June 2011
“IS A PUZZLEMENT”
By Roberta Cashwell
Who doesn’t remember the lusciously elegant scene in the movie, THE KING & I, when Deborah Kerr sweeps Yul Brynner off his feet and around the palace ballroom to the strains of “Shall We Dance?”
The 1956 film brought sudden fame to the relatively unknown Brynner, who not only made the role his own but also redirected the story’s emphasis to the King, not Anna.
Adapted from Margaret Landon’s novel, ANNA & THE KING OF SIAM, the movie and the musical play are set in 1860’s Bangkok in the court of King Mongkut. This progressive king has hired a strong-willed English widow, Anna Leonowens, to teach his many children. The play opens with Anna’s arrival, and the battle of wills begins when Anna learns that the King has reneged on his promise that she would live in her own house, rather than in the palace as a servant. From there, the two clash, even as they fall in love (the best kind of romance), until the bittersweet end.
The musical opened on Broadway in March 1951, and played for over 1200 performances. Gertrude Lawrence (who had conceived the musical and for whom it was written) played Anna to Brynner’s King. Contractually, she was to have portrayed the role in the film as well, but she died of cancer during the Broadway run.
Both the musical and the movie were financial and critical successes. However, they had been considered risky ventures when Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II initially adapted Landon’s novel. After all, neither hero nor heroine falls overtly in love and, in the end, the hero dies. What’s more, there is nothing steamier than a “kiss in a shadow.”
A puzzlement, indeed.
Nonetheless, for over 60 years, audiences have come again and again to watch Anna match wit and will to the King’s and to learn of tolerance for cultures foreign to one’s own...
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Symphony comes to town again. Encore.
Another summer. Another concert. Another year has rushed by.
A year since I wrote the first piece for this blog about the NC Symphony's annual concert on the Town Common.
Today, with temperatures reaching 100 and the heat index climbing above it, the powers that be decreed a change of venue. Over the course of the afternoon, the change was accomplished, picnic plans were hastily cancelled, and families with kids made last minute decisions about whether "everyone" would enjoy the music as well indoors as they had "out."
As late as 7:00, thirty minutes before the curtain rose, the place was deserted. Had everyone just blown it off due to the heat or the indoor setting?
By 7:15, however, the audience was pouring in.
By 7:30, the concert had started; all eyes were focused forward, and the triple digit temperatures melted away outside. Instead, the music warmed and mesmerized us for an hour and fifteen minutes.
Then we soared to encore, "I'll Fly Away."
Another summer. Another concert. Another year has rushed by.
A year since I wrote the first piece for this blog about the NC Symphony's annual concert on the Town Common.
Today, with temperatures reaching 100 and the heat index climbing above it, the powers that be decreed a change of venue. Over the course of the afternoon, the change was accomplished, picnic plans were hastily cancelled, and families with kids made last minute decisions about whether "everyone" would enjoy the music as well indoors as they had "out."
As late as 7:00, thirty minutes before the curtain rose, the place was deserted. Had everyone just blown it off due to the heat or the indoor setting?
By 7:15, however, the audience was pouring in.
By 7:30, the concert had started; all eyes were focused forward, and the triple digit temperatures melted away outside. Instead, the music warmed and mesmerized us for an hour and fifteen minutes.
Then we soared to encore, "I'll Fly Away."
Sunday, May 15, 2011
It's a Wonderful Life -- Tar River Players -- December 2010
Director’s Note
“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole. . .” Clarence Odbody
Angels come into our lives in all shapes and sizes and from many directions.
Sometimes, they pass through without our even being aware. At other times, in moments of crisis, we are forced to stand up and pay attention. Often, that means taking a hard look at our lives and ourselves and figuring out what’s really important. If we’re lucky, we get the opportunity earlier, rather than later, in life.
But, whenever we come to that bridge, we are fortunate to be able to stand on it and take measure. And when we cross to the other side, we have been blessed with a gift from the angels.
From the Tar River Players, this show is dedicated to Tarboro, on the occasion of her 250th birthday. May you have hundreds more.
Merry Christmas!
“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole. . .” Clarence Odbody
Angels come into our lives in all shapes and sizes and from many directions.
Sometimes, they pass through without our even being aware. At other times, in moments of crisis, we are forced to stand up and pay attention. Often, that means taking a hard look at our lives and ourselves and figuring out what’s really important. If we’re lucky, we get the opportunity earlier, rather than later, in life.
But, whenever we come to that bridge, we are fortunate to be able to stand on it and take measure. And when we cross to the other side, we have been blessed with a gift from the angels.
From the Tar River Players, this show is dedicated to Tarboro, on the occasion of her 250th birthday. May you have hundreds more.
Merry Christmas!
Affairs of the Heart
AFFAIRS OF THE HEART
How bad does life have to get before you hang yourself and your cat? Shoot your husband?
Run away from your hometown to California to work in a dog food factory?
Sound like tragedy? Or just a “really bad day?” In the hands of Mississippi born playwright,
Beth Henley, the material is always both comic and tragic, zany and sad – and ultimately richly
wise.
Henley was born in Jackson, Mississippi and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from
Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Her first professionally produced play was CRIMES OF THE HEART, which won the prestigious
Great American Play Contest of the Actors’ Theater of Louisville before going on to Broadway
in 1981, winning the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best Play of
the 1981 season, a Guggenheim Award, and a Tony nomination. In the playwright’s words, it
ensured that she would “never have to work in a dog-food factory again.”
CRIMES OF THE HEART is about the three McGrath sisters who grew up in the small town
of Hazlehurst, Mississippi and have gathered again at the beginning of the play to confront
family crises – the impending death of the grandfather who raised them and the arrest of the
youngest sister, Babe, for shooting her Senator husband in the stomach because she “didn’t
like his looks.” On this day, as well, Lennie, the oldest sister and “old maid” caregiver of their
grandfather turns thirty-five – an age that marks a sad landmark in her lonely life.
At first glance these unfortunate events seem the stuff of serious drama, but not so as realized
by Henley’s quirky vision. We laugh far more than we cry as we are drawn into their sometimes
awkward efforts to solve, or at least deal with, their family dilemmas.
Henley also wrote the screenplay for the 1986 film of CRIMES OF THE HEART, which starred
Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek, and featured Sam Shepard.
In the Tar River Players’ production, the cast includes familiar and new onstage faces. While
local theatre goers will remember Dawn Whitehurst, Tiffany Clark, Kate Brittain and Inie
Ribustello from previous Player shows, two actors and one actress are making their Tarboro
debuts -- Damariscotta Helm, John Brooks Langston, and Dillon Rogers. Together they create
an ensemble that is not to be missed.
Do yourself a Spring favor and go see this show!
How bad does life have to get before you hang yourself and your cat? Shoot your husband?
Run away from your hometown to California to work in a dog food factory?
Sound like tragedy? Or just a “really bad day?” In the hands of Mississippi born playwright,
Beth Henley, the material is always both comic and tragic, zany and sad – and ultimately richly
wise.
Henley was born in Jackson, Mississippi and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from
Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Her first professionally produced play was CRIMES OF THE HEART, which won the prestigious
Great American Play Contest of the Actors’ Theater of Louisville before going on to Broadway
in 1981, winning the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best Play of
the 1981 season, a Guggenheim Award, and a Tony nomination. In the playwright’s words, it
ensured that she would “never have to work in a dog-food factory again.”
CRIMES OF THE HEART is about the three McGrath sisters who grew up in the small town
of Hazlehurst, Mississippi and have gathered again at the beginning of the play to confront
family crises – the impending death of the grandfather who raised them and the arrest of the
youngest sister, Babe, for shooting her Senator husband in the stomach because she “didn’t
like his looks.” On this day, as well, Lennie, the oldest sister and “old maid” caregiver of their
grandfather turns thirty-five – an age that marks a sad landmark in her lonely life.
At first glance these unfortunate events seem the stuff of serious drama, but not so as realized
by Henley’s quirky vision. We laugh far more than we cry as we are drawn into their sometimes
awkward efforts to solve, or at least deal with, their family dilemmas.
Henley also wrote the screenplay for the 1986 film of CRIMES OF THE HEART, which starred
Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek, and featured Sam Shepard.
In the Tar River Players’ production, the cast includes familiar and new onstage faces. While
local theatre goers will remember Dawn Whitehurst, Tiffany Clark, Kate Brittain and Inie
Ribustello from previous Player shows, two actors and one actress are making their Tarboro
debuts -- Damariscotta Helm, John Brooks Langston, and Dillon Rogers. Together they create
an ensemble that is not to be missed.
Do yourself a Spring favor and go see this show!
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