Wednesday, June 20, 2012
My Life at the Theater: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
We saw this in 2008 and it was a remarkable production, starring much of the cast that performed it in its first production at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. Tracy Letts, the brilliant playwright of KILLER JOE and BUG, wrote it. Anna D. Shapiro directed. The addition of Estelle Parsons among a few others was wonderful. She ran up and down a flight of stair for most of the running time, which was about three hours. The Weston family was a thing of beauty--or least a thing of interest to an audience. Great play if you have endurance. Not a bad performance by any of the huge cast.
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3 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly. We were looking forward to seeing it from the first notices and fortunately got to see Deana Dunagan, Amy Morton and the rest of the original cast on Broadway.
Jeff M.
I think Letts' KILLER JOE is a better play. When I first moved to Chicago I had started my own theater company. I wrote an insane black comedy about a Hollywood talent agent who loses his reputation (then his mind) in a sex scandal, teams up a bunch of mental patients with criminal backgrounds and attempts his revenge on the movie industries by blowing up the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Oscar night. It was written back int eh late 80s. One of the first actors who auditioned for the play was young Tracy Letts. He was an actor then. I forget when he turned to writing. But KILLER JOE didn't come much later. I remember him being *very* tall and having a lot of blond hair. Now he is still very tall, has a Pulitzer, a Tony and a slew of other playwriting awards but no blond hair. I no longer have a theater company, no awards, but still have all my hair even if it's a lot grayer.
I agree. I said to husband today, while watching THE UGLY DUCKING at a theater that had I to do it over, I would be a stage or theater manager. Can't imagine anything better.
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