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A weird thing happens when you watch an actor look down at a sheet of paper and read her lines. Suddenly, you’re aware painfully or pleasantly, depending on the subtlety of the maneuver that this character is a locomotive, moving inexorably along the track that is the script. One question in great dramas is how an individual’s free will might chafe against the world’s immovable fixtures. The actor’s eye on the page offers a slightly dark answer: maybe our liberty is an illusion, and our lives, like a play or a piece of music, are churning toward an inevitable destination. The slang for actors who haven’t yet learned all their lines is that they’re still “on book.” Perhaps that applies to all of us, just reading aloud and ambling toward our marks with some dim awareness of an ending.
Adrienne Kennedy s new play, Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side, is utterly unique
Peter Marks, The Washington Post
Jan. 14, 2021
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Caroline Clay as Ella in Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side. McCarter Theatre
The lyrical mosaic of Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side denotes a play-builder in her prime. That the puzzle master in question is 89 years young makes the dramatic results all the more remarkable.
Playwright Adrienne Kennedy has been the subject over the past few months of an intriguing online festival, curated by Round House Theatre and McCarter Theatre Center. It is culminating with the world premiere of Etta and Ella, a 30-minute work performed with mesmeric focus by Caroline Clay.
Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side Receives Online World Premiere; McCarter and Round House Theatre Honor The Work of Adrienne Kennedy towntopics.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from towntopics.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Timothy Doubleday, director, and Caroline Clay, actor, on the set filming ‘Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side. Photo courtesy of Round House Theatre.
“Etta and Ella on the Upper West Side,” part of the “Work of Adrienne Kennedy: Inspiration and Influence” festival on-going at Round House Theatre, had its world premier on Sunday. This is an elegant work.
Clay brings to life these fragments of two entwined lines with dignity and humor and fear.
Clocking in at only 37 minutes, it’s about two sisters and their bond over the years. There is a raw closeness and also a competition that frequently seems to have them at odds. Their bond informs their writing in many ways including an eerie tendency to name their characters the same. The sisters are professors of Western literature and writing at separate schools, and there is a very subtle irony in having female Black professors teaching a mostly white and male canon.
Best Places to Live on the East Coast
By Meagan Drillinger, Stacker News
On 1/11/21 at 6:30 PM EST
What is your idea of the perfect place to live? A burgeoning city with an energetic social scene? What about a quaint town with access to gorgeous and secluded stretches of nature? Or do you look for nationally-recognized public schools and well-educated neighbors?
When it comes to living on the East Coast, there are hundreds of places that can potentially fit the bill. Whether charming New England towns steeped in Ivy League history or warm, sunny shores along the coast of Florida, the East Coast is chock full of diverse towns and cities that truly stand out.