Got in touch with Naomi P. about the viewing and memorial service today for her former sister-in-law, Joan Fiore Steelman, with whom I went all through St. James. Considering that Naomi and her late brother were not on speaking terms for years, I wasn't sure if she would want to go. She vacillated back and forth, but finally decided she would. Her husband will, too, and they'll pick me up at 11:00.
Had rehearsal last night and oh, boy, was it tough. It seems to me Director Desi has mis-read the play and come up with an absolutely boneheaded idea of my character, Aunt Julia. According to every line Ibsen wrote, she's a typical maiden aunt, fussy, but sweet, who defines herself by her care of others. I could point out all the signposts-- practically her every utterance, her exchanges with others--by which the author makes this clear, but Desi seems to have missed or misinterpreted them all. He insists that I play her as a bossy, annoying, rather stupid bore.
Okay, he's the director, so I'm going to have to do that, but it's wrong, wrong, wrong.
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