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July 22, 2004
• The Changing Scene The Changing Scene New to Shakespeare & Co., Anne Gottlieb is a happy actress Although Shakespeare is not new to Anne Gottlieb, Shakespeare & Company in Lenox is. The veteran Boston actress is playing Celia in the company's production of "As You Like It" and Luciana in the forthcoming "Comedy of Errors." "I rehearse all day and act all night," said Gottlieb with a bright smile that indicated how happy she is to be doing just such a thing. A native of Chicago, Anne became interested in the theater and in Shakespeare when she was 14 years old and began taking classes to hone her acting skills and enhance her knowledge of the so-called Bard of Avon. Her younger brother is following an acting career in Los Angeles so, as she put it, "On the East Coast there is just me." Boston University brought her East in the first place where she majored in English and started appearing in Boston theatrical productions. She had already acted in several shows in her native Chicago at the Center Theater and the Shakespeare Festival. She also studied part-time at England's Oxford University concentrating on Medieval and Renaissance literature while "acting in London fringe theaters." But Boston is where she has found a home and recently starred as Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” at The Boston Theatre Works. For this performance she received an Independent Reviewers of New England award. Just behind theater is her love of teaching theater and she has given classes at Brandeis, the University of Southern Maine, Boston College and the University of Rhode Island. Collaborating with two friends, Susan Thompson and Judi Wilson, Anne has written a play, "Anam Cara: Two Women Fall into The Ancient Tale of Golgamesh," which was produced at The Women on Top Festival and the Roy Hart Theatre in France. Roy Hart was a South African actor who was a pioneer in the "Whole Voice" movement started by Alfred Wolfsohn. This combines the “outer voice” created by a person's diaphragm, larynx and vocal chords with the “inner voice” of a person’s psyche. Hart was able to speak and sing in a range of six octaves. Hart moved his theater group to France in 1974 and was killed in a car accident in 1975. His disciples continued the theater until 1990 when it closed down, but Hart's methods are still taught worldwide. Gottlieb’s octave range can best be described as "sexy." Anne has no desire to become a writer on her own because she said she is " unsure" of her individual talent with linear narrative. "I love to create collectively," she said, "such as with ensemble theater or open theater. I don't feel the need to have all the credit.” This is why she has become immediately comfortable working at Shakespeare & Company. "I met Shakespeare people when I was working at the Boston University Conservatory," she said. "And I did Harold Pinter's 'Betrayal’ with Jason Asprey. I have also trained with people who trained here. I don’t get to do a lot of comedy so when I was called for an audition, I jumped at it. They have some practices here that allow an actor to go very deep. Some of my fellow actors are ‘masters,’ and I’m learning from them. They also have such deep respect for the text that they explore new worlds.” Even though "As You Like It" is a comedy, director Eleanor Holbridge sees it "as about young people coming of age, rebelling against the society in which they have grown up, and choosing to forge a new world of their own. It is a play about the mysteries and magic of the human heart. And it is a play that taps into the magic in nature and in our imaginations." Anne Gottlieb may not get to do a lot of comedy, but she is definitely familiar with what director Holdridge sees in “As You Like it.” So this young woman is not only beautiful, but right now she is also very happy. |
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