A terrific interview with playwright Terrance McNally and actress Tyne Daly (musical Gypsy; television Cagney & Lacey, Judging Amy) recently aired on the Charlie Rose show. The 30-minute program is well worth seeing for anyone passionate about theatre or opera or really any of the arts. The occasion of the interview is the current extended revival of McNally’s play The Master Class at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Daly as the diva Maria Callas.
The play explores the cost to the artist of pursuing one’s art. What sacrifices are made in service of that ambition? Both Daly and McNally are thoughtful and articulate on the subject. They also make rich digressions about the crafts of acting and writing.
In love with opera and Callas since boyhood, McNally explains how his passion for opera and knowledge of music inform all his plays; how musicality is an essential dimension of a good play. A peeve of his is actors, having been too influenced by TV and film work, who think it’s acceptable on stage to deviate from the script and ignore the author’s notations.
Having just finished the first draft of a play myself, I had to smile as McNally explains that he retreats to a cave to do the hard work of that first draft. Once he’s into rewrites, he can emerge and become sociable again. He talks about how good actors in his plays always teach him more about his scripts and the characters they inhabit. I find that phenomenon one of the most rewarding aspects of playwriting; other artists inform and deepen my work.
My complaint about this interview is Why didn’t Rose interview three masters? Why wasn’t the play’s superb director Stephen Wadsworth included? Maybe there was a scheduling conflict. It’s not like Stephen doesn’t know much about plays, opera or master classes at Juilliard (the setting of McNally’s play). He currently serves as Director of Opera Studies at Juilliard, and has directed many plays and operas, including Wagner’s Ring Cycle at Seattle Opera.
Manhattan Theatre Club has also produced a 5-minute video interview with McNally that’s worth seeing, in which McNally discusses Callas.
