Post by dreamer on Mar 29, 2008 10:19:23 GMT -5
Katharine Hepburn's Papers Take Stage
March 27, 2008
By Mark Dundas Wood
In the spring of 1970, Katharine Hepburn was portraying fashion designer Coco Chanel in the Alan Jay Lerner-André Previn musical Coco on Broadway. On May 8, after taking her curtain call, she addressed the audience about the killing of four students four days earlier at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard.
"Our generation are responsible," she said, "and we must take time to pause and reflect and do something. You can pray, but we must think, and together, for if we don't we are lost." Hepburn then invited the audience to remain in the theatre to observe a moment of silence.
Hepburn had been prompted to speak that night by actor Keir Dullea, who was then on Broadway in Butterflies Are Free. The telegram Dullea sent Hepburn on May 7 and the handwritten speech she delivered the following evening are part of Hepburn's theatre-related papers, which were donated by her estate to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in fall 2007, four years after her death. (Hepburn's film-related papers were sent to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif.)
To celebrate the acquisition of the Hepburn papers, the library is presenting a series of programs at which the star's friends and colleagues will reminisce and read from items in the collection. The series began Feb. 19 with an evening featuring Zoe Caldwell and Sam Waterston (at which the Kent State speech was read). The remaining evenings include appearances by director Anthony Harvey (March 31), Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton and good friend Charlotte Moore (April 12), and Dick Cavett and Marian Seldes (April 28).
Hepburn's papers include letters, congratulatory telegrams, and fan mail. Alan Pally, the library's manager of public programs, noted that Hepburn was a diligent correspondent and that her treasure trove arrived at the library in relatively good condition. "Normally when you get somebody's collection," he said, "you don't get the letters they wrote. Those are in somebody else's collection. But Kate sometimes scrawled the response on the bottom of a letter that she'd got, so that Phyllis [Wilbourn], her assistant, could then type the letter and send it off. So sometimes we do have her side of the story."
Long an admirer of Hepburn's work, Pally gained a greater appreciation for her while preparing the series. He was especially impressed with the depth of her political convictions, as evidenced in her Kent State speech, and believes that her progressive politics were due in part to her parents' example. "Her father was a physician who believed the truth will always make everything all right," he said. "Her mother was a pretty active suffragette."
Harvey, who directed Hepburn in three films -- including The Lion in Winter, for which she won an Oscar -- looks forward to the opportunity to share a side of her about which the public remains largely unaware. "In all the books, I very rarely see her amazing sense of humor -- particularly about herself," he said, adding that Hepburn's generosity has also been underreported. "She saved people's lives all the time, in all kinds of ways." He noted her immense personal support during his recovery from an accident in California.
Harvey did not know Hepburn prior to their first project together, but her Lion in Winter co-star Peter O'Toole had seen and admired Harvey's low-budget screen adaptation of Amiri Baraka's play Dutchman. According to the director, O'Toole "flew to California and showed the film to Kate Hepburn, who said, 'I don't know what this has got to do with The Lion in Winter, but let's go ahead.' " Rapport between director and star developed quickly, and soon they were friends for life.
Why exactly did the two artists click? "I remember," Harvey recalled, "she once said to the editor of the London Times as to why she got on so well with Tony Harvey: 'We both behave extremely badly to get what we want.' "
Harvey would go on to direct Hepburn in a 1973 television version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie and the 1985 film Grace Quigley. About the latter project, the less said the better, Harvey noted with a laugh: "I once said to Hepburn, 'God, I'd like to get my name off this,' and she said, 'What about mine?'... I shut up after that."
Though Hepburn is best known for her films, she remained loyal to theatre throughout her career. Her Broadway résumé spanned from 1928's Night Hostess (in which she was billed as Katharine Burns) to 1981-82's The West Side Waltz. She toured extensively as well, and many of her films -- The Philadelphia Story; State of the Union; Suddenly, Last Summer; Long Day's Journey Into Night; A Delicate Balance; The Rainmaker; The Corn Is Green; Summertime; The Madwoman of Chaillot, among others -- were based on theatrical properties.
Pally noted that Hepburn was game for almost anything. Her correspondence makes it clear that she felt unsure of herself as a musical theatre diva in Coco, but she nonetheless kept audiences coming until her contract expired -- two months after which the show promptly folded. To help make the production profitable, however, Hepburn agreed to tour for a year.
According to Pally, Hepburn's appeal can be attributed to her authenticity: She was exactly the person she seemed to be. "She was just a good old Yankee, somebody we could relate to," he said. "And she wasn't afraid of anything."
www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003781423
Nice anecdotes
March 27, 2008
By Mark Dundas Wood
In the spring of 1970, Katharine Hepburn was portraying fashion designer Coco Chanel in the Alan Jay Lerner-André Previn musical Coco on Broadway. On May 8, after taking her curtain call, she addressed the audience about the killing of four students four days earlier at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard.
"Our generation are responsible," she said, "and we must take time to pause and reflect and do something. You can pray, but we must think, and together, for if we don't we are lost." Hepburn then invited the audience to remain in the theatre to observe a moment of silence.
Hepburn had been prompted to speak that night by actor Keir Dullea, who was then on Broadway in Butterflies Are Free. The telegram Dullea sent Hepburn on May 7 and the handwritten speech she delivered the following evening are part of Hepburn's theatre-related papers, which were donated by her estate to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in fall 2007, four years after her death. (Hepburn's film-related papers were sent to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif.)
To celebrate the acquisition of the Hepburn papers, the library is presenting a series of programs at which the star's friends and colleagues will reminisce and read from items in the collection. The series began Feb. 19 with an evening featuring Zoe Caldwell and Sam Waterston (at which the Kent State speech was read). The remaining evenings include appearances by director Anthony Harvey (March 31), Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton and good friend Charlotte Moore (April 12), and Dick Cavett and Marian Seldes (April 28).
Hepburn's papers include letters, congratulatory telegrams, and fan mail. Alan Pally, the library's manager of public programs, noted that Hepburn was a diligent correspondent and that her treasure trove arrived at the library in relatively good condition. "Normally when you get somebody's collection," he said, "you don't get the letters they wrote. Those are in somebody else's collection. But Kate sometimes scrawled the response on the bottom of a letter that she'd got, so that Phyllis [Wilbourn], her assistant, could then type the letter and send it off. So sometimes we do have her side of the story."
Long an admirer of Hepburn's work, Pally gained a greater appreciation for her while preparing the series. He was especially impressed with the depth of her political convictions, as evidenced in her Kent State speech, and believes that her progressive politics were due in part to her parents' example. "Her father was a physician who believed the truth will always make everything all right," he said. "Her mother was a pretty active suffragette."
Harvey, who directed Hepburn in three films -- including The Lion in Winter, for which she won an Oscar -- looks forward to the opportunity to share a side of her about which the public remains largely unaware. "In all the books, I very rarely see her amazing sense of humor -- particularly about herself," he said, adding that Hepburn's generosity has also been underreported. "She saved people's lives all the time, in all kinds of ways." He noted her immense personal support during his recovery from an accident in California.
Harvey did not know Hepburn prior to their first project together, but her Lion in Winter co-star Peter O'Toole had seen and admired Harvey's low-budget screen adaptation of Amiri Baraka's play Dutchman. According to the director, O'Toole "flew to California and showed the film to Kate Hepburn, who said, 'I don't know what this has got to do with The Lion in Winter, but let's go ahead.' " Rapport between director and star developed quickly, and soon they were friends for life.
Why exactly did the two artists click? "I remember," Harvey recalled, "she once said to the editor of the London Times as to why she got on so well with Tony Harvey: 'We both behave extremely badly to get what we want.' "
Harvey would go on to direct Hepburn in a 1973 television version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie and the 1985 film Grace Quigley. About the latter project, the less said the better, Harvey noted with a laugh: "I once said to Hepburn, 'God, I'd like to get my name off this,' and she said, 'What about mine?'... I shut up after that."
Though Hepburn is best known for her films, she remained loyal to theatre throughout her career. Her Broadway résumé spanned from 1928's Night Hostess (in which she was billed as Katharine Burns) to 1981-82's The West Side Waltz. She toured extensively as well, and many of her films -- The Philadelphia Story; State of the Union; Suddenly, Last Summer; Long Day's Journey Into Night; A Delicate Balance; The Rainmaker; The Corn Is Green; Summertime; The Madwoman of Chaillot, among others -- were based on theatrical properties.
Pally noted that Hepburn was game for almost anything. Her correspondence makes it clear that she felt unsure of herself as a musical theatre diva in Coco, but she nonetheless kept audiences coming until her contract expired -- two months after which the show promptly folded. To help make the production profitable, however, Hepburn agreed to tour for a year.
According to Pally, Hepburn's appeal can be attributed to her authenticity: She was exactly the person she seemed to be. "She was just a good old Yankee, somebody we could relate to," he said. "And she wasn't afraid of anything."
www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003781423
Nice anecdotes