by John Lithgow, NY Times, June 18, 2014
John Lithgow, a Tony-winning actor and writer, will be regularly blogging on ArtsBeat as he rehearses “King Lear” for Shakespeare in the Park. His first report follows.
This is not going to be easy.
I’ve finished my first day of rehearsal, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., for a Shakespeare in the Park production of “King Lear.” It included a meet and greet with 100 New York Shakespeare Festival staffers, a presentation of John Lee Beatty’s set and Susan Hilferty’s costume design, a full bore read-through of the text, and a close study of the first scene of the play. I’m home now and completely exhausted. But fatigue bothers me not at all, not when the work is this exciting and when I so admire everyone I’m working with. I could list the actors in the marvelous cast but won’t bother — their names will come up in the coming entries.
I’ve already been preparing for several months. I have had three or four meetings with the director, Dan Sullivan, most recently in the company of Ms. Hilferty and our Goneril, Annette Bening; I have read two books by our dramaturge, James Shapiro of Columbia University; I have Googled the actors cast in every other major role; I have held nine two-hour cuing sessions with a U.C.L.A. grad student and managed to learn every syllable of Lear’s lines.
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