Saturday, October 08, 2005
Primary Fraser and McNally
...our dear Alison Fraser (one of my favorite people and actors) put two comps on place for us last night to see DEDICATION a new play by Terence McNally, at Primary Stages on East 59th Streety, and it was wonderful. .....an intriguing play, a very wonderful and interesting cast of actors, and ,well,just a very live and affecting night in the theater...so glad that I am alive during the time when a writer like Terence McNally is producing his passionate works. I always feel somehow privileged when I am in the presence of this man's work. There is something in the way he imbues his stories and characters with necessity, flawed necessity...they speak to me of nobility and strength, even at their weakest point. Marian Seldes, definitely my First Lady of American Theatser, was riveting last night, and once again, i learned about acting from watching her work. She left me dry-mouthed with wonder, as she took me on the very difficult journey of this "Annabelle Willard" who came to sanctify the theater she owns with her own death...and in the process gives a passionate (and flawed ) theater artist his life's dream come true..(Don Amendolia was so good, in the role originated, I was told, by Nathan Lane). So McNally had several of his "Muses" up there speaking his words, fulfilling his intentions, and as a result we got to see prime Terence McNally...again, I felt privileged.
Alison , our friend, has always impressed me with her special sensitivities as a performer and actor, but last night was , arguably, the best thing I have ever seen her do, because she held us all delicately in the palm of her talented hand every single moment by simply creating a complex,funny,tough,conflicted woman of a certain age, a woman who had to deal with love, her daughter, her companion, her lover,her passion for the stage,her own need to hide behind the choices she made for her life...in so many ways, the character of "jessie" allowed Alison to enlighten many of life's mysteries...and she did it so easily... but that is the secret of superb acting: we are suposed to believe in the genuine-ness of what we see, and her performance was deeply moving, pitch-perfect, subtle and deeply well crafted. Award winning caliber. I was so proud of her.So glad to witness it.
Interestingly, it was one of the few things I have seen since returning from Barter that reminded me of a Barter production...i think it was the nature of the ensemble acting and the richness therefore elicited...even Marian Seldes, certainly the "star" by public standards I guess, was so enthrallingly committed to sheer committed acting and truth that she too became part of this strong company...perhaps,as written, its "lode star", but nonetheless company all the way. Never a false or self-serving move. So true. So admirable.
And matters of actual life and death and theater were taken to the mat of audience scrutiny and there we all were, wrestling it out together, were else? IN A THEATER!
It made me feel like doing it again...but , then, every time I teach a class of gifted actors my passion is renewed, so who am I kidding here?
Alison: thank you so much. Terence McNally, thank you. Ms.Seldes: Brava!
Alison , our friend, has always impressed me with her special sensitivities as a performer and actor, but last night was , arguably, the best thing I have ever seen her do, because she held us all delicately in the palm of her talented hand every single moment by simply creating a complex,funny,tough,conflicted woman of a certain age, a woman who had to deal with love, her daughter, her companion, her lover,her passion for the stage,her own need to hide behind the choices she made for her life...in so many ways, the character of "jessie" allowed Alison to enlighten many of life's mysteries...and she did it so easily... but that is the secret of superb acting: we are suposed to believe in the genuine-ness of what we see, and her performance was deeply moving, pitch-perfect, subtle and deeply well crafted. Award winning caliber. I was so proud of her.So glad to witness it.
Interestingly, it was one of the few things I have seen since returning from Barter that reminded me of a Barter production...i think it was the nature of the ensemble acting and the richness therefore elicited...even Marian Seldes, certainly the "star" by public standards I guess, was so enthrallingly committed to sheer committed acting and truth that she too became part of this strong company...perhaps,as written, its "lode star", but nonetheless company all the way. Never a false or self-serving move. So true. So admirable.
And matters of actual life and death and theater were taken to the mat of audience scrutiny and there we all were, wrestling it out together, were else? IN A THEATER!
It made me feel like doing it again...but , then, every time I teach a class of gifted actors my passion is renewed, so who am I kidding here?
Alison: thank you so much. Terence McNally, thank you. Ms.Seldes: Brava!
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