This would be particularly significant if the playwright Beckett were still alive, but he's not.
Beckett's play Waiting for Godot rocked my world in high school where I first read it. It forever changed my concept of playwrighting and gave me future appreciation to experimental work. While training as a professional actor and then performing in Off-Off Broadway plays and showcases, I did quite a bit of Beckett. I loved the challenge. Unlike Beckett, I can't stand to watch my own plays be performed. He wanted to attend rehearsals and be very much a part of the process.
When I've created a work of any type, I leave it. I'm so done with it. I don't even read reviews. In the plays I've acted in and gotten a review, I didn't read those either. It matters very much to the producers and backers what reviews say but to an actor, I don't understand what good a review does. You don't go onstage to perform badly. If you read about your apparent faults in a performance, it can color your future performance and be a general downer. If the reviewer liked you and does a checklist as to why your performance was effective, that can also affect your future performances badly. The last thing you need as an artist is other voices in your head characterizing your work to you. So I don't read reviews.
If someone doesn't like what I've done, they don't like it. End of the story where I am concerned. If the play gets dropped because attendance tapers off because of a bad review, what can I do anyway? Rewrite the play? It doesn't work like that.
But I digress from talking about Mr. Beckett whose work influenced me enormously. If you are unfamiliar with this playwright, I urge you to google his name and read about him. An alternative is to check out this publication.
SAMUEL BECKETT – 100 YEARS
Edited by Christopher Murray
IN CELEBRATION OF SAMUEL BECKETT’S CENTENARY YEAR, CHRISTOPHERMURRAY HAS EDITED A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS PUBLISHED BYNEW ISLAND IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE RTE RADIO 1 2006 THOMASDAVIES LECTURES, WRITTEN BY SUCH LUMINARIES OF THE IRISHLITERARY SCENE AS DECLAN KIBERD, 2005 MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNERJOHN BANVILLE AND TERENCE BROWN AMONGST OTHERS, AS WELL AS ACONTRIBUTION BY MURRAY HIMSELF.
Consisting of thirteen lectures by some of the foremost writersand academics studying Beckett today, this delightfulcelebration of the “master of the comedy of the absurd and/ordespair” is a heartfelt and serious look at the life, work andimpact of one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights and novelists. Contents:1. Christopher Murray: Introduction: Panting On to a Hundred2. Terence Brown: Beckett and Irish Society3. Gerry Dukes: The Godot Phenomenon4. Declan Kiberd: Murphy and the World of Samuel Beckett5. James Mays: Beckett as Poet: Verse, Poetry, Prose Poems6. Anthony Roche : The Great Plays after Godot7. Rosemary Pountney: Stringent Demands: Aspects of Beckett inPerformance8. Anthony Cronin: Beckett’s Trilogy9. Dermot Moran: Beckett and Philosophy10. Richard Kearney: Imagination Wanted: Dead or Alive11. John Banville: Beckett’s Last Words12. Barry McGovern: Beckett and the Radio Voice13. Katharine Worth: Beckett on the World StagePB 15 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UKHB 40 Euro / 48 USD / 30 UKClick Reply to Order.Gregory Carr, BooksellerRead Ireland 392 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3, IrelandTel & Fax: +353-1-853-2063
email: gregcarr@readireland.ie or gcbookseller@eircom.netPlease visit our website: www.readireland.com
The 100th Anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s birth in Ireland is
next week. This is the ONLY major book being published in
Ireland to coincide with the event.
SAMUEL BECKETT – 100 YEARS Edited by Christopher Murray
IN CELEBRATION OF SAMUEL BECKETT’S CENTENARY YEAR, CHRISTOPHER
MURRAY HAS EDITED A COLLECTION OF CRITICAL ESSAYS PUBLISHED BY
NEW ISLAND IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE RTE RADIO 1 2006 THOMAS
DAVIES LECTURES, WRITTEN BY SUCH LUMINARIES OF THE IRISH
LITERARY SCENE AS DECLAN KIBERD, 2005 MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER
JOHN BANVILLE AND TERENCE BROWN AMONGST OTHERS, AS WELL AS A
CONTRIBUTION BY MURRAY HIMSELF.
Consisting of thirteen lectures by some of the foremost writers
and academics studying Beckett today, this delightful
celebration of the “master of the comedy of the absurd and/or
despair” is a heartfelt and serious look at the life, work and
impact of one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights and novelists.
Contents:
1. Christopher Murray: Introduction: Panting On to a Hundred
2. Terence Brown: Beckett and Irish Society
3. Gerry Dukes: The Godot Phenomenon
4. Declan Kiberd: Murphy and the World of Samuel Beckett
5. James Mays: Beckett as Poet: Verse, Poetry, Prose Poems
6. Anthony Roche : The Great Plays after Godot
7. Rosemary Pountney: Stringent Demands: Aspects of Beckett in
Performance
8. Anthony Cronin: Beckett’s Trilogy
9. Dermot Moran: Beckett and Philosophy
10. Richard Kearney: Imagination Wanted: Dead or Alive
11. John Banville: Beckett’s Last Words
12. Barry McGovern: Beckett and the Radio Voice
13. Katharine Worth: Beckett on the World Stage
PB 15 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UK
HB 40 Euro / 48 USD / 30 UK
Click Reply to Order.
Gregory Carr, Bookseller
Read Ireland
392 Clontarf Road,
Clontarf, Dublin 3, Ireland
Tel & Fax: +353-1-853-2063
email: gregcarr@readireland.ie or gcbookseller@eircom.net
Please visit our website: www.readireland.com
1 comment:
AH...
But what has he done *lately* ?
Cuz
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