January 15, 2009
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Refining the Art
Tomorrow we do show 4 of Woolf. We've had a week off which is never a good thing. After hell week and then consecutive performances we had developed a pretty fine edge; and then it stops. Now the challenge is to maintain, rediscover perhaps the tension, the quality we had developed. The concern of course is, that in this show it's difficult enough to remember the lines after a week. Now normally we would have had a dress during the week but I had a talk to deliver this evening and so we were going to do a run through last night BUT we couldn't get the stage! So...we did seat work last night, which was great to refine the lines but strangely the lack of physicality caused me a lot of anxiety. I wanted to feel again the movement, the way I am in space while delivering lines. Obviously we do that in our minds, but it's not the same. Nevertheless, I believe we are all good enough actors that we are all working like crazy to get it back to amazing tomorrow.
I posted the review before but here it is again http://centraljersey.com/articles/2009/01/13/time_off/theater_reviews/doc496ceff9d39de337747584.txt .
It's a good review but it gets me a tad nuts when reviewers want to be directors. For instance, playing Acts 2 and 3 more inebriated is a distraction from the script and totally unneeded. The audience gets the message and stumbling around would be close to slapstick. Honey plays drunk and that's sufficient.Speaking of reviews, this review was decent but it was not written by Stu Duncan. I am sorry that is the case. Stuart was apparently considered redundant at the Packet Papers. I think that is a damned shame. Stuart Duncan is, in my opinion, a cultural icon in the NJ and Southeastern PA Theater scene. The lack of respect shown him by the paper is unforgivable. Now, I know not everyone loves Stuart, hell not everyone even likes him! He can be arrogant, lecherous, and self-absorbed but then, this is theater baby! Who isn't? At his best Stuart has been generous, erudite, and tireless in his promotion of regional theater. He is a font of theater lore and personal stories. He did what he did out of support and affection for local theater and I imagine is personally responsible for more ticket sales than anyone else in this area. So...write the Packet publisher editorial director Ilene Dube at idube@pacpub.com . Ask to bring back Stuart Duncan. Not because there's anything wrong with the gentleman writing the Theater reviews now; just because when someone works for us; we should work for him.
