#1
Posted: 6/10/05 at 4:06pm
Here's the story behind why Clark had that big handheld mic at the beginning of PIAZZA's Tony performance. From Andrew Gans' Diva Talk column on Playbill.com:
"Performing on the Tony Awards under normal circumstances must be stressful; producers and actors know they have but three minutes to try to sell their production to the viewing audience. But how much pressure would someone feel when told — just moments before going onstage — that her body microphone wasn't working? Such was the case Sunday night for Clark. "They thought my mic wasn't working," Clark explained. "There was a panic about that, so they handed me a huge [hand-held] mic. All the color drained out of my face. I just felt like the world dropped into my throat. And then Kelli, who comes in from stage right, saw me. Meanwhile, Adam [Guettel's] giving his acceptance speech for Best Score. And, [Kelli] says, 'Vicki, it's okay, it's okay. You're the narrator. It's fine, just go with it, go with it!' Then Mark Harelik and Jennifer [Hughes] popped their heads out of the little tower that was ready to go stage right, and they were screaming encouragement. It was very sweet. Everybody knew how crazy it was. Once I had their support I thought, 'Well, it can't get any crazier than this,' and it was fine." Clark said a sound person standing right off camera gave her updates via "wild sign language," and midway through the scene she was able to rely on her body microphone.
"To go back and look at [the Tony] tape," Clark related, "I can see that clearly I'm preoccupied with a million thoughts. I'm just proud that I didn't completely lose it on live TV," she added with a laugh. "There was a moment there where I was like, 'This is really funny.' Theatre is live and stuff happens all the time — good and bad — that we have to deal with. But the fact that we have three minutes to do the number [on TV]. We were really proud of the way the number came off though, and we're doing very well at the box office, so I think we did okay." In fact, Light in the Piazza has just extended its engagement once again: the Guettel-Craig Lucas musical will now play through Jan. 1, 2006.
Winning a Tony Award is a dream of any theatre actor, but Clark admitted that she had given up on that fantasy. "About five years ago I stopped dreaming about [winning a Tony] because I decided that it wasn't going to be the key to whether I was happy or not. There's something lovely about letting go, about not needing that to be so important. So [this year] I was just so happy to get the part and then be nominated. And, of course, [I was] thrilled and so excited to win it, but the other ladies in my category are so lovely and so skilled. They're so adorable — Sherie and Erin and Sutton and Christina. They're all beautiful. We've had fun running into each other and hanging out, and I wanted us all to be able to win that and share it and have fun together."
When asked whether there's anyone she forgot to thank during her acceptance speech, Clark answered, "There's no one that I forgot to thank, but I could have made the whole speech about [director] Bartlett Sher because he was such an inspirational director, and he's a teaching director, so I'm a much better actor now than I was when we started rehearsals. The whole speech could have been about my family, the strong women in my family who are survivors and who have lifted us up through their compassion and their love. They were all character studies for this role. The whole speech could have been about the teachers I've had, unbelievable teachers. The whole speech could have been about my students because I think I became a much better actor by having to articulate what I do. I know I've become a better artist by teaching, and I have unbelievable students. There's just not enough time in 50 seconds! The whole speech could have been about this cast. They're the most loving, generous, talented group of people. We all look out for each other. We all have each other's back. I look forward to seeing everyone in that theatre every night. The whole speech could have been about the design team. Cathy Zuber basically handed me my character with the costumes, and to wander in that set with those lights, you really are transformed. And, so it's not that I forgot people, it's just that there wasn't time to go into the detail that I wanted to!"
Teachers, students and designers aside, there was probably no one in the Radio City Music Hall audience Sunday night more proud of Clark than Thomas Luke Guest, her son. The curly haired ten-year-old beamed as Clark accepted her award, and she concluded her speech by saying Guest is "the light in my piazza." Clark, in fact, let her son take her Tony Award to school with him earlier this week. "He took it to school wrapped up in a towel in a little bag, and then he would show it to people one at a time like it was a rare species of monkey. As soon as people looked at it and touched it, he would cover it back up with the towel again. It was so sweet, and then we passed it around and everybody got to hold it. It's not engraved yet, so I told the children it could be everybody's Tony for awhile."
About her first night back in Piazza after the show won six Tonys, Clark explained, "I got nice entrance applause, [but] I basically wanted to run back and hide behind the set and put a bag over my head. . . . It was a little bit intimidating and very humbling because I've always been sort of the underdog who's never won anything, and now, all of a sudden, with this part I think people are watching [me] in a different way. I've always wanted to do my best, but now I just feel there's an expectation that feels different."
"I really just hope that people come out and see the show," Clark added. "This show has changed my life, and it's changed the life of so many people. I'm not saying it changed my life because it was such a wonderful career opportunity. It changed my life because the material itself is transformative. You actually go through a transformation saying these words and singing this music. Many people who've seen the show tell me the same thing — that they are changed from having seen the piece. They feel lighter, somehow something's been lifted from them, some burden. I just want people to have that experience."
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/93459.html
"Performing on the Tony Awards under normal circumstances must be stressful; producers and actors know they have but three minutes to try to sell their production to the viewing audience. But how much pressure would someone feel when told — just moments before going onstage — that her body microphone wasn't working? Such was the case Sunday night for Clark. "They thought my mic wasn't working," Clark explained. "There was a panic about that, so they handed me a huge [hand-held] mic. All the color drained out of my face. I just felt like the world dropped into my throat. And then Kelli, who comes in from stage right, saw me. Meanwhile, Adam [Guettel's] giving his acceptance speech for Best Score. And, [Kelli] says, 'Vicki, it's okay, it's okay. You're the narrator. It's fine, just go with it, go with it!' Then Mark Harelik and Jennifer [Hughes] popped their heads out of the little tower that was ready to go stage right, and they were screaming encouragement. It was very sweet. Everybody knew how crazy it was. Once I had their support I thought, 'Well, it can't get any crazier than this,' and it was fine." Clark said a sound person standing right off camera gave her updates via "wild sign language," and midway through the scene she was able to rely on her body microphone.
"To go back and look at [the Tony] tape," Clark related, "I can see that clearly I'm preoccupied with a million thoughts. I'm just proud that I didn't completely lose it on live TV," she added with a laugh. "There was a moment there where I was like, 'This is really funny.' Theatre is live and stuff happens all the time — good and bad — that we have to deal with. But the fact that we have three minutes to do the number [on TV]. We were really proud of the way the number came off though, and we're doing very well at the box office, so I think we did okay." In fact, Light in the Piazza has just extended its engagement once again: the Guettel-Craig Lucas musical will now play through Jan. 1, 2006.
Winning a Tony Award is a dream of any theatre actor, but Clark admitted that she had given up on that fantasy. "About five years ago I stopped dreaming about [winning a Tony] because I decided that it wasn't going to be the key to whether I was happy or not. There's something lovely about letting go, about not needing that to be so important. So [this year] I was just so happy to get the part and then be nominated. And, of course, [I was] thrilled and so excited to win it, but the other ladies in my category are so lovely and so skilled. They're so adorable — Sherie and Erin and Sutton and Christina. They're all beautiful. We've had fun running into each other and hanging out, and I wanted us all to be able to win that and share it and have fun together."
When asked whether there's anyone she forgot to thank during her acceptance speech, Clark answered, "There's no one that I forgot to thank, but I could have made the whole speech about [director] Bartlett Sher because he was such an inspirational director, and he's a teaching director, so I'm a much better actor now than I was when we started rehearsals. The whole speech could have been about my family, the strong women in my family who are survivors and who have lifted us up through their compassion and their love. They were all character studies for this role. The whole speech could have been about the teachers I've had, unbelievable teachers. The whole speech could have been about my students because I think I became a much better actor by having to articulate what I do. I know I've become a better artist by teaching, and I have unbelievable students. There's just not enough time in 50 seconds! The whole speech could have been about this cast. They're the most loving, generous, talented group of people. We all look out for each other. We all have each other's back. I look forward to seeing everyone in that theatre every night. The whole speech could have been about the design team. Cathy Zuber basically handed me my character with the costumes, and to wander in that set with those lights, you really are transformed. And, so it's not that I forgot people, it's just that there wasn't time to go into the detail that I wanted to!"
Teachers, students and designers aside, there was probably no one in the Radio City Music Hall audience Sunday night more proud of Clark than Thomas Luke Guest, her son. The curly haired ten-year-old beamed as Clark accepted her award, and she concluded her speech by saying Guest is "the light in my piazza." Clark, in fact, let her son take her Tony Award to school with him earlier this week. "He took it to school wrapped up in a towel in a little bag, and then he would show it to people one at a time like it was a rare species of monkey. As soon as people looked at it and touched it, he would cover it back up with the towel again. It was so sweet, and then we passed it around and everybody got to hold it. It's not engraved yet, so I told the children it could be everybody's Tony for awhile."
About her first night back in Piazza after the show won six Tonys, Clark explained, "I got nice entrance applause, [but] I basically wanted to run back and hide behind the set and put a bag over my head. . . . It was a little bit intimidating and very humbling because I've always been sort of the underdog who's never won anything, and now, all of a sudden, with this part I think people are watching [me] in a different way. I've always wanted to do my best, but now I just feel there's an expectation that feels different."
"I really just hope that people come out and see the show," Clark added. "This show has changed my life, and it's changed the life of so many people. I'm not saying it changed my life because it was such a wonderful career opportunity. It changed my life because the material itself is transformative. You actually go through a transformation saying these words and singing this music. Many people who've seen the show tell me the same thing — that they are changed from having seen the piece. They feel lighter, somehow something's been lifted from them, some burden. I just want people to have that experience."
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/93459.html
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
) 
