Queen Bitch

“Come home, Amy. I Dare you.”

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Today is the only day you can share this meme. Precisely 2000 years prior to March 6th 4017. The day Squidward trapped himself in the freezer. March 6th 2017.

The 88th Academy Award Nominees

Now you might have thought I would have wanted some breathing time between Platonovs, or whatever they call themselves. Mr. Kent’s production was, for me, the star of the National Theater’s Chekhov triptych, a rich and expansive portrait of an entire, prickly social order in czarist Russia. But as enjoyable as that version was, it didn’t quite reconcile its screeching turns between farce and melodrama. The young Chekhov had yet to build the naturalistic bridge that connects those realms. I have a feeling, though, that if any troupe can reconcile such disparities it’s the Sydney Theater Company, whose “Uncle Vanya” — seen as part of the Lincoln Center Festival in 2012 — was the most robustly, paradoxically funny and sad version I’ve ever encountered. It, too, starred Ms. Blanchett and Mr. Roxburgh, who bravely and brilliantly exposed their characters as full-frontal targets to life’s pose-peeling humiliations. (New York Times)

As part of that swag of work, I was introduced to this untitled play by the young Anton Chekhov. The literal translation arrived on my desk at nearly 300 pages in length, about twice as long as all the others I have done. Fortunately, the National’s commission did not go ahead and so I was able to revamp the play specifically for STC, to which end I had in mind most of this fabulous cast and indeed John Crowley as director. I believe an adaptation should be tailor-made to the production because, although the play itself will stand the test of time, most adaptations are only useful in relation to their specific production outing - Andrew Upton (The screenplay write and the Co-Artistic director of the STC 2008-2015)

Sally Field, Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange after the Oscars, 1986

Viola Davis becomes first black actress to earn 3 Oscar nominations!!