John de Lancie (who played the omniscient Q on Star Trek TNG) will make his directorial debut in Sacto. He's put together a version of the opera 'Cinderella' that's lean an' mean.
The opera "La Cenerentola" first opened in the candlelit, horse-and-buggy world of 1817, the same year Jane Austen revised "Persuasion" and Mississippi became the 20th state. "Cenerentola," or "Cinderella," has been sung ever since. But the production that opens this weekend at the Community Center Theater won't match the ones seen in the days of composer Gioacchino Rossini - or even at some big-budget companies today. Shorn of redundant songs and acted as well as sung, this "Cenerentola" is meant to suit the expectations of a modern audience, said director John de Lancie.
"What I can bring to the mix as a stage director and actor is apply those rules to an opera," added de Lancie, a Los Angeles-based director, actor and producer.
The CCT has been heavily promoting this gig on the local radio station that carries Air America - clearly they're looking to appeal to hip midtowners, and the suburbanites who wish they were. Now to check my social calendar ...
Like, he can't just blink his eyes or snap his fingers (or whatever) and make a full-blown PERFECT production appear at his pleasure? Talk about slumming...
I've always wanted to meet DeLancie just to ask him the (probably) blindingly obvious question of whether he is related to the great Philadelphia oboist John DeLancie (who as a soldier in WWII was responsible for Richard Strauss writing his lovely Oboe Concerto)!
Posted by: Anthony | November 16, 2004 at 01:35 PM
::tsk:: That's such a blindingly obvious question! Can't you be a little more original?
Posted by: pam | November 16, 2004 at 02:09 PM
OK, how about "what was going through your mind when you found out that you'd be acting side-by-side with Patrick Stewart?" Or, "is Marina Sirtis as hot in street clothes as she is in a 24th Century midi?" or even "Is LeVar Burton really blind?"
THOSE are models of originality and nouveauness...!
Posted by: Anthony | November 17, 2004 at 07:55 AM
No, no. Here's how I would approach it. "So, um, what was it like to be omniscient?"
Or better, "Remember that time, when you got mad at Captain Picard? so you like, sent the whole Enterprise into the Delta Quadrant? and forced them to meet the Borg? That was cool."
I bet I could get his eyes to roll so far back into his head, they'd never come out again. Dare me?
Posted by: pam | November 17, 2004 at 08:26 AM
Even better: "Dude, I know this fan fiction site where they've got X-rated stories of you and Picard and Beverly Crusher. Wanna read some?"
I bet that could get a 360 degree eye-roll!
Posted by: Anthony | November 17, 2004 at 11:50 AM
Yes! There's nothing an actor likes more than to be forever stereotyped as one of his early characters!
Posted by: pam | November 17, 2004 at 11:58 AM