videocam_off
This livestream is currently offline
Check back later when the stream goes live
Up next in 10
Video: Stephanie J. Block Unpacks Norma Desmond
May 17, 2024
Norma's back! And it's as if she never said goodbye. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is getting ready to present Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Sunset Boulevard. Watch this video as Stephanie J. Block tells us all about her take on Norma Desmond.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
I want to thank you for opening your rehearsal room
0:10
I had goosebumps watching you sing today from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head
0:14
How do you feel? I feel good. I feel just enough fear and adrenaline, right
0:20
We haven't hit the panic zone. I have a feeling that might come in a couple of days
0:24
It has been fast and furious, but the preparation has been beautiful. everybody came in knowing enough that still allowed us to play and mine in the room
0:33
and when you can do that instead of just being thrust information on you, then you really have a rehearsal process
0:39
And so I feel like we're building something kind of unique and special with this sunset
0:43
Let's talk about your Norma Desmond so far and what you love about her
0:47
I love her. Thank you for asking me that. One, I find her to be remarkably human
0:53
I know sometimes it can be deemed that Norma is very, over-the-top and theatrical. She's a human being. And anybody who acts this over-the-top
1:04
and obsessed, something has happened. There's been harm. There is fear. There is, it's a mental
1:10
health issue So if there were to be the right medication or even the language for Melter Health in 1930 1940 1950 this story could be different
1:20
If there was trauma therapy, this story could have been different. So Sammy and I have had a lot of conversations where we just didn't want it to be like the audience watching this sort of circus apparition
1:33
who is grand and who is glorious, but the humanity sometime or could drop out
1:39
drop out. And I want to make sure that this audience sees a fearful, vulnerable
1:45
sometimes lovable, and silly human so that when the bottom really drops out
1:50
there's a reason why, and there are consequences, hopefully emotional consequences, why that happened. Oh, I love this. Now, let's talk about this incredible score
1:59
you're living in, this, the world of Sunset Boulevard. Okay, the world of Sunset Boulevard is
2:04
okay, much like Into the Woods. Everybody wants to perform Sunset Boulevard. Not everybody wants
2:09
to learn Sunset Boulevard. And that is the same with Into the Woods. But it is the complicated
2:15
notion of getting it in your bones that makes it so beautifully gratifying on the other end
2:22
I having a little bit of trouble just right now because I do tend to go 150 and I lose myself in the character and then sure enough I missed the musical mark which is supposed to lend itself to the next scene So I still learning all that and that probably my biggest hiccup at this point
2:37
And once that flows, and once you feel the music support your emotional sense
2:44
then you got magic. I'm not there yet. But I feel once we get a 20-piece orchestra and all the different orchestrations are coming through
2:52
it is going to support us and uplift us in a way, that that's what makes theater so magical
2:58
That's what makes this particular score so magical because it's underscored from the top until the end, you know
3:04
It's almost like an operetta, this piece. Working with this company. I love them so much
3:10
I love them so much. Because of the fact that when we got together
3:14
it was we're all in this together. We're diving in head first
3:18
because you can't just kind of dip your toe in as Joe. You can't kind of dip your toe in as Norma
3:23
If you don't go full out, we're never going to find. all of these beautiful, complicated relationships
3:28
that we need to find in a week and a half. When I say it out loud, it kills me
3:34
But they have been so open-minded, so open-hearted, ready to play, ready to support
3:40
Because again, when you're in the rehearsal room, and there are a lot of tears and there a lot of underbelly that being shown their support for me to each other has been really wonderful to see The whispered conversations in awful crowded always So much to say
4:04
not just today, but always will ever be able to be able to be
4:12
burning madness will our magic in the beginning. Yes, everything's as if we never said goodbye
4:25
Yes, everything's as if we never said goodbye
4:42
We taught the world new ways to dream
#Music & Audio
#Acting & Theater
#Musical Films
#Vocals & Show Tunes
#Broadway & Musical Theater