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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,

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Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists, policy makers and performers,

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Speaker 1: to hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions

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Speaker 1: change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. Today I'll

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Speaker 1: be talking to two theater artists. One writes plays and

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Speaker 1: the other brings them to life. My first guest is

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Speaker 1: the great American playwright John Guare, best known for his

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Speaker 1: plays Landscape of the Body, House of Blue Leaves, and

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Speaker 1: Six Degrees of Separation. Guare's absurdest style and use of songs,

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Speaker 1: asides and monologus keeps his audiences on edge. Guare's good friend,

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Speaker 1: the late Louis Mall wrote about Gware that his quote,

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Speaker 1: brilliant at tearing apart the logical and the expected, make

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Speaker 1: him stand pretty much alone unquote. A lifelong New Yorker

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Speaker 1: where lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Adele. He

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Speaker 1: writes every day anywhere he can, he says, to keep

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Speaker 1: from getting sick. He's taught playwriting at Yale, Harvard, Princeton,

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Speaker 1: n y U, and Juilliard. John Ware says teaching others

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Speaker 1: ultimately helps his own work. I selfishly use the class

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Speaker 1: to teach what I'm going through, to teach problems that

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Speaker 1: I'm having that they don't know it. But if I'm

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Speaker 1: having this last time having problems, well, no, like once

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Speaker 1: many years ago I taught it Yale Black one to

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Speaker 1: eighty five or something. I um, I was having trouble

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Speaker 1: starting a play. I was having great trouble with exposition.

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Speaker 1: I thought of all those nineteenth century plays, you know,

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Speaker 1: where the butler comes to the two servants come in

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Speaker 1: and they say, oh, you know, five o'clock, the master

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Speaker 1: not home yet, and they just say yes ever since,

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean whether or else the phone or

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Speaker 1: the heroine, you know, the wife the fan picks up

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Speaker 1: the telephone and says, no, no, no, we're not here

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Speaker 1: because we're involved in this terrible divorce case and my

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Speaker 1: but everything is fine with us and we'll be better,

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Speaker 1: you know. And I could not figure out how to

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Speaker 1: begin a play in a neat way. So I thought

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Speaker 1: about Moss Heart said it's something rather true and fantastic.

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Speaker 1: He said, the audience will give you fifteen minutes, will

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Speaker 1: give any play fifteen minutes that they'll listen to it.

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Speaker 1: But at the sixteen minute there is some connected whether

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Speaker 1: to the base of your spine or whatever legs. You'll say,

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Speaker 1: I either want to go on this trip or I

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Speaker 1: don't want to go on this trip. So I said,

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Speaker 1: I'm just going to take the first fifteen minutes of

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Speaker 1: my favorite place and go through them. And I just

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Speaker 1: taught the first fifteen minutes of The Homecoming, the first

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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes of Waiting for Godot, the first fifteen minutes

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Speaker 1: of the Cherry Ords, of the first fifteen minutes of

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Speaker 1: Yours sty Every week we just say what do we

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Speaker 1: learn in the first fifteen minutes of these plays? And

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Speaker 1: with spectacular it was spectacular and something I'm still learning.

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Speaker 1: It's something where I'm still funny. I still go back

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Speaker 1: to that class. Do you find that it's that it's

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Speaker 1: difficult to teach the went how to write? No, you

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Speaker 1: only can help them to find. You can't teach them.

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Speaker 1: All you can do is help them to say, to

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Speaker 1: help them find their own voice, because young playwrights are clever,

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Speaker 1: and they're fantastic, ventriloquous, and they can write a play

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Speaker 1: that sounds like Sam Shepard or David Mammaged or Harold

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Speaker 1: and Mimic mimic mimic, but to help them find their

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Speaker 1: own voice. That is the key. And they might write

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Speaker 1: a fifty page play and there might be four lines

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Speaker 1: where you say, that's I've never heard that voice before.

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Speaker 1: That's original. That's where you've got to find that where

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Speaker 1: that's the task. Yeah, it's about finding your own voice.

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Speaker 1: Why did you stop? Uh? It just got no fun.

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Speaker 1: And it was the last time I talked was last year.

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Speaker 1: I was writer in residence at Hunter, and Hunter to

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Speaker 1: me was spectacular. Hunter was great because these were kids

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Speaker 1: that of course that I mean, you know, to pay

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Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars. The money was real. The money was real,

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Speaker 1: and they would make take them seven or eight years

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Speaker 1: to get a degree because they're working. And uh, you know.

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Speaker 1: And there was one young woman who wrote a play

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Speaker 1: about being trapped in the projects uptown, you know, And

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Speaker 1: I said it, So this play was so interesting, I said,

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Speaker 1: but you know, the problems that are in your play,

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Speaker 1: I can't I can't sell them. But you know who

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Speaker 1: has so dealt with your problems you're dealing with Samuel

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Speaker 1: Beckett read Waiting for Good Reading, you know, endgame, trying

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Speaker 1: to get out, And she said the most wonderful words.

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Speaker 1: Who's Samuel Beckett? And that to me was because you

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Speaker 1: get kids at unnamed schools of higher learning and you'll

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Speaker 1: say so anybody, and they'll say, I know Samuel back

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Speaker 1: and I know all about them. I know all about him.

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Speaker 1: I took a class. They were going to graduate, you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: but in ten days or so, and we had she

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Speaker 1: was the last class. We were talking and it turned

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Speaker 1: out that none of them in the class had read

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Speaker 1: Madame Bovary, seen The Marks Blow this movie. And I said,

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Speaker 1: you have no right to get this degree. You should

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Speaker 1: say where. I'm sorry, I can't. I should until you

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Speaker 1: go back and read and see at least you know,

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Speaker 1: to see animal crackers, animal crackers or duck suit, no

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Speaker 1: duck soup. They'd have to see because all modern heroines

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Speaker 1: come out of Madame Bobery. Blanche Boy had a caple.

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Speaker 1: They're all the daughters of Madame Bobery. And uh, it's

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Speaker 1: um yeah, so, and but you'll say that each of

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Speaker 1: them said, well, I know about Madame Bovary. I mean

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Speaker 1: it's by Flowbert, I know all about the Marks Brothers.

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Speaker 1: They're anarchic, right, yeah, And one doesn't speak and one

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Speaker 1: is wise. Yeah, I know all about them, but have

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Speaker 1: you ever seen No, I don't have to know about them,

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Speaker 1: So I just got bored teaching. You grew up in

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Speaker 1: Queen's You've got your a lifelong New Yorker. I'm born

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Speaker 1: in Manhattan. I'll tell you so funny. We my parents

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Speaker 1: lived in the four hundred block on eighties six Street,

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Speaker 1: and they want to be closer to Columbia Presbyterian, where

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Speaker 1: I was born. So they learned that the people who

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Speaker 1: had built our apartment house on Stree had built the

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Speaker 1: identical apartment house up on Fort Washington Avenue. So we

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Speaker 1: moved when I was going to the same apartment, and

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Speaker 1: then it was too far away from the beach, because

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Speaker 1: I really called my home with the Atlantic, the East

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Speaker 1: Atlantic Beach, or a place where I still go a

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Speaker 1: house my father built with his buddies in nineteen and

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Speaker 1: still I still have it. I still go there. It's

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Speaker 1: great and that I called and I call home. That's

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Speaker 1: where my friends are. And uh, and it was too far.

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Speaker 1: It was too hard to get him. Fort Washington underworked

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Speaker 1: Penn Station. So they learned that those builders that built

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Speaker 1: the exact same apartment uh in Jackson Heights so they

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Speaker 1: moved to the same apartment again with the furniture fit

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Speaker 1: and so I grew up there because it was also

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Speaker 1: in the same block at Saint Johanavar Grammar School, I

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Speaker 1: didn't have to cross the street. Do you have any siblings, son?

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Speaker 1: You were an only child? Absolutely? It was great. And

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Speaker 1: then and then when you were parents year agoers were

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Speaker 1: the estate in that way. They like musicals, only like musicals.

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Speaker 1: What about you? What was the theater in your life

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Speaker 1: when you were a child? Well, I mean it was magnificent.

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Speaker 1: I mean, well sure an You get your Gun was

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Speaker 1: the first show I saw and a ethel Merman and

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Speaker 1: it was I can still remember. It was absolutely devastating.

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Speaker 1: It was still was shocking that that could happen. And

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Speaker 1: it was mainly the now racist I'm an Indian two

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Speaker 1: with this great ballet by I found it years later

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Speaker 1: by Eugene Loring. It was spectacular, I must say. It

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Speaker 1: was terrifying. And because they were gonna put ethel Merman

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Speaker 1: the tire up at the stake and they're going to

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Speaker 1: burn her and eat her and everything, it was, oh

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Speaker 1: my god. There was no business taking a little bit

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Speaker 1: of time to burn. No, she would have gone up anything. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and uh no, we saw it, just saw musicals. I

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Speaker 1: could see. I remember, like from my twelve thirteenth birthday,

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Speaker 1: I could see one show. I could pick either King

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Speaker 1: and I or wish you here? And which one did

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Speaker 1: I pick? Well? I wish you were here because King

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Speaker 1: and I had some old lady named Gertrude Lawrence who

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Speaker 1: would always be around it. But I wish we had

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Speaker 1: a swimming pool on stage, and I was died diving

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Speaker 1: and swimming water ballets. It was great. And Eddie Fishers

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Speaker 1: sang the hit song They're not making the Skies is

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Speaker 1: blue this year, and I saw that and it was

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Speaker 1: And then I started going to see plays and uh well,

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Speaker 1: the TV hadn't taken off in the in the fifties,

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Speaker 1: it was about to Were you a filmgoer as well?

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Speaker 1: Did you enjoy films or was the theater always? I'll

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Speaker 1: I didn't I tell the movie saved me because in

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Speaker 1: nine my father had a heart attack. This was so

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Speaker 1: great and he had to had to take a year

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Speaker 1: off from work. And at the same time, his aunt

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Speaker 1: who had raised him up in Allenville, New York, so

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Speaker 1: we moved up there because my father loved his auntie,

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Speaker 1: and so I missed a lot of school because my

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Speaker 1: father checked the school up in allen Bool, New York,

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Speaker 1: and they did not say the pledge allegiance to the

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Speaker 1: flag or the our father. And my father said it

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Speaker 1: was a commed den and it was better than I

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Speaker 1: didn't go to school. Then went to a communist den

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Speaker 1: and the nuns at Saint John Novar and Jackson. I

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Speaker 1: just agreed with that. So we lived in Allenville good

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Speaker 1: part of the time. But those last two years of

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Speaker 1: grammar school and I went and I had nothing to do.

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Speaker 1: I was given a homeware. I go down of the

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Speaker 1: city every every a few weeks and take a test

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Speaker 1: or something. But what was great there were two movie

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Speaker 1: theaters in Allenville, the shadow Land and the Danbury, and

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Speaker 1: I went every day to the movie's first short to

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Speaker 1: in twelve o'clock, and it was Spectacle. Father went with

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Speaker 1: you because he was convalescing from his art attack. Don't know.

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Speaker 1: I went by myself. They didn't I just the little kid.

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Speaker 1: They didn't ask the little kid up in ellen Though

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Speaker 1: what he was doing going to the movies in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the day. They knew everybody was a small.

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Speaker 1: Everybody knew was my uncle Frank, my and Teen's husband

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Speaker 1: had been the president of the bank, and everybody knew

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Speaker 1: who we were, so I didn't have to pay. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I was treated and Uncle Frank's bank on everybody's mortgage.

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Speaker 1: So during the week I'd come back. We live in

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Speaker 1: Jackson Heights. But then if we have an element would

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Speaker 1: be like the King with the giant popcorn and a

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Speaker 1: soda and your feet up. Oh it was pretty and

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Speaker 1: I'd watched him twice. It was just great. And so

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Speaker 1: the movie is literally saved my life. And I read

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Speaker 1: and read and read, and I went to Georgetown in

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Speaker 1: Washington college I had to. You weren't allowed to. Johnny

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Speaker 1: was not a communist. Stand no, you owned the St. John's,

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Speaker 1: Prepp and Williamsburg and uh. And then you know, talking

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Speaker 1: about that, maybe going to Harvard, and they priests there said, Johnny,

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Speaker 1: what's which. You go to Hall, but you get a

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Speaker 1: great education and you lose your soul, or you go

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Speaker 1: to Catholic college, so maybe it's not a grain win.

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Speaker 1: It's okay, but you come out with your soul intact,

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Speaker 1: which is more Diplomat the commencement, Jesus gives you the diploma. Wow,

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Speaker 1: that's a great idea. Well, it was lucky when we're there.

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Speaker 1: We had a smart class and that we had there

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Speaker 1: was the first thing called an honors program. For the

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Speaker 1: last three years you didn't major in anything specifically. Everybody

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Speaker 1: had one specialty that they then would teach the other

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Speaker 1: nineteen guys in the class. And we were spending a

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Speaker 1: number of weeks on you know, on Henry James, and

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Speaker 1: then we would go to uh Lobachevsky to remain in geometry,

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Speaker 1: and then we'd go to history. You know. It was

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Speaker 1: all so it was all it was a very grab

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Speaker 1: bag education that was terrific. But not there. No, but

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Speaker 1: because the national the well no, because I was writing,

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Speaker 1: I started they had a second I can still remember

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Speaker 1: the drama club there was was called what mask the

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Speaker 1: Mask and Babble. How do you know that it's widely

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Speaker 1: known Mask and Babble that you were affiliated with that? Really?

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Speaker 1: I consider remember Kathy Eno, she was the only champion.

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Speaker 1: He's there were many girls around George now, but there's

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Speaker 1: this one girl, Kathy, and I started putting a sign

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Speaker 1: up on a tree that said player and the first

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Speaker 1: annual play running contest that Georgetown the masking Ball will presents.

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Speaker 1: And I said, that's a sign. I took this. I

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Speaker 1: took down and I wrote the play and and I yes,

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Speaker 1: and I came in second because I wrote a comedy

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Speaker 1: and the first play had to be serious, and the

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Speaker 1: second play was a comedy. Second prize play was a comedy.

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Speaker 1: And I wrote a play every year there and then

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Speaker 1: I went to Yale, and but also the same ye

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Speaker 1: for what play? Right? So he went to the graduate

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Speaker 1: program A game? Yeah yeah, But I also, what did

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Speaker 1: your father think about that? What did your favor where

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Speaker 1: we were? Did your mother have an opinion? My parents

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Speaker 1: were absolutely thrilled. My father said to me one thing.

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Speaker 1: He said, I don't care what you do, Johnny, never

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Speaker 1: get a job. Don't end up like me. He hated

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Speaker 1: Wall Street. He shauld never be a wage slave. Just

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Speaker 1: even keep it fairly legal if you can. But Mate,

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Speaker 1: when I have one happy moment all day long, I

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Speaker 1: wake up, he long goes off. I pushed this news button,

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Speaker 1: roll over, sleep, have a deep sleep for another couple

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Speaker 1: of minutes, and it goes and I'm so happy, and

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Speaker 1: then it goes off again, and then my feet hit

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Speaker 1: the ground. And it's downhill the rest of the day.

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Speaker 1: That the Yale program is two years, three years, three years.

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Speaker 1: It still is good God And and I all. I

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Speaker 1: went there also because the draft was on in those days,

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Speaker 1: and if I was if he weren't in grad school,

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Speaker 1: you would have been drafted immediately. So I went to Yale.

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Speaker 1: And Yale was just after George Holt was sort of

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Speaker 1: like a little high school, you know. It was like,

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Speaker 1: you know, very small. And I got to Yale and

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Speaker 1: who spoke to us there about six weeks who came

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Speaker 1: and spoke? Did everybody we want to hear? T? S Elliott?

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Speaker 1: And I said, this is Yale is really different And

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Speaker 1: it was great. I had a great It was very hard,

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Speaker 1: but I had a great time there. And when you

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Speaker 1: left there, what did you start? How did you start? Well?

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Speaker 1: I was incredibly lucky. Tennessee. Williams was having something done

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Speaker 1: at the play out of town. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: it was, and Audrey what his agent was coming up

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Speaker 1: to New Haven to work something out, and there was

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Speaker 1: a store or something had rained or something, and the

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Speaker 1: meeting was canceled and she came to the drama school

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Speaker 1: and see what was on. And I had a play

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Speaker 1: on and she signed me. So I graduated from Yere

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Speaker 1: with Audrey Wood, who was the greatest agent in the universe,

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Speaker 1: the one who discovered Tennessee Williams and built his career

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Speaker 1: as my as my agent, and that really, uh, that

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Speaker 1: was fantastic. Why do you why do you think she

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Speaker 1: signed here? I hope because she liked my work? When

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Speaker 1: when when she you had written? How many plays? When

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Speaker 1: someone signs you out of Yale, you're just finished three years?

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Speaker 1: And this is right out of Yale. You know I

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Speaker 1: was in Yale. I was, I was under Then you

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Speaker 1: make my point, you're still in Yale. She thought, she

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Speaker 1: she has to show you. Do she read some work

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Speaker 1: you've done. She didn't even read it. She just thought

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Speaker 1: it had possibilities. And then when when you left Yale?

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Speaker 1: What was the first play you had produced? And how

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Speaker 1: long after you left Yale? Well, I got out of Yale?

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Speaker 1: What year? In sixty three? She got me a job.

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Speaker 1: She said, you don't have any money, and she said,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to get you a job. I got your

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Speaker 1: job at Universal Pictures, and I went out to California

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Speaker 1: to work at Universal Pictures to make money. Yes, we're

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Speaker 1: writing screens. I didn't know what it was. I would

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Speaker 1: go out there to find out. And I got there,

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Speaker 1: and what was waiting for me when I arrived was

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Speaker 1: my draft notice. And because I still was under and

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Speaker 1: so I literally, at the last minute got into the reserves.

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Speaker 1: And then I got out of the service, and I

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Speaker 1: realized I never wanted to be in California again. Why

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Speaker 1: I hated it? What about it? It wasn't East Long Beach,

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Speaker 1: East Atlantic Beach, East Atlantic Beach. My soul would have

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Speaker 1: died in California. I just knew. I said, that's not

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Speaker 1: very We had nothing to do with screen writing. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I mean there was a movie life and uh back

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Speaker 1: east As my friend said to me once where he

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Speaker 1: was an agent. He said, I said, do you think

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Speaker 1: so and so I didn't want to hire me and

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Speaker 1: this one didn't want to hire me. This is, you know,

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Speaker 1: back in the early two thousands. And I said, do

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Speaker 1: you think this one doesn't want to hire me because

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Speaker 1: they don't like me or they think I'm going to

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Speaker 1: be difficult to work with? He says, no, I don't

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Speaker 1: think that's that they think badly of you. He said,

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Speaker 1: I think it's that they don't think of you at all. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and that's to me with l a like like everything

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Speaker 1: burns bright. You get your three years of the tail

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Speaker 1: of the comet streaming behind you, and then you're gone.

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Speaker 1: I mean, nobody really really thinks of you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's still one of the great moments in my life.

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Speaker 1: It was so shocking and hilarious and I mean it

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Speaker 1: was is that I was nominated for an oscar in

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Speaker 1: Atlantic City and Adela and I went in, you know,

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Speaker 1: to where it was held that year and there were

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Speaker 1: five hundred photograph say two camera lights, lights, light lighte fantastic.

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Speaker 1: I didn't win. We came out and there were the

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Speaker 1: two D and fifty camera and waiting there and they

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Speaker 1: saw a DELI came out and as if on stig

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Speaker 1: all two cameras dropped. They just dropped to silence and

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Speaker 1: waited for us to pass. It was jaw dropping. It

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Speaker 1: was great. Right to the airport and going home. I

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Speaker 1: did right. What was that experience like making that film?

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Speaker 1: One of the greatest mom you enjoyed working with Mom?

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Speaker 1: Louie became one of my best friends. We became great, great,

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Speaker 1: great great friends. And what was the origin of that?

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Speaker 1: They came to you had written the screenplay they hired.

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Speaker 1: You know. I got a call one day and this

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Speaker 1: man with an accent said, is this junkua I'm looking for?

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Speaker 1: John said, yes, is he? And he said, did you

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Speaker 1: write that play I would have seen last year at

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Speaker 1: the Public Theater coll Landscape of the Body. I said yes.

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Speaker 1: He said, I've been looking for you. I would like

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Speaker 1: to talk to you about a project. If I said

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Speaker 1: where he's where, I said, come over, I'm out here.

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Speaker 1: So he came over to my apartment and he said,

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Speaker 1: I have got money to do a thrillout with Susan

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Speaker 1: Surrandon and an unnamed mail star. That is, there's a

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Speaker 1: big tax thing in Canada right now where you get

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Speaker 1: right off every every dollar invested in UH movie made

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Speaker 1: part of it has to be shot in Canada, with

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Speaker 1: the Canadians and with the Canadian Yes, And he said,

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Speaker 1: the screen we just we have no screenplay. What I hope,

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Speaker 1: It's just it's impossible. We have Susan Surrandon and a

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Speaker 1: building full of Canadians and no, it was not even.

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Speaker 1: And it was also what I loved about it was

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Speaker 1: that it was the money was it was a rabbi

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Speaker 1: from Winnipeg was in charge of the of the fun

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Speaker 1: that was putting this together. Had come to Louie to

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Speaker 1: direct thriller, and so he said, did I have any

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Speaker 1: ideas from moving? And I knew that Louie I'd loved

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Speaker 1: it because he was always made great documentaries. You know,

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Speaker 1: he'd started out of life as Jacques Cousto's cameraman and

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00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,480
Speaker 1: you know, dope under this travel around the world diving

360
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Speaker 1: under the sea to day the Calypso is Erica, that's right,

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Speaker 1: the silent world. And they wanted to ask, you know,

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Speaker 1: and our Jackson Heights neighbor when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: it was still my mother's my father's not since long dead,

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Speaker 1: but our neighbor was a man named Tony Ray who

365
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:40,239
Speaker 1: was head of Resorts Internationally Chalfon Hadden Hotel, which was

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Speaker 1: going to become the first the first hotel to go

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Speaker 1: to turn into a casino called Resorts International. And my

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Speaker 1: mother would listen to Dorothy all the time, saying how

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Speaker 1: exciting it was a game that was coming to Atlantic City.

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Speaker 1: Going to rescue this time was Tony and I had

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Speaker 1: moved from the world off down to the Atlantic City

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Speaker 1: and I was throwing it aways, and my mother bought

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Speaker 1: stock in It's International and so and I kept reading

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00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:04,399
Speaker 1: about in the paper. It's how this whole city was

375
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:06,399
Speaker 1: going to change thanks to this, And I said, it

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Speaker 1: seems to be really interesting what's going on down in

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic City right now? So he said, let's go down,

378
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Speaker 1: and we went down and Tony took us around and

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Speaker 1: the first thing we saw was in we went into

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Speaker 1: Resorts International and there was a clam bar, a wet bar,

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Speaker 1: and there was all these good looking girls opening clams,

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Speaker 1: shocking clams. So what's that, he said, Well, to prove

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Speaker 1: that they are serious about they wanted to be card dealers,

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Speaker 1: they have to work at a job like this for

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Speaker 1: three months before they're able to take lessons, you know,

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Speaker 1: learn how to become card dealers. I said that Susan Surandon,

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Speaker 1: Susan Surrandon will shuck will chuck clam. That was the

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Speaker 1: first image. Well that, yes, and her breasts and her

389
00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:53,080
Speaker 1: her shoulders and anyway, so in that time we met

390
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Speaker 1: Skinny Tomato, who was the number one mobster in town.

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Speaker 1: It was a great, great day. We stayed up all

392
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Speaker 1: night talking because there was so many rules in Atlantic City.

393
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 1: What you had to do in order to qualify for banking,

394
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:09,560
Speaker 1: to make yourself legit. And I saw a book Atlantic

395
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:13,280
Speaker 1: City biker named Vicki gold Leby was sailed down there.

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00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,320
Speaker 1: I forgot her name. Yes, that's what it was. And

397
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:20,320
Speaker 1: there was a picture of a gangster's convention in al Capol.

398
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,560
Speaker 1: Was up at the top, like the far left corner.

399
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,440
Speaker 1: There was a young boy smiling in the gangster's convention.

400
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:29,360
Speaker 1: And I said, that's our male star. That's him as

401
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:31,760
Speaker 1: a young man. He's he went for that picture and

402
00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,119
Speaker 1: he's been here ever since, and so the picture just

403
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 1: he But he said, the only problem is he said

404
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,600
Speaker 1: that today is named male Star. Where did his character

405
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:42,320
Speaker 1: come from? Well that that guy was that it was

406
00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:47,280
Speaker 1: a kid. The kid would yeah, yeah, Lancaster. Well but

407
00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:50,160
Speaker 1: it was like the seventh choice, Luis, there's only one

408
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: problemises today is July. And he said, we have to

409
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,880
Speaker 1: have the picture in order qualify with the tax dollars,

410
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 1: and we have to finished shooting by December thirty one

411
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Speaker 1: nine this year. Get typing. Get typing, and I did,

412
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Speaker 1: and two weeks later I went over to Dynn. I

413
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,479
Speaker 1: wag to Frands and I gave him a first draft

414
00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,920
Speaker 1: and we started working and we started filming on into October.

415
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:21,439
Speaker 1: It was absolutely wonderful. Now we we talked because I

416
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:23,640
Speaker 1: just finished doing a film with Will Smith. I did

417
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,480
Speaker 1: this song about the NFL concussion policy that Peter Landisman

418
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:29,360
Speaker 1: wrote and directed. And I told you that I worked

419
00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:32,399
Speaker 1: with Will who I had always loved me right movie

420
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: stars in this generation. And we talked about six Degrees

421
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 1: in the film and how you had said you didn't

422
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 1: see him in the part when you first no, because

423
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:46,200
Speaker 1: they were were told that the guy who was bringing

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00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,600
Speaker 1: a lot of money to the picture said he had

425
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,480
Speaker 1: one His money came with one price that it had

426
00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 1: to be uh, Will Smith had to play the league.

427
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,880
Speaker 1: And I said, well, I don't take TV sitcom rap

428
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 1: singer and a TV in my important yes, and so

429
00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 1: I said no, And so all we have. But so

430
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:10,399
Speaker 1: both Fred Skepsy who was the director, and I we

431
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: agreed that we would meet Will separately and not and

432
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,439
Speaker 1: you know when flipp a Coin and Fred would go first,

433
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:19,840
Speaker 1: and then I would go the next night and meet

434
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,560
Speaker 1: Will and then we would meet and to decide, you know,

435
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 1: if we wanted him or not, because we were ready

436
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 1: to you know, to tank the picture would just say, well, well,

437
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:29,520
Speaker 1: you know, if he isn't right, we'll walk from it

438
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,600
Speaker 1: and I'll tear him. I went, and we'll open the door.

439
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 1: And within thirty seconds, I said, I let this guy

440
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 1: into my house. I mean, he was just great. He

441
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 1: was great. Will was absolutely first rate, was absolutely wonderful.

442
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:52,879
Speaker 1: When you when you produce plays, when you premiere plays,

443
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: I mean, like any playwright, not all of your plays

444
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: have been as successful as the others, and and and

445
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 1: the ones that have been successful, do they have something

446
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,440
Speaker 1: in common the ones that worked best? I have no idea,

447
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: but of course six degrees people. If I knew, I

448
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 1: would just push I would push that. But I would

449
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: just push that button open keep scooping. There's no play.

450
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:16,600
Speaker 1: I know, I'll taste something. It's not like the play

451
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 1: was more success. That's I'm not trying to, you know,

452
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 1: to cover my tracks. But I know the reason why

453
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,199
Speaker 1: I wrote every play. I wrote. What that that play is,

454
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,600
Speaker 1: not whether it's a failure or success. I mean it

455
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:33,479
Speaker 1: might be whatever the reviews are, which I consume a report.

456
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:35,360
Speaker 1: You know what your life will be should I get

457
00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: that job teaching? You know, what what should I do?

458
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 1: You know, to get the money next year or else, Hey,

459
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 1: we're gonna take you know, wow, we might have you know,

460
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: things might be good. We can you know. But I

461
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,960
Speaker 1: know the reason why I wrote that play, and I

462
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:51,440
Speaker 1: can look back in the past and said, oh damn,

463
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: I see how I screwed that up. I see what

464
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: I see what I did wrong in that. But I

465
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: must I can't fix that place, but I must be

466
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: aware of that in the next play. Uh No, So

467
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: I mean there's no button that you push to say.

468
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 1: I mean, how many people have destroyed their careers because

469
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: they say how and they keep trying to write the same, replace, recreate,

470
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: recreate the same. So you have no idea. And if

471
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: you're new, if you said, okay, well, I'm just gonna

472
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:18,399
Speaker 1: I don't know what I mean, I'm gonna lie. But

473
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,159
Speaker 1: now now I don't gonna have too long, and then

474
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have pushed the hit button and I'm going

475
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 1: to write that Yeah, it's as I plan. No, and

476
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 1: then I put that hit combination, that hit recipe, and

477
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:30,639
Speaker 1: that's it's no. There's no such thing as a hit recipe.

478
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,520
Speaker 1: It's all in the left. Is there one that was

479
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 1: less commercially successful than the others that you have a

480
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: tremendous fondness for. Is there one that you sit there

481
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:43,159
Speaker 1: that you're child that you love the most. I wouldn't

482
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 1: dare to pick one of them. I wouldn't mean they're

483
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,960
Speaker 1: all you know, Yeah, I mean my bother Yeah, I

484
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 1: don't have any favorites. Is there something that your characters

485
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: in many, if not all, of your plays have in common?

486
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: Is there something that they're striving for? There's something that

487
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: they're seeking. Is there something you're working out yourself that's

488
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,159
Speaker 1: manifested all of the players or most of the players.

489
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 1: You're right, it has to be. I mean what would

490
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: that be? I don't know. You just want the best.

491
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 1: You want the best. The truth seekers they want the

492
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:17,719
Speaker 1: truth because my ultimate question is are you? Are you

493
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: as honest as the characters are on your play? Oh? No, oh,

494
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,720
Speaker 1: of course I am. I am, I an. I have

495
00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: no idea. I mean, I would think that would be Uh,

496
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:30,959
Speaker 1: I can't. You'll have to ask other people. In my

497
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,159
Speaker 1: own mind, I'm perfectly life and ask Adele Yes, let

498
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,200
Speaker 1: me get to her first. Yes and no. But it's

499
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: uh no, I mean I think they so. I think

500
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:45,200
Speaker 1: they all want something. I think they all want something ineffable.

501
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: I think it's maybe some sort of divine in the

502
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: largest sense of the word, to my dissatisfaction. Is this

503
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 1: all it is? Is this? I want? I want more,

504
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 1: I want more, I one, What do you want more

505
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: of it? What did you want more of? Well? I

506
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 1: don't know what I wanted. I just wanted immortality. You know,

507
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 1: it's just as simple as that. Do you have that?

508
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 1: Of course? Not? Of course what do I do? All

509
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: I know is I'm but Kitty Hart, remember Kitty Carlisle.

510
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,719
Speaker 1: I love Kitty, And she said, John, I'm not a

511
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 1: religious person, but I have one prayer that I said

512
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:29,880
Speaker 1: every day. Oh dear God, I don't want anything more,

513
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 1: Just let me keep what I have, and that, to

514
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,400
Speaker 1: me is the best. That's I'll settle for that. Now

515
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: you go to the theater, You go see theater, absolutely

516
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 1: right now, What was it changed in your lifetimes? Is

517
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:43,639
Speaker 1: it basically the same way you feel it has changed?

518
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,440
Speaker 1: The Broadway theater. There are things like you know, Curious

519
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 1: Center of the Dog in the Night, which is still thrilling.

520
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:51,680
Speaker 1: You know, you just say theater is dead, and then

521
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 1: you go see that and you just say it's from

522
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: a book. I didn't like especially and you go see

523
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 1: in your eye jaw drops it how wonderful it is.

524
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 1: And I'm going to see Hamilton's this weekend, and I'm

525
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 1: seeing it tomorrow night. I'm seeing Nathan tomorrow night and

526
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: have a double espresso and always going to be great.

527
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,680
Speaker 1: And Hallie FIfF for this young playwright has a remarkable

528
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,639
Speaker 1: play down at Atlantic Theater. Cool. I'm gonna pray for

529
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,360
Speaker 1: you so hard. Uh, I mean, there's always stuff to see.

530
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,120
Speaker 1: I love an economics, doesn't You don't find that daunting

531
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:29,359
Speaker 1: or difference it was ever? Thus, I don't know. I mean, luckily,

532
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: I'm a Tony voter, so I get a pair of

533
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: tickets every show, which means a lot. But I mean

534
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: I was shocked at the price of the tickets for

535
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: for Iceman Cometh. You know. So the theater has always

536
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: been dying, It's always been horrible. It's always been terrible.

537
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 1: It's always no, I mean, it's just there, it is,

538
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 1: It's just it's just there. Do you think that New

539
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: York is still the most democratic? Say? Uh, as New

540
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: York changed in your lifetime or that still the same? Well? No,

541
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean my New York is so many landmarks,

542
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: my personal and marks and missing you know from Uh,

543
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: I mean I when I first came to New York

544
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 1: fifty years ago, when I first go when I get

545
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: out of the Air Force, like, I had an apartment

546
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 1: corner of four Street and tenth Street in the village,

547
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: fourth floor, walkup, twenty ft ceiling with the skylight, wood

548
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: burning fireplace, eating kitchen in the bathroom, looking out on

549
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: the fourth looking out in the gardens below. What was

550
00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: the rent? What was the rent? Two thirty two dollars

551
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 1: a month. Uh, you could really live in New York

552
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: and I just but kids now live in find new

553
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:35,320
Speaker 1: places to live that the rules are always the rules

554
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: are always changing, and we're always looking for Paris in

555
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, and it was a really rare time

556
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,960
Speaker 1: in the early sixties in New York with Cafe Cino

557
00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 1: and La Mama and the off off Broadway scene which

558
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,479
Speaker 1: had never there never been anything like it in New

559
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: York before. And uh, yeah, so what do I miss

560
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: New York? No, I'm so New York still. I was

561
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: born here, conceived here, drug up here, and it still

562
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: makes my jaw drop with something you say, wow, wow,

563
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: I know it's throwing. The theater, John Guare says, is

564
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 1: a place of dreams where you lay out the unconscious

565
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 1: and make it visible. After the break, I'll talk with

566
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,719
Speaker 1: Lisa dun a London based actress who's now tackling the

567
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 1: works of another influential playwright who exposes the unconscious, samuelil Beckett.

568
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our archive where director Stephen Daldry

569
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: told me about the difference between working in theater and film.

570
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,200
Speaker 1: One is it in the theater. Everybody's in the same room,

571
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: so everybody can see what the beast is. Everyone can

572
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: see what it's made. And you start at the beginning,

573
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 1: and you finished with people. You start with, the people

574
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: you finish with, and the movie the people you prep with,

575
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 1: the people you shoot with them, the people you shoot with,

576
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 1: all the people you finish with the people. It's more

577
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: like a relay base making a movie. Take a listen

578
00:30:55,400 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 1: and here's the thing, Dot Org. This is Alec Baldwin

579
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 1: and you're listening to here's the thing. No matter, parents

580
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 1: are known, unheard of. Saving Valage not I is a

581
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:17,240
Speaker 1: one woman play by Samuel Beckett, performed here by my

582
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: next guest, Lisa Duan on Speechless infant in the home.

583
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 1: No no, indeed, for that matter, any of any kind,

584
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,840
Speaker 1: no love of any kind at any subsequent stage. It's

585
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: a typical affair, nothing of any note till coming up

586
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: to six D. The physical demands of not I are extreme,

587
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: and who better to rise to them? But it classically

588
00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 1: trained a dancer like Dwan. For the past year, Duan

589
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:44,000
Speaker 1: has performed three Beckett plays together, not I, Footfalls and

590
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 1: Rockabye last year at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last

591
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:52,320
Speaker 1: month at London's Barbican. Lisa Dwan had done not I

592
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: on its own before, but wasn't convinced she could do

593
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: the trilogy. But Martin Sheen, her co star in a

594
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 1: movie about the bull Pall disaster, suggested a one woman show.

595
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: At the time, Duane, an attractive, petite blonde, was tired

596
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 1: of the roles she was being offered. She was desperate

597
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,920
Speaker 1: for a challenge. I was feeling very frustrated, you know,

598
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 1: being a woman of a particular look. You're given these

599
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: kind of cardboard cutouts, these pithy little lines, these one dimensional,

600
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: little flimsy rolls, and it's demoralizing, it's depressing. I mean,

601
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,480
Speaker 1: I sprung on the scene, thinking, I was like the

602
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:37,560
Speaker 1: guys when I wanted to become I was a ballet

603
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,960
Speaker 1: dancer first, and when I became an actress. And you

604
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: mean that transition because you were injured. Yeah, ballet ended

605
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 1: because of an injury. Would you have kept on if

606
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:49,280
Speaker 1: you could have? Probably that was your passion? Yeah, yeah,

607
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 1: you know. I found I could express myself so much

608
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: more as a dancer. And yeah, it seems you've gone

609
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 1: from one extreme to the other because dancing, which is

610
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:04,040
Speaker 1: purely physical and Beckett, which, in my mind of the

611
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 1: least the pieces you're doing are strictly about language. I disagree.

612
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 1: In fact, I feel I dance more now and express

613
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 1: myself more through kind of the principles of dance then

614
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: I ever did. In which of the three pieces or

615
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 1: all of them? All of them? All of them and

616
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 1: not I, which is you know, such a contradiction. The most,

617
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 1: I feel like an element in not I, I don't

618
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: even feel like a woman, are a human being. I

619
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: feel like an element. And the fact that my head

620
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 1: is trapped in and my arms are strapped in and

621
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 1: into this head harness, so I don't move, so my

622
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: mouth is eight ft above the stage and doesn't move

623
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: out of this pinprick of light. So for people to understand,

624
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: because we're getting to this, we've gotten right into try

625
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:58,560
Speaker 1: to get a tiptoe up on the Beckett and the

626
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 1: Nati tab low. But now that we've gotten right to

627
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 1: the to the steak and potatoes, here were skipping the

628
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 1: salad course. Ladies and gentlemen, For those who don't know,

629
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,360
Speaker 1: briefly describe for us what you're talking about. The contraption

630
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,239
Speaker 1: and everything when you look at it, if isolation of

631
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 1: the physical mouth, the tableau is of a mouth speaking

632
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: and everything else is blacked out. And you will explain

633
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 1: how that's achieved. But it couldn't have been achieved in

634
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: some more simple way. You couldn't have been sitting in

635
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: a chair and they put they draped something over you,

636
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: or I'm sure it could. That could demands sacrifice snow

637
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 1: in fact that he's not some sort of fetishist or something.

638
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, could you hold this cactus

639
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:42,400
Speaker 1: between your knees while you're performing? I wouldn't put it

640
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 1: past him, but I don't think that was his intention.

641
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:47,799
Speaker 1: And I think if technology had caught up with him,

642
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:51,279
Speaker 1: such an innovator in theater, I would love him to

643
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: be around today because you could just imagine what he

644
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: could do with we're going to talk, We're going to twitter,

645
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 1: be it on Twitter. Well, I don't think it'd be

646
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: interested in that, but I just think technology could offer expression.

647
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,480
Speaker 1: You know, I want to talk about the Beckett ethos

648
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: if you will, or pathos. But describe to me because

649
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 1: with this kind of thing, I find this fascinating. Described

650
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,720
Speaker 1: to me how the day begins doing the not I process.

651
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: You wake up and what's the day like to the

652
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: moment that they're you know, they're greasing you up with

653
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,400
Speaker 1: the black face and strapping you w into the contraption. Sure, well,

654
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:30,840
Speaker 1: just for the listeners at home who don't know what

655
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:34,640
Speaker 1: this is like, not I is a disembodied mouth eight

656
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 1: foot above the stage. It was a play that was

657
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: written in one and Beckett wrote it in a stream

658
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 1: of consciousness. Although I don't hear just one stream of consciousness.

659
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,440
Speaker 1: I hear layers of them, a kind of cacophony of voices.

660
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:54,720
Speaker 1: But it was first performed in one in the Lincoln Center.

661
00:35:54,880 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: Jessica Tandy performed it. That was the first one. Yeah,

662
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: she did in about twenty three minutes and Beckett went

663
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 1: backstage and said, you've destroyed my play. I mean, it

664
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,800
Speaker 1: didn't harm her career clearly. But he then wrote to

665
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:14,239
Speaker 1: Alan Schneider and said, I'd like to direct Billy White

666
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: Lawn this myself and find out if its theater or not.

667
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 1: And and he had had an ongoing relationship with White

668
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 1: law was his just a year before she had performed play,

669
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,959
Speaker 1: which is these three people and Earns and these kind

670
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: of fragmented monologues. So Beckett was really working towards not

671
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: I It was always part of a trajectory of pairing away,

672
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 1: stripping away the unnecessary. This is when we get into

673
00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:45,640
Speaker 1: laid Beckett, which is distilled language. I mean, art is reduction,

674
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 1: and early Beckett is when he really had the albatross

675
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 1: of Joyce around his neck. You know, the verbosity and

676
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: in my view, slightly pretentious inaccessibility. You know Beckett later, Okay,

677
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 1: you're the Beckett interpreter who can label Joyce and I

678
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: don't know what I mean. I'm just shameless, I guess.

679
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 1: But your entitled to your opinion. Yeah, you've earned it

680
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 1: after what I've seen, But go ahead and continue. Never

681
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:19,600
Speaker 1: be allowed to perform choice. But anyway, I first heard

682
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,720
Speaker 1: about this play when I was about eighteen, just around

683
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: when I started to kind of start acting after my

684
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:30,000
Speaker 1: my knee injury. Yeah, when I first heard about it,

685
00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 1: and meanwhile I was doing this awful TV series where

686
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 1: I was the leading lady, and I just felt embarrassed.

687
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 1: Why I just feel very underused. Oh that's what you

688
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: think woman is? You know, maybe not very complex roles.

689
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 1: You're probably sick of hearing this, but don't know what's

690
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,879
Speaker 1: what's the job? The job was what like a soap? Yeah,

691
00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 1: it was a TV series and American TV series. I

692
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: did fifty six episodes of leading actress and this was

693
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 1: what my first professional gig. My first professional gig was

694
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 1: a soap opportunity. Okay, and you know you have all

695
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:11,520
Speaker 1: of these romantic notions. I was reading the Greeks. I

696
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:15,360
Speaker 1: wanted to play antigny. You know, back when women were

697
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:19,279
Speaker 1: multifaceted and multi dimension you made that mistake of bringing

698
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: your appetite for fuagra to the hotdog stamp. Many people

699
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: do that a mistake. But whereas I when I did

700
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: a television series like that, I said thought to myself, Okay,

701
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 1: what is this. You've been acting, but you did fifty

702
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:33,719
Speaker 1: six episodes, and it wasn't It was less about the

703
00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,320
Speaker 1: material than you being cast and how they saw women.

704
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,400
Speaker 1: So did you start to develop your roles and and

705
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: build the depth and what you were given as opposed

706
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,280
Speaker 1: to I think that for me, I remember, the best

707
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,799
Speaker 1: way to define it was I felt like I was

708
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,760
Speaker 1: a guest in people's house. And then a few years

709
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:54,440
Speaker 1: went by, and by the time I probably made my

710
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 1: eighth film, I'm sitting on a set and I'm going

711
00:38:57,760 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 1: you know, I've made as many films now as you

712
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 1: have the director, I have enough experience how to say,

713
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:05,839
Speaker 1: I don't think I do that. You can't do good

714
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 1: work in film or television without good directors. Otherwise they're

715
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:13,640
Speaker 1: just obstacles. But whereas in theater, in that moment, you

716
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:17,680
Speaker 1: have ultimate control. And with Beckett he removes really the

717
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:22,240
Speaker 1: necessity for directors. It really is a direct communication between

718
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:24,480
Speaker 1: the writing and the actor. Do you have some knowledge

719
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 1: or in Psychi this would be fascinating as to what

720
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: Beckett's relationships were with the directors of his material. You

721
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: see Beckett's work as so multifaceted. You know, he he

722
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:37,640
Speaker 1: took care of absolutely everything. He still takes care of

723
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 1: absolutely everything from Beyond the Grave. It's all the stage directions.

724
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: I mean, they are like art installations. He writes his score.

725
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 1: I wish I had it actually to show you, but

726
00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: like you look at the early drafts of Footfalls, the

727
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:53,839
Speaker 1: middle play that I do, which is highly complex and

728
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 1: probably one of Beckett's least understood plays, but it's written

729
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:00,440
Speaker 1: like a score of music, so you have these ours

730
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 1: were on the third bar may and the length of

731
00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 1: time spoken. He works out every step, so he's also choreographer,

732
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 1: so you know, it's high poeticism, both visually orally and emotionally.

733
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 1: And I feel Beckett's communicating directly with that instrument, which

734
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 1: is me or whoever the actor is, and the director

735
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:29,839
Speaker 1: has to just kind of service that and get out

736
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:32,479
Speaker 1: of the way and not try to place their own

737
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 1: stamp or ego on it. And I mean I've I've

738
00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:39,880
Speaker 1: seen productions where it's such and such does Crabs last Tape,

739
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 1: and they want to make it, you know, put their

740
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 1: own stamp on it. And really I feel Becky can

741
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:47,799
Speaker 1: hang you out to dry. You start to watch this

742
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 1: kind of tug of war between the language and the

743
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 1: music and what this person is trying to do, and

744
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 1: quite frankly, I've always felt that beck It always wins.

745
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:02,520
Speaker 1: Now that's not to say that's well said, that's not try.

746
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,359
Speaker 1: If you try to interpret Beckett, you're going to get

747
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 1: some kind of metaphysical electric shock from Beckett. That's not

748
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:12,320
Speaker 1: to say that there isn't room for interpretation. There's plenty scope.

749
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 1: I don't move away that much from the stage directions.

750
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,880
Speaker 1: Although I did take a big kind of leap with Footfalls,

751
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:23,080
Speaker 1: which is normally played by two actresses. I played both roles,

752
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:26,040
Speaker 1: this ninety year old woman off stage and May his

753
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 1: own stage in her forties. That I played both roles

754
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: and put together a kind of quite academic argument for

755
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 1: the Beckett the stage, and thankfully they gave me the

756
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 1: thumbs up. And it kind of worked because I wasn't

757
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,880
Speaker 1: kind of stepping away too much from what I felt

758
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:47,280
Speaker 1: was Beckett's intention within that realm, there's just so much scope.

759
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 1: Before we talk about the trip tick of the three

760
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:54,959
Speaker 1: pieces together, well you did not I first and thought

761
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 1: you didn't have the capacity to do all three. At

762
00:41:57,640 --> 00:41:58,880
Speaker 1: one point you said, oh, I don't think I can

763
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,720
Speaker 1: do that. When someone began to suggest that, talk about

764
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: the night you do all three or even not I.

765
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,479
Speaker 1: What's the day like for you? Describe what it's like. Yeah,

766
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:09,600
Speaker 1: So I get up in the morning and I meditate

767
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:11,839
Speaker 1: because not I as a beast, no matter how long

768
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:15,400
Speaker 1: I've been doing it, it's daunting and frightening and demands

769
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: the most extreme form of concentration. And you know, in

770
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,280
Speaker 1: a crass sense, not I as a representation of thought,

771
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,680
Speaker 1: and when you're in it, you really realize he's a

772
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:30,399
Speaker 1: genius because it's exactly how my mind works. And when

773
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:32,920
Speaker 1: I read it first, did I be scared to be

774
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,880
Speaker 1: at this booth with you? I think in different places,

775
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:41,640
Speaker 1: the different plays resonate more or less, and not I

776
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:45,520
Speaker 1: resonated very strongly here in New York because of the

777
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,840
Speaker 1: loudness of people's it's manic. The pace here is just manic,

778
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:53,439
Speaker 1: and we're all feeling highly caffeinated, stressed out individuals trying

779
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,279
Speaker 1: to keep pace. People are awake here, yeah, or we're

780
00:42:56,280 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 1: struggling to stay awake, very awake or there country, but

781
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 1: they're in the ring and leading with they're left. Yeah.

782
00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:06,239
Speaker 1: And you know, probably one of the biggest piece or

783
00:43:06,239 --> 00:43:10,520
Speaker 1: obstacles when doing not I is your own internal not I.

784
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:14,040
Speaker 1: So here, I am trying to say this impossible piece

785
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: at the speed of thought, which is what Beckett wanted,

786
00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:19,239
Speaker 1: with my head tied into harness, so I don't move

787
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 1: out of light. So I usually rehearse in the banisters

788
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,399
Speaker 1: at home. I time my head with a scarf into

789
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:29,799
Speaker 1: the banisters to train my diet from and I've got

790
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 1: very understanding neighbors. Come over here, honey, let's put the

791
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,480
Speaker 1: groceries down on the table. I'm my face is lashed

792
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 1: to the banister. It's meditation. And then I read somewhere

793
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,359
Speaker 1: where you do the piece a few times in the morning,

794
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 1: because no matter how many times you do it, you

795
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 1: have to kind of take a bite out of it

796
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 1: during the day and just to get a little bit

797
00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 1: of a run into it. And then I use three

798
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:59,120
Speaker 1: different forms of memory. One is the oral, so you know,

799
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,960
Speaker 1: like a song or anything like that. The next is

800
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 1: the narrative, which isn't that difficult. It's just very fragmented,

801
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 1: and there's all these interruptions and insurrections and things like that.

802
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:13,640
Speaker 1: And then there's how the piece looks on the page,

803
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:20,040
Speaker 1: which is kind of my my visual peg. So memorization

804
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: just bizarre, isn't it how you remember and the new

805
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 1: monarchs you create. Like if I have a list of

806
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,120
Speaker 1: adjectives or a list of institutions or a list of names,

807
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:31,399
Speaker 1: I'll sit there and I'll say to someone, I'll go, well,

808
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:37,120
Speaker 1: you realize that he's just preposterously wealthy and sophisticated. And

809
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: also then I'll go p w S, p w S.

810
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,439
Speaker 1: I'll say that to myself in the games we play,

811
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: I know, and you need a few maddening Yeah, you

812
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 1: need a few different tricks. Yeah. So you do the

813
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,839
Speaker 1: piece a few times. You get to the theater eight o'clock, Curt,

814
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 1: Let's say you're there, what time? Typically I come in

815
00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:59,239
Speaker 1: early and do a run in the head harness with

816
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:03,920
Speaker 1: my stay manager, because the head harness is a whole different.

817
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:05,799
Speaker 1: I mean, I could perform the piece here for you now,

818
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:09,920
Speaker 1: and all the energy leaks away, and it's a lot easier,

819
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:13,760
Speaker 1: and it's sayings and you see all the kind of dexterity,

820
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,400
Speaker 1: and you see the traffic coming and going around my face,

821
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:18,000
Speaker 1: and I could say the traffic because these are the

822
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:20,880
Speaker 1: little waves of stream of consciousness. You know the roads

823
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:24,200
Speaker 1: of Ireland, the sounds of Ireland. And then you lock

824
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:29,520
Speaker 1: tight and something else happens, and you just go deep, deep,

825
00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 1: deep into my consciousness. You know, I can't see. I've

826
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:37,360
Speaker 1: got black makeup from my cheap bones to my collar bone.

827
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:40,640
Speaker 1: And then I just release the lips. I just I

828
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: don't wear lipstick aroundthing. I just take off the black

829
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:45,360
Speaker 1: where the lips should be. And then I put on

830
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:49,359
Speaker 1: a blindfold and a shawl and then I slip into

831
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,840
Speaker 1: the head harness so I can't see or hear, and

832
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:55,320
Speaker 1: then my arms are put into brackets and I can't move,

833
00:45:56,239 --> 00:45:58,920
Speaker 1: and all of that energy, all the kind of the

834
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: pace and the role and the judgment of Ireland and

835
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,760
Speaker 1: the hilarity my vision of it's just so the audience

836
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:06,920
Speaker 1: can get this sense. I don't want to lose this idea.

837
00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:09,960
Speaker 1: Is when I saw the visual the pictures, it's almost

838
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,279
Speaker 1: like you're on a massage table and your face is

839
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 1: through that cradle, you know what I mean, And then

840
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 1: there's a bar that goes across your back that kind

841
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,160
Speaker 1: of smashes you into the massage table, you know. Then

842
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 1: they tilt the table straight up. It's a weird position

843
00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:27,840
Speaker 1: you're put in. Well, it's not something dissimilar from something

844
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 1: you'd see in a bog Arab with the water boarding

845
00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 1: and just turned the other way. You know, it does

846
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:37,920
Speaker 1: feel like a torture device, but then something bizarre happens.

847
00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:41,520
Speaker 1: So just from the audience point of view, I'm going

848
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:45,200
Speaker 1: back to when I first heard about this play. I

849
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:47,960
Speaker 1: remember this greatback at actor Stephen Brennan, when I was

850
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: in the middle of this TV series is my father,

851
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:52,719
Speaker 1: and I'm just pent up with all of this kind

852
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:56,160
Speaker 1: of I suppose what I recognized now it was artistic frustration,

853
00:46:56,280 --> 00:46:57,840
Speaker 1: but I didn't know what it was then. I was

854
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,920
Speaker 1: just frustrated. And he told me about not I and

855
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 1: he said, there's this play, which is the toughest play.

856
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:07,160
Speaker 1: Many actors have gone mad trying to learn it. But

857
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:11,839
Speaker 1: this disembodied mouth hovers across the stage. And even though

858
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 1: the mouth is locked into place because of the sensory

859
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 1: deprivation in an entirely blackened out auditorium, the mouth appears

860
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,040
Speaker 1: to osculate or travel across the audience. And that's different

861
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 1: for everybody in the audience. They all experience an optical illusion. Yeah,

862
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:30,920
Speaker 1: fires around the place for people, and it's different for

863
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,120
Speaker 1: every member of the audience. No, I don't really, but

864
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,919
Speaker 1: the audience thinks I'm moving, and I think Becat takes

865
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 1: that to the extreme here. And this is why you

866
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: feel so safe. This is why I can splain myself

867
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:46,880
Speaker 1: onto this torture chamber, because he's taken care of everything.

868
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:48,239
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever felt like that with

869
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 1: another writer, but you know one of his rehearsal periods

870
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,400
Speaker 1: with Billy White and he said, Billy, Billy, bring your

871
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: pencil over here, three lines down, four words in. Can

872
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:02,000
Speaker 1: you make those e dots to dots? And he took

873
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: up a dot. And if a writer can be that

874
00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:11,520
Speaker 1: pedantic about that, you can pretty much feel safe about

875
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:16,160
Speaker 1: the whole. And I just feel his genius makes me

876
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:19,799
Speaker 1: feel so held that all I have to do is

877
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 1: give him everything. Do you find it difficult not to

878
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:28,240
Speaker 1: channel White Law? I was lucky the sequence of events

879
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 1: and how I ended up doing Beckett. I've just been

880
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:36,160
Speaker 1: incredibly lucky. I hadn't seen White Laws performance and it's

881
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 1: on YouTube, and I didn't watch it when I first

882
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 1: got cast, so I had the image of my mind.

883
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 1: I still never seen nott I in the theater, only

884
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 1: my performance, so I only know what it's like to

885
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 1: be in it. And when I read the script. I

886
00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:53,840
Speaker 1: heard Ireland, I heard my father. I heard the streets

887
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:57,319
Speaker 1: of Athlone, and the scorn and the bitterness, and the

888
00:48:57,440 --> 00:49:01,400
Speaker 1: nuns and the humor, and my family, and there's my aunt.

889
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:05,719
Speaker 1: It became my personal landscape. And I didn't have this

890
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: kind of reverential holy Grail feelings of intimidation in regards

891
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: to Beckett. I suppose I was slightly sacrilegious or or

892
00:49:15,719 --> 00:49:19,239
Speaker 1: you know, I might as well have been wrapped to you. No,

893
00:49:19,280 --> 00:49:23,120
Speaker 1: but it was home and it was mine, and I

894
00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:26,040
Speaker 1: think that's why I got the part, you know. And

895
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 1: then my director said, I don't want you to see

896
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:33,400
Speaker 1: Billy's performance. This has to be yours. And that was

897
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:35,799
Speaker 1: hard to do because Billy and Beckett, it's like a

898
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:41,880
Speaker 1: natural call off response. Yeah, and I avoided it. And

899
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,480
Speaker 1: then Edward Beckett came to the opening night into thousand

900
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:46,839
Speaker 1: and five and said, you know, I think you could

901
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,319
Speaker 1: meet Billy now that you found your own way and

902
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 1: we met each other. Did she come see you know?

903
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 1: She was quite reclusive at that point, but she agreed

904
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:57,920
Speaker 1: to meet me because she'd never met anyone who had

905
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:00,160
Speaker 1: played not I, and she was a beautiful woman him

906
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:02,320
Speaker 1: when she was young. She was I've seen shots of

907
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 1: people forget that about Whitelaw because she played you know,

908
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:09,000
Speaker 1: the wacky nun and the almend nanny and the almend

909
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:14,200
Speaker 1: very severe and very kind of scary, the older, middle

910
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:17,320
Speaker 1: aged Billy Whitelaw. But young Billy Whitelaw. I looked online

911
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 1: and there was She's like ravish, She's like the smugging

912
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 1: musty and you know, and she played that when she

913
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:26,440
Speaker 1: did Happy Days as well. You know, she was no

914
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 1: kind of character church. She was a leading lady when

915
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:31,719
Speaker 1: she was when she was younger. But but so you

916
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:33,640
Speaker 1: finally met her. So I met her, and we greeted

917
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:35,880
Speaker 1: each other like a long lost war veterans, and it

918
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:40,759
Speaker 1: was just this immediate access, comrade. Yeah, and you know,

919
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:43,479
Speaker 1: we were straight into the most intimate details. And where

920
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 1: did you go on? What did you think of this?

921
00:50:45,120 --> 00:50:47,080
Speaker 1: And you know, when did you swallow? Did you feel

922
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:49,320
Speaker 1: like a Pelican? Yes? Or did I you know? And

923
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:51,920
Speaker 1: and also I asked her a lot about Beckett and stuff.

924
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:54,680
Speaker 1: And I'm so lucky. And if there's anything I can

925
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:56,720
Speaker 1: ever pass on to any other actor in the future,

926
00:50:56,719 --> 00:50:59,160
Speaker 1: if they ever want anything for me, is to remove

927
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:02,160
Speaker 1: all the am I all that swear? No, I'll think

928
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 1: of something to remove all the kind of rubbish. If

929
00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:07,920
Speaker 1: you don't swear, I'm going to be upset now all

930
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:12,480
Speaker 1: the bullshit surrounding Beckett. I can do better. But well,

931
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 1: but but if we can remove all of that and

932
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:19,759
Speaker 1: really get down to the crux of the matter, to

933
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 1: the truth, like I'm only beginning to find out, actually,

934
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:27,879
Speaker 1: And I think Beckett is what has taught me this

935
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,600
Speaker 1: Beckett and maybe a few other things, but I don't

936
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 1: know if I really knew what truth sounded like. And

937
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:37,960
Speaker 1: being Irish, we can pretend to be all hard in

938
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,120
Speaker 1: your sleeve and sure we're so open and you know,

939
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:46,200
Speaker 1: and that's an act, but when you hear real truth,

940
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:52,840
Speaker 1: you can't argue with that. And Beckett is the type

941
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:55,719
Speaker 1: of artists that if you try and bring him anything

942
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:58,359
Speaker 1: less than that, he hangs you out today. But how

943
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:00,040
Speaker 1: do you feel, because I want to get back to

944
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:02,880
Speaker 1: the night of and then the three and then the

945
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 1: three pieces together, But how do you feel when you

946
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:07,759
Speaker 1: say that? I want to read you a quote you

947
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 1: talk about how Beckett looked down the barrel of life

948
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:13,040
Speaker 1: was a quote I got from here and you said,

949
00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:15,680
Speaker 1: I met David Hair recently, and he said he wasn't

950
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:19,359
Speaker 1: convinced that Beckett believed his own worldview, that if he had,

951
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:21,120
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have gotten out of bed in the morning.

952
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:23,480
Speaker 1: The truth is he didn't often get out of bed.

953
00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:26,680
Speaker 1: He was depressive, he was considered maladjusted. He suffered a

954
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:29,680
Speaker 1: great deal. And people have said to me, meaning you

955
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,440
Speaker 1: you know, Beckett's a very cruel writer. It might be

956
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:34,399
Speaker 1: okay for him to describe the world in that way,

957
00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 1: but the rest of us need our delusions unquote. Well,

958
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of truth in that, but once

959
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:41,319
Speaker 1: you've looked down the barrel of life that way, it's

960
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:45,640
Speaker 1: very hard to forget what you've seen. Now, how do

961
00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:47,600
Speaker 1: you think this is going to affect your work? Meaning

962
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,320
Speaker 1: when you do something that's as raw or whatever adjective

963
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:52,480
Speaker 1: you want to use, that's as truthful. That was the

964
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:54,239
Speaker 1: word you I think you use when you do a

965
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:56,920
Speaker 1: piece that reaches into you the way this has reached

966
00:52:56,920 --> 00:53:01,239
Speaker 1: into you. What do you do when you go to work?

967
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:06,440
Speaker 1: And it's not that I don't know, you know? And

968
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:11,160
Speaker 1: I remember after meeting Billy, she wanted to direct me.

969
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:15,600
Speaker 1: She wanted to pass on Beckett's notes and I had

970
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 1: been trying to do Beckett as I thought beck it

971
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:21,440
Speaker 1: should be done. You know, I had heard no color

972
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:24,520
Speaker 1: and don't act, and I was trying to kind of

973
00:53:24,520 --> 00:53:26,880
Speaker 1: put this kind of monotone and not be too indulgent.

974
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:30,200
Speaker 1: And you know, I come from a strict classical ballet world,

975
00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:33,960
Speaker 1: so I was adopting that kind of control and technique

976
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,000
Speaker 1: and not trying to be flashy in all of that

977
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And Billy said, what are you doing?

978
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:43,960
Speaker 1: Bring that all in? Because I was resisting these urges

979
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:48,000
Speaker 1: my own landscape, you know, my own sense of home

980
00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 1: and what that provokes in me. To bring that all in,

981
00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:54,840
Speaker 1: And then the piece just started to sing and it

982
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:58,640
Speaker 1: was unlike anything that had been done before and not

983
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:03,799
Speaker 1: I and it worked. So Billy Billy into thousand and

984
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 1: nine directed the version I did solo then without any director,

985
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 1: and the night or the week I was opening, she

986
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:14,560
Speaker 1: went into hospital and that was it. And she's so

987
00:54:14,719 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 1: desperate to pass on the notes. But I read a

988
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,120
Speaker 1: review that night and it said, this is going to

989
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:22,759
Speaker 1: spoil her for anything else. I don't be daff for

990
00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:25,439
Speaker 1: Christ's sake, you know, beck And it's highly disciplined work,

991
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,440
Speaker 1: but you know, you can't have a symphony all the time.

992
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:32,359
Speaker 1: You can have occasional pop song. He does. Once you've

993
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:37,360
Speaker 1: tasted truth to that level, once you've had the most multifaceted,

994
00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:42,719
Speaker 1: expansive landscape to work in, you're completely spoiled. So they

995
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:45,480
Speaker 1: strap you in when you do the three pieces, not

996
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:48,279
Speaker 1: I as the first, and then you take off the

997
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:50,640
Speaker 1: makeup and the you do the other two pieces two minutes.

998
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:54,000
Speaker 1: You d rig from that I in two minute, then

999
00:54:54,040 --> 00:54:56,239
Speaker 1: go and do the other piece. So you're strapped in

1000
00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:58,200
Speaker 1: and you're in the on the launch pad there and

1001
00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 1: it's five four three two go? Do you get it?

1002
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:04,839
Speaker 1: Letter perfect? Every night more or less there's the out

1003
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: on my skip a section, you know, a little two

1004
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:09,040
Speaker 1: words or something like that, and give my stage manager

1005
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:10,919
Speaker 1: a heart attack because you can find it. She can't

1006
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:13,520
Speaker 1: keep up at that kind of speed. But it's terrifying

1007
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:15,919
Speaker 1: because you know it is a tightrope act. If I

1008
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 1: trip up or make mistake, have killed the piece. But

1009
00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:25,719
Speaker 1: what happens, and this is where I feel like I'm

1010
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:29,200
Speaker 1: an element. So there I am unable to move our

1011
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:33,480
Speaker 1: ce or here, and I take flight. So while the

1012
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:38,200
Speaker 1: audience are experiencing this hallucinations, all the exit signs are

1013
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:41,319
Speaker 1: taken out, every led, everything is just blacked out. And

1014
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:45,520
Speaker 1: they're experiencing this optical illusion of these lips hovering about

1015
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 1: the stage and moving rapidly, are coming really close to them,

1016
00:55:48,200 --> 00:55:51,080
Speaker 1: are going further away, and just moving like a spaceship.

1017
00:55:51,880 --> 00:55:56,480
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm taking flight. And that's a bizarre

1018
00:55:56,560 --> 00:56:00,480
Speaker 1: experience where I feel I'm circling around the old storium.

1019
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,560
Speaker 1: It's a bizarre experience. Then two minutes to decompress, if

1020
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:06,320
Speaker 1: you will, to go to the next piece. And the

1021
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,080
Speaker 1: next piece is What Footfalls, And that's a piece about what,

1022
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:12,160
Speaker 1: among other things. It's like a chamber piece of music,

1023
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:15,799
Speaker 1: but it's an exploration of trauma and conflict. Well, it's

1024
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:19,560
Speaker 1: a jew log with myself, with my mother in my head,

1025
00:56:19,719 --> 00:56:24,480
Speaker 1: the critic, and it's it's this call and response, you know,

1026
00:56:24,520 --> 00:56:28,040
Speaker 1: Beckett described as kind of thogy. She's trying to kill

1027
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:31,040
Speaker 1: the voice in her head, the oppressor, the critics. And

1028
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,560
Speaker 1: what's the third piece, rock a Bye, which is like

1029
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:43,759
Speaker 1: um being rocked to death, summoning death. Well, I think

1030
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:49,120
Speaker 1: death is summoning her. Are you afraid to die? Well?

1031
00:56:49,160 --> 00:56:52,400
Speaker 1: The thing about Beckett's characters, they kind of laugh, of death.

1032
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:57,959
Speaker 1: They've been well, they've been dead already. You know, these

1033
00:56:57,960 --> 00:57:01,239
Speaker 1: works are a kind of haunting. I don't know, I

1034
00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 1: kind of feel the death or among us, you know,

1035
00:57:04,719 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 1: either in our minds or in the ether. You do

1036
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:11,000
Speaker 1: these pieces, and you do especially not I, which is

1037
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:14,040
Speaker 1: this very difficult piece in your personal life? Without getting

1038
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:18,000
Speaker 1: two personal do you like things to be when Lisa

1039
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:20,120
Speaker 1: Dwan goes home? Does she like everything to be nice

1040
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:23,600
Speaker 1: and easy? What do you like? A complex and challenging

1041
00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:28,440
Speaker 1: in all things? I tend to gravitate towards those. You know.

1042
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:30,160
Speaker 1: My mother said that would you stopped doing that now,

1043
00:57:30,200 --> 00:57:35,680
Speaker 1: you'd be like Joan Crawford comedy next, you know. But

1044
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:39,080
Speaker 1: I guess one of the things I find hard, And

1045
00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:40,600
Speaker 1: I don't want to sound like one of those kind

1046
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:43,760
Speaker 1: of winging women, but I do find it hard when

1047
00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:46,800
Speaker 1: people present I I went to see Angels in America.

1048
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:50,560
Speaker 1: Amazing play. What a poet, What a poet, what amazing

1049
00:57:50,680 --> 00:57:55,440
Speaker 1: nuanced roles? Faceted? Yeah is the Eva who but all

1050
00:57:55,480 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: these amazing complex roles for men. The women get the

1051
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:06,360
Speaker 1: two stereotypes, the hysterical wife and the mother. Rosenberg is

1052
00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:11,800
Speaker 1: in there. Well, it's frustration. Well, we're gonna get to

1053
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:16,720
Speaker 1: that lastly. But what has Beckett? What has the truth

1054
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:20,560
Speaker 1: or truths that Beckett compels us to look at or

1055
00:58:20,680 --> 00:58:23,240
Speaker 1: stare down if you will. What's it told you about

1056
00:58:23,320 --> 00:58:27,600
Speaker 1: being Irish? Oh? I don't know much about what it

1057
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 1: means to be Irish. To be honest, I have a

1058
00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:33,400
Speaker 1: complex relationship with Ireland, does becketted? You know, kind of

1059
00:58:33,440 --> 00:58:37,200
Speaker 1: loving and loathing of the place. You love about it?

1060
00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:44,720
Speaker 1: The poetry, the poetry in the everyday language at humor um,

1061
00:58:44,800 --> 00:58:48,760
Speaker 1: the beauty of the music, you know, the inherent music

1062
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:55,240
Speaker 1: and poetry. Oh, the small mindedness, the tall poppy syndrome,

1063
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:59,880
Speaker 1: the misogyny. I sound like such an angry feminist. And

1064
00:59:00,160 --> 00:59:02,440
Speaker 1: maybe it's a phase I'm going through. Open When you

1065
00:59:02,480 --> 00:59:04,840
Speaker 1: say face, is it something you felt this way throughout

1066
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:07,000
Speaker 1: You've been acting for a while now, have you have

1067
00:59:07,080 --> 00:59:10,200
Speaker 1: you felt this? I don't think I had the balls

1068
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:13,360
Speaker 1: to put my finger on it. And I'm nowhere near

1069
00:59:13,440 --> 00:59:17,800
Speaker 1: your level or anybody's. But you know where you can

1070
00:59:17,840 --> 00:59:22,760
Speaker 1: actually just allow yourself, give yourself permission to have a viewpoint.

1071
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:27,360
Speaker 1: And I suppose Beckett's kind of pushed me in that

1072
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:31,120
Speaker 1: direction where I start to notice things. No, you're trying

1073
00:59:31,160 --> 00:59:34,880
Speaker 1: to squeeze me into this little box. You can't come

1074
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:39,600
Speaker 1: at truth from that direction. You know, it comes from

1075
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:43,520
Speaker 1: another place. And that's what Beckett has taught me more

1076
00:59:43,560 --> 00:59:47,480
Speaker 1: than anything. I had to use my personal landscape, my

1077
00:59:47,520 --> 00:59:54,760
Speaker 1: own story, the wounds of I don't know, rejection, whatever

1078
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:59,000
Speaker 1: I grew up with. I use those, you know, really

1079
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:02,800
Speaker 1: ordinary things, these these wounds, these weapons. And when the

1080
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 1: bell goes and footfalls, I picked those gaps and they

1081
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:08,520
Speaker 1: bleed up. Well, let me just mention this because we're

1082
01:00:08,560 --> 01:00:10,120
Speaker 1: going to run out of time, and I want to say,

1083
01:00:11,760 --> 01:00:14,720
Speaker 1: you have a lot of energy. You have a lot

1084
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:16,920
Speaker 1: of creative energy. I mean, you're like a real you

1085
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:20,000
Speaker 1: know flame, you know, and in your work you're doing

1086
01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:22,960
Speaker 1: this remarkably difficult work, and it's remarkably precise work, and

1087
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:27,160
Speaker 1: this remarkably disciplined work that you're nailing. I mean, people are,

1088
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:29,640
Speaker 1: you know, lauding you and saying, well, these wonderful things.

1089
01:00:29,680 --> 01:00:34,560
Speaker 1: But you are someone who, as I said to you before,

1090
01:00:34,720 --> 01:00:38,880
Speaker 1: there are princesses of the theater, which they have a

1091
01:00:38,920 --> 01:00:41,800
Speaker 1: seat here in New York for you. They got a

1092
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:44,960
Speaker 1: seat here for you. They're ready for you. You come here,

1093
01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:47,439
Speaker 1: you're gonna work. You're gonna work and work and play

1094
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:50,440
Speaker 1: great roles and whether you do head of Gabbler or whatever.

1095
01:00:50,440 --> 01:00:52,440
Speaker 1: You they had a lot of parts here for you

1096
01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:57,360
Speaker 1: to play. So what are you moving here? That's really

1097
01:00:57,440 --> 01:00:59,120
Speaker 1: kind of what do you need the name of a broker?

1098
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:04,720
Speaker 1: I have? I need everything? You should come here. I'd

1099
01:01:04,720 --> 01:01:06,720
Speaker 1: love to come here, But there's no. But no, that

1100
01:01:06,800 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 1: doesn't that that doesn't mean there's there's going to be

1101
01:01:08,560 --> 01:01:15,000
Speaker 1: opportunity here, not necessarily happiness. Oh I've given up. See

1102
01:01:15,080 --> 01:01:21,400
Speaker 1: that that's the Irish landscape. What's that? I wouldn't recognize

1103
01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:23,560
Speaker 1: it a bit in the urs. Well, i'll tell you what.

1104
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:26,600
Speaker 1: That's another thing about Beckett. You know, he's hilarious and

1105
01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:28,760
Speaker 1: he laughs at our situation. But you know what, he

1106
01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:32,640
Speaker 1: doesn't sell us anything. He doesn't he doesn't sell us anything.

1107
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:36,600
Speaker 1: And well, he's at war with sentimentality and he has

1108
01:01:36,640 --> 01:01:39,880
Speaker 1: taught me what you know, emotional gangsters are. He's been

1109
01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:42,600
Speaker 1: great at helping me not pick the duds that I

1110
01:01:43,280 --> 01:01:47,439
Speaker 1: used to draw in the past, you know, And he's

1111
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:49,959
Speaker 1: been greater kind of helping me to thine own self

1112
01:01:50,040 --> 01:01:53,800
Speaker 1: be true. It's a big eye opener, and I think

1113
01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:56,720
Speaker 1: I could move to a place like New York with

1114
01:01:56,800 --> 01:02:00,280
Speaker 1: that kind of strong sense of myself and maybe not

1115
01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:06,200
Speaker 1: fall apart if things don't work out as planned. I

1116
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:08,720
Speaker 1: have a hunch things will work out very well for

1117
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:12,000
Speaker 1: Lisa Dwan if she makes the move. She'll have another

1118
01:02:12,080 --> 01:02:14,640
Speaker 1: chance to try out New York living when she performs

1119
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:18,280
Speaker 1: two more Beckett pieces at Lincoln Center this fall. Billy

1120
01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:21,720
Speaker 1: Whitelaw will not be there to guide Dwan. The actress

1121
01:02:21,760 --> 01:02:25,480
Speaker 1: passed away in December last year. This is Alec Baldwin

1122
01:02:25,800 --> 01:02:27,520
Speaker 1: you're listening to. Here's the thing