Looking for Tennesse Williams

I went to the Lincoln library, called two bookstores that sell only books in English and guess what? none had what I was looking for. I couldn't believe it, especially since one of my options was Suddenly, last summer. Hardly a rarity, right? There was a moment when I almost cried. Then I remembered that the film version of the play was available at Blockbuster. To cut a long story short, I rented it, spoted the speech I wanted and wrote it down. Now I'm in the memorizing process. Happy ending.

As a part of my preparation, I decided to watch again two videos I found on You Tube a while ago. They are excerpts from the American Theatre Wing seminar Interpreting Tennesse Williams, with the casts of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar... The reason why I love, love, LOVE these, is that you can learn a lot about William's work, from the actors point of view. Plus, its a pleasure to hear them speak with such passion about the playwright and about their craft. I strongly recommend seeing them, whether you are working on Williams or not. The links here and here.

Some quotes I liked, found inspiring or identified with:

"(...) until the play is over you are on this track, you are on this ride. And all you have to do is just open your heart and give yourself up to it, and it's constructed in such a way (...) it encompasses you and as long as you don't resist it delivers you where you have to go." Jessica Lange

"(...) the end of the day, it's just listen and respond, and listen and respond, and then it's exciting for the audience because they're seeing something that might not be perfect but is actually happening." Natasha Richardson

"He's so specific about the bahaviour and what happens in the scene, and yet I still feel like I can bring everything of myself to this guy." John C. Reilly

"The extraordinary thing about Williams is that the poetry and the beauty is so muscular, it's three-dimensional, it's not aery fairy... at all, and that is just flesh and blood, and pain and sex, and all of those things..." Natasha Richardson