Lyndsey Ogle writes a nice blog article about Karen Paisley and striving for art over at Art Aperitif. Interesting discussion of Karen’s process, reaching for great art and how to keep it accessible that is worth the quick read here.
A fun bit of a backstage view of the rehearsal process for those interested quoted below. Thanks for offering insight Lindsey! I had forgotten how fun that was. Playing with Karen and Ashlee in rehearsal was exhilarating– Especially taking it over the top to Lucy and Desi (although my Latin accent was rubbish).
The history of these roles places the performer in jeopardy of approaching them “worshipfully,” Karen explained. So when it was time to rehearse the scene in which Konstantin, fraught over his inability to sustain neither the affections of Nina or his mother, brings Nina a seagull that he has shot and tells her that soon he will kill himself, Karen challenged the actors Coleman Crenshaw and Ashlee LaPine to approach the scene in a different way. “I told them to imagine they were playing the scene as Lucy and Desi Ricardo.”
These are two kids who have know each other for a really long time and they love each other but they are impatient. They are teenagers. They want what they want when they want it. So when he says that line about, “You have no idea how I feel,” for Nina, it’s like “How could I not? You are screaming it at me.You are so subtle.”
Coleman Crenshaw 