not seen Albee's play less than 48 hours before, I probably would not have paid much attention to such an article at that hour of the morning. But I did... It is night now. The sun set hours ago...and because of Mr. Albee, I have returned to the article and I am now reading about zoophilia...
While in NY promoting her book - Happy are the Happy, writer Yasmina Reza sat down with Violaine Huisman for a conversation that was published in the Paris Review. In The Fabric of a Life: An Interview with Yasmina Reza, Ms Reza shares a few insights on the theater... A very interesting article...Francofiles and theater enthusiasts must check it out... On productions of her plays that lack vision...
I’ve sat in the audience, mortified...the actors were bad, the rhythm was off, there was no intimate understanding of the lines, no vision …
Today, related to production of her plays all around the world Ms Reza thinks -- It’s not a good idea to intervene—you have to let it be. On the conciseness of her writing...
...my impatience is to blame. Nothing bores me more than long introductions, explanations of childhood, that heavy backpack of contextualization....
I feel much closer to a painter than a writer. A painter doesn’t waste any time.
On French theater..
When I started out...there were dozens of great directors in France, but the theater landscape has been completely decimated...Today...I can’t think of a single stage director I’d like to work with in my own language.
On American and British theater...
I feel it’s too neat, too well done, too structured, there’s too much of a desire to entertain.
And English actors are just so extravagant—they really overdo it. I kept thinking as I watched them perform, Hold it, rein it in a little!
As I grabbed a drink at the cafe bar before a performance of Signature's 2012 revival of The Piano Lesson,I chit chatted with a woman who proudly noted that she had seen August Wilson's [1945 - 2005] ten play cycle about African American life in the 20th century. Moreover, she was from Pittsburgh and was very familiar with the Hill District where all but one of the plays is set. She was definitely a fan of the famed playwright. It is now a wintry Sunday morning in February 2015. I am placing a reminder on my calendar to watch the upcoming American Masters' August Wilson episode. I am reading a synopsis of the 10 plays. And I am remembering the Pittsburgh woman and my unmet promise to complete the cycle and read the plays I had not yet seen... American Masters — August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand airs February 20. It commemorates the 70th anniversary of Wilson’s birth, the 10th anniversary of his death and Black History Month.
The Cycle
1) Jitney (1979) - Set in the 1970s - Only play not mounted on Broadway 2) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1982) - Set in Chicago in the 1920s 3) Fences (1984) - Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award - Set in the 1950s 4) Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1984) - Set in 1910s 5) The Piano Lesson (1986) - Pulitzer Prize - Set in 1930s 6) Two Trains Running (1990) - Set in 1960s 7) Seven Guitars (1985) - Set in 1940s 8) King Hedley II (1991) - Set in 1980s 9) Gem of the Ocean (2003) - Set in 1900s 10) Radio Golf (2005) - Set in the 1990s Links August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand 11 Things You Should Know About August Wilson
Grandpa Vanderhof and Boris Kolenkhov in Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's You Can't Take It With You:
KOLENKHOV: How can you relax in times like these?
GRANDPA: Well, if they'd relax there wouldn't be times like these. That's just my point. Life is kind of beautiful if you let it come to you. But the trouble is, people forget that. I know I did. I was right in the thick of it...fighting, and scratching and clawing. Regular jungle. One day it just kind of struck me, I wasn't having any fun.
KOLENKHOV: So you did what?
GRANDPA: Just relaxed. Thirty-five years ago, that was. And I've been a happy man ever since.
