It’s fascinating how she approaches her characters. The way she's determined to give more depth to soprano roles I'd like to see her take on Anne rather than Cinderella who to me already is a multifaceted role.
Hey great interview. I went to Assassins last night while in Sarasota, FL. A fun treatment in the round. And I was sitting among 20 High School theater kids seeing it for their first time. All loving it. Maybe one of them may be asked at some point in their future about their first encounter with the show!
Fantastic! And I'd love to do more of that sort of thing — first-encounter perspectives being as important (if not more so) as more seasoned appraisals! We actually have a feature coming this Sunday that shares that impulse, albeit from a performance POV: conversations with multiple people who've all played a single Sondheim role, from high-level professional contexts right through to school & amateur productions... :)
I think first-encounter is a great angle. I was reading something recently about the education director of a performing arts org. and that instead of talking first then listening to the piece, he insists on having the audience listen first and then the talk with q&a after -- makes sense to me!
On the ingenue just singing pretty: Don't you think that Anthony is also like that? He just sings "Johanna" and that's pretty much all he needs to do? Or is that a bad take?
I think Anthony is definitely interesting to consider from that perspective — whether he exists purely to live up to his name ("Hope"), or whether he represents something deeper (both to Johanna and to the piece)... We should be exploring Anthony in more detail next month, as it happens! Watch this space...
It’s fascinating how she approaches her characters. The way she's determined to give more depth to soprano roles I'd like to see her take on Anne rather than Cinderella who to me already is a multifaceted role.
Hey great interview. I went to Assassins last night while in Sarasota, FL. A fun treatment in the round. And I was sitting among 20 High School theater kids seeing it for their first time. All loving it. Maybe one of them may be asked at some point in their future about their first encounter with the show!
Fantastic! And I'd love to do more of that sort of thing — first-encounter perspectives being as important (if not more so) as more seasoned appraisals! We actually have a feature coming this Sunday that shares that impulse, albeit from a performance POV: conversations with multiple people who've all played a single Sondheim role, from high-level professional contexts right through to school & amateur productions... :)
I think first-encounter is a great angle. I was reading something recently about the education director of a performing arts org. and that instead of talking first then listening to the piece, he insists on having the audience listen first and then the talk with q&a after -- makes sense to me!
I love that take on Johanna! She's already crazy.
On the ingenue just singing pretty: Don't you think that Anthony is also like that? He just sings "Johanna" and that's pretty much all he needs to do? Or is that a bad take?
I think Anthony is definitely interesting to consider from that perspective — whether he exists purely to live up to his name ("Hope"), or whether he represents something deeper (both to Johanna and to the piece)... We should be exploring Anthony in more detail next month, as it happens! Watch this space...