I think Joe Papp opened a lot of doors to Shakespeare for a lot of us.
I remember his "Much Ado About Nothing", set in turn of the century
America, that aired about the same time as the Lear you mention, and
that set my mind afire. As with you, I hadn't given Shakespeare much
consideration before then.
Thanks for the tribute and remembrances, Mike. Much appreciated.
John
Quoting Mike Godwin <mnemo...@gmail.com>:
For most people who know of Auberjonois, a prolific and talented actor who
has just died at age 79, he's probably mostly famous for his TV roles. But
for me, Auberjonois was the first person I ever saw play Edgar in KING
LEAR, and every time I saw him afterwards, I always thought back to his
performance in that role, in the Joseph Papp-produced version that aired on
PBS in Houston (and elsewhere) in 1974. He was excellent and held his own
against James Earl Jones (Lear) and Raul Julia (Edmund). Rosalind Cash,
whom I had known only from the schlocky Charlton Heston movie THE OMEGA
MAN, was a compelling Goneril. Auberjonois's Edgar and Paul Sorvino's
Gloucester in many ways stuck in my memory even more than Jones's Lear or
Julia's Edmund did. For one thing, it's easier to figure out things about
Lear and Edmund and Goneril just from reading the characters on the page,
but I didn't understand how someone could be Edgar or Gloucester until I
saw Auberjonois and Sorvino play those roles. For another, the play as a
whole turned a switch in my mind and made me think, abruptly, that I could
perform Shakespeare roles myself and make the language and the characters
come alive. I didn't have any plans in high school ever to perform
Shakespeare--I had performed in high-school theater of the musical-comedy
variety mostly, but it wasn't a career thing--but this TV performance of
LEAR seeded in me the desire to perform Shakespeare someday if I ever got a
chance.
Doc and Shakespeare at Winedale (which I hadn't yet heard of in 1974) gave
me that chance. And Auberjonois had showed me how it was possible to
perform a classic role and demonstrate things about about a character that
one couldn't necessarily see in just reading in the lines.
René Auberjonois, 'Star Trek' and 'Benson' Actor, Dies at 79
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ren-auberjonois-dead-star-trek-benson-actor-dies-at-79-1260677
via @thr
Here's the IMDb listing for the "Great Performances" installment that aired
Papp's LEAR.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076269/
I've also attached a pic.
--
Be vigitant, I beseech you!
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Shakespeare at Winedale Email List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
send an email to
shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/shakespeare-at-winedale-email-list/CAKFh3H9Yv7huqwgObZLjjifr9SWSe-xqw2FcaYLYgCHXM3MzAw%40mail.gmail.com.
_______________________________________________
Winedale-l mailing list
Winedale-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/winedale-l
