Sunday, March 1, 2009

Speak the speech, I pray you...









From the time I was 15 until the time I was 40, I was an actress to varying degrees. During college I stepped out of the spotlight, but throughout high school and from graduation at the age of 21, when I went to work in New York City and until I moved back to my childhood home on Long Island, I was an actress at one level or another. From 21 on, a professional.

I studied at Stella Adler, The Fifth Avenue Playhouse (which is long defunct), The Herbert Berghoff Studio and The Roundabout. I studied with a variety of teachers, and I studied a variety of genres, from Moliere to Shakespeare, Greek to Shaw and everyone from Ibsen and Checkhov to Williams and Shepard.

I was a theater patron, as well. Off-off-Broadway - so far off as to travel to Hartford Stage and the Augusta Opera House - and on Broadway. I saw some greats. Memorable performances and jaw dropping talent the memories of which are still with me. I was taken to the theatre as an elementary school aged child by my Father. I belonged to my High School's "Culture Vultures" club and we drove into Manhattan on the ubiquitous yellow school bus to troop into such productions as One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, The River Niger and Tommy.

As an actress I was fortunate to acquire an abiding respect for, and love of, dramatic literature. While it takes some getting used to, as reading material, it ultimately is a marvelous reading experience as well. Shakespeare, of course, the Greek and Roman playwrights, Medieval passion plays, Marlowe, Jonson, Ibsen, Chekhov, Shaw, O'Neill, Hellman, Behan, Pinter, Inge, Miller and so many, many more.

And there were other theatrical events. PBS presented in its entirety the 13 episode educational experience, Playing Shakespeare, with young and vital actors who became the staple of great theatre and film - Judi Dench and Ian McKellan to name just two. "Who Am I This Time?" A PBS film with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken about two souls who discover their dreams while acting in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The TONY Awards, Inside the Actors Studio, and the Saturday afternoon roundtables presented by the TONY folks where directors, writers, actors all expounded on their craft.

The cost of theatre makes it very expensive to attend now. I have not been to live theatre in many years, both because of the cost as well as the difficulty in commuting after a long night at the theatre.

I love the theatre - both dramatic as well as musical theatre. I have been a student of the history of the theatre and the luminous personages who populated it, both in front of, and behind the footlights.

I have a good friend who had never attended a play in her life. At an age in her mid-forties she was presented with the opportunity to see her first live play. While the relationship that she had did not continue, she discovered an enthusiasm and a love for theatre that has turned her into an inveterate theatre goer who enjoys everything from contemporary musicals like In The Heights, to Shakespearean productions at tiny theatres and everything in between.

Because the theatre is a world unto itself. Unlike celluloid or video, it is immediate. The energy cannot be recaptured on film. And when an audience leans forward, willing, no eager, to be a participant in the action, the connection with the actors on the stage is like a conduit for electricity.

There's nothing like it in the world.