Doubt?!?!?!
Doubt?!?!?!
minicko88
Featured Actor Joined: 7/12/07
#1Doubt?!?!?!
Posted: 5/18/09 at 2:40pmI love the stage version of Doubt... I have seen the magnificant play twice... When I saw the play, I was sure that Father Flynn was guilty. However, in the movie, I was convinced that the priest was innocent. I am so confused? Your thoughts?
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#2re: Doubt?!?!?!
Posted: 5/18/09 at 2:45pmhttp://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722045801AAVbsOW
minicko88
Featured Actor Joined: 7/12/07
#2re: Doubt?!?!?!
Posted: 5/18/09 at 3:07pm
Blaxx, I have a website that can help you out!
http://www.wikihow.com/Cope-With-Having-No-Friends
#3re: Doubt?!?!?!
Posted: 5/18/09 at 3:49pm
WHO WANTS A COOKIE!?!? 
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
TalkinLoud
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/3/09
#5re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:20pmThe whole point of the play is ambiguity. You're supposed to watch the play and leave with your own interpretation. And it also depends on how the director wants it to play out. The title itself lends itself to this motif: you're supposed to doubt yourself (and the characters).
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#6re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:25pm
Cookies! :)
#7re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:29pm
Are they breathing? Then they're Cookies.
Are they moving? Then they're Cookies.
Are they living? Then they're Cookies.
So get on with it! Quick, get on with it!
Feb. 28 - Looped, Feb. 28 - Next to Normal, March 4 - Hair, March 11 - A Little Night Music, March 24 - Time Stands Still, April 6 - La Cage Aux Folles, April 10 - Anyone Can Whistle (City Center), April 10 - Looped, May 9 - Enron, May 15 - A Little Night Music, May 15 - A Behanding In Spokane, May 30 - A Behanding In Spokane, May 30 - A Little Night Music, June 20 - A Little Night Music, June 23 - Red, June 23 - Sondheim on Sondheim, July 13 - A Little Night Music, July 18 - The Grand Manner (Lincoln Center)
#8re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:32pm
omg those look good
in all seriousness, it's the point of the story if you didn't get it. and if you did, you kinda worded the post wrong. and there have been posts about this subject before. just search.
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#9re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:37pm
"magnificant"
#10re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:38pm
Yeah, do you mind not doing cookies, y'all? I've had four packs go missing in the last week before I've eaten a single cookie from any of them, and it's a bit of a sore spot. 
I heard Shanley likes to whisper the truth in his Flynns' ears. I believe this means there is a definitive answer, but I also believe this mean that unless you are Brian O'Byrne or Philip Seymour Hoffman, it's not ours for the knowing.
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#11re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:42pm
Who stole your cookies?
Who makes you
Doubt?!?!?!
#12re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 5:48pm
Who stole the cookies from Weez's jar?
Blaxx stole the cookies from Weez's jar!
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
#13re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 6:07pm
I just finished directing Doubt for a school project, but after thsi thread, I wish I had directed Blaxx as the Cookie Monster in the one-man show "Eat 'Em COOOOOKIIIIESSSS!!!!: The New Musical".
It would have been fierce.
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#14re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 6:24pm
I would have made you a proud director! I'm a character actor.
#15re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 6:33pmI think Father Flynn is innocent... but I also agree that you are supposed to leave with your own feelings and that ambiguity is the key.
#16re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/18/09 at 9:50pmWhat I love about the play is that you don't know. When I went with my friends to see the movie, when we left none of us could agree on whether he was innocent or not. Another thing we argued about was the final line when Streep's character says she has so much doubt. What she meant by that was the main conversation of the night. I believe I read somewhere that again the author only told the actor who played the priest.
#17re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/19/09 at 12:16am
Since i just directed the shindig, and having read it hundreds of times, I think the answer is kind of obvious, as to whether he did it or not. Read the play a couple times over, and if you really want to know my (very passionate) viewpoint, PM me.
and Blaxx, you WILL make me a proud director. Can't wait to work with you. Cookie Monster is a terrific role and I'm sure you'll rock the house when you belt and sustain that high A for 197 bars. watch out broadway, you'll never think about chocolate chips the same way again.
jejr
Stand-by Joined: 11/29/08
#18re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/19/09 at 12:33am
My brother, who is a priest, and I have opposite opinions. He says he is guilty and I say not. I thought there might be a hint in the special features of the DVD. There is a panal discussion of all the leads and Shanley but they give no opinion.
Two interesting points: Shanley says that he had the title of the play before he wrote it. He just wanted to write a play titled "Doubt".
Sister James is based on a teacher he had in grammer school and she is interviewed briefly in the special features.
TalkinLoud
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/3/09
#19re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/19/09 at 12:36am
If you've really read the play a couple times, I don't see how that makes anything more obvious. The whole play is an allegory for spiritual doubt. You can NEVER know for sure one way or the other.
Updated On: 5/19/09 at 12:36 AM
#20re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/19/09 at 9:42am
No matter how many times you've read it, if it's "obvious" to you, then I think the playwright failed.
Byron Abens
Broadway Star Joined: 7/17/08
#21re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/19/09 at 10:06am
Having worked on the show I think it is important that the director and the actor playing Father Flynn have that private discussion to determine two things. What happened at his previous parish that he is concerned about Sister Aloysius discovering, and what did happen at St. Nicholas? The actor and director need that grounding to keep the character consistent and real. The two of them can not be in doubt, as it were, otherwise the story does not come together. This is something our director and Father Flynn did, and, naturally, kept from the rest of the cast and production team until after the final performance, when the actor revealed what his back story was.
But yes, the script is definitely and intentionally left open ended and there is absolutely no clear and definitive answer as to what Father Flynn has or hasn't done. It must be an individual choice for each actor/director combo, but a choice that must be made for each production to succeed.
Brick
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/21/06
#24re: Doubt?
Posted: 5/19/09 at 12:49pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrPeQ14n5tE
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
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