Celia Weston: A Discerning Eye
Interview with the Author
New Orleans
1982
I detect a discerning eye, which will be marvelous for playwrights and
directors with standards, but which may present problems for her: Very few
people working today in the theatre—or anything—are capable of sustaining high
standards for a terribly long time. It’s far more demanding and damaging than
holding a terribly high note, and even that feat eludes the greatest singers
after a time. I look forward to seeing how her battles are waged and won.
There is great detail in what she does—she nails things down without
being obvious or simple. She is a very clear actress. I saw her a few years ago
in something by Michael Weller, and she was frighteningly real in a play that I
did not find at all real—she carved a person out of her own character, I
suppose, and invested what shards had been given to her with intelligence and a
controlled fear.
I regret that she was not in my life when Creve Coeur was limping toward—what? Certainly not
Bethlehem. That is a play that will have its day when it has its actresses. I
think that Miss Weston will grow into a bold Amanda—not the Faith Baldwin,
fainting martyr we have come to know, but the angry, determined, funny, and
seductive actress who is perpetually in final dress for the dream that never
comes.
Watch for her. She matters to me.
Celia Weston in Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven (2002). |
© 2014 James Grissom
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