When Joel Markowitz schmoozed with Estelle Parsons at the Kennedy Center on Monday, November 30th, the legendary actress described August: Osage County like this: “I don’t call it a play. I call it a phenomenon.” After his warm and extended interview with the Oscar winner and four time Tony Award nominee, Joel remarked, “I don’t call Estelle Parsons an actress. I call her a phenomenon.”
Estelle plays Violet Weston, the mean, pill-hoarding, acerbic matriarch in the Tracy Letts dark comedy. Why did Estelle want to become part of the cast of August: Osage County? “I like to be in very popular things. I love that the play was so dynamic, and that audiences were rushing to see it. I thought – I want to get my hand in with those audiences.”
She talks about how discovering the deeper interior of her character has affected her, about being on the road with the new cast, and her most challenging scene – her dinner table announcement “It’s go-for-broke. You have to open yourself for it, and however it comes out, it has to be honest.”
Estelle has enjoyed roles on television (“Roseanne”), in films (Academy Award for playing Blanche Barrow in “Bonnie and Clyde”), but she always returns to her first love, the stage and credits her success to her training with Arthur Penn and Lee Strasburg. She talks about working with Ethel Merman in her Broadway debut – Happy Hunting, playing Maude in the musical version of the cult movie Harold and Maude, and being a Tony four time nominee and Tony nominator.
Estelle was the first female political reporter on network television during her five-year stint with “The Today Show” in the early 1950s and she talks about the state of the media today and the role of women in the media.
Theatre, at its best, Estelle says, is “enriching, educational and entertaining”. It’s how she describes this production of August: Osage County. We can find no better description of this time spent with Estelle Parsons. Enjoy.
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August: Osage County is a DCTS Top Pick. For details, directions and tickets to the Kennedy Center production, click here.
Hello,
Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you about the play, “August, Osage County.”
It was a delight in so many ways. Estelle Parsons is beyond belief.
We just have one complaint: we sat in the 4th row of the orchestra section or BB 1 & 2, but found the sound not so good, especially when the stars were acting on the other side of the state. Is there a way to improve this situation?
Thank you for listening,
Mrs. Howrie
With his Estelle Parsons interview, Joel again shows his ability to interview leading performers who are in Washington by having them sit down with him, relax and provide fascinating information about themselves as people and performers.
This Estelle Parsons interview at the top of every interview I’ve heard you do. Parsons is a great subject – highly intelligent, without pretense, articulate in her sharing of marvelous stage experiences and old enough to know exactly who she is and to be comfortable with it and her sharing that she gets to her characters by using her own analysis experience.. Loved her honesty and wonderful place in life in saying she was born with a gift and happy with how she’d developed it. Your subtlety seen in – Estelle’s “immediate engagement” becoming Joel’s “grabs audience right away” – which communicates to all listeners. Bravo, Joel, as one who has been part of theater criticism in print for 13 years, I know a great interview when I hear one.