Ian McKellan will play Lear this October at UCLA. That is a performance I would really love to see.
I was in a production of King Lear in college. We set the play in a rehab halfway house for troubled teens. I played Oswald. I wasn't very good, but the young woman who played Lear was truly incredible. I am impressed with her performance to this day. I wonder how Sir Ian might compare?
I was also Paul Robeson in a college version of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been...? It was a lowlight of my college life. Not being in the play, which I have always enjoyed, but feeling that I was such a letdown to the director. This was in the late '70s, and the professor was a fan of Grotowsky, and he expected his student actors to be willing to take off their clothes, both literally and figuratively, for their craft. I was not one of those students. In fact, I attended a midnight session of his "para-theatrical" shenanigans and broke my ankle running around the dark campus. A week or so later, at an end-of-school party, this professor accused me of breaking my ankle on purpose so I wouldn't have to finish his special late-night event.
I was so angry to be accused, but now, almost 30 years later, maybe he was right. I never trusted this guy, never felt safe with him, and it turns out my intuition was right.
I know politically correct human relations requirements can be annoying and overdone, but it's better to call bullshit on abusive authorities than it is to let them act out their sociopathic thrills. This teacher took advantage of his naive students and that is reprehensible.
Brendan Fraser is incredibly good-looking in the movie Student Ties. Is that what it's called? He plays a Jewish quarterback in a '50s-era posh prep school. His classmates are Matt Damon (dang that guy is cute when evil!) and Chris O'Donnell (I love seeing him and Damon in the same movie because they are almost interchangeable). Ben Affleck was there, too.
But there is just something about Brendan Fraser that is so voluptuous... I'll have to go hunt for a good picture of him so you can all agree with me.
August is nearly here and I have LOTS of preparation to do for the coming school year. I really, really hope I won't procrastinate as much as I did last year. Really.
OMG, the movie is called School Ties, not Student Ties. Student Ties would be a promotion from Lands End, I think.
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2 comments:
I just saw a production of King Lear--incredible! I'd never seen it performed before. I also saw Twelfth Night, which might be my new favorite comedy. What's your favorite Shakespearean play?
okay, i want to see king lear, too. and brendan fraser?? why do you think i watched "george of the jungle" over and over again when rylan was young??
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