05-May / 0 COMMENTS

This weekend my cast’s tryout of Smetana’s Die verkaufte Braut  is coming up. As some of you know, I’ll be playin the role of Kathinka- Marie’s mother and wife of Kruschina with Opera Noord Holland- Noord and the International Belcanto Academy. Taking hold of this character took a bit more out of me than usual. Her movements and actions are so far from my own and the roles I played until now, that it drove me to look for new inspiration. Luckily I found a fantastic example of “a slightly over the top mother” role to draw from: The role of Mrs. bennet from the BBC 1995 mini series interpretation of Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Mrs. Bennet’s character played by the great Alison Steadman is so exquisitely vivid that when I watch her my muscles want to mimic her movements and tryout her scenes.

Source: katypumphrey.tumblr.com

My dear Mrs. bennet was a great starting point, however, Kathinka’s situation is very far from the comfortable English country life.  I got to admit that this process of finding the character, or finding how my body would move in a character is part of the allure of playing Kathinka.

 

Come and join us on May 9th, 20.30 at Theaterkerk Wadway, for the tryout (with piano)

& on May 17ht, 14.30 at the Kleine Zaal De Meerse, Hoofddorp, for the performance (with orchestra).

 

And till then, here’s a link to a few scenes we put up after the blocking rehearsas:

Excerpt of die Verkaufte Braut

 

Alison Steadman Die verkaufte Braut International Belcanto Academy Jane Austin Michal Bitan Opera Noord Holland- Noord Pride and prejudice 1995