Thursday, February 23, 2006

sadly overlooked

having rewatched part of the movie the exorcism of emily rose with my roommate, i realized that a woman who should have been nominated for an oscar was overlooked. jennifer carpenter gave an amazing performance as the possessed emily rose, training like an athlete for the part. very little cgi or special effects were done to enhance jennifer's performance. her director even said that her audition tape made him rethink how the part could be played.
it is sad that many people dismissed this film as just another horror movie. in fact, it was more courtroom drama than horror flick, trying to present the points of view of both the believers and the skeptics. the possession scenes are flashback sequences during testimonies of witnesses and experts. it is not jennifer carpenter's fault that almost none of the script resembles the actual case that the film is based on.
now, i have only seen one of the four films for which the best supporting nominees are nominated for. i loved brokeback mountain and was very taken with michelle williams's performance, but her role had no where near an impact that jennifer carpenter's did. i hope to see her eventually get the praise and recognition she deserves.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

what a coincidence!

i have a feeling i'll be blogging about hamlet for a while...at least until july. ;)
i did a little search on blogger and there's a blog covering hamlet right now. check it out:
http://bardseyeviewblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/hamlet-22-alas-poor-yorick.html

To Be (Horatio) or Not To Be (Ophelia)...that is the question/brokeback hamlet

since i first studied hamlet in 11th grade ib highers english, i have wanted to play ophelia. i guess playing ophelia is every actress's dream, though, isn't it?
so now that my theater company is doing hamlet (quarto 1) and i have a chance to possibly play the part and fufill my dream, i get an idea about another character in the play and get excited for that. am i shooting myself in the foot? what if this is my only chance to play ophelia?
ok, so here's my idea...what if horatio was a woman? in almost every scene hamlet professes his love for horatio (unlike ophelia). yes, i know it's only supposed to be brotherly love, but they sound like lovers for more than this reason. i envision them as horatio as hamlet's lover he met in college who actually has much more in common with him and ophelia as his high school sweetheart, who stayed at home but he never really broke up with when he went to college in wittemburg.
their first scene together goes roughly like this (in modern english):
hamlet: what are you doing here?
horatio: i came to see your father's funeral.
hamlet: i think not. you came to see my mother's wedding.
horatio: it was a shame that it followed so closely on your father's death.
i can totally imagine a scene before this one like the one in closer where alice is asking jude law's character (dan?) to go to his father's funeral with him while he's shaving. he's telling her no and she simply answers "i love you. why won't you let me go?"
i think it would be interesting to give ophelia a romantic rival. who's to say that one of the reasons she went mad isn't because she walked in on hamlet and horatio? and keeping with this idea, if we don't make horatio a chick, what about making hamlet and he gay lovers? then you could stage a brokeback mountain moment where ophelia walks on, sees them kissing and then walks off in shock. it'd be brilliant...and edgy. or if not edgy, at least a little different.
i'm not sure i've convinced bob (who may be directing the show) of either of these ideas. but i think they're pretty good idea, making horatio, normally a pretty drab character, quite interesting.
so what should i do?

Friday, February 17, 2006

to the 21st century and beyond...

i've caught the blog bug (wow, say that three times fast). two theater companies i work with have started blogs and we've been asked to contribute posts. i was never one for blogs. i never saw the point, except for once when i needed to catch up with a friend i hadn't seen in a while. he sent me the link to his blog and instantly i was filled in on the happenings of his life in the year we hadn't seen each other.
so it turns out that i've been the most frequent and enthusiastic poster on the new world theatre blog. i know we're trying to make ourselves seem professional and all of that, i figured i should start this personal blog to get out everything i need to get out so i can reserve my "professional" posting for the theater company blog. you interested in seeing it? here ya go: www.newworldtheatre.org/blog
over the last two months, i have really made a leap, technologically speaking. i got a new, beautiful laptop, named clementine. and i got her a sister, ipod nano. and now i'm writing in a blog. boy, am i just hipper than hip. what next? a crackberry like my friend simon?