Padam...Padam...Padam...She is EFFING Stunning

Back when I was rehearsing for LIFE IS A DREAM at SCR, I researched about who Marion Cotillard is. There have been so many comments by critics, journalists, fans, &c...about how even though she was lip-synching the role, they couldn't get over that it wasn't coming from Cotillard's own soul. WELL, there was this article (I believe) that I found that said she went to a voice teacher and asked how she could produce that sound that Piaf possessed. Not so that she could mimic it. She was definitely not interested in imiating Piaf (Please! She's smarter than that=) It was so that she could use the same exact muscles that Piaf used. (Smart gal! I LOVE her!) The same breath. WELL, when time came to film all those singing scenes, she'd have the sound guys buh-last the soundtrack (Piaf's recordings) that way she could sing full out and make us believe that that strikingly amazing sound was produced from her soul.

I can't get over Cotillard. She captured, she understood Piaf's soul, her heart, her skin. She's stunning. Je l'adore.

And what about Edith Piaf? Marlene Dietrich said it in, "La Vie en Rose," You are the soul of France.

Please...argue with me. Oh! I'd love it. I'd love it. C'mon! Don't hang back! (Now if you can tell me what film that's from...you're hot!)

***

On a sad note...one of my favorite directors/writers, Anthony Minghella, died today of a hemorrhage at the age of 54. I just got home a couple of minutes ago and read that. The world lost a great visionary. A moving poet. Such a gentle, passionate, loving, warm soul. The first person I thought of when I read that he past away was Juliette Binoche, and when I saw her on the Actor's Studio saying how she wanted to be on the set of, "The English Patient," forever if she could. God. The depth of emotion that revealed when she spoke of that time of filming.

The second person I thought of was my good friend, Frank. "The English Patient," is our film.

May Anthony Minghella see the sky shining like diamonds and hear the angels sing.

Fire Diagonally Across The Street

So...in the wee small hours of yesterday morn, around 2a, standing in front of my mirror modelling my new tote bag for myself, I heard a *POP* outside my window. I thought, "Oh.My.God! What was that? Don't tell me that was a gun. Oh, no! Is there a shooting going on?!!" LOL! I felt firetruck lights and saw them winding round and round, instantly. I looked out the window and diagonally across the street from where I live, fire. My goodness. It was in this alley/driveway, right behind this white van.

I couldn't believe. It was fascinating. I mean, that early in the morn and people were out! I'm thinking they came out of their homes just to see what was up. OR, they could have been coming home from a night out. Though, for some reason, I can't believe that because there have been times when I've come home after midnight or so, and there was no one on my street.

I also rang my Ma after the fire was put out. Bad idea, she had a very calm sounding, concerned freak-out (is that possible?) but I calmed her down and told her it wasn't my building, that it was across the street and the firemen already put the fire out. It took a few minutes to make that clear to her!

Anyhoot...here are some photos that I took:

Check out this event: Public Hearing re: New Globe Theater

Hosted By: New Globe Theater
When: Monday Mar 10, 2008
at 5:00 PM
Where: Federal Hall
26 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
United States
Description:
New Globe Theater

Click Here To View Event

Take a few seconds to SAVE THE NEW GLOBE!

Spread this around like butter on just baked and taken out of the oven bread! *Mm*

from the New Globe Theatre website:

I am asking you to help save an amazing project: the New Globe Theater is proposing to transform a decaying military fort in New York Harbor into a vibrant performing arts venue and education center.

Despite overwhelming broad public support (from Senator Schumer to Community Board #1, from Al Pacino to Ralph Fiennes, from war veterans to acting students ... see www.newglobe.org), the National Park Service is about to disallow the plan.

If we do not act now, we shall forever lose the opportunity to create this inspiring cultural icon in New York Harbor.

Please take action today by sending an e-mail to the National Park Service immediately. It only takes a few seconds to forward the pre-written statement.

Thank you very much. (... and don't forget to tell YOUR friends!)

*

more info: http://www.newglobe.org
http://www.myspace.com/newglobe

PLEASE APPROVE NEW GLOBE PROPOSAL

A thousand *CHEERS* to Barbara Romer and ALL that are involved!

from the New Globe Theater website:

I urge you to embrace the public-private partnership proposed by the New Globe Theater as part of your preferred management alternative for Governors Island National Monument.

This innovative vision respects the site's history while achieving three vital objectives:

* PRESERVATION OF CASTLE WILLIAMS - structurally as well as spiritually, the new Globe's architecture would show off the site in the best light;

* PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT - through entertainment and education, showcasing history alongside Hamlet, the New Globe will infuse New York Harbor and its national parks with new life for years to come;

* FINANCIAL SECURITY - the New Globe's philanthropic contributions coupled with the steady revenue from theater performances and operations, over and above the park's income from visitation, will breathe new (and renewable) life into the park site, the castle and the harbor for the next generation and beyond.

The New Globe proposal has generated widespread support: from the New York congressional delegation to the entertainment, media and performing arts communities; from the public at large to a host of internationally respected civic and cultural leaders. PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS GROWING CHORUS THAT FAVORS THE NEW GLOBE AND RECOGNIZE THE TRUE POTENTIAL OF CASTLE WILLIAMS AND GOVERNORS ISLAND - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the NPS.

In his May 2007 report to the president, "The Future of America's National Parks," Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne asserts: "We will engage community partners to reach young people and new audiences, enriching their lives and protecting America's treasures for future generations." Here is an opportunity to build a public-private partnership with the New Globe, reach young people and new audiences, enrich their lives and protect the treasure of Castle Williams ... which currently rests dilapidated and infested with hazardous materials.

Castle Williams was constructed to defend America against the British in the War of 1812. The "New Globe for the New World" celebrates this history by creating a unique cultural center, but this time working with our former English foe to preserve America's history and celebrate our common cultural heritage. Appropriately, the center would face the "French" Statue of Liberty (similarly united with Fort Wood) as a complementary symbol of US-UK friendship.

The New Globe plan protects and preserves the 1811 fortification and interprets its role in the defense of New York Harbor and the nation within a 3,000-square-foot museum on the ground floor - highlighting the history of the harbor's forts and exploring a wide range of themes: harbor defense systems, politics, culture, history, transportation, economy, ecology and more. In this manner, the New Globe proposal adheres to the national monument's stated purpose of providing "an excellent opportunity for the public to observe and understand the harbor history, its defense, and its ecology."

The New Globe plan fills the open courtyard with the stunning auditorium that (1) preserves the three-tiered open space at the center of the structure and (2) preserves the views onto the sandstone walls through its back walls made of glass. The Draft GMP argues that "visually, spatially, and in terms of communicating the fort's military function and history, the visitor to the National Monument would be confronted with a very large, permanent intrusion. This would not be the superlative visitor experience expected by the public." However, this statement ignores the fact that, during the public scoping period, 65% of respondents requested the presence of the theater in the open courtyard.

In March 2007, New York Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, New York delegation Chairman Charles Rangel and another dozen congressmen signed a letter which requests National Park Service approval of the New Globe plan. Additionally, some 3,000 emails in support of the New Globe were received by the NPS last year.

The planned New Globe is dedicated not just to exploring the military past via exciting interpretive exhibits, workshops and seminars, but also to creating an inspiring future that celebrates cross-cultural understanding via the performing arts.

In order to provide the financial underpinnings for the operation of this museum and for the maintenance of the historic site, and in order to attract a wider, more diverse audience to national parks, the New Globe plan also incorporates the construction of a visionary theater inside the open courtyard of Castle Williams. The reversible design by Lord Norman Foster (celebrated for his sensitive treatment of historic structures, such as the British Museum and the German Parliament) creates a stage for world-class productions of Shakespeare as well as works by modern playwrights, classical and contemporary concerts, jazz performances, lectures, and a wide range of other events. The theater, with its extensive education program (modeled on London's Globe, serving 100,000 students annually), will operate entirely independently of the museum, restaurant and roof deck, which would remain accessible to the general public at all times.

The New Globe performance space, with a total capacity for 1,200 visitors and with 400 "groundling" tickets at $10 for each show, will provide a continuous revenue stream to create a self-sustaining national park.

While the draft GMP rightfully thinks about Governors Island National Monument within the larger context of the National Parks of New York Harbor, the preferred Alternative D ("Harbor Center") duplicates a role already fulfilled by the visitor centers at Federal Hall, Castle Clinton, and others.

Drawing from the visitor base of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island by forcing the Monument to "become a primary stop on harbor ferry tours," Alternative D fails to attract a wider and more diverse audience to the National Parks of New York Harbor. On the other hand, the New Globe plan provides a clear differentiation from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, is open after 6pm, and attracts unique visitors to a new dramatic tourist destination and world-class educational and cultural center.

Furthermore, preferred Alternative D is the most expensive of all alternatives and thus proposes to spend $50-60 million in one-time capital costs plus $107-128 million in life-cycle costs to offer redundant programming to the same interest group already served by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and other National Parks in New York Harbor.

Taking all these considerations to their logical conclusion, Alternative D will seek to allocate over $100 million of federal funding to serve a redundant target customer base on Governors Island; in the process, it will cannibalize federal funding that should be directed towards Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, the NPS plan condemns Castle Williams to remain sitting derelict for a few more decades, as the National Park Service is battling an $8 billion maintenance backlog and an annual $600 million operations shortfall. To prepare the public for this scenario, the draft GMP three times states that: "The implementation of the approved plan will depend on future funding and Servicewide priorities. The approval of a GMP does not guarantee that funding and staffing needed to implement the plan will be forthcoming. Full implementation of the GMP could be many years into the future."

Thus, despite President George W. Bush's mandate to "leverage philanthropic, partnership, and government investments for the benefit of national parks and their visitors," and despite the Centennial Initiative promise that "a new era of private-public partnerships will bring greater excellence to parks," THIS DRAFT GMP PROPOSES YET ANOTHER HUNDRED-MILLION-DOLLAR, FEDERAL-GOVERNMENT-DEPENDENT SITE WITHOUT A VIABLE SELF-SUSTAINING REVENUE SOURCE, WHILE REJECTING AN EXCITING, INSPIRATIONAL AND VISIONARY PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP THAT WOULD ENSURE THE FUTURE FINANCIAL *AND* HISTORIC INTEGRITY OF THE PARK AND ITS RESOURCES.

Thus far - 5 years after taking over management of the site - the NPS locally has been unsuccessful in securing the federal funding needed to stabilize the decaying structure.

The public-private partnership proposed by the New Globe will attract new large donors to give generously to the National Park Service, with the recognition that preservation and rehabilitation of the monument is not just the government's responsibility. The New Globe will help raise funds to forestall further severe deterioration, stabilize the structure, and remediate the building to allow for summer performances during the planning and development period. Furthermore, the proposal builds capacity for park operations and maintenance, since New Globe will provide for operation (incl. additional staffing) and maintenance of the national monument without government subsidies - thereby relieving the federal budget of an additional burden. Finally, for self-sustaining operations, an endowment will be raised from private sources. (And in the unlikely scenario that an exit strategy becomes necessary, the endowment is earmarked for the removal of the reversible theater inset in the open courtyard.)

Given the New Globe proposal has attracted overwhelming public interest and support as a bold and imaginative public-private partnership; and given the New York congressional delegation's urging "that the GMP for Castle Williams National Monument allow for the adaptive reuse proposed by the New Globe Theater," I respectfully request the National Park Service - as the American public's steward - find a way to adjust or expand the existing legislation to include the New Globe.

If in the 1880s the same rules and regulations that the National Park Service is trying to rigidly enforce on Castle Williams had been applied to the Statue of Liberty, that symbol of freedom would not grace our Harbor today. I therefore strongly urge you to listen to the general public, to be "mindful that boldness matches our history" (to quote Secretary Kempthorne's opening sentence of "The Future of America's National Parks"), and to have the vision to create another great American icon in New York Harbor - the New Globe Theater at Governors Island National Monument.

*

more info: http://www.newglobe.org
http://www.myspace.com/newglobe

RIP, Dennis Letts

Dennis Letts, Actor Who Appeared in Son's August: Osage County, Dead at 73

By Kenneth Jones
24 Feb 2008

Dennis Letts, the patrician actor who created the role of Beverly Weston — the father who goes missing at the top of the acclaimed Chicago and Broadway play, August: Osage County — died Feb. 22, his son playwright Tracy Letts told the Chicago Tribune.

Mr. Letts' final role as an actor was in his son's most embraced and popular play, which is currently an audience and critical sensation at Broadway's Imperial Theatre. A failed poet whose marriage is soaked in booze and pills, Beverly hires a housekeeper in the opening scene of the play, and then mysteriously vanishes. The event prompts a reunion of the dysfunctional Weston family.

The juicy play was inspired by Letts' family history, and is set in the territory from whence the family came — Oklahoma. Mr. Letts died of cancer in Tulsa, OK. He was 73 years old, the Trib reported. He left the Broadway show in late January.

Mr. Letts created the role in the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's world premiere of August in summer 2007, and moved with the troupe to Broadway. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2007 after the Windy City run.

"His choice to persevere with the New York production in the face of his devastating diagnosis is a testament to his love for the project and the people involved," Tracy Letts said in a statement. "Dad had a full and fascinating life, and August: Osage County was the cherry on top."

August will move from Broadway's large Imperial to the more intimate Music Box on Broadway in the spring. There is buzz of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award potential for the humor-laced soap-operatic drama.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Letts was a college professor who specialized in literature and writing. He taught at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. He began acting late in his career, at age 50.

Mr. Letts has appeared in more than 40 films and television shows as a character actor, including "Little Boy Blue," "Infamous," "Secondhand Lions," "Cast Away," "A Perfect World," "Bloodsuckers From Outer Space" and "Where the Heart Is." Recent theatre work includes two original plays performed in Austin, TX: Dead Presidents' Club by Larry L. King and Sonny's Last Shot by Lawrence Wright.

Survivors include his wife, Billie; brother Ray Don; and three sons, Tracy, Dana and Shawn. A memorial service for Mr. Letts will be Feb. 28 at Mallett Funeral Home Chapel in Wagoner, OK.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/115328.html

Dennis Letts, Actor & Father of 'August' Playwright, Dies

Sunday, February 24 2008 10:39p
by BWW News Desk

Dennis Letts, who was currently appearing as the patriarch-gone-missing from the highly-acclaimed new play August: Osage County, penned by son Tracy Letts, has died of lung-cancer on Friday, February 22. He was 73 years old.

Dennis Letts originated the role of Beverly Weston in August: Osage County, with both the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago and the Broadway company at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. He was an Oklahoma actor and retired English university professor; and appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows in his lifetime.

Tracy Letts released the following statement: "My father was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in September of last year, following the Chicago run of August: Osage County and prior to the Broadway transfer. His choice to persevere with the New York production in the face of his devastating diagnosis is a testament to his love for the project and the people involved. Dad had a full and fascinating life, and August: Osage County was the cherry on top. My family will be forever grateful for the many kindnesses shown to Dad by the wonderful people associated with the production."

The New York Times details: "Letts, whose cancer was diagnosed in September, was an English professor for 30 years, mostly at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. He performed in community and university stage productions during those years and took up acting as a second career after retiring from teaching. His acting credits include Where the Heart Is, the film version of a novel by his wife, Billie Letts; he served as an editor for her novels."

Dennis Letts is survived by his wife, Billie; brother Ray Don; and three sons, Tracy, Dana and Shawn. A memorial service for Letts will be held on Thursday, February 28 at Mallett Funeral Home Chapel in Wagoner, Oklahoma.

http://http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=25442

My Favorite Oscar Moments (there are 6):

When Tilda Swinton won for Best Supporting Actress, Michael Clayton; and her reaction to that win (One of my favorites for quite some time since, Orlando)

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova winning for Best Song, "Falling Slowly," Once

Jon Stewart allowing Irglova to give her speech after being cut-off; and her speech

Cate Blanchett's wonderful reaction to Marion Cotillard's win for Best Actress (I adore both of them!!!)

Marion Cotillard winning for Best Actress, La Vie en Rose

Amy Ryan's listening to Cotillard's speech and her emotion (the moisture/tears in her eyes--lovely); who was sitting behind Cotillard (Another favorite of mine since I saw her on a televised version of recent Broadway production of THE WOMEN on PBS)

"Letyat Zhuravli" ("The Cranes are Flying")

Year: 1957
Director/Producer: Mikhail Kalatozov
Writer: Viktor Rozov
Cinematographer: Sergei Urusevsky
Music: Moisey Vaynberg
Film Editing: Mariya Timofeyeva
Starring: Tatyana Samojlova
              Aleksey Batalov
              Vasili Merkuryev
              Aleksandr Shvorin
              Svetlana Kharitonova
              Konstantin Nikitin
              Valentin Zubkov
              Antonina Bogdanova

SEE THIS FILM.
Buy it through The Criterion Collection, The Criterion DVD Portal, Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, &c...

I just saw it tonight for the 5th time...? I'm not sure how many times. It played at the Walter Reade Theater. How lucky was I to see it on the big screen? It was glorious. No matter how many times I've seen it...*tears* I took a good friend with me and he totally dug it!

What a great city this is! I mean, who would think that this film would be playing here? The best part was that I wasn't the only one in the theater! There were actually more than 10 people! Ha! But, I should have known better. This is NY!

Tatyana Samojlova (Veronika) is Beautiful.

After the film, we got into a (sort-of) discussion with a Russian young lady and (after he came back from the bathroom) her Russian date/friend/boyfriend...

Now, I'm just waiting for, "Hiroshima Mon Amour," to play somewhere HERE, sometime SOON!!!

PS There were 2 poems that I wrote inspired by this film. The first was just because the title struck me while I was browsing through the DVD Portal (Criterion) and I just wrote away. The second was actually on the film.

Poetry-Time Cafe with red shoes on a thuuursday

BREAK OF DAY

© red shoes on a thuuursday
Tuesday, 22 January 2008 8.49a

*
Thank you "III" for letting me read it to you over the phone.

poem taken down: Saturday, 26 January 2008
by: red shoes on a thuuursday

Inspired by one of my favorite co-workers

Adelle was one of the people that I met at work whom I really took a liking to. She's got a great energy. Anywho...the other day she told me it was her last day which I did not think was cool. I asked for her email and number so that we could keep in touch with each other.

I sent her an email and she wrote back and also sent me a link to her artwork. I'd like to share her work with y'all.

http://www.adellemarcero.blogspot.com/

I was left inspired after looking at her pieces. Too bad I can't do anything with that inspiration. I'm just feeling--okay, I won't say, "dry" (even though, that's how it REALLY feels)...but--as if this period of adjustment and transition is disguising itself as a time for refueling, refocusing, regaining focus and reflection & prioritizing. *bleah*

More Dysfunction! August Gets Five Added Weeks on Broadway

Oh.My.Gooshnick!!! Say, WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How EXTREMELY Joyous does this news make me feel? Wow. So, all you out there have MORE time to see this whoop-ass show. For my friends in the area of California that is southern =P, I suggest that you make some plans before 13 April to head over to NY. Not only to see moi But to See This Show. Even if you DON'T see me and see the show instead...that would be SO fine with this gal!!! That's how much I Love-Love-LOVE this show.

This is probably the wrong word for the show but, it is sublime. Intensely sublime. Dark. It's an actor's utopia. I'm gonna stop now because I think you'd need to be sitting with me inside a NY French cafe =P, and listening to my description, my experience of the show. I'm not focused on writing about it!

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is The Show that I have been recommending to anyone since first seeing it in November. Everyone: GO.

*

By Kenneth Jones
14 Jan 2008

The Broadway engagement of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County, critically embraced and an audience favorite, has been extended to April 13 at the Imperial Theatre.

The producers announced the added weeks on Jan. 14. The play was to be seen in a strictly limited 16-week run to March 9, but the dysfunctional-family drama is like a house on fire. The Steppenwolf Theater Company production is doing big business in the 1,400-seat theatre usually known as a home for musicals. In addition to enthusiastic reviews, the staging has prompted good word of mouth, fueling the box office.

The play tells of "the Weston clan after the disappearance of their patriarch. The family returns to their three-story home in rural Oklahoma to get to the heart of the matter."

The cast includes Ian Barford, Deanna Dunagan, Kimberly Guerrero, Francis Guinan, Brian Kerwin, Dennis Letts, Madeleine Martin, Mariann Mayberry, Amy Morton, Sally Murphy, Jeff Perry, Rondi Reed, Troy West, Munson Hicks, Susanne Marley, Jay Patterson, Dee Pelletier, Molly Ranson, Aaron Serotsky and Kristina Valada-Viars.

The cast does not change with this extension — the Chicago-based actors who created the central roles in the humor-spiked drama will still bite into their parts. Mutiple Tony Award nominations are assured.

Anna D. Shapiro (The Pain and the Itch, Iron) directs the production. The design team includes Todd Rosenthal (sets), Ana Kuzmanic (costumes), Ann Wrightson (lights), Richard Woodbury (sound) and David Singer (original music).

The Imperial Theatre is located at 245 West 45th Street. The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday-Friday at 7:30 PM, Saturday at 8 PM, Wednesday & Saturady at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM.

Note some early curtain times, which take into account the show's three acts and three-and-a-half-hour running time.

Tickets are available at Telecharge.com and at (212) 239-6200. Prices range from $99.50 to $26.50.

*

The Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of August: Osage County is produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler, Jerry Frankel, Ostar Productions, Jennifer Manocherian, The Weinstein Company, Debra Black/Daryl Roth, Ronald & Marc Frankel/Barbara Freitag, and Rick Steiner/Staton Bell Group.

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

SO glad that the original cast from Chicago transferred to NY. Thank you!!! I would change no one in the cast. No.One. And it has found an audience, I believe. It's been packed both times I went. When we tried to get tickets for this past Friday night, they were sold out! So, we were lucky to get tickets for Saturday night=)

Broadway.com's FRESH FACE Interview with Deanna Dunagan

Where's the meat?! Where's the meat?!! Where's the meat?!!!
Shame on you! It's not cowboys and Indians! It's cowboys and Native Americans!

Oh, my! This woman. Last night, I watched AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY for the 2nd time with 2 of my good friends. To me, there is no weak link in the ensemble. It's so strong and down to the guts and marrow. One of the great things about the play is that there is HUMOR and IRONY. It's definitely an intense family-drama and THANK GOD (!) for the humor. *whew*

Deanna is...you know, there really aren't any words that would suffice so I will just stay silent, BUT will say THIS (atleast): If you are in NY, I beg you to please, please, PLEASE see this show. (I shouldn't have to beg) And even if you aren't in NY, you really Should make EVERY EFFORT to come to the Big Apple just to see this show. It closes on March 9th, I believe. I'm hoping to catch it atleast one more time before it closes.


Deanna Dunagan
by Kathy Henderson

Age: "I don't tell. And the reason I don't is that nobody can divorce that [number] from who you are. It starts getting that way in your 40s."
Currently: Playing Violet Weston, the pill-popping, meaner-than-a-snake matriarch in Tracy Letts' acclaimed family epic August: Osage County.


Hometown: Monahans, Texas. "It's 36 miles west of Odessa, where Friday Night Lights was set, and 60 miles west of Midland, where George Bush is from."

Lone Star Lady: "My heritage is a long line of Southern Baptist and Methodist preachers—who were all just frustrated actors," Dunagan begins, when asked about her background. "My dad was a Coca-Cola bottler and president of the Texas Historical Association. He wrote history as his avocation." Like a good southern girl, Deanna got a degree in music education and married young, but the union didn't last, and her parents agreed to fund graduate studies at the Dallas Theater Center after her divorce. Dunagan breezes through the next section of her resume—"I lived in Mexico while I was writing my thesis and was engaged to a bullfighter"—and goes on to explain that she honed her skills at regional theaters such as the Asolo in Florida and the Actors Theatre of Louisville before trying her luck in New York. (The bullfighter moved to Spain.)

Please Stand By: A star of the Chicago stage for more than two decades, Dunagan is quick to point out that August: Osage County is not her Broadway debut. "In 1979, I was an understudy at Circle in the Square in Shaw's Man and Superman," she says. "George Grizzard, Philip Bosco, Richard Woods and Mark Lamos were in it. One night I got to the theater three minutes late for half hour, and they said, 'You're going on.' Ann Sachs was sick. I was terrified! But I said to myself, 'Just go out and say the words. These are fabulous actors; just feed them their lines.' And it was one of the best performances I ever gave. The head of ICM, Milton Goldman, was in the audience and signed me the next day. They wrote a story about it in Back Stage."

Wonderful Windy City: Arriving in Chicago just before Christmas on a national tour of Children of a Lesser God, Dunagan felt at home immediately. She decided to put down roots and soon became a stalwart of the city's thriving theater scene. "I've worked at more than 30 theaters in the Chicago area, so it's always fresh," she says. "I'm a Gemini—we're communicators, but we have a short attention span. I enjoy being able to work on a show for three months and then go on to the next project. I get to do twice, if not three or four times, the number of plays I could do in New York. I love my career in Chicago."

The Parent Trap: For much of the three-plus hours of August: Osage County, Dunagan's drug-addicted character spews venom (often hilariously) at her three grown daughters, sister, various in-laws and a Native American maid. After an initial reading of the play left her "devastated," the actress repeatedly turned down the role of Violet. "I have knee problems and back problems and didn't think I could do it physically," she says of walking up and down the three-story house set. "And Violet is so vicious. The pills release her inhibitions, and she just lashes out. I played Mary Tyrone [in Long Day's Journey Into Night] when I was younger, but Mary is a piece of cake compared with Violet Weston." The overall strength of Letts' play made her reconsider, and Dunagan's performance won a Jeff Award in August's premiere production last summer at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre.

Big Apple Return: When Dunagan heard that August would transfer to Broadway, her initial response wasn't exactly what one would expect from an actress playing one of the season's juiciest parts. "I went into such a depression," she confesses. "For the last few weeks of the show [in Chicago] I was in physical pain, so I spent all my time after we closed seeing doctors, physical therapists and voice coaches, trying to get in shape to do this Broadway run." She missed a nephew's wedding during previews, but managed to fly to Cincinnati to see her grandson in a school play during the stagehands strike. And—happily—she's enjoying presenting the evil Violet to Broadway audiences. "It's a brilliant play—that's what makes it worth it. We want to share this wonderful work with more people. That's why we all came to New York."