BY BEN WINTERS
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The infamous "Page Six" gossip column of The New York Post is the last place in the world one might look for updates on the mental health of performance artists, but the tabloid ran an item on Oct. 4 on the near-suicide attempt by Spalding Gray.
"The latest drama"–Gray has struggled publicly with depression in the past–"unfolded around 1 p.m. on Wednesday [Oct. 2] when a woman called police after seeing Gray pacing and then leaning off the bridge that separates Sag Harbor from North Haven" in Long Island’s toniest neighborhood, the Hamptons, reports gossip monger Richard Johnson.
Gray’s wife Kathy Russo, admirably enough, answers all Johnson’s questions about her husband’s history of mental illness, saying that, "He has hit another low…Depression is nothing to be embarrassed about." Johnson explains that Gray "has sunk in a deep funk in recent months. Russo says she believes doctors prescribed the wrong anti-depressants, and that the head trauma Gray suffered in the car accident has also contributed to his illness."
Gray’s latest one-man show, Black Spot, recounts the details of that accident, which took place during a birthday trip to Ireland in June of 2001, and his lengthy recovery.
It’s hard to get a good read on Johnson’s tone towards Gray, especially when he ends the item by pointing out that, "Thankfully, even if Gray had jumped off the 25-foot-high bridge, it’s unlikely he would have been badly injured…so many local teens used to jump off the span for fun that the town passed an ordinance against the practice."
Also noted in that day’s "Page Six" was a taste of the upcoming Martin Scorcese appearance on "Inside the Actor’s Studio." Apparently Martin reveals that his grandmother once punched a nun.
To Russians with Love
The Financial Times of London is the last place in the world one might look for theatre reporting, but the paper weighed in on Oct. 3 with a piece on the failure of acting schools to properly train and prepare actors for their careers. The article, written by Sarah Hemming, was titled "Theatre: At home in a halfway house."
The nut of Hemming’s article is a quote from Declan Donnellan, the gregarious director, long-time leader of the notable Cheek By Jowl theatre company, and current leader of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Academy, a newly minted program offering an intermediate step for young actors fresh out of thesp school: "'There isn’t anything the matter with drama schools. But there’s everything imaginable the matter with what happens to the young actor when he or she leaves drama school. That first year out of work is complete hell. A lot of the good work that happened in those three years can get thrown out of the window. If you spend years studying and then all you have is two days on "The Bill"’–a British cop drama–"'you become cynical, unless you have the spiritual resources of the Dalai Lama. The whole pick-up-and-drop theatre system all over the west, where we don’t have permanent ensembles, is terrible for self-esteem.’"
Hemming expands on this idea, noting that "[e]ven those young British actors lucky enough to land a job quickly can find themselves out of their depth. As with most professions, much of the real learning takes place in the workplace–but a director working to a tight schedule with an experienced cast has limited time to concentrate on a newcomer’s problems."
On the reverse, Russians have proved much better at training actors than they have at picking effective systems of government. "Donnellan contrasts this experience with that of a novice Russian actor," Hemming writes. "'Firstly, all the actors go into permanent theatres. Secondly, there are 60 or 70 theatres in Moscow with 60 or 70 actors in each, so we’re talking a much bigger pool, a much larger theatre world.’"
The halfway house of the title refers to an academy Donnellan is running, which is currently doing King Lear–starring a 22-year-old. Sounds terrible, right? What could a bunch of kids fresh out of drama school possibly have to say about the crazy old man on the heath?
But Donnellan protests to Hemming that "his cast is perfectly poised to bring out the generational conflict in the play: 'Lear is as much about the war between the generations as Romeo and Juliet is,’ he argues. 'If you look at them again, both plays are about what old people do to young people, and vice versa. Also, if you look past the big Lear part, this is a fantastic play for young people. There are three good women’s parts and you’ve got Cornwall, Albany, Edgar–a range of really interesting parts. It’s a great ensemble play that offers a lot of people a very good crack of the whip.’"
The Presidential Secession
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SNL's
Hammond wants a shot at Ferrell's Bush
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TeenHollywood.com (slogan: "Hang Out With the Stars!") is the last place in the world anyone would ever look for anything, but that’s where ArtsLine happened to read about the two new cast members of "Saturday Night Live."
"With Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer making their exits from the show, the off-season has been ripe with auditions," writes TeenHollywood.com’s Chris Lamb, who reports that Fred Armisen ("Late Night with Conan O’Brien" and "Reverb") and Will Forte ("That ’70s Show" and "3rd Rock From the Sun") were hired as replacements.
But I had to turn to E! Online for the real dish. That pub, stealing quotes from an upcoming USA Today article, has the show’s ace political impersonator Darrell Hammond–who currently does Clinton, Gore, Cheney, Ashcroft, and Rumsfeld–wondering if he had a shot at taking over Ferrell’s President Bush impersonation. Alas, the boss man won’t say.
"'SNL’ exec producer Lorne Michaels tells USA Today that, much like the 2000 election, the decision on the comedy show’s new prez will go down to the wire. The casting choice 'will literally depend on what’s written for the political opening.’"