Food for Thought: Why I Do Theatre

I thought I must post this video of the teacher I studied with over my Spring Break. She is so inspiring and her thoughts blow my mind. She validates all artists. I will be studying with her again over the summer and cannot wait.

Review of August: Osage County

While we didn't study this play in English, I thought that it was relevant to the class. Theater is continuing and writing is continuing and it is still transforming. So here is my review of the Pulitzer Prize Winning play by Tracy Letts. I had to compose this for my theater course.

A few weeks ago I had the supreme pleasure of watching the national tour of Tracy Letts’s August: Osage County. It was an impressive ensemble led by the divine Estelle Parsons and the brilliant Shannon Cochran playing the principal female roles. After I watched this mammoth play (a three and half hour long drama with two intermissions) my first thought was: the American theater is not dead. Sometimes in the age of pop musicals and movie stars attempting stage work, it seems that progress moves very slowly for serious plays and authors. After watching Tracy Letts’s searing family drama my hope in the future of American theater is a secure once again.
The play opens with the disappearance of the Weston family patriarch Beverly Weston (Jon DeVries) in Osage County, Oklahoma. He sets the tone for the entire play by describing the pact that he and his wife, Violet, have struck: he drinks, she pops pills. Even though Beverly is never seen apart from the opening scene, Jon DeVries delivered a commanding and sorrowful performance; it left me certainly hoping he would reappear.
Enter down the cascading ivory staircases, the matriarch Violet Weston. Sometimes inaudible in her dialogue—she is revealed to have cancer of the mouth—Estelle Parsons is anything but inaudible in her performance. As, an actor just beginning her journey, it’s incredibly inspiring to see a veteran performer at the top of her game. Violet is at once a deplorable character, she verbally attacks the family that has gathered to help her, yet also a terribly lost character. Estelle Parsons gave a pitch-perfect performance and deserves every accolade she has received in this role.
The three tormented Weston Sisters: Barbara Fordham, Ivy Weston, and Karen Weston were played to delicious and tragic effect by Shannon Cochran, Angelica Torn, and Amy Warren. Besides Violet, Barbara is the most fully developed character in the play. It was incredible to see Shannon Cochran play the full arc of the character. I think Barbara’s character hits at the truth of what no daughter likes to admit: she is turning into her mother. Ivy Weston is played perfectly as the middle child trying to push her way in between her older and younger sisters; my heart broke as Angelica Torn played the scene were Ivy found out that the love of her life was indeed her brother. Finally, the least developed of the sisters, but scene-stealing nonetheless is Amy Warren’s performance as Karen Weston. She captured the flightiness of the character but, I would have liked to have seen more of the vulnerability and insecurity the character has by being the youngest.
It was hard to ignore the loud-mouth that is Mattie Fae Aiken (Violet’s sister) and her husband Charles Aiken, whose husband-wife team foil the decay of Violet’s and Beverly’s marriage. While Mattie Fae had some of the funniest lines in the play, I found the relationship between Charles, and she and Little Charles very troubling. I find it hard to believe that Mattie Fae could have lived with the secret of Little Charles’ paternity for most of her adult life. This family unit was superbly brought to life by Libby George, Paul Vincent O’Connor, and Steve Key as Little Charles.
The supporting cast members and characters were all equally well-drawn out roles even if the audience doesn’t see much of them. For example the rebellious pot-smoking granddaughter, Jean Fordham (Emily Kinney), the Native American housekeeper Johnna (played by DeLanna Studi—a very calming presence in an erupting household), and Karen Weston’s fiancé, Steve (Laurence Lau), and last but not least, the very admirable small-town sheriff Deon (Marcus Nelson).
I feel privileged to have witnessed the emergence of a formidable new playwright and a stunning new play. I think even if the actors had not been up to par that the text would have spoken for itself, for Tracy Letts has managed to create a piece of work that reinforces perhaps the only universal truth in this world: we are all fundamentally alone.

Fiona Shaw reading poetry

I actually can't resist posting a video of actress Fiona Shaw reading poetry. There are no words....just listen.

Poetry Unit 3-- Langston Hughes

I really enjoyed the poetry we had to read for this week. But, I was especially drawn to the poetry of Langston Hughes. I’ve had to read many of his poems throughout my academic career but, this time the reading took me on a journey. I read ALL of his poems that appear in the book and really loved The Negro Speaks of Rivers. It not only reminded me of the African experience in America but of Africa and the spirit of that continent. “I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” (Hughes 974). I thought his imagery was incredible as that line shows. It indeed conjures up the image of humanity that has past. I also think the poem explores the idea of human growth and change and understanding. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” (Hughes 974). This poem touched me deeply as I feel I am going through a transformative period and where I am deciding what steps to take to move forward. I feel the speaker in the poem really achieved this feeling of deep understanding, I feel the speaker has lived and experienced. “I’ve known rivers: ancient, dusky rivers” (Hughes). This makes me want to read more Langston Hughes poetry—it’s brilliant!

Here is the absolutely wonderful Audra McDonald singing another one of Hughes's poems, Dream Variations. The clip is quite old, so hopefully the sound will hold up...Enjoy!

Gwendolyn Brooks--The Mother

I really enjoyed the poems we had to read this week, not only because they are all written by women but, they address many issues that I feel don’t get explored in poetry like abortion, parents and family, and other literature. I thought all of the poems were very powerful but, I was particularly intrigued by Brooks’ The Mother. I thought it was an effective way to look at abortion (I really felt the horror of the decision) and the consequences of that decision as played out in the poem. It’s clear how the author creates her character (or her own voice) in the beginning of the poem “Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get,” (Brooks 1027). I like that she is so blunt with that statement—it jolts the reader into her head and to her feelings. She is not afraid of the feelings that come along with a life altering decision like this as she goes on “I have heard the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children”(Brooks 1027). I guess that is what struck me most—Brooks, as a writer and as a woman, is not shying away from something as controversial as this issue. I think this issue is also not discussed on the emotional levels that it should be—we are too eager to blame or to pity—I don’t think there is a right answer. I was quite moved by the last two lines “Believe me, I loved you all. Believe me, I knew you well, though faintly, and I loved, I loved you All” (Brooks 1028).

Here is a link to some more information about Gwendolyn Brooks.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=843

Because this poem deals with the deep bonds between a mother and child (in this case children not brought to term), I decided to do a mini-picspam of the mother-child image. Also, it's Mother's Day on Sunday...

















Notice how the behavior is ALL the same? Cross cultures? Species?

Poetry Unit 2--Wilfred Owen and A.E. Housman

It was very difficult choosing a poem to explore for this post as I really enjoyed the ones we had to read for the week. The poem that I really was struck by was Wilfred Owens’s Dulce et Decorum Est. The theme is made quite clear by Owen’s use of imagery and tone from the opening line “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks…we cursed through sludge.” His language is so vivid that he creates the entire scene for the reader and it’s not a pretty one, we can SEE all of the horror he had to endure. “Behind the wagon that we flung him in, and watch the white eyes writhing in his face” is a line that rather stayed with me as I read. He very bravely puts forth the idea that war is not beautiful or courageous because of his experiences. “To children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country).” I think this poem should be read more often because of the all of the on-going wars in the world—we don’t learn do we?

I think this poem might just be imperative for our times with the ever constant Iraq War conflict. I think that some of this years films have been great in highlighting the idiocy of what we are NOT achieving in the Middle East. I actually don't understand how we FAIL to look to the past to help us with the future. I mean did no one learn anything from the last century that was dominated by war?

Here is the trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's 2010 Oscar winning film, The Hurt Locker



And now to change tones completely, I was particularly fond of A.E. Housman’s To An Athlete Dying Young. When I read this beautiful poem I kept thinking: Where have I heard that before? And of course if anyone has seen the 1985 Oscar winning epic Out of Africa one might remember it being read by Meryl Streep. I hold Karen Blixen's book and this film completely resonsible for my decision to go to Africa. For once it is in your blood you can't ever get it out. Here is the scene from Out of Africa, directed by the late Sydney Pollack.

Poetry Unit 1--John Donne's Death Be Not Proud

I will be diving our poetry unit into three separate posts. After our intro to poetry, we studied Shakespearean Sonnets and other poets with who wrote complicated figurative language. One of those poets was metaphysical poet, John Donne, know for his religious and erotic verse. I think some of his images and words are some of the most beautiful in the English language. It seems that with authors like Shakespeare and Donne, that one doesn't have to do any work at all--it's all in the text. I learned the full power of text over my Spring Break at the workshop I attended. So, in actual fact the phrase "sticks and stones can break my bones but, words can never hurt me" is completely wrong. I think words have power beyond any bomb or physical torture. One of my favorite poems by Donne is perhaps his most famous, Death Be Not Proud. I felt such a keen emotional attachment to it that I decided to paraphrase it for our assignment. I think the poem is universal because we all have to face life and death, it's the struggle or acceptance that separates people. Here are Donne's words in their entirety.


DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.


I think another source of my attachment to his work stems from a film I saw a few years ago called Wit with Emma Thompson. It is a brilliant film by Mike Nichols about an English Professor dying of cancer whose main focus is John Donne. I'm not going to say too much more about the film as I feel everyone should experience it themselves. But, it's a heartbreaking portrait of one woman's search for truth as she is dying, you will cry.

Here is a scene with Emma Thompson and Eileen Atkins from HBO's Wit.