A Personal History of the American Theatre (Alive from Off Center episode unknown) - Spalding Grey (interviewee) (1985) (no video link)
Title
A Personal History of the American Theatre (Alive from Off Center episode unknown) - Spalding Grey (interviewee) (1985) (no video link)
Subject
History of theatre
URL
No video link found. This content is associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library originally recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. No link has yet been found to provide online access and the original videotape has not yet been digitized.
Description
Content description from IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3318512):
Spalding Gray discusses his experiences working as a professional theater actor while sitting at a desk or table in the same manner as many of his filmed and theatrically released monologues. Each play's name is written on a little card that he has on a stand on the table. Some of the productions were very avant garde and had directors with strange ideas. In one, he was ostensibly cast in a major role, but then another actor was cast to play him, playing that role. Meanwhile, he stood backstage, saying things like, peas and carrots. to suggest a crowded setting. In another play, based on The Tower of Babel story from the Bible, he and the rest of the cast did a kind of monotone plainchant before, and while climbing on top of each other to do make a human pyramid. The pyramid would collapse, then they walked away from each other, each making a different silly noise. Somehow (he didn't know) they were booked at an elementary school in a small town in the South. They were arrested for (IIRC) "Making a fleshy pile," and other charges, and were legally forbidden to perform in that town again. He also mentions having known Dustin Hoffman and Henry Winkler before they were famous.
Ephemera: text saved from original ephemera. Small clipping from program guide. Alive from Off Center. Spalding Gray - Actor/monologist Spalding Gray continues his journey into personal history in a new work. Handwritten: 930 Oklahoma Dis. 12 Aug 1985 KAET Under Cover.
Limitations: This page displays video content associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. Please be advised that, because this videotape has not yet been digitized for direct access, we cannot guarantee that the video content on this page is an exact match with the content originally recorded by Dr. Kealiinohomoku. We also cannot guarantee function or access for re-hosted video content.
Spalding Gray discusses his experiences working as a professional theater actor while sitting at a desk or table in the same manner as many of his filmed and theatrically released monologues. Each play's name is written on a little card that he has on a stand on the table. Some of the productions were very avant garde and had directors with strange ideas. In one, he was ostensibly cast in a major role, but then another actor was cast to play him, playing that role. Meanwhile, he stood backstage, saying things like, peas and carrots. to suggest a crowded setting. In another play, based on The Tower of Babel story from the Bible, he and the rest of the cast did a kind of monotone plainchant before, and while climbing on top of each other to do make a human pyramid. The pyramid would collapse, then they walked away from each other, each making a different silly noise. Somehow (he didn't know) they were booked at an elementary school in a small town in the South. They were arrested for (IIRC) "Making a fleshy pile," and other charges, and were legally forbidden to perform in that town again. He also mentions having known Dustin Hoffman and Henry Winkler before they were famous.
Ephemera: text saved from original ephemera. Small clipping from program guide. Alive from Off Center. Spalding Gray - Actor/monologist Spalding Gray continues his journey into personal history in a new work. Handwritten: 930 Oklahoma Dis. 12 Aug 1985 KAET Under Cover.
Limitations: This page displays video content associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. Please be advised that, because this videotape has not yet been digitized for direct access, we cannot guarantee that the video content on this page is an exact match with the content originally recorded by Dr. Kealiinohomoku. We also cannot guarantee function or access for re-hosted video content.
Original Format
TV broadcast recorded off air by JWK: Betamax tape
Creator
Skip Blumberg (director)
Susan Stamberg (host)
Spalding Grey (interviewee)
Publisher
KTCA Minneapolis
Public Broadcasting Station (PBS)
Walker Art Center
Date
1985
Citation
“A Personal History of the American Theatre (Alive from Off Center episode unknown) - Spalding Grey (interviewee) (1985) (no video link),” Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Collections, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ccdrcollections.omeka.net/items/show/343.