VasquezE 10/30/05 (03:55:56)
forum.colddeadseed.com/vi...c&start=60 Late Starter написала подробный отчет по субботнему мероприятию - моноспектаклю "Макбет", концерту и ВиО. Спасибо Late Starter!
Apparently people started queuing for the first performance around 10 (What for? when we all had numbered seats? Apparently they did get a Hi from James as he went past ). They were quite strict on checking kit – bag searches, no cameras or phones allowed. Long queues for the cloakroom to leave stuff at the first performance though that was much smoother and quicker second time around. Apparently the first performance was filmed – but not the second one I think. Steve said there may be a DVD depending on the quality. “We’re not fussy” came the reply.
Started pretty much on time – there were four chairs along the back of the stage – James came out pre performance and, in director mode, spent 5 minutes adjusting the chairs, bringing the two centre ones forward – going down to the front of the auditorium to check the line of site etc. The two centre ones were used as part of the performance – the two back ones for the actors when they were not performing.
Steve came on to a great cheer , I think this was the point he asked for a copy of a telephone directory as he was sure he’d get a cheer for reading it. Reminded us it was a theatre performance to be treated as such, so no cameras (“if anyone sneaked them in” ). There would be a short Q&A at the end but only for questions on the play – “not what colour of jelly bean do you like”
I suppose you all know that it was a concert version of Macbeth with James as Macbeth and an actress playing Lady Macbeth (Sheryl Puentas – we think?). A great success and wonderful performances – but I am not going to totally uncritical because I think it interesting what things worked and what didn’t. So bear with me. It does not mean I did not love it or that it was not a complete success.
The whole of Macbeth in about 46 minutes is pretty good going (isn’t that the same time as a Buffy episode?). James spoke a narrative describing what was happening and then swapped into part for the soliloquies and the joint scenes with Lady Macbeth. As he explained in the Q&A – James wrote the linking bits “I wrote all the inbetween stuff myself – the other stuff not!”. Really cleverly done, setting it in a historical context as well. The one bit that I felt he needed a bit more was to introduce Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene – that came in cold and anybody who did not know the play (and there were some there) would not have had a clue what was going on. No doubt that was why WS has that boring introductory bit to that scene in the real play – he knew what he was doing. I understand that James introduced an extra line at the end because of some confusion in the first performance but more of that later.
Very impressive, the switch from narrator to Macbeth – very smooth but he used different accents – his native accent (I think) for the narration and (what he explained in the Q&A) a “transatlantic” accent (developed by Edith someone) in which American actors are trained to do Shakespeare.
Lady Macbeth was far more American. As always, James is a generous to his fellow actors – very careful to sit absolutely still when “off stage” – though his trademark pose of knees wide apart, hands hanging down between them is not so easy to ignore. She drank water between her scenes – but let’s face it, she could have stripped and we would not have distracted from James.
Both actors wore black – James in black tee shirt and black jeans – and a dagger stuck in the back of his belt. And they were miked up. Not so sure that I liked that. It did mean in their joint scenes, they could face each other rather than face out to the audience – but some odd effects, when she kissed the top of his head in one scene, we got this echoing sound. Worked well for the first scene between Macbeth and his wife – very physical and hot. And I understand the same scene the first time around was even steamier.
Obviously no other characters there so occasionally he’d be talking to the air – and this led to quite a funny effect in the banqueting scene when Banquo’s ghost showed up. Macbeth dead serious and aggressive to the ghost, Lady M sort of gesticulating to the non existent guests, trying to hide the social disaster – I am not sure it was meant to be as funny as it was.
James performs quite naturalistically, in complete control of what he is doing. He looks out at the audience and directly at individual people, but unlike his singing, I don’t think he focused in. At one point he quite naturally picked up a letter dropped by Lady M in the middle of a long unconnected speech? – tell me did he do that in the first show or was that him doing a discreet rescue? Spoke all the famous lines quite naturally – and an interesting take on the tomorrow and tomorrow speech – very bitter drawn out on the final “nothing”
The final battle with the prophecies coming true and fight with Macduff was extraordinary well done.
And then a sudden and very fast“ And then he cut off his head – The End” Which really worked.
(I understand “he cut off his head” was not in the first show, no wonder some people got confused – so good for James for realising the problem and correcting it)
Then the actors took their bows and he introduced the actress (hence us guessing her name) and then they sat down to take the Q&A. James started by saying normally Macbeth is played as a wimp and Lady M is a bitch, which was not what he’d done What did we think of that? Which rather threw me because that’s not the tradition in the UK. Lady M can be played tough – but Macbeth is always strong, a fighter and a soldier. I understand in the first Q&A, he made it clearer that he was referring to the American tradition.
Other than the one’s I’ve already mentioned, I’ve noted the following questions, grouped in subject rather than the order.
Q: Were M and Lady M in love
A: (Sheryl contributed a bit here) Absolutely … In a sense they were a perfect relationship, she is as strong as he is. But in gaining the crown though, they lost each other. WS is a humanist, he does not differentiate between man and woman or between lawyer or plumber. Unusual to have the woman pushing the man – he cited Robert De Niro being pushed by Joe Peschami (?) in some gangster movie, doing the same sort of thing but not considered strange as they were both men.
Q: What year did you say it was?
A: “I said 650 – this is wrong – maybe I should have said 1150" . (err.. No James, much too late - would 950 be nearer?)
Q: Was it the prophecy’s that made Macbeth act. Or was it about releasing Inner Demons
A: No he would have done it anyway. In his view Duncan had screwed up by appointing his son his heir and not following the tradition of selecting from the Thanes. The witches were not more important than a horoscope. It is all about personal choice and sticking to your own morality. It’s an act of will not fate – all about avoiding temptation and wrong choices – should not betray you own morality just to get what you want. Macbeth knew that once he done the first murder that other murders would follow
It was not the vision about Banquo that made him kill him – Banquo knew what he done – in other words he’d asked for support to get the response “as long as I don’t need to f*** anyone, that’s cool” So Macbeth knew he had to kill him.
Q (from me): Any conflict between keeping the verse and method acting.
A: Yes – Shakespeare and method different – an old actor advised him that the trick with Shakespeare is to just speak the words and get off. And much more but since he was speaking to me, I could not take notes)
(he did not cover the verse aspect – led to an interesting CDS discussion in the interval – aview that James deliberately does not speak the words as verse, and has been heard to say that he does not think he could do it, which is a big loss. What he’s done would make a great film, but on the stage, he would need to include the beauty of the verse - but I see from Paratti's post that she thought the poetry was there? It's all part of a very interesting evening)
Q: Long long support to his view that Macbeth is strong
A: Yes he is a fighter – Macbeth is a soldier, its all about fight or flight – and Macbeth fights. The once version that he thought got it right was Lawrence Olivier in 1953 – he picked up a sword and threatened Banquo’s ghost which is what James did.
Q: Last question from Salchli: What direction would you give to the actors in the other roles
A: Banquo – wrong to play him, as he often is, as an older more comfortable man – he needs to be the same age, a rival
Macduff – a fighter and normally played as so.
Malcolm – normally played as weak or effeminate But he is a fighter – he’ just clever with it.
Then they left to a standing ovation – and it was the interval.
And moving on to the concert – a very different experience to yesterday.
Personally I think James was exhausted – no wonder – his voice was a touch more husky than normal – and for the first half, there was very little of his normal eye contact and flirting. It’s not that he did not give a great performance but it was just not the fun it was yesterday. But in a sense, I got a lot more out of it. What was so great about tonight was the acoustics were magnificent and you really could hear every word (at least you could in row C). And James, a bit down, doing sad songs is heart breaking.
The programme was in a slightly different order – just to confuse me.
Started with BIRTH OF THE BLUES – and then on to EVERYONE (which I think I missed out of the list yesterday), followed by THIS TOWN – sung as well as I’ve heard it.
Then “This one used to be a new one” – ALL SHE WANTED.
And now having actually heard the words, I realise I totally misunderstood this one. The “you” he sings about is the singer, not another person – It’s self referential as Helcat put it (very clever is Helcat). He’s singing about what it was like in the past. And yes it’s very sad. But very beautiful
He did say after this that he was trying not to write depressing songs – he had got out of it, but now he's got back into it. I don’t think that means that he’s depressed – at least I hope it doesn’t – and I must say I love the angsty ones.
Then he started to cheer up – and get more into the swing of it with:
NO PROMISES “this was when I was climbing up “ – and done with some sexy flourishes, I’ve not seen before.
UP ON YOU
LONDON CITY – He could not sing this yesterday as he’d “ripped off the chords from Al” – but Al said OK “why do you think I showed you”
Then LONG TIME, ANGEL, POOR ROBYN – and in all of these he was really acting the words.
“I’m going to do a couple of more slow ones and then plug in for crunchy electrical chords”
Which were of course “FINER THAN GOLD” and my favourite “SMILE”
And finally with that last one, he got the eye contact going – and I descended into to pile of goo ( to steal Wispy’s phrase) and quite forgave him for cheating the low note - he spoke it! (he was tired).
And then having switched on the electricity, right first time for once, we got
LOU – and though this was rocking, the words still crystal clear - I particularly enjoyed the bit about “reversing backwards down a wrong way street … slow down , Lou, don’t want to die”
WHAT I NEED - I don’t like this one on the DVD but it’s terrific in performance
DANGEROUS – and I got a real blast of eye contact on the “pretty little girl etc etc” Um, I don’t match any of the categories of course but I did enjoy it. And he followed up with “Yes you all are”
“I’ve only done one CD so this is really the last one “ CIVILISED MAN
And then he left with “I really love you guys” and for some horrible moments we thought he meant it. But finally he was back with a “Just Kidding” and two more songs
BUTTON DOWN VANDALS, written when he was 21 with a friend with whom he fancied himself a rebel but who is now a highly respectable lawyer. And its such an advantage to hear the words – ‘cos he’s added a verse about how long it’s been since he’s seen his gang and now they’re all doctors and lawyers and TV stars and stuff!
At this point, the puck went flying - "it did not want to come back in"And finally,
GOODBYE “and unfortunately, this is Good Bye. You’ve made me very happy”
And it was over.
Of course, it was back to the Mad Hatter for the swapping of notes and telling of stories and the odd libation. But all too soon, we were on our way and dispersing. All in all, it’s been a great weekend – it was just thrilling to see James acting on stage and to see just how good he is - and I'm becoming a besotted fan for the songs.
And of course it was great to see so many of the CDS family again – and to greet our America gals and guy.
I just hope it is not too long to the next gathering.
******************
But in the evening, Steve Himber did a 10 minute impromptu Q&A because James broke a string - again! he did it in the afternoon too.
First the announcement "James is going back to do his first starring role in a feature film, with Joleen Blacklock (or however she spells her name) - "Shadow Puppets" a psychological thriller. He'll be shooting for 5 weeks and then back to SV
(outside Q&AS, someone asked who was Director - Steve said too soon to give details - he will post the news on the web site on Tuesday)
First question "Will you marry me" coming suspiciously from near Helcat - though she denies it. "Depends on your dowry"
Second question from me (guess what) "What about Harry Dresden?"
Answer: We have not heard from them". He then expanded a bit that casting is done through all sorts of levels in the business - and gets to the actor late. Well at least, he did not say it was a complete goner.
Q: Any more cons planned for UK.
A: Not yet - but will try to schedule here and in the UK. Gets lots of complaints about lack of cons in US - or rather in specific areas in US - Helcat was pleased he mentioned Arizona - They will try and do them but only when they know the dates are firm and nobody will get let down.
Q: What has happened to the presents left for James
A: He gets them all - but Steve is not there when he opens them "that's a private moment!
Then James returned "Have you told them all my secrets"
Late Starter
*********
И дополнительная информация Housewife с MTS
| цитата: |
| Yes! The Play and Concert were videotaped; but Steve told us he will have the tape reviewed by a few sound people; will ONLY sell a video of Words & Music if it's a Good Quality Product. The audience yells back to him, "Sell it Anyway!" But Steve emphasizes he wants to sell a quality dvd so he will have others review it and get feedback before releasing it. |
|
- участник сейчас на форуме
- участник вне форума