Gary Smith (The Hamilton Spectator) interviews Brian Dennehy:
"Brian Dennehy is a closet intellectual. I know because he said so.
"Never mind that he made most of his money in action flicks like Gladiator (the 1992 boxing film), Silverado and Assault on Precinct 13.
"'Half the time I don't even remember the movies I was in,' he says with a shrug. 'Hollywood is mostly a load of crap. The movies they make are strictly for kids.'
"A tall, handsome man, casual in approach, Dennehy sits back in a comfy chair and sips his coffee. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., he has the gift of blarney, as you might expect given his Irish ancestors.
"'I don't mind doing crap,' he says with a grin. 'If I'm asked, I'm there in a shot. But I have no illusions. Hollywood isn't all that interested any more. I'm too old, I suppose.
"'But I don't care. I've had a great ride.'
"Dennehy is in Stratford to appear in All's Well That Ends Well, as well as star in the double bill of Krapp's Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett, and Hughie, by Eugene O'Neill.
"With two Tonys on his mantel, he's no slouch in the drama department.
"'I come from Irish immigrant stock,' he says. 'But I'm not as tough as people think. I can be hurt.'
"He strokes a grizzled face and his blue eyes dance.
"I've been panned,' he says. 'But what are the critics? They're no help, really. They can't help you when you're bad, and certainly not when you're good. You spend months working on a part and some jerk comes along and tells you what you're doing isn't right.
"'And the audience? Well, they wait for their instructions. They have to see if the show is good or bad by reading a review? C'mon.
"'Of course every actor says he never reads reviews,' he continues. 'Hah. Paul Scofield told me never, never. Then his wife chimes in. "No, he doesn't read them. He has me read them to him, very, very slowly."'
"A roar from Dennehy, and the conversation moves on.
"'I love [the] Stratford Festival," he says. "This place is real. It's all about doing the work. Trying to make it good.
"'On Broadway, it's all about who you're going to get to star in the play, how you're going to beat the critics and how much money the whole thing's going to make.
"'It's commerce, not theatre.'
"That said, Dennehy has acted the socks off O'Neill on stage, from The Iceman Cometh to Long Day's Journey into Night with Vanessa Redgrave and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
"Then there were 650 performances as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
"'You know, in a part like that, you never stop growing. I was still learning at the very last performance. Now that's a role.'
"In Stratford, Dennehy is flexing his acting muscle, playing Beckett, O'Neill and Shakespeare.
"'Those are three heavy hitters,' he says. 'Maybe I'm nuts. But you know, I'm 70 July 9. I feel my head very close to the ceiling. I'm aware of mortality. Ten years ago, I thought, "Oh hell, I've got plenty of time." Now it's another thing.
"'I feel like I've used my days wisely though,' he says. 'I've squeezed it all out. That's not a sad comment, just an honest thought.'
"The topic returns to Stratford and the roles he's playing this season.
"'This is graduate school, you know," he says. "If you want to be an actor, this is the place to be.
"'I'm so glad I'm here. There's nothing like this in the States. Nothing. We have great regional theatres, but nothing like this. There'll be claw marks if they try to get me out of here, now I've discovered what it means.
"'This place has the right kind of ambition. It should be regarded as a sacred institution, nirvana.'
"Dennehy drinks the last slurp of coffee. He gets ready to go back to rehearsal.
"When you see the exit sign blinking in your face, you realize the only thing that matters is grabbing hold of each day. That's very Beckett, very O'Neill and very Dennehy to boot.
"'Come watch me make a fool of myself,' he says with a laugh.
"I doubt it, Mr. Dennehy. I doubt it very much."
Showing posts with label Brian Dennehy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Dennehy. Show all posts
Friday, July 4, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Will Dennehy Sell Out?
Kathy Rumleski for Sun Media:
"He meanders on stage with a wrinkled suit and a stagger in his step.
"This loud, vexatious characters is not somebody you could stand long. The man behind the mask, though, is the draw.
"American film and stage icon Brian Dennehy couldn't have picked a better time to make his Stratford Shakespeare Festival debut, along with his friend and comrade Joe Grifasi, who lends quite a bit of star power of his own.
"A Canadian dollar that these days hovers at par, climbing gas prices and concerns about border wait times have seemingly conspired to drive down attendance at the festival, which relies on Americans purchasing tickets besides the Canadian attendance.
"Sales have decreased from last year at the repertory theatre, despite production after production receiving praise from the critics.
"The packed Studio Theatre crowd in this preview hangs on Dennehy's every word in Hughie, where he shares the stage with Grifasi, a quiet night clerk -- and then in his one-man presentation of Krapp's Last Tape on the same bill.
"'I think everybody's here to see Brian,' one woman says. 'Not so much the show.'
"Dennehy and Grifasi are perplexed that people wouldn't flock to this 'extraordinary' institution.
"'There is no place like this anywhere in the world,' Dennehy says, mentioning the wonderful support system in place, which includes voice and movement coaches and access to dramaturges (to provide historical and social context for texts).
"'The lighting people, the sound people . . . they have the most extraordinary costume setup I've ever seen. I've worked in a lot of big Broadway productions [Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey Into Night to name the two which garnered him Tony awards] and I've never seen anything like this. The ambitions are extraordinary.'
"Grifasi, 64, who first met Dennehy, 69, in 1978 and has worked with him numerous times in film (F/X, Presumed Innocent), TV (Jack Reed) and on stage, including doing Hughie two other times in Chicago and Providence, calls it an 'actor's spa.'
"He signed on for coaching in the Alexander technique, which empowers the actor to become aware of the physical habits that impede performance and improve breathing and vocal production to allow fuller emotional expression.
"In the 1960s when Grifasi wanted to become a stage actor, he'd travel from Buffalo, his hometown, to Stratford to see performances.
"'I saw my first great theatre here. It changed my life.'
"He made his escape from Buffalo after being inspired by festival productions, determined to act.
"It was Christopher Plummer who brought Dennehy to Stratford to work and Dennehy who brought Grifasi here.
"Plummer and Dennehy worked together in New York a year ago in Inherit the Wind.
"'Chris said something to (Stratford artistic director Des McAnuff) about me and Des said something to me about it and we figured out what we could do,' Dennehy says.
"He enjoys the combination of Samuel Beckett and Eugene O'Neill and he's challenged by their scripts.
"'One thing I learned . . . is that a great play never stops revealing itself to you. In many ways it's harder to do it the second or third time because you find it very difficult to satisfy yourself.'
"Grifasi said Canadians seem to enjoy the language of the two plays. 'There's an ear for this stuff here. There's a lot going on out there.'
"As the pair settle in for their interview, Grifasi looks comfortable in jeans, sneakers and a golf shirt and his appearance, including his warm face, make others relax.
"Dennehy, who appears to have lost weight even since opening night on May 26, is somewhat strained. He has taken off the crumpled suit and is wearing a pink dress shirt, beige shorts and ball cap.
"'It's busy. You get here as an actor and you're going, six, five days a week,' Dennehy says. 'Typically for American actors, you're working on one show at a time. In rep you don't do this. In my case, I have three. The (double bill) is difficult enough, especially with two playwrights as extraordinary as O'Neill and Beckett.
"'Then you have the most demanding of all -- Shakespeare. I don't have that much experience, hardly any, doing Shakespeare, so I'm trying to catch up.'
"He referred to himself as the worst basketball player on the team in the cast of All's Well That Ends Well, in which he plays the King of France.
"In the similar way that Dennehy's character Erie Smith needs Hughie the night clerk, Dennehy clearly likes having Grifasi, whom he calls Joey, around.
"They take jabs at each other back and forth, back and forth, almost like its rehearsed they've done it so often -- mostly on this day about Joe's nose. Dennehy has Grifasi to do some of the talking in an interview; takes the load off.
"After his work day is done, Dennehy calls Grifasi on his cell phone to find out where he is. Grifasi is on his way home to the place he rents in Stratford, which has a garden. 'My first garden,' he says proudly, adding that it's an old-fashioned Italian vegetable garden like the one his father, who died this year, had.
"Besides their love of acting, their many projects together, their working-class and Catholic backgrounds, the men both served their country -- and if that doesn't create a bond, nothing will.
"'We got talking one day. He was a marine, I was in the army. We had both served on the same island, almost overlapping. A little Pacific island called Okinawa and it's ironic that we were both there,' Grifasi relates the little story, that comes out of nowhere in a conversation, but seems to fit, nevertheless.
"It's a privilege to watch them on and off the stage. If you get the chance to do one or the other or both -- 'cause it's hard for them to hide in Stratford and neither wants to -- take it.
"'People should come,' Dennehy says."
Krapp's Last Tape and Hughie open together June 28 at the Studio Theatre and run through August 31.
Brian Dennehy also appears in All's Well That Ends Well (June 27-August 23) at the Festival Theatre.
"He meanders on stage with a wrinkled suit and a stagger in his step.
"This loud, vexatious characters is not somebody you could stand long. The man behind the mask, though, is the draw.
"American film and stage icon Brian Dennehy couldn't have picked a better time to make his Stratford Shakespeare Festival debut, along with his friend and comrade Joe Grifasi, who lends quite a bit of star power of his own.
"A Canadian dollar that these days hovers at par, climbing gas prices and concerns about border wait times have seemingly conspired to drive down attendance at the festival, which relies on Americans purchasing tickets besides the Canadian attendance.
"Sales have decreased from last year at the repertory theatre, despite production after production receiving praise from the critics.
"The packed Studio Theatre crowd in this preview hangs on Dennehy's every word in Hughie, where he shares the stage with Grifasi, a quiet night clerk -- and then in his one-man presentation of Krapp's Last Tape on the same bill.
"'I think everybody's here to see Brian,' one woman says. 'Not so much the show.'
"Dennehy and Grifasi are perplexed that people wouldn't flock to this 'extraordinary' institution.
"'There is no place like this anywhere in the world,' Dennehy says, mentioning the wonderful support system in place, which includes voice and movement coaches and access to dramaturges (to provide historical and social context for texts).
"'The lighting people, the sound people . . . they have the most extraordinary costume setup I've ever seen. I've worked in a lot of big Broadway productions [Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey Into Night to name the two which garnered him Tony awards] and I've never seen anything like this. The ambitions are extraordinary.'
"Grifasi, 64, who first met Dennehy, 69, in 1978 and has worked with him numerous times in film (F/X, Presumed Innocent), TV (Jack Reed) and on stage, including doing Hughie two other times in Chicago and Providence, calls it an 'actor's spa.'
"He signed on for coaching in the Alexander technique, which empowers the actor to become aware of the physical habits that impede performance and improve breathing and vocal production to allow fuller emotional expression.
"In the 1960s when Grifasi wanted to become a stage actor, he'd travel from Buffalo, his hometown, to Stratford to see performances.
"'I saw my first great theatre here. It changed my life.'
"He made his escape from Buffalo after being inspired by festival productions, determined to act.
"It was Christopher Plummer who brought Dennehy to Stratford to work and Dennehy who brought Grifasi here.
"Plummer and Dennehy worked together in New York a year ago in Inherit the Wind.
"'Chris said something to (Stratford artistic director Des McAnuff) about me and Des said something to me about it and we figured out what we could do,' Dennehy says.
"He enjoys the combination of Samuel Beckett and Eugene O'Neill and he's challenged by their scripts.
"'One thing I learned . . . is that a great play never stops revealing itself to you. In many ways it's harder to do it the second or third time because you find it very difficult to satisfy yourself.'
"Grifasi said Canadians seem to enjoy the language of the two plays. 'There's an ear for this stuff here. There's a lot going on out there.'
"As the pair settle in for their interview, Grifasi looks comfortable in jeans, sneakers and a golf shirt and his appearance, including his warm face, make others relax.
"Dennehy, who appears to have lost weight even since opening night on May 26, is somewhat strained. He has taken off the crumpled suit and is wearing a pink dress shirt, beige shorts and ball cap.
"'It's busy. You get here as an actor and you're going, six, five days a week,' Dennehy says. 'Typically for American actors, you're working on one show at a time. In rep you don't do this. In my case, I have three. The (double bill) is difficult enough, especially with two playwrights as extraordinary as O'Neill and Beckett.
"'Then you have the most demanding of all -- Shakespeare. I don't have that much experience, hardly any, doing Shakespeare, so I'm trying to catch up.'
"He referred to himself as the worst basketball player on the team in the cast of All's Well That Ends Well, in which he plays the King of France.
"In the similar way that Dennehy's character Erie Smith needs Hughie the night clerk, Dennehy clearly likes having Grifasi, whom he calls Joey, around.
"They take jabs at each other back and forth, back and forth, almost like its rehearsed they've done it so often -- mostly on this day about Joe's nose. Dennehy has Grifasi to do some of the talking in an interview; takes the load off.
"After his work day is done, Dennehy calls Grifasi on his cell phone to find out where he is. Grifasi is on his way home to the place he rents in Stratford, which has a garden. 'My first garden,' he says proudly, adding that it's an old-fashioned Italian vegetable garden like the one his father, who died this year, had.
"Besides their love of acting, their many projects together, their working-class and Catholic backgrounds, the men both served their country -- and if that doesn't create a bond, nothing will.
"'We got talking one day. He was a marine, I was in the army. We had both served on the same island, almost overlapping. A little Pacific island called Okinawa and it's ironic that we were both there,' Grifasi relates the little story, that comes out of nowhere in a conversation, but seems to fit, nevertheless.
"It's a privilege to watch them on and off the stage. If you get the chance to do one or the other or both -- 'cause it's hard for them to hide in Stratford and neither wants to -- take it.
"'People should come,' Dennehy says."
Krapp's Last Tape and Hughie open together June 28 at the Studio Theatre and run through August 31.
Brian Dennehy also appears in All's Well That Ends Well (June 27-August 23) at the Festival Theatre.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Brian Dennehy Prepares for Opening Weekend
An interview with Brian Dennehy, from Richard Ouzounian at the Toronto Star:
"'When you walk with giants, you learn how to take bigger steps.'
"That's how Brian Dennehy modestly explains his legendary Tony Award-winning performances in Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey Into Night, giving the credit to authors Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill.
"But the big steps of Dennehy's past are about to become positively huge, as he soon adds two more theatrical giants to his repertoire and revisits a third.
"In the space of two days next weekend at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Dennehy will open as the King in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well as well as a double bill of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Eugene O'Neill's Hughie.
"It's a bill that would tax a man half his age, but Dennehy – who turns 70 on July 9 – is relishing the assignment. 'I've never done repertory theatre before in my life and it's certainly a challenge,' says Dennehy, unwinding in a Toronto bistro. 'But I love the Stratford Festival and everything about it. What a f---ing amazing place full of f---ing amazing people!'
"Bursts of blue language are not uncommon with Dennehy. He's a big, burly Irishman of a certain generation who grew up on Long Island and spent time with the Marines.
"But he's not as burly as he used to be, thanks to the Lap Band weight reduction surgery he underwent after a frightening bout of hypertension drove him out of Death of a Salesman for a few days in 1999.
"'This machine is all I've got,' he says, slapping the area around his heart. 'I've gotta take care of it.'
"That's another reason his hard-drinking days are long behind him and the Diet Coke he sips at is his beverage of choice nowadays.
"'Yeah, I drank a lot,' he says without affectation or drama. '"It was fun and then it wasn't fun any more. So I quit.'
"But Dennehy is aware of the legacy of drink and how it haunts many Irishmen, including his beloved author O'Neill.
"'He was one of those classic Irish alcoholics who got pissed off because he couldn't drink any more and that drove a lot of his work.'
"Hughie, for example, is a 1941 one-act play about Erie Smith, 'a small-fry gambler and horse-player' who is just coming off a five-day bender that he went on after Hughie, his favourite desk clerk at the crummy hotel he stays at, suddenly died.
"'His whole life has been an abject series of petty failures,' says Dennehy, 'but he always turns them into imaginary triumphs. It's a play about grief and so is Krapp's Last Tape.' A sunny grin spreads over Dennehy's face. 'Now I have a word to bridge the two plays.'
"Dennehy has performed Hughie several times before, always to great acclaim, and he calls it 'a series of conventional, if interesting, problems for the actor.'
"But Beckett, whose stygian nightmarish world Dennehy is entering for the first time, is something totally different.
"'I remember sitting with (actor) Patrick Magee in a bar someplace in New York many years ago,' Dennehy recalls. 'Magee was the first actor to ever portray Krapp and we were both in our cups and talking about the play. "Very dark," Paddy kept saying, "the play is very dark."'
"Dennehy snorts. 'Jesus, I should have listened to him.'
"Krapp's Last Tape finds a bitter old man on his 69th birthday, sitting alone and listening to tapes he has made over the years that allow him to review the wreckage of his life.
"'It's profoundly difficult,' admits Dennehy, 'which is as it should be, because it's a f---ing impossible part.
"'I feel like I've gotten a long way down the road in the last couple of weeks, but I don't know if it's the right road and there's no map available.'
"He is finding Stratford director Jennifer Tarver a real asset. 'I like balancing her fresh, new perspective against my pain-in-the-ass old-fart perspective.'
"But, in the end, Dennehy keeps coming back to the problem of what he calls 'the Beckett darkness.'
"When asked to compare it, for example, to the darkness found in O'Neill, he broods for a few seconds.
"'They both have a skull in their plays,' Dennehy theorizes, 'and the O'Neill skull grins . . . but the Beckett skull laughs out loud.'
"And then there's his third role: the King of France in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, which is being performed on the giant Festival stage as opposed to the intimacy of the Studio Theatre where Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape are presented.
"How is he finding that experience? 'I use the image of a horse on ice,' he chuckles, 'because I feel like I'm slipping and sliding around. I'm faking, but I'm surrounded by people who know what they're doing, like Martha (Henry), (Stephen) Ouimette, (Juan) Chioran and (Tom) Rooney.
"'With those people on stage, I cover my ass and my bets.'
"Then there's another, purely technical issue. 'On the first day of rehearsal,' he relates, 'I said to (director) Marti Maraden, "You've got the big Brian Dennehy problem. I block out the sun."
"'"That won't be a problem," she said sweetly.'
"Dennehy laughs so loudly he chokes on his Diet Coke. When he has recovered, he continues.
"'Now, suddenly, it's getting to be, "Brian, when you say that line, move this way, and when you say the next line, move the other way." And I said "You mean like over toward Cleveland?"
"'The other night, I was wearing one of those orange golfing shirts and I'm sure I looked like a Wal-Mart store up there.'
"Despite his enthusiasm and apparent vigour, it must still be a strain for a 70-year-old man to perform three demanding plays in one day.
"'Something I learned a long time ago: Physical fatigue is the actor's friend. You don't want to go too far with that, but the great doctor is always the audience.
"'There are two counter-intuitive processes that take place in acting: stripping a lot of s--t away and assembling all kinds of things to hide behind.
"'When you're tired, you can't assemble those elaborate barricades between you and the audience and it's amazing how many great performances come out of that inability to protect yourself.'
"When looking at the big picture, Dennehy thinks of himself as a combination of his father and grandfather.
"'My father had a good sense of humour about a lot of things, including life, which I think I inherited. And he was devoted to the job he was doing (as an Associated Press wire-man). I'm like that, too.
"'But my grandfather was a crapshooter. When he was 12, he left Ireland on his own and moved to America on his own.
"'I'm a crapshooter, too. Give me a ticket and I'll be there. I don't see that changing any time soon, but time has a way of making those choices for you.'
"But for now, with three giant authors to increase his stride and the Stratford machine buzzing happily behind him, Dennehy concludes, 'I can't think of a place I'd rather be.
"'The great thing about an audience is that you walk out there in the dark, the lights go up and you gotta just shut up and do it. They paid their f---ing money and you better deliver. And the next night you gotta do it again.
"'This ain't a movie where you do it five times and they pick the best one. This is ultimately you and them and the words.
"'There's something primitive and satisfying about that. It's being alive and being a communicator on cue.'"
"'When you walk with giants, you learn how to take bigger steps.'
"That's how Brian Dennehy modestly explains his legendary Tony Award-winning performances in Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey Into Night, giving the credit to authors Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill.
"But the big steps of Dennehy's past are about to become positively huge, as he soon adds two more theatrical giants to his repertoire and revisits a third.
"In the space of two days next weekend at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Dennehy will open as the King in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well as well as a double bill of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Eugene O'Neill's Hughie.
"It's a bill that would tax a man half his age, but Dennehy – who turns 70 on July 9 – is relishing the assignment. 'I've never done repertory theatre before in my life and it's certainly a challenge,' says Dennehy, unwinding in a Toronto bistro. 'But I love the Stratford Festival and everything about it. What a f---ing amazing place full of f---ing amazing people!'
"Bursts of blue language are not uncommon with Dennehy. He's a big, burly Irishman of a certain generation who grew up on Long Island and spent time with the Marines.
"But he's not as burly as he used to be, thanks to the Lap Band weight reduction surgery he underwent after a frightening bout of hypertension drove him out of Death of a Salesman for a few days in 1999.
"'This machine is all I've got,' he says, slapping the area around his heart. 'I've gotta take care of it.'
"That's another reason his hard-drinking days are long behind him and the Diet Coke he sips at is his beverage of choice nowadays.
"'Yeah, I drank a lot,' he says without affectation or drama. '"It was fun and then it wasn't fun any more. So I quit.'
"But Dennehy is aware of the legacy of drink and how it haunts many Irishmen, including his beloved author O'Neill.
"'He was one of those classic Irish alcoholics who got pissed off because he couldn't drink any more and that drove a lot of his work.'
"Hughie, for example, is a 1941 one-act play about Erie Smith, 'a small-fry gambler and horse-player' who is just coming off a five-day bender that he went on after Hughie, his favourite desk clerk at the crummy hotel he stays at, suddenly died.
"'His whole life has been an abject series of petty failures,' says Dennehy, 'but he always turns them into imaginary triumphs. It's a play about grief and so is Krapp's Last Tape.' A sunny grin spreads over Dennehy's face. 'Now I have a word to bridge the two plays.'
"Dennehy has performed Hughie several times before, always to great acclaim, and he calls it 'a series of conventional, if interesting, problems for the actor.'
"But Beckett, whose stygian nightmarish world Dennehy is entering for the first time, is something totally different.
"'I remember sitting with (actor) Patrick Magee in a bar someplace in New York many years ago,' Dennehy recalls. 'Magee was the first actor to ever portray Krapp and we were both in our cups and talking about the play. "Very dark," Paddy kept saying, "the play is very dark."'
"Dennehy snorts. 'Jesus, I should have listened to him.'
"Krapp's Last Tape finds a bitter old man on his 69th birthday, sitting alone and listening to tapes he has made over the years that allow him to review the wreckage of his life.
"'It's profoundly difficult,' admits Dennehy, 'which is as it should be, because it's a f---ing impossible part.
"'I feel like I've gotten a long way down the road in the last couple of weeks, but I don't know if it's the right road and there's no map available.'
"He is finding Stratford director Jennifer Tarver a real asset. 'I like balancing her fresh, new perspective against my pain-in-the-ass old-fart perspective.'
"But, in the end, Dennehy keeps coming back to the problem of what he calls 'the Beckett darkness.'
"When asked to compare it, for example, to the darkness found in O'Neill, he broods for a few seconds.
"'They both have a skull in their plays,' Dennehy theorizes, 'and the O'Neill skull grins . . . but the Beckett skull laughs out loud.'
"And then there's his third role: the King of France in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, which is being performed on the giant Festival stage as opposed to the intimacy of the Studio Theatre where Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape are presented.
"How is he finding that experience? 'I use the image of a horse on ice,' he chuckles, 'because I feel like I'm slipping and sliding around. I'm faking, but I'm surrounded by people who know what they're doing, like Martha (Henry), (Stephen) Ouimette, (Juan) Chioran and (Tom) Rooney.
"'With those people on stage, I cover my ass and my bets.'
"Then there's another, purely technical issue. 'On the first day of rehearsal,' he relates, 'I said to (director) Marti Maraden, "You've got the big Brian Dennehy problem. I block out the sun."
"'"That won't be a problem," she said sweetly.'
"Dennehy laughs so loudly he chokes on his Diet Coke. When he has recovered, he continues.
"'Now, suddenly, it's getting to be, "Brian, when you say that line, move this way, and when you say the next line, move the other way." And I said "You mean like over toward Cleveland?"
"'The other night, I was wearing one of those orange golfing shirts and I'm sure I looked like a Wal-Mart store up there.'
"Despite his enthusiasm and apparent vigour, it must still be a strain for a 70-year-old man to perform three demanding plays in one day.
"'Something I learned a long time ago: Physical fatigue is the actor's friend. You don't want to go too far with that, but the great doctor is always the audience.
"'There are two counter-intuitive processes that take place in acting: stripping a lot of s--t away and assembling all kinds of things to hide behind.
"'When you're tired, you can't assemble those elaborate barricades between you and the audience and it's amazing how many great performances come out of that inability to protect yourself.'
"When looking at the big picture, Dennehy thinks of himself as a combination of his father and grandfather.
"'My father had a good sense of humour about a lot of things, including life, which I think I inherited. And he was devoted to the job he was doing (as an Associated Press wire-man). I'm like that, too.
"'But my grandfather was a crapshooter. When he was 12, he left Ireland on his own and moved to America on his own.
"'I'm a crapshooter, too. Give me a ticket and I'll be there. I don't see that changing any time soon, but time has a way of making those choices for you.'
"But for now, with three giant authors to increase his stride and the Stratford machine buzzing happily behind him, Dennehy concludes, 'I can't think of a place I'd rather be.
"'The great thing about an audience is that you walk out there in the dark, the lights go up and you gotta just shut up and do it. They paid their f---ing money and you better deliver. And the next night you gotta do it again.
"'This ain't a movie where you do it five times and they pick the best one. This is ultimately you and them and the words.
"'There's something primitive and satisfying about that. It's being alive and being a communicator on cue.'"
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
McAnuff at Stratford
Martin Morrow writes a long piece, more on Artistic Director Des McAnuff than the season, for CBC.ca. Here's a snapshot:
"What brought him to the festival was the desire to direct Shakespeare and other classic plays on a scale comparable to the musicals that have made his name. 'The classics have definitely always been part of my menu as an artist,' he says, 'but it’s become more difficult to do large-canvas works at many theatres. That was one of my struggles at La Jolla. When we did do a classic, it would tend to be a smaller one, just due to resources. The chief reason that I’m here is to work with a company of actors on the classical repertory.'
"His multi-racial Romeo and Juliet (2008) pairs Canadian classical actor Gareth Potter as Romeo with a Juliet played by one of his musical-theatre protégées — U.S. singer-actress Nikki M. James. McAnuff directed James in a revival of The Wiz a couple of years ago, but he says he’s known her since she was a stage-struck kid.
"'She was actually a Stage Door Janie for a show I did on Broadway,' he recalls fondly, referring to his 1995 production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, starring Matthew Broderick and Megan Mullally. 'Nikki used to show up at the theatre as a fan. Megan took a real shine to her, and Nikki and her friend used to perform show tunes for the cast backstage.'
"McAnuff’s second production this season, opening in August, will be one of Stratford’s rare forays into Shaw country: a staging of George Bernard Shaw’s historical comedy Caesar and Cleopatra (2008), starring Christopher Plummer. McAnuff says the play was Plummer’s idea. 'We wanted to do a project together and [Julius Caesar] was a role he really wanted to play. Chris is really an exceptional actor who has a great sense of himself and what he should be doing. He was brilliant in Inherit the Wind on Broadway last year, as was Brian Dennehy.'
"Dennehy is also part of this year’s unusually starry season. Other notables making their Stratford debuts include Hamlet director Adrian Noble, the former head of Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company, and British actor-author Simon Callow, who will be premiering a new solo show based on Shakespeare’s sonnets. McAnuff hopes to bring more star power to Stratford in the future.'From the Alec Guinness days, there’s been a history of that here,' he points out. 'I definitely embrace that tradition. And when you talk of stars,' he adds, 'I’m hoping the projects themselves are going to be stars as well. That’s going to be extremely important.'
"Does McAnuff see Stratford as a potential springboard for commercial productions — perhaps the way the Royal Shakespeare Company under Trevor Nunn spawned West End-Broadway hits like Les Misérables and Nicholas Nickleby?
"'I’d love to do something like that at Stratford,' McAnuff replies. 'There are skills and talents here that could be brought to bear on projects like that, which have a classical association. And I would love to see that happen to the festival in terms of [providing] income streams, too. Royalty income is an awfully nice thing to have.'
"McAnuff doesn’t rule out Stratford as a home for more offbeat efforts, too. Like, say, that Flaming Lips musical. 'It certainly would be unusual,' he admits. But it would fit in with his belief that the festival should be doing more new work. 'I feel it’s critically important, when you’re doing the great plays in the history of theatre, that you put living writers and their works side by side with them,' he says. 'The new work informs the old plays, and keeps them from turning into relics.'"
"What brought him to the festival was the desire to direct Shakespeare and other classic plays on a scale comparable to the musicals that have made his name. 'The classics have definitely always been part of my menu as an artist,' he says, 'but it’s become more difficult to do large-canvas works at many theatres. That was one of my struggles at La Jolla. When we did do a classic, it would tend to be a smaller one, just due to resources. The chief reason that I’m here is to work with a company of actors on the classical repertory.'
"His multi-racial Romeo and Juliet (2008) pairs Canadian classical actor Gareth Potter as Romeo with a Juliet played by one of his musical-theatre protégées — U.S. singer-actress Nikki M. James. McAnuff directed James in a revival of The Wiz a couple of years ago, but he says he’s known her since she was a stage-struck kid.
"'She was actually a Stage Door Janie for a show I did on Broadway,' he recalls fondly, referring to his 1995 production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, starring Matthew Broderick and Megan Mullally. 'Nikki used to show up at the theatre as a fan. Megan took a real shine to her, and Nikki and her friend used to perform show tunes for the cast backstage.'
"McAnuff’s second production this season, opening in August, will be one of Stratford’s rare forays into Shaw country: a staging of George Bernard Shaw’s historical comedy Caesar and Cleopatra (2008), starring Christopher Plummer. McAnuff says the play was Plummer’s idea. 'We wanted to do a project together and [Julius Caesar] was a role he really wanted to play. Chris is really an exceptional actor who has a great sense of himself and what he should be doing. He was brilliant in Inherit the Wind on Broadway last year, as was Brian Dennehy.'
"Dennehy is also part of this year’s unusually starry season. Other notables making their Stratford debuts include Hamlet director Adrian Noble, the former head of Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company, and British actor-author Simon Callow, who will be premiering a new solo show based on Shakespeare’s sonnets. McAnuff hopes to bring more star power to Stratford in the future.'From the Alec Guinness days, there’s been a history of that here,' he points out. 'I definitely embrace that tradition. And when you talk of stars,' he adds, 'I’m hoping the projects themselves are going to be stars as well. That’s going to be extremely important.'
"Does McAnuff see Stratford as a potential springboard for commercial productions — perhaps the way the Royal Shakespeare Company under Trevor Nunn spawned West End-Broadway hits like Les Misérables and Nicholas Nickleby?
"'I’d love to do something like that at Stratford,' McAnuff replies. 'There are skills and talents here that could be brought to bear on projects like that, which have a classical association. And I would love to see that happen to the festival in terms of [providing] income streams, too. Royalty income is an awfully nice thing to have.'
"McAnuff doesn’t rule out Stratford as a home for more offbeat efforts, too. Like, say, that Flaming Lips musical. 'It certainly would be unusual,' he admits. But it would fit in with his belief that the festival should be doing more new work. 'I feel it’s critically important, when you’re doing the great plays in the history of theatre, that you put living writers and their works side by side with them,' he says. 'The new work informs the old plays, and keeps them from turning into relics.'"
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