SEAGULL, with Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard, to Play the Kerr

I love Krisitn Scott Thomas.
I love Chekhov's THE SEAGULL.
What a combination!

Last week, I auditioned for this production. They need(ed) understudies for all the roles. One lucky gal will understudy both the roles of Nina and Masha. I didn't receive a call about it, and it really stinks that I have to let this one go, but I must persevere on---> =)

Nonetheless, I would LOVE to see this production.
(I would Love MORE to be in it, to be part of it;)

By Andrew Gans
30 Jun 2008

Ian Rickson's acclaimed production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, which played a January-March 2007 run at London's Royal Court, will begin previews Sept. 16 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

The production, which features a new translation by playwright Christopher Hampton (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Philanthropist), was the final play to be directed by Rickson as the Court's artistic director. Opening on Broadway will be Oct. 1. The production will play a limited run of 14 weeks through Dec. 21.

(The Kerr is the current home of A Catered Affair, which will end its run July 27.)

Kristin Scott Thomas will reprise her Olivier Award-winning performance as Arkadina for New York audiences. She will be joined onstage by Peter Sarsgaard, who will also be making his Broadway debut, as Trigorin. The cast will also feature members of the original Royal Court Theatre cast, including Mackenzie Crook as Konstantin, Art Malik as Dorn, Carey Mulligan as Nina, Pearce Quigley as Medvedenko, Peter Wight as Sorin, Christopher Patrick Nolan as Yakov and Mary Rose as the Maid. The production will also feature Zoe Kazan as Masha, with other casting to be announced at a later date.

Chekhov wrote The Seagull in 1985. The classic play, according to press notes, concerns "the romantic entanglements and regrets of a group of actors, writers and artists gathered on a Russian estate."

The production will feature designs by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting by Peter Mumford, sound by Ian Dickinson and music by Stephen Warbeck.

Kristin Scott Thomas won the 2007 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Arkadina in The Seagull. She received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in "The English Patient" and has also been seen in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Gosford Park," "Random Hearts," "Life as a House," "The Horse Whisperer," "Angels and Insects," "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Walker" as well as the upcoming ""Easy Virtue," "Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "I've Loved You So Long."

Peter Sarsgaard made his screen debut in "Dead Man Walking" and has since appeared in "Kinsey," "Shattered Glass" (National Society of Film Critics Award), "Garden State," "Boys Don't Cry," "Rendition," "The Dying Gaul," "Jarhead," "The Skeleton Key," "Flightplan," "Year of the Dog" and the upcoming "In the Electric Mist," "Orphan," "Elegy," "An Education" and "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh." He trained at the Actor's Studio and appeared Off-Broadway in Signature Theatre's production of Burn This and Laura Dennis and Drama Dept.'s Kingdom of Earth.

The Seagull will be produced on Broadway by Sonia Friedman Productions, Bob Boyett, Robert G. Bartner, Dede Harris, Eric Falkenstein, Fox Theatricals, Dena Hammerstein, Sharon Karmazin, Olympus Theatricals, Spring Sirkin, Tara Smith, Mort Swinsky, Karl Sydow, The Weinstein Company and Jay & Cindy Gutterman.

Show times will be Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 PM with matinees Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. There will be an extra performance Sunday, Oct. 5 at 8 PM.

Ticket information will be announced shortly.

The Walter Kerr Theatre is located in Manhattan at 219 West 48th Street.

from: playbill.com
photo of Kristin Scott Thomas as Arkadina in the London production of THE SEAGULL by Johan Persson

Romy & the Classics

ROMY AS ANNABELLA IN 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE (1961)

Alain Delon played Giovanni

I mean...as if she couldn't be any greater! I knew that she played in 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE and from the on-going research I have been doing on her, I recently found out that she toured Europe in ... wait for it ... THE SEA GULL. Oh, my stars! For real! For. Real. THE SEA GULL. And she performed it in French! How amazing is she! I love this woman. They also performed it in Morocco.

I read that 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE was a flop. But, so what? Please. I suppose the audience couldn't get passed the story of Giovanni being in love with his sister Annabella and vice versa. Hello...of course! Whoops! Ew! I think that's the story. I never read the play. I only know of it because a girl in my Voice & Movement class, Veronica Moody, performed a piece from it. I've always been intrigued by the story. I think it's time to take a trip to Sam French. I'm thinking on Thursday.

So, maybe the production just really wasn't good. Or the story just wasn't being swallowed the right way. Yikes! And the only good thing about it was Romy and Alain. Or maybe even just Romy. I've never seen Alain Delon's work. I can't imagine Romy being less than magnificent.

So.........................I just read a brief summary on the play. You first find out that Giovanni is in love with his sister. He has come home from a long time of studying in Bologna. He confides in the Friar his love for Annabella. Annabella comes out onto the balcony. Her father is trying to marry her off to one of many suitors. She is not interested in any of them. On the balcony, she sees a man to whom she is strongly attracted. She does not recognize that it is her brother, Giovanni. Perhaps because he has been away so long at his studies. Mm... Giovanni tells his sister of his passion for her, his INCESTUOUS (I had to write it! I had to! It's such a juicy, delicious word!) feelings for her and she confesses to him that she reciprocates those INCESTUOUS feelings. EW! I love it!!! Seriously. Oh, my goodness! The drama of it! I SO HAVE to be in this play someday. I want to be Annabella! I know. Gross. But, it's make-believe! HELLO!

Let's give a shout-out to Luchino Visconti for coaxing Romy to the Paris stage (even though the play flopped). He also cast her in his section of, "Boccaccio '70," and she appeared semi-nude. This movie launced her into international success. I wonder how much she was paid for that role. Hm... =D So, "Here-here," to Signor Visconti. Woot-woot!

Sadly, America did not know how to use her (reminds me of Isabelle Huppert).

ROMY AS NINA IN THE SEAGULL (1962)

So serious. That's right. When an actress puts on her stage make-up...it's serious business! Watch out!

So familiar to me.

"For some time now you've been growing irritable. You don't make much sense when you talk--it's as if you speak in symbols. And I suppose this sea gull here is obviously a symbol, too, but--forgive me--I don't understand it...I'm much too simple to understand you."

Romy as Nina! Wow. I mean, really. That role is one of the ultimate female roles. Could she be any cooler? I just love that it seemed important for her to do stagework. To do the classics. To grow as an actor, as a person. And even if it wasn't her first initial decision and she was forced into it (I'm not saying that she was, that's just another scenario), she still went ahead and did it. She played the role triumphantly. Yeah, I want to be Nina in THE SEA GULL, as well. Who doesn't?

From an article by C Robert Jennings:

"For two difficult years she refused to work. 'It was horrible for me. But I knew I must have the courage to wait, to think, to take time out for renewal, to get myself together...It's like reloading.'" And lo and behold, she had her encounter with Luchino Visconti who was a friend of Alain's.

"Parties, parties--everybody is bored and noisy, and they think it so necessary, so amusing. I'm afraid of too much public. In Europe I go out only when I like to go out. You can't say to me, 'Go because stars do it.' I have a bad reputation because I don't do little things which are supposed to make me a star."

"A tough no-nonsense performer, Romy approaches her work with the intensity of a general going into battle. She knows her lines. She knows her cameras. 'She is almost frighteningly professional,' says director Carl Foreman,..."

"The Method, agh, what the hell is the Method? I don't know what it is. Acting is acting. You know what to do. You only learn in the hardest schools--like Broadway or the Paris stage, or with tough directors like Otto Preminger and Orson Welles. To have personality, force, you can't get it from schools or buy it in books. My mother always quoted a director who said, 'Damn it, don't think, act!'"

"She can be as pure as she wants to be, but she also can be as bitchy as she chooses to be." ~Georges Clouzot

"At first Carl Foreman found her cool and withdrawn. 'But like a flower that reacts to sunshine, she reacts in the same way if she feels genuinely liked or loved. Her whole personality changes, and she becomes very warm and loving in return, much like a little girl, very appealing, sometimes even hoydenish.'"

"I expect everything from myself. Everything."

"After all, I grow up. To change as often as possible the work, the kind of parts on stage and screen. I must be strong. I wanted to be modern, hard and sophisticated--a grown woman."

"I am old-fashioned. I like men who kiss the hand,..."

"Anyway, there are things in life much more important than what people think or write about me. I am what I am. They can go to hell."

"I have something better to do than jump from villa to villa and yacht to yacht. I can stay for hours on my terrace and just look at the people, normal people, and the sea. I very often go to sleep at nine o'clock with my book, my records, my dogs, and I am happy."

"This is the most important thing, to live each moment. And to feel free."

Why do I feel like this woman is my twin??? OB-viously, we're FRATERNAL twins!!!

That is...............................except for this:

I call this the, "I'm disgusted"-face. I am oh-so-familiar, too-too-familiar with the muscles used to make that face! LOL!!! =PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Please, sistah. Please.

If I sound like a gushing schoolgirl....................I am. I can't help it. If you get me started on someone or something that I'm passionate about I could go on forever.

I'm such a dork.

(And proud of it.)

I seriously have too much time on my hands these days...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MAMA!!!

Currently listening to: The Scarlet Pimpernel: The New Musical Adventure - Original Broadway Cast Recording