Theater Latte Da's At Home Series: Bradley Greenwald
Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 10:34AMReprinted with the permission of Theater Latté Da
Our At Home with... series this week features Bradley Greenwald who has graced our stages as Cyrano De Bergerac in C. (for which he also wrote the book and lyrics), Voltaire/Pangloss in Candide, and Frid in A Little Night Music.
Q: Do you have a daily ritual that's keeping you grounded these days?
A: I start every day the same: a French press pot of coffee and a slice of whatever I baked for breakfast; read the New York Times and do the crossword; peruse the local online news. I go to Fox News and Breitbart as well— E. B. White wrote that in order to form your own solid opinion, you should read everything, even if you find it questionable; walk the beagles; feed the beagles; get the beagles to stop yelling so my husband, John, can sleep (a Sisyphean task).
Q: What are you reading?
A: Since the last preview of La Bohème in March:
Q: Which work of art - a book, poem, painting, piece of music - provides some solace for you?
A: John gave me The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson, a beautiful hardbound box set of all the daily comic strips. The first volume is set up on a library stand in a corner of the living room, and every day I read one strip. It takes a lot of discipline not to peek ahead, so that’s got to be a healthy thing. Just one strip, every day. I find it comforting that something I loved as a young adult remains timeless. Bill Watterson’s work is funny, gorgeous, inspired and naughty. That’s a Daily Solace.
Q: What's your go-to, binge-watching TV series?
A: Killing Eve
Boardwalk Empire. I tell myself it’s research for the next Chronofon concert we’re putting together for Open Eye Theatre. (No, the concert’s not about Steve Buscemi.)
Q: If you could throw a Fantasy Dinner Party (since that’s the only kind of dinner party we can throw right now!) who would be on the guest list?
A: My sister Kathy, and brothers Gary and Dan. I can’t remember the last time we were all together. Really. It’s been decades. We’re all that’s left of the family now, it would mean a lot to me. And it would mean the world to my sister.
Q: What are you doing to feel creative or productive during this time?
A: Steve Epp and I are working through Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for Latté Da, writing a new English libretto and creating an extended prologue before Puccini’s one-act kicks in. We’re doing it by Zoom. We’re Zooming. Is that a verb now? I guess it is. Should it be capitalized? I capitalized it. Also, Dan Chouinard, Prudence Johnson, Diana Grasselli and I are also Zooming weekly for the aforementioned Chronofon show, something about the early 1920s in Minnesota and the world— radio, Prohibition, the 19th Amendment, etc., all celebrating their centenaries.
And gardening. Gardening is my therapy. Since the lockdown, and since spring has sprung, I work everyday out there to get exhausted enough to want to fall asleep at night. It’s an empty canvas that I’m not masterful at painting yet, but I do it anyway because when I sit down at the patio table I see proof of the day’s labor. You don’t get that as a performer. Your work dissipates into the ether as soon as it’s exhaled. I need the garden. And the beagles need to destroy it, but that’s part of the whole trip. When they dig up a shrub or trample the life out of a perennial, it’s just another invitation to start something new.
Q: What's a theater production you've seen that you wish you could stream right now?
A: You know, I thought long and hard about this one, and I came up with nothing. I just don’t enjoy watching a production on a screen the way I do in the theater. I have a long list of personally meaningful productions in my mind, and that’s where I’ll keep them, and stream them.
Q: Are you cooking? Do you have a favorite recipe to share?
A: Yes, choquettes! Here’s a recipe!
The Triplets of Belleville is one of my favorite movies, and John came across Sylvain Chomet’s only live-action film — Attila Marcel. Delightful. The hero constantly eats choquettes— little balls of pastry sprinkled with pearl sugar. They’re not sweety-sweet, just a tasty little treat to have with a cup of coffee.
Q: Of the roles you've played at Theater Latté Da, which is your favorite?
A: Latté Da tells their stories beautifully, every time, but my favorite is the staged concert of Candide we did last spring with Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence. It’s on my short list of productions I’m immensely grateful to have been a part of.
Q: Would you share a quote that's especially meaningful to you?
A: There’s so much to worry about, and the coming reality is a scary thing to contemplate, so I don’t. I guess it’s all about a single day. I get up in the morning, and there’s just the day ahead. There must be something good in that for me, because I have found nothing to complain about, really. I’m actually quietly content, bordering on something that Joseph Campbell might call bliss:
“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.”
― Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth
Q: Since this is the At Home with... series, do you have a favorite spot in your home? Would you be willing to take a picture of it that we could share?
A: In my therapy room.
