January 26 Poetry Blog

Too many have told me how much you like my updates. So here comes another.

I'm back in NYC and had a full day of recording. In fact by the end of next week we'll have recording almost 90 Performers. I have a lot of energy, as you know, but this is almost a record! What a great record. And a great record.

Please welcome our new artists: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kathleen Turner, Judith Light, Peter Friedman, Reed Birney, Heidi Schreck, Deidra O'Connell, Bobbie Steggert. We're just about at 100. Thanks to everyone for their friends and friends of friends!

Here's today's blog:

We started with Keith McDermott who did the terrifying Yeats poem: The Second Coming. He also did one of my favorite Bishop's: Art of Losing. Both were definitive. I've known Keith for a long time when he was primarily an actor. Now a successful novelist, it was a real thrill to hear him perform again. He also gave me a book of poems by Poets who died from AIDS. We will start working on that as an album.

Next came Penny Fuller, not only a great actress but my next door neighbor. After dishing our horrible new lobby (yuk!) Penny really nailed Lawrence's Terra Icognita. This is an amazing poem and Penny treated it as if she were a soloist in a great concerto. It was pure music.

Cady Huffman, who has sadly just had shoulder surgery, introduced me to a new contemporary poet, Taylor Mali. She read A Dog Called Bodhidsagttva. It was real tour de force. Wait till you hear Cady's magnificent performance! Wait till you hear this poem!

Guy Paul, who is a new friend, did an amazing job on TO MY COY MISTRESS. I'm so glad to have met Guy. He can REALLY do verse. He breathed new life into this poem. He made it sound as if it were written yesterday.

Kate Mulgrew, another new friend, read one of my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson. We both decided to narrow down Dickinson's poems to our favorite few and surprise, we both landed on BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH. I know Emily would have been proud of Kate. Her sultry voice and twinkle in her eye made one of my favorite poems into my favorite!

My third new friend of the day was Peter Freidman. Peter introduced me to another new poem, PSALM CONCERNING THE CASTLE, by Denise Lavertov. What a delight. I can't imagine anyone doing this poem better than Peter. What a voice.

Lastly, another old friend, Brent Barrett read my favorite Sonnet, WHEN, IN DISGRACE WITH FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES. It was a beautiful way to close the day. Brent really captured the pathos and sense of the sublime in this beautiful Sonnet. His performance was deeply moving.

So, more tomorrow. (And I heard the Times was coming to watch us record! Exciting!)

Here's the current list.

THANK YOU ALL!

G

1. *Jason Alexander (Robinson: Richard Cory)
2. Caroline Aaron
3. ****Glen Seven Allen (Shakespeare: Sonnet 131)
4. *Nancy Anderson (Piercy: To Have Without Holding)
5. *Linda Balgord (Strand: Eating Poetry)
6. Christine Baranski
7. ****James Barbour (Kipling: If)
8. ****Brent Barrett (Shakespeare: Sonnet 29 When In Distress)
9. Bryan Batt
10. John Behlmann (Shakespeare: Orlando)
11. *Reed Birney (Blanding: Vagadon’s House)
12. **** Charles Busch (Browning: My Last Duchess)
13. *Danny Burstein
14. *Ann Hampton Calloway (Rilke)
15. ****Alan Campbell (Lux: A Little Tooth)
16. ****Douglas Carpenter (Whitman: To What You Said)
17. *Len Cariou (Shakespeare: Ye Elves from Tempest)
18. ****Donna Lynne Champlin (Cadell: The Job Interview)
19. ****Philip Casnoof (Thomas: Fern Hill)
20. *Michael Cerveris (Ondaatje)
21. *Chuck Cooper (Angelous: Still I Rise)
22. ****Donald Corren (Poe: Annabel Lee)
23. ****Veanne Cox (Milton: Paradise Lost)
24. Tyne Daly
25. *Daniel Davis (Cavafy: Ithaka)
26. ****Paige Davis (Field: New Yorker)
27. *Ed Dixon (co Producer) R.L.Frost: Bearer of Evil Tidings
28. ****Mike Doyle (S.L. Johnson) Lovers on a Park Bench
29. Christine Ebersole
30. *Francesca Faridany (Rukeyser: Myth)
31. *Barbara Feldon (Atwood: I Would Like to Watch You Sleeping)
32. *Laruen Flanigan (Weinstein)
33. ****Peter Friedman (Levertov: Psalm Concerning the Castle)
34. ****Penny Fuller (Lawrence: Terra Incognita
35. ****David Garrison (Frost: Road Less Traveled)
36. ****Joanna Gleason (Neruda: Sonnet XVII)
37. *Amanda Green
38. ****Roxanne Hart (Moore: Poetry)
39. Florence Henderson
40. *George S. Irving (Fearing: Elegy in a Theatrical Warehouse)
41. *Dana Ivey (Henley: Invictus)
42. *Hunter Ryan Herdlicka (Whitman: Captain! My Captain!)
43. *Beth Howland (Parker: Sympton Recital)
44. *Cady Huffman (Taylor Mali: A Dog Named Bodhidsattva)
45. *Gregory Jbara (Shakespeare Bottom’s Dream)
46. *Byron Jennings (Yeats: When You Are Old and Grey)
47. ****Judy Kaye (cummings: I thank God for this…)
48. ****Lauren Kennedy (Stevens: The House was Quiet…)
49. *Charles Kimbrough (Bishop: The Fish)
50. Marc Kudisch (Frost: Fire and Ice)
51. ****Claire Lautier (Donne: A Valediction…)
52. *Patti LuPone (Oliver: Wild Geese)
53. Judith Light
54. *Rebecaa Luker
55. *Ramona Mallory
56. *Donna McKechnie (Oliver: The Journey)
57. *Jeff McCarthy (Collins: Conversion)
58. *Carolyn McCormick (Millay: Dirge Without Music)
59. ****Roberta Maxwell (Stevie Smith: Not Waving But Drowning)
60. ****Kate Mulgrew (Dickinson: I would not stop for Death)
61. ****Tom McGowan (Lawrence: Afternoon in School)
62. **** McDermott (Bishop: Art of Losing, Yeats:Second Coming
63. ****Michael Minarek (Ammons: Beautiful Woman)
64. ****Julia Murney (Angelous: Ailey, Baldwin…)
65. Greg Naughton
66. *Deidra O’Connell (Harrison or Sharon Olds)
67. Kelli O’Hara
68. ****Nancy Opel (Clampitt: The Sun Underfoot Among…)
69. ****Daniel Okulitch (Hoaglund: Self Improvement)
70. *Michelle Pawk (Karr: Last Love)
71. ****Patrick Page (Shakespeare: Our Revels)
72. *Peter Paige (Anne Sexton)
73. ****Guy Paul (Marvell: To His Coy Mistress)
74. ****Dean Pitchford (Parker: Song of a Hopeful Heart)
75. Alice Playten
76. Roger Rees
77. ****John Rubenstein (Coleridge: Ancient Mariner)
78. *Michael Rupert Ginsberg: A Supermarket in CA)
79. ****Chris Sarandon (Tennyson: Ulysses)
80. Heidi Schreck (Ashbury: What is Poetry)
81. *Lynn Sherr
82. *Paul Schoeffler (Owens: Dulce et Decorum Est)
83. *Matthew Schechter (Silverstein)
84. ****Emily Skinner (Millay: Love is not All)
85. Douglas Sills (Monette: You Probably Won’t be Needing)
86. *Carole Shelley (Wordsworth: Composed Upon Westminster)
87. *Lewis J. Stadlen (Kipling: Gunga Din)
88. *Bobby Steggart
89. *Richard Thomas (Hopkins: Spring and Fall)
90. Kathleen Turner
91. *Tony Walton (Cook: Blue Football)
92. *Brenda Wehle
93. Chandler Williams (O’Hara: To the Harbor Master)
94. ****JoBeth Williams (Keats: When I have fears)
95. Tony Yasbeck
96. ****Geraint Wyn Davies (Thomas: In My Craft or Sullen…)
97. ****Michael York (Kipling: Tommy)
98. *Chip Zien
99. Catherine Zeta-Jones

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