Word: roles
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...which way the delegation would finally go seemed to lie with its chairman, Clarke Reed. Reed, a wealthy businessman (construction, barges and farmland) who smiles readily, loves parties and delves into philosophy, denies he has any "kingmaker" role in influencing the Mississippi delegation. A political purist who would like to see the two major parties divide along liberal-conservative lines, he switched from the Democratic Party in 1950 to push his conservative beliefs. Reed had professed to favor Reagan, but was thought by some insiders in the delegation to be awaiting an excuse to move to Ford. The selection...
Tanaka's success was built on what the Japanese call kinken-money power, meaning jobs, contracts and very often raw cash liberally applied to advance political aims. Money has always played a key role in Japanese politics; Tanaka, a horse trader's son who lacked both the prestigious education and family connections usually necessary for a big-time political career, needed it more than most. But when, in the past few years, a recession at home and the example of Watergate abroad made the Japanese more sensitive to the private morals of their public leaders, Tanaka...
...second-largest role--though much less than half the size of Rosalind's--belongs to the hero Orlando, the object of Rosalind's sporting. Kenneth Welsh makes him sufficiently fervent and brave. Orlando is Shakespeare's most athletic hero, and Welsh is stocky and muscular. But as staged here he certainly doesn't deserve the prize in the wrestling match, though this is not the reason the evil duke, in a nice touch, takes the purse of money away from him. As Charles, Edwin Owens speaks far better than we would expect of a professional wrestler...
...found in the source novel) is Shakespeare's first intentional fool, a character the playwright would vastly improve on in Twelfth Night, All's Well, and King Lear. It is a tribute to George Hearn's skill that, with rouged cheeks and polychrome doublet, he makes this satirizing role better than it really is; and he fully merits the applause his speech on duelling elicits...
...this production is short on transcendent acting, it is for once also totally free of atrocious elocution--even in the bit parts, where one tends to find vocal ineptitude. I cannot fail to mention Tom McDermott's lovable portrayal of the tired old Adam, a role that some evidence indicates Shakespeare himself originally played. Praise too for Keith Baker, making his AST debut as Amiens; not only does he speak well but he proves himself an absolutely splendid tenor in rendering Lee Hoiby's songs. And the bright E-major setting of "It was a lover and his lass...