The Theater of War
Series: Pressman on Pressman
From: Eric Winick
Length: 00:08:31
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
From the files of Yarn AudioWorks.
Michael Pressman directed the recent NY and Los Angeles productions of the revival of Inge's Come Back Little Sheba starring S. Epatha Merkerson, as well as the L.A. productions of To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (six L.A. Drama Critics Award nominations), Days and Nights Within and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Film: To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Peter Gallagher; Some Kind of Hero starring Richard Pryor; Those Lips, Those Eyes starring Frank Langella, Thomas Hulce, Herbert Berghoff; The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training; and Frankie and Johnny Are Married, which he also wrote. TV: his many film and episodic credits include “Shootdown” with Angela Lansbury, “Anne Tyler’s Saint Maybe” with Blythe Danner and Mary Louise Parker, “Law & Order” (where he first worked with Ms. Merkerson) and, as executive producer and director, “Picket Fences,” “Chicago Hope," and episodes of "In Treatment," "Damages," and "Weeds."
Transcript
I was eight years old. My father had directed THE DISENCHANTED, a play based on the Budd Schulberg novel on Broadway. 1958. I sat and watched a preview before the show opened. And it was a hit.
One night, I don’t remember the circumstances, my father took me with him to catch the last act from the wings. And we stood there, me and my father. He holding my hand. And Jason Robards on stage, dying of alcholism, as the character Manley Halliday, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald. And he dies on stage. And then the curtain comes down. Thunderous applause. Robards jumps off the couch and runs to the wings. “Hey, David,” says Robards, and he goes out for his curtain call.
I am still shocked and stunned. I didn’t remember he died onstage in the preview. I asked my father. He said, “Yes, they had changed the ending after the opening.” But I was eight years old, and I had thought Jason Ro...
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Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length | Find on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant Kije Suite, Op. 60 IV. Troika | Sergei Prokofiev | Lieutenant Kije Suite, Symphony No. 5. | Telarc International Corp. | 2008 | 01:35 | find now |
| Symphony No 5 in B-flat Major Op. 100. III: Adagio | Sergei Prokofiev | Lieutenant Kije Suite, Symphony No. 5. | Telarc International Corp. | 2008 | 01:25 | find now |
| Blues #1 | Leroy Jenkins | Solo. | Lovely Music, Ltd. | 1998 | 01:30 | find now |
| Folk Song (Viola) | Leroy Jenkins | Solo. | Lovely Music, Ltd. | 1998 | 01:25 | find now |