#1
Posted: 11/5/12 at 5:09pm
Wow.
"I saw a production of The Robber Bridegroom, and Patti LuPone was--and is, I would imagine--everything I wanted.
Shattered from some particularly volatile and beautiful Italian marble, she was bold and barely controlled, but in the best way. All burners on. Genius, I have always believed, is terribly impatient, because it understands that its outlets are ephemeral. When an artist is working with a full commitment toward expression, nothing should be allowed to stand in its way. When you have a Laurette Taylor or a [Anna] Magnani or a [Marlon] Brando, you, the director, the designer, and--I'm sorry to say--the supporting players must circle around the primary talent, the primary instrument, and allow its work to be seen in the brightest possible light, the largest space available.
Attention, I believe another wrote, must be paid.
LuPone deserves the large, bright circle.
LuPone's is an impatient talent, occasionally touched, I must insist, by genius. There was genius in The Robber Bridegroom and there was genius in Evita, and in both instances the genius emanated from an actress who happened to be capable of singing. I know the difference. I've been around.
Hers is a ferocious talent, and I want to get my hands on it. I want to warm my hands and my heart around it. I want her to stand on a stage and demand my words and I will write powerfully again. She could play Serafina [in The Rose Tattoo], but I want to travel abroad with her to new places; avenues where I am a stranger.
I don't think she knows fear or the concept of limitation.
She needs a good director.
She needs a good writer.
I think I can be a good writer again, and I think I might be able to find a good director to harness her gifts.
Abundance is what she brings to a stage. The staggering beauty is talent: a harvest. It needs to be husbanded, conserved, directed, pushed into the proper place and upon a hungry audience."
- Tennessee Williams
"I saw a production of The Robber Bridegroom, and Patti LuPone was--and is, I would imagine--everything I wanted.
Shattered from some particularly volatile and beautiful Italian marble, she was bold and barely controlled, but in the best way. All burners on. Genius, I have always believed, is terribly impatient, because it understands that its outlets are ephemeral. When an artist is working with a full commitment toward expression, nothing should be allowed to stand in its way. When you have a Laurette Taylor or a [Anna] Magnani or a [Marlon] Brando, you, the director, the designer, and--I'm sorry to say--the supporting players must circle around the primary talent, the primary instrument, and allow its work to be seen in the brightest possible light, the largest space available.
Attention, I believe another wrote, must be paid.
LuPone deserves the large, bright circle.
LuPone's is an impatient talent, occasionally touched, I must insist, by genius. There was genius in The Robber Bridegroom and there was genius in Evita, and in both instances the genius emanated from an actress who happened to be capable of singing. I know the difference. I've been around.
Hers is a ferocious talent, and I want to get my hands on it. I want to warm my hands and my heart around it. I want her to stand on a stage and demand my words and I will write powerfully again. She could play Serafina [in The Rose Tattoo], but I want to travel abroad with her to new places; avenues where I am a stranger.
I don't think she knows fear or the concept of limitation.
She needs a good director.
She needs a good writer.
I think I can be a good writer again, and I think I might be able to find a good director to harness her gifts.
Abundance is what she brings to a stage. The staggering beauty is talent: a harvest. It needs to be husbanded, conserved, directed, pushed into the proper place and upon a hungry audience."
- Tennessee Williams
