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Post by piercebrosnanhot on Mar 30, 2012 3:37:29 GMT -5
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Post by eaz35173 on Mar 30, 2012 5:58:02 GMT -5
Happy Birthday!!!! Hope you have a great day!!!
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Post by Ace on Mar 30, 2012 12:54:34 GMT -5
Kick Back & Relax
or Dress Up & Go For A Ride
or Unleash Your Inner Bad Girl
and Have Some Fun
Happy Birthday Yuliya! |
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 31, 2012 11:16:08 GMT -5
I see that Ace has sent you birthday wishes that can get you into a lot of trouble: cars, guns, long afternoons of wildly abandoned sex! My dearest wish was that Pierce would show up at your doorstep with his tattered book of Chekhov plays under his arm and the two of you would have a nice, civilized table reading. And if your table reading ended up on the floor -- well, I could absolve myself of all responsibility!  Hope you had a lovely birthday however it turned out! |
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Post by Yuliya on Mar 31, 2012 22:30:58 GMT -5
Chekhov? I must have missed a recent interview or something. Can I chose something else? Oh well, the less romantic a book, the better it will look on my floor.  I'd love to see PB jump around screaming "I'm a seagull!" though.  Thank you everyone! I really appreciate the attention, the wishes, and the pictures!  |
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Post by Lauryn on Apr 1, 2012 15:36:44 GMT -5
I don’t know about recent interviews but PB’s affinity for Chekhov has popped up in them on occasion. The last mention was when he was filming “Remember Me” with Robert Pattinson and being trailed by hundreds of swooning young girls. Pattinson was, that is, LOL! Poor PB settled for a quiet evening in his trailer reading Chekhov. So if you’d pretended to like Chekhov, YS, even a little bit, you might have got very lucky!
I wish I could find the story of when PB got a development deal in the 80s at Columbia. As he tells it, he came to a meeting to discuss film projects with his dog-eared volume of Chekhov plays under his arm, ready to pitch them in some fashion. The studio exec gently but firmly steered the conversation in another direction. I’ve always thought the whole thing was rather endearing. This might have been around the time Woody Allen was doing “Hannah and Her Sisters” so maybe he’d got up his hopes that a Chekhov play, or inspired adaptation, would fly commercially; maybe, in his youthful exuberance, he would have pitched it anyway. In any case, I don’t think that was quite what they expected from Pierce!
While trying to find that story I did come across a bit of an article about the Glasgow Citizens theater, where PB once performed, and the lasting influence of the Citz’ rather formidable founders. I couldn’t find this already posted on the board, but maybe Ace has it on her site. Apologies if it’s redundant. In any case, it sounds as though doing a Chekhov play, or any production, under their tutelage must have been a rigorous, but indelible experience.
Citizen's charter
Patrick Hannaway, actor
Long before the words "Glasgow" and "culture" were acquainted, there was the Citizens Theatre. Surrounded by empty lots, it stood alone in Gorbals, a relic of a once-bustling Victorian era. Yet to work there was the aim of most aspiring young actors from the 1970s onward. The team running the theatre consisted of three individuals - Philip Prowse, Giles Havergal and Robert David MacDonald. After involvement in about 220 productions, Havergal and MacDonald are leaving; Prowse will stay on for another year. They will be a hard act to follow.
The players who have passed through the theatre include such names as Rupert Everett, Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Ciarán Hinds, Garry Cooper, Gerard Murphy and Ann Mitchell. Many others have taken the experience gained there and built on it in productions elsewhere. The trouble, however, is that there's nowhere quite the same. Despite the rain, the basic wage and the fact that nobody came to see you perform (not from London, anyway), nowhere else came close to achieving this standard of work for young, aspiring actors.
When Prowse told you something, it was for a reason, and you did it; there was no need to question things too much or become embroiled in endless discussions, as happened elsewhere. When a Chekhov play was agreed for an autumn season, MacDonald would translate it from the Russian. Havergal might direct and Prowse design the set. It was simple: they were all on the same wavelength, and they got a kick if you tuned in too. I arrived there in autumn 1977, rather wet behind the ears after passing the audition with the aid of a Shakespeare sonnet. As the directors could probably weigh up your suitability in five seconds, it saved time, and they were thankful for that. They did actually talk to you, too: one actress - I believe it was Sian Thomas - told me that during the chat she became so flummoxed that she admitted to them that she hadn't a clue what she was talking about. Still, she was hired, Havergal and company no doubt feeling guilty about putting her through the ordeal.
"Hullo, Harry, how are you?" were the first words I uttered on stage in the world premiere of Noel Coward's Semi-Monde to one Pierce Brosnan, as I shook like a leaf struggling to open the de rigueur cigarette case and light up casually, like Cary Grant. MacDonald tells me that he thought Brosnan was star material, but no way did we believe that the lad with the smeared-down hair was a future 007.
...Ciarán Hinds, I recall, played a butler, and his make-up became progressively greener as the run continued, yet we managed to keep straight faces.
Prowse had retrieved Coward's first play, which he had penned in 1924, although it had never been produced. Max Reinhardt was to produce it in Berlin as Semi-Monde. It was apparently deemed too sexually explicit for the British censor: there was a "gay" scene before that word came to have its modern connotation. All the actors received the same Equity minimum, borrowing each other's make-up and trawling through flea markets for clothes.
At the preview, which was free and thus taken up by local lorry-drivers, seamstresses and crane operators from Gorbals, the audience barely murmured at the sexual infidelities of the English upper classes, but exploded into life as one particular cad was confronted and shot by a jealous husband. They leapt to their feet roaring their approval, and headed for the bar. Within a couple of weeks that sparkling set was chucked out on to the empty lot behind the theatre, where it served as seating for the local winos as they warmed themselves around blazing chipboard.
The next play that season was Vautrin, a rather obscure text that Balzac had knocked off in a weekend. It had seen the light of day but once before it was banned for containing a representation of Louis Napoleon, who was alive at the time. MacDonald translated it from the French, and directed. Ciarán Hinds, I recall, played a butler, and his make-up became progressively greener as the run continued, yet we managed to keep straight faces.
The evergreen Loot that followed appealed to both the Catholic and Protestant tastes there, and I remember Garry Cooper (on TV in Murder in Mind as I write) applying mascara during one scene on stage as schoolgirls shrieked as only they can during a matinee. There was lots of makeup at the Citz - some of it, I believe, removed from the shelves of Boots.
I asked Prowse how he and his colleagues came upon the historical nuggets of drama they specialised in. He replied that the seed had been cast during his youth while he was languishing in the Worcestershire countryside tuning in to the <Third Programme, which sometimes broadcast relatively unknown plays. This got him thinking that there was life beyond Shakespeare, but he was not in a position to realise these aspirations until he had the structure to do so in Glasgow.
The timing was right when Prowse and Havergal arrived in the city in 1969 (MacDonald followed later), as the theatre was then on its last legs. "When you have a collapsed system, you can do something revolutionary," Prowse told me. The man who helped to make that happen was Bill Taylor, then the chairman of the board and a left-wing radical who encouraged a theatre aimed at young people, and which kept ticket prices as low as possible.
Ann Mitchell, known now to a wider audience for her role in Widows, was in Glasgow during the early days. She told me what was different about the Citizens: "It was three men with a vision, who were courageous enough against all odds and criticism to do what they felt was exciting and innovative theatre. They wanted to reach an audience who wouldn't normally go there, hence the free previews and 50-pence admission charges, a policy maintained for many years.
"It was the best theatre company I have ever worked with; the most efficiently run, managed and designed. Most people on the outside didn't have a clue of the standard that they offered and demanded." I mentioned to her that Prowse now felt that the place had become rather old-fashioned, predictable perhaps, but she countered that the aesthetic values don't change for her. "I remember sitting on the set of Semi-Monde, looking around and actually shivering as it was so beautiful," Mitchell said.
After that single season I returned to Glasgow only once to take part in a production of The Threepenny Opera, engineered in a typical Citz way with the device of rogues and villains breaking into and squatting a grand house with a grand dame (played by Havergal) and "putting on" the play in front of her. MacDonald translated again, adding some juicy snippets of spiel Deutsch and allowing me to open as Mackie Messer. With three other gangly youths I doubled as a "lady of the town", indulging in the usual crossdressing charades and antics, including falling backwards over chairs. It was work, but fun too.
I asked Prowse what criteria he used when hiring actors, some of them fresh from drama school. "It's whether they're interesting on stage or not; some had that instant appeal, such as Rupert Everett. He auditioned for us, but there was nothing to suit him until he just arrived at the stage door one day and asked for a job. As I was looking for young dukes to play in the Proust adaptation A Waste of Time, and as they were in short supply in Glasgow at the time, we hired him."
Source: The Independant
Author: Chris Jagger
Date: 2003, May 22
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Post by Yuliya on Apr 1, 2012 21:22:53 GMT -5
Yes, I remember of PB's affection for Chekhov. I like Chekhov a lot, though I prefer his short stories to his plays, which I do not consider comedies (unlike SZ). Masters of a short story are rather underrated, aren't they? Chekhov is in the league with Twain, London, o'Henry, and Maupassant. I'm a little confused with the article you quoted. Did Ciarán Hinds play butler twice? Was it a running joke? Or did something go awry during copying and pasting? (And as a side note - did the director who translated plays from Russian and French know either language? ) |
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Post by Ace on Nov 11, 2012 3:05:18 GMT -5
 Oh No! I screwed up this much! To make amends, can I interest you in some bongos? How about a ukelele, er a small guitar? A Guinness? I Know! A Pony! Happy Belated Birthday Lauryn! |
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Post by eaz35173 on Nov 11, 2012 3:46:28 GMT -5
Happy Belated Birthday, Lauryn!!
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Post by piercebrosnanhot on Nov 11, 2012 17:33:02 GMT -5
;DHEY LAURYN HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!AND WISH YOU HAPPINESS FOR YOUR LIFE.   |
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Post by rosafermu on Nov 12, 2012 9:12:43 GMT -5
Happy birthday, Lauryn !!! Attachments:
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Post by Lauryn on Nov 13, 2012 17:05:25 GMT -5
Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes! Ace, where do you find these photos? They're great! Pierce, since you're offering, I'll take you up on a bongo serenade, a bit of ukelele on the side (I'll sing!), and a nice long, bareback ride. The pony wouldn't be half bad, either!<wink>
Honestly, after watching my formerly top-ranked and unbeaten Crimson Tide lose on Saturday, all I wanted for my birthday was six freakin' points! It reminded me of the famous quote by the late, great John McKay. When asked what he thought of his team's execution he said "I'm all for it." Not that our coaches didn't help. They seemed to be dutifully jotting down what what was working against the opponent (run game, hello!) and vowing to employ it as sparingly as possible.
Didn't have the heart to do much celebrating, just dinner and a movie. Finally went to see "Argo." It's a bit of a throw back to the kind of politically-themed thrillers Sidney Lumet used to do -- where the humor and the suspense actually complement each other.
Alan Arkin's producer gets the best lines. I think they work so well, not just as jokes because, while the movie can be a little sentimental about the pull the Hollywood "dream factory" exerts on all of us, his character never is -- nor is the actor, I suspect. I couldn't help but have another 70's flashback, though, to the last time he tangled with the CIA (in The In-Laws). I leaned over to my husband and said, "Serpentine, Shel, serpentine!" The guy behind us heard me and laughed and we all got the giggles. And, hey, all roads lead eventually to RS and "Signed, Steeled, and Delivered."
Thanks, again, everyone, for cheering me up.
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Post by Ace on Nov 15, 2012 8:22:08 GMT -5
Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes! Ace, where do you find these photos? They're great! Pierce, since you're offering, I'll take you up on a bongo serenade, a bit of ukelele on the side (I'll sing!), and a nice long, bareback ride. The pony wouldn't be half bad, either!<wink> You don't want the accompanying dulcet er bowie-esque tones of Mr. Brosnan? Color me shocked.  With the way baseball season came to a screaming (in one case literally) halt I can more than sympathize. I know next to nothing about college football but does this one loss take them out of the national champion ship though and relegate them to one of the other eleventy million other bowl games. All evidence to the contrary I have been unable to take Ben Affleck as director seriously so I haven't seen any of his movies - but Argo will become my first. I'm glad we could help a bit on your Sabin tainted day. |
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Post by rosafermu on Nov 15, 2012 10:03:53 GMT -5
Ben Affleck as a director at Argo, has been a revelation. I think as a director is very talented, not so much as an actor. It is my opinion
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Post by Ace on Mar 30, 2013 12:00:04 GMT -5
Read all about it, it's in the news
It's time to make a move
Get serious
(stop laughing!, that is not meant to be a phallic symbol)
And get dancing.... or is that dancing?
Happy Birthday, Yuliya!
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Post by eaz35173 on Mar 30, 2013 13:48:17 GMT -5
Happy Birthday, Yuliya!!
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Post by piercebrosnanhot on Mar 30, 2013 14:24:00 GMT -5
WISH YOU A LOVELY BIRTHDAY YULIYA.  |
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Post by Yuliya on Apr 1, 2013 6:41:02 GMT -5
Thank you! :: bows :: Ace, very cool post!  Being out of the loop for a while, I haven't even seen some of the pictures yet. |
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Post by Barbara on Apr 1, 2013 19:08:43 GMT -5
I am so sorry I missed your birthday, but I hope you had a great one!
-- Barbara E
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Post by Ace on Nov 14, 2013 2:57:54 GMT -5
Happy Birth-Week Lauryn!OK, I admit - it's birth-week instead of birthday because I'm late. 
But to celebrate this auspicious week, and make amends how about a little serenade?
Tones not dulcet enough? Maybe a portrait?
Not buying the likeness? I've got it, Dancing!
Spandex! Platforms! Glitter!
I mean who doesn't love ABBA.
Oh right... er...
HAPPY BIRTH-WEEK!
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I'd love to see PB jump around screaming "I'm a seagull!" though. 
Being out of the loop for a while, I haven't even seen some of the pictures yet.
