First Tech Week on Broadway

Never in all my life have I experienced so pleasant, stress-free and flat-out dreamy a tech week.

This company, valiantly spear-headed by our immaculate leading lady Tyne Daly and charismatic fearless leader, director Stephen Wadsworth, has engaged with one another, taken care of each other, and managed to finish every aspect of this beautiful Broadway show ahead of schedule without a single tear or raised voice or actor meltdown.  We are all still passionate, energized and completely in love with one another.

That is a miracle.

...So. Tuesday the audience arrives and we all eagerly await our "seventh character" and look forward to telling and sharing this story with all of you. Here's to my first tech week on Broadway. I hope and trust it will not be my last. I am a lucky and grateful lady.




all photographs by Clinton Brandhagen

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Terrence McNally’s music-kissed biographical drama about opera diva Maria Callas, Master Class, begins previews as Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre June 14.According to MTC, “McNally’s award-winning play about Callas takes us to one of her famous master classes where, late in her own career, she challenges the next generation to make the same sacrifices and dare to rise to the same heights she did, making her the most celebrated, the most reviled and the most controversial singer of her times.” Tyne Daly leads a cast that features Sierra Boggess, Clinton Brandhagen, Jeremy Cohen, Alexandra Silber and Garrett Sorenson. Stephen Wadsworth directs.

Capturing the Zeitgeist, Part Four: One Last Hurrah

I feel inclined, on Ms DePalma's final day of performance, to share with you one last Sophie Hurrah. She will be missed, but clearly she shall continue to live on... perhaps in her very own Vegas show... you never know... her off stage persona gets a lot of air time... clearly...

Future possibility:

Sophie DePalma: A Road Trip with Sharon
     [includes preliminary scenes composed yesterday with Laquita that go roughly like this:

1.

Sophie: Hi Sharon, um... I heard you live in Ohio and I live in Michigan so maybe we could roadtrip it back together after the semester is over...? I have a car, pop some Rossini in the tape-deck and ride into the Midwest together? ...

Sharon: [pause] No.

2.

Sophie: Hi there Sharon

Sharon: [silence]

Sophie: Okay. Well sooooooo sorry to bother you about this but could I borrow your Norma score? I'm working on Teneri figli and was studying in the bath and whoops! dropped it in and I have a coaching in an hour and.. you know... it would be soooo great if you would lend me yours and I'll give it right back safe and sound I promise! [smiles]

Sharon: [eyes wide, not blinking, stares at her in total whyareyoueventalkingtome astonishment] No.

[she walk away, and just before she turns a corner--] and girl, you should stop studying in the bath!

After these scenes Sharon's flight is cancelled due to apocalyptic winter weather and she concedes to go with Sophie on the road trip in order to make it back to Ohio in time for Christmas... with hilaaaaaarious consequences! Thoughts?

*

And other possibilities include:

Sophie DePalma and the Lost Umbrella 

Sophie DePalma: Down Under

Sophie on the Roof

Sophie DePalma's SCHOOL OF ROCK

Sophie Knows What You Did Last Summer 

Sophie at the Bat

Are you there God? It's me Sophie.

Sophie DePalma  Explains it All For You

Basically, Sophie DePalma is the gift that keeps on giving...

*

And a final word from Genius and Director Stephen Wadsworth [pictured left]:

"Sophie takes out full-page advertisement in New York Times (paid for by her Russian mafia sabrillionaire boyfriend): SOPHIE DE PALMA, STUDENT OF MARIA CALLAS, NOW OFFERING VOICE LESIONS.

Only after it goes to press does someone bring her attention to the fact that it says lesions and not lessons.

She is however contacted by several late-career singers looking for a way to wind down.  She succeeds in giving them vocal lesions through the same exercises she used for vocal lessons, they file for workman's compensation on their last job, her husband pays their legal bills, and she becomes quite famous for destroying voices on a tight schedule.  Late in life, after her trial in the Hague on charges of genocide, she tells the Washington Post, "There are so many teachers out there building voices, I thought it would be good to help people destroy them.  I mean, what are you going to do with a great big voice if you're just going to end up in a little room in an old people's home?  Where are you going to put it.  Do you really think the family is going to STORE it?"

xx"

Farewell Sophie DePalma: You were not only a lovely, well-meaning, sensitive girl capable of such depth and feeling... you were also a hell of a hoot. Don't be a stranger.

Over and out.

Capturing the Zeitgeist, Part Three: More from Sophie DePalma

Inspired by the genius of a certain director, Mr. Stephen Wadsworth...

more titles from Sophie DePalma.

* * *

SOPHIE DE PALMA: GIRL DETECTIVE

[Captions: The Pap, Night Vision, Under the tarmac,
 Hiding in the brush, a clever DISGUISE, "AHA! Up THERE!",
Squished,  Don't freakin' MESS with me... ,  Dusting for prints...]

and

SOPHIE TWO

and

SOPHIE DE PALMA'S GUIDE TO SINGING

Capturing the Zeitgeist, Part Two: The Puritani Quartet

Golden Age explores the night of January 24, 1835, opening night of Vincenzo Bellini's final opera I Puritani (The Puritans), starring the four most celebrated singers in Europe known as The Puritani Quartet. As the audience, we have a backstage peek at the world behind the scenes on an opening night, exploring not only the ins and outs of being in the theatre, but the ins and outs of being of the theatre. Bellini himself is dying of consumption, but the necessity for creation drives him forward.

We share a Greenroom with them.
The 1970's meets 1835.
It's pretty weird. 


* * *



So. There they are in the Greenroom shared by 1970's New York City and 1835 Paris.
A coffee machine.
A few dozen puzzles.
A spades game in the corner.
Theatrical posters along the walls from present day to days of yore.
The day was inevitable.
The day was today:

Sophie DePalma meets her idol, soprano Giulia Grissi...in the company of her fellow Puritani Quartet members-- baritone Tamburini, bass LaBlanche and tenor Rubini.

[excited face!!!]

SCENE 1

[Sophie gathers herself as best she can, pulls up her knee socks, and appraoches Grissi, perhaps including herself in Grissi's personal space juuuuuuust a touch...]

Sophie: ...Omygodyour Adalgisa in Maestro Bellini's Norma was leeeeeeeeegendary...

Giulia: Haha! [coy light laughter complete with theatrical head-shaking and hand flicking] ...Yes.

Sophie: May I touch your necklace?

[pause]

Giulia: Um. [she blinks] Certainly...

[she removes it]

Sophie: ...and would you sign my score?!

Grissi: eh?

Tamburini: What's that magic flashing box?

Rubini: [aside] perhaps she will not see me stealing her jewels while the magic box flashes...


* * *

SCENE 2


Sophie: Ooooooooh...

[Giulia's left hand pulls the jewels iiiiimperceptibly away...]


Giulia: Careful Sophie! Careful now my dear! These were given to me by Rossini.

Sophie: they WERE?!

Giulia: Oh yes, after my performance of Semiramide in Paris. Gioachino has wonderful taste in jewels.

Sophie: --what about the one you are wearing?

Giulia: my good luck necklace from my stage debut as Emma in Rossini's Zelmira in Bologna in 1828. From my sisters.

Sophie: and the earrings?

[she moves to touch them]

Giulia: Ah-Ah-AH! No touching! NO. TOUCHING. NO TOUCH! [she gathers herself: a deep breath before,] They were a gift from an admirer in Milan after the premiere of Norma.

Sophie: and what about your tiara...?

[pause. deadpan.]

Giulia: It's mine. We must dress for the job we want my darling-- haven't you ever heard that phrase...?

[she examines Sophie briefly...]

...perhaps you haven't...

FIN.

Capturing the Zeitgeist, Part One: Maestro Bellini

So what happens when Sophie DePalma of Terrance McNally's Master Class meets Bel Canto composer Vincenzo Bellini of Terrance McNally's Golden Age? A world of fun.

Here at The Kennedy Center Nights at the Opera festival, we are exploring three of McNally's plays only all about the world of opera. But the connections between the pieces are not tenuous-- there are even some lines throughout the three plays that are early identical. The connections are beautiful, touching, delightful.

Golden Age explores the night of January 24, 1835, opening night of Vincenzo Bellini's final opera I Puritani (The Puritans). We follow Bellini himself throughout the evening.

The Lisbon Traviata explores the world of opera fanatics, the two we meet: Mendy and Stephen are particularly taken with their passion for Maria Callas.

And of course, Master Class is about Callas herself.

All are about art and authenticity. It is a beautiful triptych and I wish you could all be a part of it.

So.

What is one little actress, passionate about her part of this festival and only in Act 1 supposed to do about it all? Um... capture the zeitgeist of the triptych in photographic form of course!

Sophie DePalma, the disastrous wreck of of Master Class, studying at Julliard and working on Amina's famous Ah non credea mirarti from Bellini's La Sonnombula, comes across composer Vincenzo Bellini himself in the hallway! What a coincidence! She is beyond thrilled and, armed with her admittedly beaten up score, cannot help herself: she must ask for his autograph.

[FYI: Things you need to know about the pieces in order to appreciate the following fully:

- Bellini suggests a haircut with the wigmaster to distract himself from the pain of being backstage.
- Sophie is asked by Calls if she is Italian, she responds she is Greek/Italian. (It accounts for her "fiery-ness"...hm...)
- Sophie famously forgets to bring her pencil in a very big way...
- Callas asks the audience about a good beauty parlor for she can't get a good "wash and set in this city"
- and at the end of the act poor Sophie doesn't even know how to get off the stage...]

So. without further ado, here is the dialogue I imagine:

* * *


Sophie: MAESTRO BELLINI! MAESTRSO BELLINI I am a HUGE fan. Ohmygoodness. Um, So. My name is Sophie. Sophie DePalma and I am singing Amina's aria from your Sonnombula right now at school and...and know that my score is a little...um, worse for wear--I sort of dropped it in the tub by accident BUT! That was only because I find your work SO AMAAAAAAZING and was studying in the bath...blaaaah so. Anyway... WOULD YOU SIGN MY SCORE?! I would be SO. HONORED.

Bellini: Um... of course my dear. To whom shall I make it out again?

Sophie: Oh! Sophie. Sophie DePalma.

Bellini: Italian?

Sophie: Greek/Italian. You know I get asked that a lot!

Bellini: Lovley. [he takes up her VERY. SHARP. READYTOGO. PENCIL. and begins to sign]

Sophie: [watching a liiiiittle too close...] ...You can add "darling" if you want.

Bellini: Alright...

Sophie: TO DARLING SOPHIE: THE DEFINITIVE AMINA...

[Pause. He stares at her. Puzzled.]

Bellini: Okay.

[he returns to the score]

Sophie: .....and could you sign it Vincenzo? I've always liked your first name.

Bellini: ... [voice pinched now, eyes not still on the page] With pleasure. [finishes signature with flourish] There you are Sophie DePalma, now off you go. I must run I have a haircut with the wigmaster. I can't get a good cut in this city. I wish you luck.

Sophie: Oh, thank you Maestro! Thank you.

[Bellini straightens his coattails and exits]

Now how do I get off the stage?


FIN.

* * *

Yes. This is what I get up to in Act 2...