Superb autobiography of a gay black actor. Actors and lovers of
acting will find a mother lode of rich commentary on the thespian
arts in the grandly informal words of Heath (1918-91), who played a
legion of classical roles, became the first black announcer on
American radio, played scores of whites on radio dramas (with no
listener being the wiser), and apparently possessed a wit, if not
genius, for marvelous speech - and who writes just as well. Heath's
distinguished career was given national attention when he starred
in the 1945 Broadway production of Deep Are the Roots, under Ella
Kazan's direction and with Barbara Bel Geddes as his beloved. Heath
played Othello, Hamlet, Oedipus, Marlowe's Faustus, Harem in
Beckett's Endgame, and a hatful of other top roles, always to great
acclaim. He was also a skilled musician and singer and, in Paris,
owned his own nightclub (where he did a guitar act) and directed
his own theater as well, mounting the first Parisian productions of
The Glass Menagerie, After the Fall, The Skin of Our Teeth, etc.
When invited to the University of Amherst in 1987 to play in Wole
Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel, Heath was asked by the university
press to write his autobiography. Though he died before completing
it, what he wrote is treasure enough, particularly his extensive
review of the century's English-speaking Othellos ("Olivier chose,
I thought, the wrong kind of Negro[es] to impersonate and his
rightly celebrated technique showed through the burnt cork. I
admired the virtuosity but felt nothing for the man"). Caviar.
(Kirkus Reviews)
This work presents the memoirs of Gordon Heath (1918-1991), an
actor whose career spanned five decades on the stages of New York,
London and Paris. He achieved prominence in 1945 for his starring
role in Broadway's ""Deep are the Roots"", an exploration of
American race-relations at the end of World War II. He went on to
become part of the lively post-war Parisian expatriate artistic and
literary community.
General
Imprint: |
University of Massachusetts Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 1996 |
First published: |
February 1996 |
Authors: |
Gordon Heath
|
Introduction by: |
Doris Abramson
|
Foreword by: |
Ekwueme Mike Thelwell
|
Dimensions: |
230 x 145 x 17mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
208 |
Edition: |
New edition |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-55849-020-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
General
|
LSN: |
1-55849-020-5 |
Barcode: |
9781558490208 |
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