Post by henryrocks on Mar 8, 2007 14:52:39 GMT -4
Some comments on Michael's performance. You won't be surprised.
"The second reading was, perhaps, the highlight of the evening. First of all, it was a scene from "Maui vs. Hercules," a new, original play commissioned by HTY from local playwright Yokanaan Kerns. ...
Michael Emerson played Maui, and Matthew Fox played Hercules. Fox played it straight, much like the character of Jack, and gets credit for mostly keeping a straight face. But Emerson stole the show as Maui. He didn't hold back, despite the singular challenge of performing a character who speaks pure pidgin.
"Das' one mountain, and das' one big mountain," Maui asserts to a disbelieving Hercules. "Knolls are tiny like pimples, rising from da face of da 'aina!"
HTY's "BullDog" was his dialect coach, and did a fantastic job. Emerson's pidgin occasionally strayed into a Mexican accent, even New Jersey, but he immediately connected with the audience and kept them in stitches.
And Emerson never broke character, even when Fox briefly lost his place in the script. "Aue!" he groaned, struggling under the weight of an imaginary giant fishing hook, as Fox found his place. He staggered as pages flipped. "Aue!"
Next up was an obake tale, a Japanese ghost story by renown kabuki scholar David Furamoto. Daniel Dae Kim and Terry O'Quinn played Yaji and Kita, two hapless travelers lured into a mysterious forest inn by the eminently creepy Emerson. Kim relished the playful role as O'Quinn's sidekick, and O'Quinn's character's dedication to their mission was reminiscent of his island incarnation.
Emerson, again, had everyone rolling, this time as a "cute" country maid that turns out to be something quite different.
"Please let me show you to another room, where I promise nothing has happened..." Beat. "...up to tonight."
...Finally, Cusick, Kim, Emerson, and Garcia together read from an adaptation of "Ferdinand the Bull" by Karen Zacharias. Here, Cusick transformed himself into a snooty British duke with a lisp, hoping to make a man out of his dance-obsessed son, played by Kim. "Bullfighting is what you should do," lectures the duke. "You get to dress up, have an audience just like dancing, but it's better than dancing, because you get to kill a bull in the end!"
Garcia played the gentle Ferdinand ("Cha cha cha!"), and his starstruck porcine companion was played by Emerson ("Can the pork ask ¿Por qué?")."
www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/weblog/archives/004598.html
"The second reading was, perhaps, the highlight of the evening. First of all, it was a scene from "Maui vs. Hercules," a new, original play commissioned by HTY from local playwright Yokanaan Kerns. ...
Michael Emerson played Maui, and Matthew Fox played Hercules. Fox played it straight, much like the character of Jack, and gets credit for mostly keeping a straight face. But Emerson stole the show as Maui. He didn't hold back, despite the singular challenge of performing a character who speaks pure pidgin.
"Das' one mountain, and das' one big mountain," Maui asserts to a disbelieving Hercules. "Knolls are tiny like pimples, rising from da face of da 'aina!"
HTY's "BullDog" was his dialect coach, and did a fantastic job. Emerson's pidgin occasionally strayed into a Mexican accent, even New Jersey, but he immediately connected with the audience and kept them in stitches.
And Emerson never broke character, even when Fox briefly lost his place in the script. "Aue!" he groaned, struggling under the weight of an imaginary giant fishing hook, as Fox found his place. He staggered as pages flipped. "Aue!"
Next up was an obake tale, a Japanese ghost story by renown kabuki scholar David Furamoto. Daniel Dae Kim and Terry O'Quinn played Yaji and Kita, two hapless travelers lured into a mysterious forest inn by the eminently creepy Emerson. Kim relished the playful role as O'Quinn's sidekick, and O'Quinn's character's dedication to their mission was reminiscent of his island incarnation.
Emerson, again, had everyone rolling, this time as a "cute" country maid that turns out to be something quite different.
"Please let me show you to another room, where I promise nothing has happened..." Beat. "...up to tonight."
...Finally, Cusick, Kim, Emerson, and Garcia together read from an adaptation of "Ferdinand the Bull" by Karen Zacharias. Here, Cusick transformed himself into a snooty British duke with a lisp, hoping to make a man out of his dance-obsessed son, played by Kim. "Bullfighting is what you should do," lectures the duke. "You get to dress up, have an audience just like dancing, but it's better than dancing, because you get to kill a bull in the end!"
Garcia played the gentle Ferdinand ("Cha cha cha!"), and his starstruck porcine companion was played by Emerson ("Can the pork ask ¿Por qué?")."
www.lightfantastic.org/imr/extras/weblog/archives/004598.html
