The Greatest Complement . . .and How To Act . . .

The Greatest Complement . . .and How To Act . . .

I was walking with L.B. before rehearsal, RIII I think. I said something like I really responded to the poetry of Shakespeare, but I didn't know why -- and she said, quite unexpectedly, well, you have a very poetic imagination. And walking east on W. 86th to Central Park, on that the sunny cool fall '00 afternoon, it was the best thing anyone has ever said to me.

What is a particular play -- not what is it about (which requires a more objective perspective), but what is it?

It's not what you say it is, what a reviewer/critic says it is, not even what the playwright says it is. It is a force of nature unto itself. It is like life -- it is where it hits you, how it hits you, and what it does to you. That's what a play is. That is my relationship to it.

(It's like life -- you don't ask what's it about and then go live it. Living it is what it's about).