FAN: I'd like to thank both of you for your wonderful, wonderful
performances and have either of you been approached by Mr. Curtis for
the revival?
LOUIS: Not personally.
JONATHAN: Not personally here too.
LOUIS: It would be fun, I think, depending on how they do it. Yeah, it
could be fun.
FAN: Good day, gentlemen. I was wondering with all the time travel
that went on in the series, was there any particular episode that the
cast enjoyed working on more than any other period? Which time spot
did you all enjoy working on the most, for whatever reasons?
JONATHAN turns to Louis and says: You want to take that one?
LOUIS: Well, I enjoyed - when the series first started, I just acted,
you know, head on. I was carrying on like every British actor I had
ever seen act on the screen. That phase was very much alive and fun
for me. Then we really got into time and Jonathan joined us, it was
great fun to do the character stuff and the dialogue changes and that
was sort of my cup of tea because of the afore mentioned classical
stuff that I had been exposed to in college. By and large, I think
Dark Shadows was outrageous and absurd, but we had fun turning it out,
I think and with Jonathan, he came from Yale and I came from Carnegie
Tech, and when we would meet over a coffin [audience laughs] and I'd
have to say words like, "No son of mine is a vampire!" [Jonathan iscracking up at this] And then for Jonathan to reply, "But Daddy. I
AM!"
Much laughter from Jonathan and the audience.
LOUIS adds: Now that's great fun! We had very serious actors and we
made it work.
LOUIS gestures towards Jonathan and adds: And he even saw it in Spanish
in South America. He must have been a goof!
JONATHAN: I always thought it was better in Spanish. For one, they
honored my name better in Spanish. I always remember David Henesy, he
was just a young kid at that time, he'd go "Barnabis". But down in
South America, it was [Jonathan says with much flourish] "BARRRNABAS!"
Much laughter from the audience.
JONATHAN adds: The whole show was that way. It was the most operatic -
I mean it really was operatic in South America. It was grand. It was
almost musical, and whoever they got for Louis, I must say, was
wonderful because he really get all that quality that you have and it
was splendid. It was absolutely splendid in Spanish. I think you have
heard some tapes right here.
Announcement from festival organizer: Now that the audience microphones
have been activated, please line up at either one of the microphones.
JONATHAN asks: Meanwhile is anyone ready with one?
Fan asks a question.
JONATHAN: You're nice and loud, but just an itsy bit louder.
FAN: Both of you gentlemen gave wonderful performances this afternoon
and I thoroughly enjoyed them. My question, however, is directed to
Jonathan Frid. You've [inaudible] your classically trained and magical
presence in so many [inaudible] and I'm wondering when you will come to
the Boston area?
Audience applauds. A fan shouts "YAY!"
JONATHAN: Well, book me!
Audience laughs
JONATHAN: Find an agent up there and book me. I'll gladly come up.
FAN: Is that all it takes?
JONATHAN: Yeah.
Audience laughs and applauds.
JONATHAN adds: And a couple of grand.
FAN: I think you're great! Thank you, both of you.
Audience applauds.
JONATHAN: We'll both come out together. [laughing] I think Louis and I
are somehow destined to become a pair.
LOUIS: I think so. It would be a new program.
JONATHAN: Variety in the show.
LOUIS: And we could switch over and you could sing the songs.
Jonathan rolls his eyes to the ceiling, laughs and grabs his head in mock
horror. Much laughter from the audience.
JONATHAN: If I could inject one little point. I was so honored when I
saw Louis up here this afternoon being so marvelous. And he actually
graced the stool that I'm going around with all over the country.
JONATHAN looks around and asks: "Where's it gone?"
JONATHAN adds: It has been taken apart and I have to take it back down
to Virginia tomorrow morning. [Frid was doing a three week stint of
'Jonathan
Frid's Shakespearan Odyssey' at the Barter Theater in Virgina, a very well
known regional theater. JF flew in to be at the Dark Shadows Festival for a
day.]
JONATHAN turns to Louis and says: Thank you for using it.
LOUIS: For gracing your stool, Jonathan?
Much laughter from the audience.
LOUIS: I think Jonathan is tongue-tied.]
JONATHAN [laughing]: Can't beat this one!
LOUIS to Jonathan: Are you going to Virginia?
JONATHAN: I've been in Virginia for the last two weeks.
Audience applauds.
JONATHAN: No, I've been down there for two weeks and I have one more
week down there - putting my Shakespeare together. So thank Heavens I
had that chance before I came to my friends here.
FAN: The two of you are classically trained actors. Did both of you
develop your speech patterns? Of all the people that I have ever heard
speak on the stage and screen, I have rarely heard two more unique
speaking voices such as the ones that both of you possess. I just
wanted you to know that. How long did it take for you to do that?
JONATHAN: Thank you. And by the way, you have a very good voice
yourself. Very expressive. Thank you.
LOUIS: Well, I'm from Louisiana and I think being a Southerner is half
way toward being British. Seriously, seriously. But I mean some
southern is ridiculous. When I was at Carnegie Tech, there was a woman
there - she was quite internationally known, really. She's gone now.
But she got the Southern - the magnolia - out of my voice [Louis says -southern style] and she put Shaw in it and she put Shakespeare in it
and Chekhov. You can't talk with magnolias in your voice when you do
those three playwrights. And I'm serious when I say the way I sound
and talk is a kind of a cross I bear [Louis says the word southernstyle], which has some contusion to the thing about training in
classical theater. Because I have, indeed in my own country, been
excluded from things. It seems to give me a certain air [Louis again
pronounces the last word southern style] you know. But what can you
do.
FAN: You may have been excluded from some aspects of the theater, but
as seen by the people here, you sure as hell will never be excluded
from our hearts.
Much applause from the audience. Louis takes a bow.
JONATHAN: I was reminded, while Louis was talking about Southern being
somewhat identified with classical speech, I remember of the time when
they were casting "Gone With the Wind" and they were looking for
Scarlet and they got Vivian Leigh. She was from the south of England
and her voice, because she was from the south of England, lent itself
very well and easily to the rhythms and whatever of Southern speech in
the United States. I suppose my speech, in its original form, is as a
tight northern Canadian speech. [Jonathan says boats & house Canadian
style] all that sort of thing and people sort of kid the French
Canadian - the French speech, especially the Parisians, and they sort
of send it up and the Canadians - the English Canadians do it
themselves, and unfairly. Actually, when I go to Canada and I go to
Quebec, which is not too often - Quebec to me is almost like a foreign
country - but when I'm there, there is something that they have in
common with their French speech that we have in Ontario with our
English. It's a very tight, tight, tight speech. It seems the closer
you get to the North Pole, [Jonathan sits forward in his chair and
shrugs his shoulders as if cold] the more ...
Much laughter from the audience.
JONATHAN sprawls back in his chair and adds in a slower speech: " Whereas
down near the Equator you sit back and relax."
Much laughter continues in the audience.
JONATHAN adds: It's fascinating to think about and wonder about - this
business of speech patterns as they work throughout the world.
FAN: Jonathan, your vocal characterizations in your show were
magnificent!
Much audience applause.
FAN continues: I was wondering ... are you planning to produce a record
or audiocassette or videocassette of your shows?
JONATHAN: Well, of course we're both looking for somebody to do this
for us. I would love - of course - I would love to. I keep putting it
off because I just don't feel ready yet. But, however, I'm getting
closer and closer all the time. [In 1994 JF said that he didn't think it
would be worth the effort during a Q&A]
LOUIS: I'm ready!
Much audience laughter and applause.
FAN: My question is for Jonathan. In the show you played two
characters, Barnabas and Bramwell. How did you feel about the
difference between the two characters?
JONATHAN: Bramwell was just Barnabas with his hair brushed back [as he
brushes his hair back with his hand].
Much audience laughter.
JONATHAN adds: There was really not that much difference. I want to
take this opportunity to say I'd get this constantly from the press,
the media. They would say "You must have suffered being typed." "It's
you people that typed me. In fact the role was fabulous." We were
talking earlier about what was your favorite time - and when I was
playing a younger - well, he wasn't really younger. In fact he was the
same age as when he came out of the coffin. He was preserved on ice,
as it were. [Audience laughs] But I felt younger when I went back to
the past. Also, I played an old, old man. I played various time
things and I was able to do whatever I wanted to do with Barnabas.
Barnabas had all the potential for being an incredibly diversified
character. There was nothing to be typed about at all. I only spent
about three minutes the whole four years I was on - I only had three
minutes of that biting, which was always a bore to me, but everybody
else loved it. [audience laughs] I didn't mind that. I hated the way
they made me do it. But otherwise it was a very interesting character,
it really was and I'll always appreciate it. The only thing was we had
these incredible pressures on getting these damn lines out and I am
self- admittedly a slow study and I'm probably the most flubby-dub
actor in the business. Even with my one man shows to this day, I'm
still flubbing and with a script right in front of me! I like to think
I rise above that. [laughs]
Audience laughs and applauds.
FAN: This question is for Jonathan Frid. I'd like to know if you will
be doing any more readings in public libraries and I also have another
question for both of you.
JONATHAN: Well, at this moment I don't know about the libraries. I
think maybe later in the year. I'm very grateful to the libraries for
having allowed me to develop these shows. And for the moment, they've
seen everything I've done over and over again and I don't have anything
new. But when I do, I most certainly will be delighted to take
advantage of the opportunity they've provided me with experimenting.
It's a wonderful way to develop a show and I'm grateful to the public
libraries in Manhattan for giving me this opportunity.
(go to part 3)
