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Victoria Clark Says "Grazie" to Cast and Crew and Piazza Closing
By Robert Simonson
09 Jul 2006
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Top: Victoria Clark giving her final bow in Piazza on Broadway; Bottom: Clark and Broadway's original Fabrizio, Matthew Morrison
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| photo by Jeff Meshel | The Light in the Piazza star Victoria Clark suprised the audience at the July 2 final performance of the Broadway musical by addressing the audience in a long, heartfelt farewell speech.
Following the curtain call, Clark introduced librettist Craig Lucas, composer Adam Guettel, and director Bartlett Sher, who all emerged from the audience and took a bow on stage.
Playbill.com obtained the text of the address that followed through Clark's representative. Below is the complete text:
"The closest thing I can compare this performance to is natural
childbirth. We knew it was coming, we faced it with equal parts
dread and excitement, the head was down, we knew this baby was
coming. And then it hurt like hell, it is a relief to have it over,
and look what a beautiful baby we have.
"I hope nobody has a roast in the oven, because today we leave the
piazza, and there are a number of folks we want to acknowledge and
thank. First of all, we are all storytellers up here, and we are no
good without a great story. We were given that story by Elizabeth
Spencer, a wonderful, Mississippi-born writer who wrote the novella
of The Light in the Piazza. She is alive and well in Durham, North
Carolina, and could not be with us today, but sends her love. Next,
we were fortunate and blessed enough to have this source material
fall into the genius talented hands of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas,
whose work stands alone separately as a play,without any music, and
as an opera, of sorts, without any scenes. And you put them together
and you have, two! Two! Two shows in one, and this complexity and
strength in the individual components is what gives Piazza is depth
and texture.
"Next, you have to have a director who knows what to do with this
material, and Bartlett Sher made us all better than we ever knew we
were.
"I acknowledged Jonathan Butterell in the audience, and called him
`The magic unseen hand' of the piazza, who gave us our beautiful
subtle body language, gave the piece its fluid movement of staging
and transitions, and kept us all firmly grounded and rooted in our
bodies.
"I thanked our designers Michael Yeargan (sets) and Catherine Zuber
(costumes) who were both in the audience, and Christopher Ackerlind
(lights) and Nevin Steinberg (sound) who could no be there.
"Next, I thanked the Intiman Theater in Seattle, the Goodman Theater
in Chicago and its Artistic Director Robert Falls, and especially our
Broadway producers, Lincoln Center Theater, Bernard Gersten and Andre
Bishop for their courage and dedication, and for giving us the
perfect theater, the Vivian Beaumont Theater, to bring this piece to
life.
"I introduced our marvelous conductor Kimberly Grigsby and the
orchestra (who had to stay in the pit to play the exit music!) And
thanked out orchestrators Adam Guettel, Ted Sperling, and Bruce
Coughlin.
"I thanked our unbelievable cast, and said I could write a book about
each and every one.
"Then I brought out the swings (actors) from the wings and
acknowledged their hard work, and thanked the understudies separately:
"Those beautiful men and women you saw pushing the scenery around,
and riding the bicycle,and serving the coffee, and bringing the props
on and off the stage, are each understudying one of the principal
roles in the show. And they are all superstars, and each and every
one of them has had to step in and fill their roles on a moment's
notice, and they have so brilliantly with great style and
leadership. And I
have to personally thank Patti Cohenour, who, besides myself, is the
only remaining cast member who has performed all three productions of
Piazza. In addition to doing Senora every night, for the past four
months, she has been the Margaret alternate, going back and forth
between doing six shows a week of Senora (and yes, that a high C she
is singing), and also Margaret twice a week, and she has done this
all with tremendous grace and leadership, and I guarantee you she is
the only woman on the planet who could have done that! "
"And to prove to you that it truly takes a village to put on a show,
I would like to introduce you to our crew. Our props, sound, lights,
set, automation, wardrobe, and hair crew who all work so hard to make
the show work.
"And lastly, I want to thank you, the audience for being here today,
and for giving us so much energy. I will just speak for myself, and
say that there were many days when I wasn't sure I had the strength
required to tell the emotional story of Piazza, the strength to climb
that mountain. And those were the days, when we could literally feel
your support coming out at us, almost as though you were somehow
building a road between your hearts and the stage. And we could feel
it. It was palpable and strong, so strong we could stand on it. And
that's what we did, and you gave us that strength and that love and
that support.
"It has been a magnificent ride, and I didn't say this Sunday night,
but there was so much talk about what a rainy, dark winter and spring
we had here in New York, but I will tell you something. The sun was
always shining at the Vivian Beaumont. The light in the piazza came
from all of us, from the cast, crew, musicians, the writers, the
audience, and we were all able to grow and bask in it and become
better people, better lovers of life, better citizens of the planet.
So, as the Nacarellis would say `Alla belezza della vita,'—` To the
beauty of life.' May we all see each other again soon."
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Clark celebrating the Piazza cast and crew.
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| photo by Jeff Meshel |
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