Hal Holbrook, King of the One-Man Show: How He Brought Mark Twain Back to Life (Past Times Solo Performance Series Book 8) (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

The pace may be more relaxed today, the delivery more spontaneous as the man in the white linen suit rambles about the stage, taking a lei¬surely puff on his cigar. But Hal Holbrook, who catapulted himself to the forefront of his profession by mining the sage observations of one of America's greatest humorists, is as passionate as ever about performing Mark Twain Tonight!It's no accident Holbrook's presentation is the longest running one-person show in theatrical history. The program's canny creator has logged more than 2000 performances, a milestone he achieved around the time of the show's 50th anniversary in 2004. But it is not merely the richness of the mate¬rial to which he owes his success, of course; it's the many long years he spent honing it, learning how to deliver those highly-polished pearls of wisdom and more over, to milk the pauses between them as shrewdly as any stand-up comic. The characterization developed slowly, with each new discovery shifting the weight. He talked to people who had known Twain, or seen him in action. After reading up on the author's smoking habits, he decided on the use of a cigar. Although Twain never smoked on the platform, the gimmick served Holbrook's purpose: to emphasize his uniqueness on the lecture circuit. But as his bookings increased and people started to identify him with Twain, he worried that an established star might beat him to Broadway with a one-man show. He had due cause for concern; he wasn't even the first actor with the initials H.H. to tour with a solo show on Twain.This ebook is a chapter from the revised and expanded edition of ACTING SOLO: THE ART AND CRAFT OF SOLO PERFORMANCE. The ultimate guide to the popular theatrical genre of one-person shows covers every aspect of the field, and includes a foreword by Obie Award-winning soloperformer Charlayne Woodard.