Dancing w/ the stars
So I had an interesting experience on Monday:
It was a great concert for a great cause: Paul Newman’s PAINTED TURTLE camp. Lord, there we lots of actors there, reading Hemingway while the SFS and I played Copland in the background. It was interesting seeing the different approaches to acting that these guys had. Some were totally prepared and intense about their scenes (Bruce Willis was amazing); some were wingin’ it (no comment). The kind of variation possible in how an actor work is huge. It’s much different for a classical musician. We have to play all the notes live, and get them RIGHT. That being said, the amount of charisma onstage was outrageous. That’s something classical music needs more of.
Since the actors were reading, it was all about the voice. It’s amazing how iconic these voices are. Jack Nicholson really talks like that! It’s wild. He shook my hand and said “congratulations,” and it took him twice as long to say that as most normal folks. And to hear Danny DeVito say “mashed potatoes” was hilarious! I mean, who says those words better? I thought Anette Benning had an extraordinary voice as well.
A personal highlight was meeting Edward James Olmos, who did an amazing job and clearly has a big, generous heart. He’s one of my favorite actors and is amazing in Battlestar Galactica (which I love love love*). At the end of the show he was pumping his fist in the air and yelling “yeah! thank you! thank you!” It would also be cool if we did that at the end of classical shows.
*for BSG fans: he told me “the end will be very satisfying — it will feel like the journey is really over.”