theater

Mother Play

May 17, 2024 at 8:56 am by Claudia

My goodness, the pansies are so lovely this year.

We’ve had rain for 3 days and we’re finally going to get a break today. Don has a gig tonight and we’re still tired from our trek into the city on Wednesday, so I have ordered him to take it easy until he has to head on out this evening.

We had a major delay on the trip into the city on Wednesday. Something was happening on the George Washington Bridge which impacted the tunnel, so there were three times as many cars and buses heading into the tunnel. Traffic was backed up for miles. In the end, the trip took 3 hours instead of 1 1/2. Since we planned our departure to allow enough time for lunch, we were okay in terms of a 2 pm curtain, but we didn’t have time for lunch and made do with 2 old fashioned donuts from Dunkin Donuts. And some water. (We did have time for dinner before we left, though, so everything worked out in the end.)

We had great seats, courtesy of Jim, and the theater itself is very intimate. It’s the smallest house of all the official Broadway theaters and it was perfect for this play.

What can I say? Words seem to be inadequate. It’s a three-hander (3 actors in the cast.) A true ensemble piece. It’s the story of a mother and her two children that takes place over the course of many years, as they move from apartment to apartment. The play is subtitled “a play in five evictions.” All three actors: Jessica Lange, Jim, and Celia Keenan-Bolger were brilliant. The play was written by Paula Vogel, and directed by Tina Landau. Two women who are 72 and 62, respectively, creating magic on Broadway. I love this play that Vogel has written (much of it autobiographical) and the way in which Landau has staged it.

Jessica Lange. My god, she gives a performance that is beyond words! She is magical, luminous, heartbreaking, moving (the same words can be used for the entire experience.) I’ve never seen her on stage before. I was stunned by her performance. (She just turned 75, by the way.) Three women over 60!

Celia and Jim gave gut-wrenching, touching, funny, beautiful performances. They were freaking amazing. (I’d never met Celia before, but I’d worked with her husband a couple of times out at the Old Globe.)

At the end of the play, the audience surged to their feet. In this case, it was a extremely well-deserved standing ovation, with cheers erupting spontaneously. It’s the best thing I’ve seen in a very long time. It is ensemble work at its finest; three actors working at the top of their game. Each of them has been nominated for a Tony Award this year.

I am so grateful we went. The entire experience in that theater was a gift that I will never forget. I am still thinking about it and suspect I will be thinking about it for a long time.

We went backstage afterward and met Jim in a reception room. The three of us had a great conversation about the play, and Jessica, and time, and the process of working on the play, and what did Jim do for his audition piece when he auditioned for the grad program at USD because I couldn’t remember, and his wedding anniversary, and how much we adore each other, etc. I choked up when I talked about his growth as an actor since those days in grad school. He is simply marvelous in this show. I am so proud of him, of the person he has always been and remains to this day. We did get to meet Celia (who also had a friend at the performance.) But I think Jessica stayed in her dressing room. And I know Jim was headed to his as we left – it was a 2 show day and he was going to take a nap. This play is gut wrenching, as well as life affirming, and I imagine doing it twice in one day takes a toll.

Here we are. I love this guy.

I have seen and worked on countless plays in my lifetime. The occasions when I walk away from a performance feeling stunned and shaken and moved are truly rare. That happened with this play. A gift I will not soon forget.

Mother Play has a limited run and it closes on June 16th. If you can see it, do. It’s extraordinary.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Wednesday Thoughts

January 24, 2024 at 9:11 am by Claudia

♦ This girl always gets a lot of comments on Instagram.

It’s the hair, of course.

I wanted a Ferro Doll with curly hair for a long time. Though I envisioned her having dark hair, I ended up with this light-as-air curly blond hair. I’m happy it turned out that way.

♦ Oh, the weather. After a bit of snow late in the day yesterday, the rain turned to ice, and at some point today, it will turn back to rain. Any time ice is involved, we stay in the house until the issue is naturally resolved (if possible.) Looks like it will be resolved later today, so we’re going to sit tight in our little cottage.

♦ I’m trying to get motivated to start working on the Beacon Hill. For heaven’s sake, I’ve had it for at least 3 years and, except for my initial clean up and removal of unwanted large curlicues, I’ve done nothing. I think about it. I look at photos of other Beacon Hills. And I do nothing. Today, I’m going to look at IG miniatures accounts for inspiration. It’s huge, it’s blocking the light in my little cubicle, so it might as well block it prettily, you know what I mean?

♦ On a totally different subject, I want to address the cheapening of the standing ovation, something Don and I have observed for several years. When both of us were young actors, a standing ovation was rare. On those special occasions when you were on the receiving end of a standing ovation, my goodness, you felt as if you had landed on the moon! Everyone hugged each other backstage, holding that brief moment in time close. Amazing! Indeed, even into our middle age, they were rare.

Now? Every darned performance, the audience pops up immediately and applauds. It’s expected now, though why it is, I don’t know. It should be rare, magical, something to hope for but not count on.

I see a lot of theater, as you know. I can’t remember a time in the past 6 or 7 years – maybe even 10 years – where the audience didn’t stand and applaud. And, quite frankly, most of those performances, though good, did not deserve a standing ovation. They weren’t extraordinary, another word that is thrown around so much that it has lost its meaning. (I’m guilty of this occasionally.) Yes, applaud warmly, acknowledge the work of the actors and everyone involved, but don’t stand unless it’s remarkable.

The audience has made a collective decision that applauding means standing as well.

It doesn’t.

I feel sad for actors nowadays who will not experience the wonder of a true, unexpected, and rare standing ovation. It really was something special back in the day.

When the automatic standing ovation occurs, I stay seated. Occasionally, as when I watched Hamilton, I surge to my feet, as well. But only rarely.

There’s a whole list of things like this that have lost their original meaning and import and are now just another thing you say or do that means far less than it used to.

Don’t get me started on ‘awesome.’

This has been on my mind again since I saw the first preview of Dial M for Murder, which was okay but just okay. Nevertheless, like a collective jack-in-the-box, the entire audience popped up and applauded.

I stayed seated.

My thoughts for the day.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Saturday Thoughts and Blog Etiquette

January 13, 2024 at 8:58 am by Claudia

♦ A week ago, we had over a foot of snow on the ground.

Yesterday:

There’s even less this morning as we had another 2 inches of rain overnight. It’s in the 50s this morning, but the temps are going to plunge about 20 degrees during the day.

I can’t keep up with it.

♦ Today I’m going to grab some things at the store that I’ll need for the trip to Rochester. I’m not taking the scenic route this time, just straight up the I-87 to Albany and then west on I-90. It’s all business this time. Plus, it’s not so pretty out there right now. As always, even though I’m frustrated by the lack of time with the actors, I’m grateful for the work. Don said he’s going to write a book called, The Way it Was: The Way Working in Theater Used to Be. He’s not, of course, though I thought it was a great idea. We were lucky, starting out in professional theater when we did. We worked with so many incredible talents, regional theaters were thriving and they were doing exciting and excellent work. Subscribers flocked to the theater. There were realistic periods of time allowed for rehearsals, tech, and previews. Don, working in theater since the age of 19, could tell you so many stories. He could have a subsection about working in television and film – something that has also changed dramatically and not for the better. I know that I will write about this off and on as I watch respected regional theaters struggle to stay alive.

♦ Speaking of Don, he has a habit of running a hand through his hair in a circular motion. It’s comforting and almost meditative for him. At times, I catch a glimpse of the hair configuration that is the result of this “swirling” and I laugh out loud and promptly take a photo. I’m collecting them.

Here is yesterday’s.

Don has more than a few weird photos of me that he trots out every now and then and we laugh ourselves silly looking at them. Same with these.

♦ Blog etiquette – I ran this by Don before I addressed it here, just to get a second opinion. He agreed with me, so here goes. I’ve noticed something lately in the comments. First of all, you know I don’t expect you to comment on every post, but I am grateful when you do. And I like that you share comments with each other as well.

What I don’t like is when you leave a comment on a reader’s comment but ignore me, the writer of the post. I’m the one who wrote the post that the commenter you are now addressing is referring to in their comment. It’s like going to a party and never once acknowledging the host. Frankly, it’s rude.

If you read and never comment, no problem. If you read and sometimes comment, no problem. But if you read and decide you want to comment on something someone said, but can’t take the time to leave me a comment, that is a problem.

Be polite, please.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Mother Play

Wednesday Thoughts

Saturday Thoughts and Blog Etiquette

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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