Screencap from a Connecticut Public Television segment about the Westport Country Playhouse renovation.

August 2005

When Christopher Plummer graces the stage of the Westport Country Playhouse this weekend, he will christen the newly renovated theater's upgraded stage while dually promoting the magic of the written word. In his one-man show, titled A Word or Two, Before You Go, the celebrated actor will share some of the literary works that have had a profound effect on his life.

"This performance is about books, plays and poetry that have influenced me," Plummer told the Westport News. "With a lightness of heart, I share these works and strive to stress the glory of language and the joy that reading can bring."

In Plummer's view, too few young people are embracing classic literature. "So many young people are spending their time in front of a computer," he laments. "More of them should be reading. The music of language cannot be taught by a computer. I hope this show will persuade parents to get their children to read the classics." Advertisement

So important is his quest, Plummer has added an encore performance at the Playhouse, which will be presented Sunday, June 5, 5 p.m. Tickets are priced at $75 for adults and $25 for students.

For tickets and information, call 227-5137, ext. 138.

The June 5 event follows the sold-out, fund-raising performance of A Word or Two, Before You Go, scheduled for June 3.

Plummer who has written and arranged the production describes the show as "a personal stroll through literature. I use a wide range of material ranging from works I have loved since childhood to serious works."

The production begins with readings from Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh and leads to passages from the Old Testament as well as quotes from Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde, among others.

Plummer, who has been presenting and fine-tuning the production for the last 10 years, notes that his performances change over time. "Sometimes I will do passages from Cyrano and other times I do Moby Dick," he explained.

The one-act performance runs approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Plummer first appeared on the Playhouse stage in 1953, opposite Eva LaGallienne, in The Starcross Story. In 1954, the play went on to Broadway and he made his debut on the Great White Way as George Phillips, performing with LaGallienne and Mary Astor.

He later appeared in the Playhouse production of Home is the Hero, an Irish play by Walter Macken.

Now a member of the Playhouse's artistic advisory council, the actor applauds the theater's completed renovation. "The restoration is very clever," he said. "The theater has kept its look while the building has improved. No charm has been lost, which was the object of the exercise."

Upcoming Performances

Plummer noted that his performances of A Word or Two., Before You Go, to date, have been dedicated to fund-raisers. "At some point I'd like to take it to colleges," he said. "This would be great for that sort of venue."

It might be a while, however, before he has the time to take his show on the road. At the age of 75, he maintains a busy work schedule, appearing on stage as well as on television and the big screen.

Plummer, who has appeared in more than 60 motion pictures, has roles in several soon-to-be-released films.

"I never stopped doing movies," he said. "But now that I'm in my 70s, I think they are hiring me before I croak," he joked.

He presently is shooting The New World, with Colin Farrell. "This is the story about the beginning of America and it is very timely as it reminds people about what this country was supposed to be," Plummer said.

In the fall, ESPN will air Four Minutes, in which Plummer plays track coach Archie Mason in a television movie about Roger Bannister, who broke the four-minute mile in 1954.

Next month, Plummer will be seen in the Warner Brothers' film, Must Love Dogs. He appears with John Cusack, Stockard Channing, Dermot Mulroney, Diane Lane and Kyra Sedgwick in the romantic comedy about a woman whose family enrolls her in a number of online dating programs after she swears off men.

In the fall, he will be seen in Syriana, a political thriller starring George Clooney. The cast also includes Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Gina Gershon, Michelle Monaghan, Tim Blake Nelson and Amanda Peet.

In 2006, he will appear in the Warner Brothers film, II Mare, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

In this adaptation of the Korean romantic drama Il Mare ("The Sea" in Italian) a solitary doctor (Bullock) begins to exchange love letters with a frustrated architect (Reeves). They discover both are living with two years of time difference between each other.

Plummer plays the father of Reeves' character, a famous architect with whom he has a difficult relation.

Plummer also will appear in a PBS documentary on Eugene O'Neill, enacting a scene from Long Day's Journey Into Night with Zoe Caldwell.

In May, the actor received kudos for his portrayal of Cardinal Law in the Showtime production of Our Fathers, which focused on the sex-abuse scandals in the Catholic church.

"It wasn't an easy to play," Plummer noted, "but it was fascinating.

"I tried to give him as much sympathy as I could," he continued. "Cardinal Law, in his mind, was trying to help the Catholic church, although to the public he was a villain."

In its review of the production, the National Catholic Reporter wrote, "Bernard Law must thank Almighty God that Christopher Plummer was chosen to portray him, for Mr. Plummer brings to the role a dignity, an ambiguity, a vulnerability that the public, as far as I know, has never perceived in Cardinal Law himself.

"Mr. Plummer is blessed with a mobile face, any part of which he can twitch or shudder to wordlessly convey a variety of emotions.

"His voice is so rich that he can simply listen silently to a bad news phone call and utter two words, 'I see,' hang up and thus convey the content of the call."

Plummer notes that, as an actor, his technique is, "If I play a good guy, I must find the bad in him and if I play a bad guy, I must find the good in him."

During 2004 he also had roles in the films National Treasure and Alexander.

Future Plans

Plummer, who has been the recipient of numerous accolades for his work, looks forward to continuing his work in the theater.

"I would like to continue to take on the stage. There are a number of wonderful, classic roles that a crusty man of my age can play," he said, smiling slyly. "There a possibility of doing Long Day's Journey Into Night, in London."

He'd also like to pursue productions of Falstaff, Volpone or The Tempest, among others.

When he has time, Plummer works on writing his memoirs. "I've got about 600 pages written in longhand," he said, "but I am only up to the 1960s. I hope to be finished this by the end of this year. "

After spending 50-plus years as a professional thespian, his book will have much to include.

The Canadian native's career includes working with such names as Tyrone Guthrie, Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, Peter Hall, Jonathan Miuller, Micke Nichols and Irene Worth.

His professional achievements include winning Tony Awards for Cyrano in 1974 (Best Actor in a Musical) and Barrymore in 1997 (Best Actor in a Play), as well as Tony Award nominations for his portrayal of Iago, opposite James Earl Jones, in Othello and as the lead actor in King Lear.

He received notices for his portrayal of veteran newsman Mike Wallace in the Oscar-nominated film, The Insider.

In 1977, he won an Emmy Award for his performance in Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers.

He also has been presented with the Shakespearean Society Medal, Drama Desk Award and the Edwin Booth Award for Lifetime Achievement, among other honors.

According to the All Movie Guide, "From his 1950 debut onward, Plummer has been regarded as one of the most brilliant Canadian actors of his generation."

Christopher Plummer, 77, is a renowned international actor with more than 150 films and theatrical performances to his credit. Nominated for more prestigious awards than one can count, he is a prodigious worker who has not stopped performing since the days of his earliest appearance in the theater in Canada, his birthplace. As a young actor, Plummer performed at the Westport Country Playhouse in a production of "The Starcross Story" which took him to Broadway, where his theatrical career took off.

Plummer's commitment to the Playhouse continues unabated, and next week, the famed actor and Weston resident will be the first performer to grace the stage of the newly renovated and much celebrated 75th Anniversary grand opening of the Westport Country Playhouse.

Plummer will perform in a one-man show entitled, "A Word or Two, Before You Go," both for the gala opening, and, because that performance sold out immediately, again on June 5.

Written, arranged and performed by Plummer, "A Word or Two, Before You Go" could be described as "a personal stroll through literature; literature I have long loved, that has stirred my imagination since youth and that for one reason or another I cannot leg go," said Plummer of the solo retrospective, which he also presented to benefit the Playhouse in 2001.

"The poetry and prose I have chosen is silly and sad, sacred and profane," said Plummer in an interview with the Minuteman. The literary repertoire ranges from "Winnie-the-Pooh" to the Old Testament, from Nash and Leacock to Shaw and Wilde, from Auden and Frost to Shakespeare and Jonson.

Plummer promises the performance will yield a very theatrical evening, and said the show was both full of fun and filled with some great passionate moments. He said he was honored to be asked back to the theater, and called himself a willing "guinea pig" for the Playhouse.

However, he did not appear to be too worried, and said that the theater is unique in that, unlike most newly constructed theaters, it has been beautifully rebuilt with the needs of actors in mind, with wonderful acoustics because it is filled with wood, not concrete, like many new theaters today.

Plummer freely admits that he loves to work. "I love my profession," he said. "Retirement to me is death, and I intend to drop at my rehearsal."

Perhaps best known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music," Plummer does not particularly like to talk about that role. He admits that the character of the captain was a difficult one to portray, as the man himself was a "bloody bore." However, he has nothing but compliments for his former co-star, Julie Andrews, and said that he loved acting with her because she is such a terrific professional.

He appeared with Andrews once again during a live TV remake of "On Golden Pond," and will be make an appearance with Andrews in the near future at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., where she is being honored.

Plummer, who has more than 100 film credits to his name, actually prefers the stage to the screen.

He says that theater makes the audience work harder, and that it is essential to lead the audience to more challenging and adventurous works of art. "You must lead," he said.

"If you only want to please your audience just give them all the musicals you can. But if you can give them both good theater and musicals, and even opera, which is planned for the Playhouse on a small scale, that would be great."

Plummer's favorite roles include Hamlet, Cyrano, Iago, Henry II, and Mark Anthony. He also loves doing comedy, and will be in a film with Diane Lane which will be released this August called "Must Love Dogs," which he called "rather old-fashioned and very amusing."

Plummer, who lived abroad for many years, has been a Weston resident for more than 30 years. He is married to Elaine Taylor, a former ballerina. His daughter with his first wife, the actress Tammy Grimes, Amanda Plummer, is also an award-winning actress known for her work on both stage and screen. Christopher Plummer is also an accomplished pianist, tennis player and bullfight aficionado.

Tickets for "A Word or Two, Before You Go" are available at the Westport Country Playhouse at 203 227-5137 ext. 38. Tickets for the encore performance on Sunday, June 5 at 5 p.m. are $75; student/youth seats are $25.

©Westport Minuteman 2005

The Westport Country Playhouse has announced that it has scheduled an encore performance of its 75th Anniversary Season Re-opening Gala starring Christopher Plummer.

The Sunday, June 5, 5 p.m. event was scheduled after the Friday, June 3, 6:30 p.m. performance of his one-man show became a sell-out, an announcement said.

Written, arranged and performed by Plummer, “A Word or Two, Before You Go” will be the inaugural public production in the newly renovated theatre following an 18-month, $17.3 million renovation and expansion.

Tickets for the encore performance are $75; student/youth seats (age 25 and under) are $25.

“A Word of Two, Before You Go” is a prelude to the four-play summer series beginning June 16 under the artistic direction of Joanne Woodward.

Non-subscription tickets for individual plays in the summer season will go on sale on May 23 at 10 a.m. following a special ribbon-cutting ceremony.

For information about the 75th Anniversary Season, visit www.westportplayhouse.org. For tickets to the encore performance by Christopher Plummer, call (203) 227.5137 ext. 38.

Despite all that is going on in our world today, there are times when we Westporters still think we may be the luckiest people alive.

There are other times, like this past Sunday afternoon at the Westport Country Playhouse, when we know that for a fact. Where else could a local audience watch a neighbour, who just happens to be "the finest classical actor of the Americas" (Washington Post), give a stellar performance in the intimacy of that quaint barn-turned-theatre on the Post Road?

In his hundreds of stage, film and television performances, Christopher Plummer has been, among others, Barrymore, Mike Wallace, Henry V and Captain von Trapp, but on Sunday, he was himself. For one hour and 20 minutes, this "natural successor to [Laurence] Olivier" took the playhouse audience by the hand for his personal "stroll through literature" in a one-man show he had written titled "A Word or Two, Before You Go." In this finally polished look at life, Plummer gave the audience (which included NBC's Bob Wright, producer Bill Haber and actors Gene Wilder, Hume Cronyn, Joanne Woodward, Frank Converse, Jim Naughton and others) a theatrical gift that was both giddy and electrifying, witty and wise.

From his earliest days as an infant ("I never threw myself into the struggle for life; I threw my mother into it.") to "the perilous pitfalls of pimply pubescence" progressing onto the inevitability of ageing, sickness and death, Mr Plummer wove a moving entreaty for reading, great literature and ultimately for the playhouse itself ("the dear old building which is a sanctuary for language").

"If there must be a theme," explained the actor in the show's programme, "let it lie in my gratitude to a family who made me realise from the moment I opened my eyes what a miracle it is to enrich one's life with the magic and power of language, which is, thank heaven, our heritage to hold onto for dear life, while we can." Later, recalling how his family read aloud every night, he said he was comforted at his mother's death, by remembering her reading from "Peter Pan," "To die will be a great adventure."

Alternately somersaulting through silly couplets and froth before plumbing the psychological depths of George Bernard Shaw's devil in "Man and Superman" or Cyrano de Bergerac, the actor shared his favourite passages and poems. With keenly-edited elegance, Plummer let the audience sample - and savour - his full range of versatility, one moment as a foppish, fan-wielding W. S. Auden portraying King Herod, the next an aged Dylan Thomas returning to the Welsh village of his childhood. His razor-sharp comic timing was in full play as he sat on the proscenium steps, a pair of ice skates hanging from his neck, hockey stick in hand, recalling his native Canada: "A country so square even the women impersonators are women" and where "Booze was the national sport. Whatever happened to booze anyway?"

A member of the Artistic Advisory Council of the Playhouse since last year when Joanne Woodward became artistic director, Plummer donated Sunday's performance. It was the first time in 46 years he had been on its stage. Previously he was in two plays on their way to New York, "The Starcross Story" starring Eva LeGallienne, which became his Broadway debut, and the Irish play "Home is the Hero." Karen Parella of Weston and Jane Selden of Easton were co-chairs for the benefit afternoon, which included a brunch and post-performance party at Moma's Theatre Bar and American Brasserie.

If you weren't mad for Plummer before the show (possible but unlikely), you were by the time the lights came up. And if beforehand, you weren't dazzled by the luminosity of the English language as crafted by such linguistic magicians as W. S. Auden, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Robert Frost, Lewis Carroll and Christopher Plummer himself, you were clammering to reread all the classics (as well as catch up on the new stuff), by the show's close. The one regret is that a listing of the works used in the performance was not available, or even better a copy of the script. And the question everyone asked afterwards was, "When can we see this again?"

Sunday afternoon was the Westport Country Playhouse at its best, when every member of audience is treated to a very "up close and personal" theatre experience and where new material melds with the classics at the hands of America's most gifted actors. As Plummer says, "It is obvious that we must continue to cherish this gem of a theatre, which has not only found its way into all our hearts, but surely harbours more history within its walls than almost any other playhouse of its kind on our continent."

The article included this file photo from Barrymore

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER thinks of calling it his charity act, but that lacks panache -- a word and a style indelibly associated with the actor since his 1974 Tony Award-winning performance in ''Cyrano,'' the musical. ''But I never get paid for it,'' Mr. Plummer said, referring to his little-known one-man show, ''A Word or Two, Before You Go,'' to be seen one time only -- at Westport Country Playhouse, next Sunday at 3 p.m.

''It's my autobiography,'' he then says, knowing that's misleading, for the show isn't his life story, only a tribute to the prose and the poetry that shaped and goes on informing it.

Whatever its label, ''A Word or Two, Before You Go'' is rarely seen. ''During the past four or five years, six times,'' just once for each organization -- Shakespeare in Canada, Shakespeare in Washington, D.C., Shakespeare in Nova Scotia -- and the Roundabout's second stage in New York. But twice for world literacy, the show's raison d'être.

At heart, what Mr. Plummer's personal pastiche is really about is the love of reading. He is not only the star. He is the director, the teller of anecdotal asides, the arranger of words, his favorite words ''from Winnie the Pooh to the Old Testament.''

Now there's a trek, in just an hour and a half. ''Audiences wonder if I can remember it all, so I have a book over in the corner,'' he said. ''It's a prop, and I pick one selection that I'm going to read, and then they don't worry.''

The show is constantly changing, in part, he said, because he has read more and lived more. But more than anything, he said he makes changes because ''I get bored more.''

The audience can expect Melville and Molière, Ogden Nash and S.J. Perelman, Byron and Dylan Thomas, a bit of Shakespeare, even a Sam Goldwynism.

When Mr. Plummer says that his show is for ages 6 through 90, he is not giving in to a promotional catch phrase. He is thinking of his own childhood in Montreal where his family instilled in him the love of poetry, of how ''they made me love words.''

From words, he went to theater, which meant ''real quality and exalted language,'' he said, adding, ''That was long before the Web replaced the brain.''

Can a bygone time be reclaimed, a time when theater was an accessible entertainment of choice, a sign of a civilized time, of cultural awareness? Can the Westport Playhouse, once a tryout center for new plays as well as an essential stop on a thriving summer stock circuit, recapture its own golden age? Mr. Plummer, a member of the playhouse's artistic advisory council, thinks the answer is yes.

Mr. Plummer's support of theater in Connecticut has embraced the beleaguered Shakespeare festival in Stratford, where he appeared during its first year, as Marc Antony in ''Julius Caesar,'' among a cast that included Jack Palance, Roddy McDowell, Fritz Weaver, Raymond Masey and Jerry Stiller. Mr. Plummer's incomparable Iago to the monumental Othello of James Earl Jones, later a Broadway transfer, was Stratford's last explosion of great classical acting.

In 1999, he was the narrator, which meant grandly assuming various roles, in Sir William Walton's musical adaptation of ''Henry V'' with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. The extraordinary performance, for the benefit of the proposed reopening of the festival, was a failed sign of hope. Yet as recently as this year, when divisiveness over the proposed new theater surfaced, Mr. Plummer wrote a letter about the importance of breathing life into a noble structure. ''I love Connecticut,'' he said. ''I've lived here a great part of my life. I still live here and I hope I always will,'' is how the letter began.

And he went on to say that Connecticut has everything, except a festival dedicated to Shakespeare and the classics.

Mr. Plummer's loyalty to Connecticut began in the 1950's when he rented a house in Weston.

Then he moved to England. ''I timed it right,'' he recalled. ''I was divorced, had no place to go and England was the crazy, marvelous place to be in the swinging 60's.''

Many people agreed, except that they didn't have the chance to play with the Royal Shakespeare Company or the National Theater. Although Mr. Plummer's credits include more than 80 films, he is convinced that his stage appearances outnumber his screen roles. ''Don't forget rep,'' he said.

He and Elaine Taylor Plummer, his wife of 31 years -- ''my third marriage and my last'' -- have been living in Weston for 21 years, very privately, in a 100-year-old converted barn, now on 25 acres.

''We stay home,'' he said, ''but I go to town meetings when land or the standard of living in our very rural place is at stake.''

For Mr. Plummer, who is constantly on tour, on location, wherever, having a holiday means coming home to Weston.

Not every actor can quite manage the formula Mr. Plummer has mastered. Simply speaking, these are the rules: ''You work in theater because you love it. You make your fortune somewhere else.''

He is is revving up for the theater's summit role, King Lear in Stratford, Ontario, next summer. At 71, he says, ''I don't think I better wait any longer.'' In the meantime, he says, ''I'll do as many films as I can squeeze in.''

Along with formulaic clinkers, he has squeezed in distinguished film and television work. The end-of-the-year release of his latest film, ''A Beautiful Mind,'' is widely anticipated. Mr. Plummer plays an enigmatic psychiatrist in the real life story that deals with the schizophrenic episodes of the Nobel Prize winner, John Forbes Nash Jr.

But what role will he play on Westport Playhouse's advisory council? Lending a celebrated name to such a group is often meaningless. But Mr. Plummer talks of artistic vision, of raising standards, always of quality. ''There's a meeting this month,'' he said. ''I will attend.''

After roughly 130 appearances on television and the silver screen, as well as scores of roles on the stage here and abroad, Christopher Plummer returns to The Westport Country Playhouse next Sunday to discuss one of his first loves: reading.

The veteran actor's one-man show, "A Word or Two, Before You Go," written, arranged and performed by Plummer, will be staged as a fund-raising event for the playhouse. Plummer is a member of the playhouse's Artistic Advisory Council.

The show is "informal" - "Just me and some lighting, some atmospheric props - a working stage," Plummer says. The actor strolls leisurely through his favorite works of literature, including excerpts from the Bible, "Winnie the Pooh" and "Alice in Wonderland."

The piece has been successful in raising money for world literacy in the past, according to Plummer. Its last Broadway run was in 1996.

"I don't pretend to be an extraordinary reader," he says. "It's bits and pieces and then whole chunks of poetry that I knew from youth. Shakespeare, Jonson, Byron, Shelley - then prose and poetry, including Nabokov and Robert Benchley. Sometimes I change which pieces I choose based on locale and the occasion, but basically that's the whole shape of the piece."

While his most famous role continues to be his portrayal of Captain von Trapp in 1965's "The Sound of Music," one of Plummer's most recent turns on the silver screen was in 1999's "The Insider," in which he portrayed veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace. Horror fans may also remember Plummer's performance in Patrick Lussier's "Dracula 2000." However, Plummer believes the best writing is still on the stage.

"I love good films," he says. "When they are not so good, I like the locations they bring you to. Theater is the actor and the writer's medium; it belongs to us. They can't cut away from us on the stage. The greatest literature there is performed on the stage. In film the less said the better, because actions speak louder than words."

Plummer says he became a fan of literature as he grew up.

"My family were very well-read people, thank God," he says. "They encouraged me, and didn't force it upon me. I grew up as a youngster reading. I had read a lot poetry before the age of 12, and most of Shakespeare. I grew up in a rather English setting."

Raised in Montreal, where he returns periodically for theater runs, Plummer has a broad knowledge of great works for the theater, and poetry and prose. Nabokov is a perennial favorite of his ("Some of the greatest writing - I go and read him and wish to God that I could write like that," he says), as are works by Elizabethans such as Christopher Marlowe ("There is some great language"), and the English Romantics, as well as modern classics such as Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows."

The production runs for about an hour and a half. While audiences have been enthusiastic at his performances, Plummer sees a growing lack of enthusiasm for reading in general.

"We have to watch that we don't to descend into the maelstrom here," he says. "But I think the computer age has managed to wipe away a sense of American and Anglo-European culture. That is what I do in this show - try to assure young people, assure them that real stuff, reading, has a wealth of joy and riches, without them reading solely as an assignment. But again, let me say this, I hesitate to make it sound as I am giving a lecture - I am having fun on the stage."

At 71, Plummer's career has spanned roughly 50 years, and has earned him two Tony Awards, most recently for his 1997 performance in "Barrymore" on Broadway. He debuted in New York in 1954, eventually moving to roles in France and England, where he has been a member of the National Theater and The Royal Shakespeare Company.

One essential component of works that interest Plummer, both onstage and off, is the writer's style.

"I do sort of read aloud when I do come across something romantic," he says. "I think style sticks in your mind when you read it aloud - you must be true to the author. A lot of people don't know about style anymore, there is no nuance or different styles. There is such a huge variety of styles. When I find something that I like mostly I will sit in the porch and look at nature as I read."

Theater itself, he says, is also being neglected by the public. Though there are great authors, such as Stoppard or Pinter, still writing great plays, the focus of Broadway has shifted. Now, he says, most of Broadway is musicals, whereas when he cut his teeth in the theater, there was a balance of drama by heavyweights such as Williams, O'Neill or Arthur Miller along with musicals.

"I am very glad that I saw that era - it was another time," he says. "More and more the theater is given short shrift because of the power of the medium of big musicals today. It's very sad, that. Musicals transcend, but it used to be that when I grew up in the '50s, there was a mix of drama and musicals."

Though theater seems to be approaching a downturn, the Westport Country Playhouse holds memories for Plummer, and the promise of a return to the days when the theater was a larger part of the social fabric.

"I played at Westport in the early '50s," Plummer says. "It was a thriving theater of pre-Broadway runs, a thriving little theater. There's no reason that it shouldn't come back to that. I just hope that people don't think it's too close to New York, because they do a great job. They can afford to be experimental, so they can do quality stuff and then commercial stuff to survive."

Regional theaters such as Westport's are doing well these days, according to the actor.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., Plummer notes that the theater serves a crucial role for Americans right now.

"I think that, I have a feeling that some of those plays that closed were on their way out already," he says. "(New York City Mayor Rudolph) Giuliani is enticing people to come to the theater and that will help.

"It is the same as the theater in London during the blitz," he continues. "People went to escape the horror. ... We need entertainment - it's times like this that we need entertainment and the theater."

As for the next year, Plummer will act in a few films before returning to Canada for a production of "King Lear."

"We may bring it to London or New York. It is a short run. So people are interested, but I am very guarded," he says.

Tickets for next Sunday's 3 p.m. fund-raising performance range from $100-$500, with some tickets including admission to a private reception with Plummer. The Westport Country Playhouse is at 25 Powers Court, off the Post Road. Call 227-7617, ext. 15

[The Playhouse mailed this letter to everyone who purchased tickets to the performance. Enclosed was a copy of the Westport News article dated October 19, 2001]

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Artistic Advisory Council of the Westport Country Playhouse, I express my sincere thanks for your support of An Afternoon with Christopher Plummer. I am so pleased you were able to attend and share in the revelry of literature Mr. Plummer so brilliantly performed. The benefit was a resounding success that will echo throughout the community for a long time to come.

This performance of A Word or Two, Before You Go was generously donated to the Playhouse by Mr. Plummer. One of his goals in planning the event was to have students of literature and theatre able to participate in the afternoon. The Playhouse provided tickets to ninety-six students from local high schools and colleges. Their feedback has been phenomenal; many describing this as truly a once in a lifetime experience. The impact was not only significant to their literature education, but greatly enriched their classroom curriculum. Mr. Plummer is so gratified to know that he awakened in so many people, across the generations, a desire to revisit or become acquainted with many of the works featured in the performance.

Through the goals of our revitalized artistic mission and the dedication of our Artistic Advisory Council, we strive to bring events of this quality to our community. It is our mission to be a catalyst for artistic enrichment and to continue to produce works of the highest caliber. We are grateful that you believe in the goals of the Playhouse and have demonstrated it through your involvement in this event. Enclosed is a press article that so aptly captures the spirit of the day. I hope it evokes memories of an afternoon we will cherish.

After reading both Wednesday and Friday editions of the Westport News, I was puzzled by the fact that no one, except for one letter to the editor, commented on the fabulous, wonderful treat that Westport Playhouse provided last Oct. 28. The benefit for the children of the World Trade Center tragedy put on by the Playhouse family was a special, heart-warming, funny, thrilling piece of artistic artistry that only the most talented actors and performers could pull off so successfully.

The Newmans were charming (as always) and I have never heard James Naughton belt out a song like he did with his son which was so good and entirely out of his normal type of singing that it caught me completely by surprise and added to my admiration of his considerable talents. The delightful Kristin Chenoweth was absolutely charming singing "Taylor" and I can easily see why she is a Broadway star -- that song would be a showstopper in any musical. She was a treat both visually and vocally. However, for me, the highlight of the show was the rendition by Christopher Plummer reading Dr. Seuss's "Sneetches." He was wonderful and made that story come alive with humor and morality that would have made Dr. Seuss proud. The other performances also were terrific and I want to thank you all for a special, special theatrical experience.

All the people of Fairfield County are so lucky to have you as residents. You are indeed "treasures" to be savored and appreciated. Thank you so much for your time and sharing with us your considerable talent.

Cynthia Glage, Westport
_______________________________________________________________________
Thank You
November 02, 2001

Bravo! Fabulous! What a "once in a lifetime experience" it was for our family watching "for the Children" benefit performance Sunday, Oct. 28 at the Westport Country Playhouse. To see our super star neighbors give of their time, extraordinary talent and probably money to aid the families of the Sept. 11 tragedy is the best of what America is all about. Thank you, Thank you.

The performances were geared to "children of all ages." My family was truly awed with the "fun" songs, the readings of our favorite children's book and just seeing our favorite stars, truly brighten up our lives. With deepest appreciation to Robin Batteau, Adam Battelestein, Kristin Chenoweth, Chris Coogan, James Naughton and son, Paul Newman, Christopher Plummer, Gene Wilder and Joanne Woodward.

I also wish to thank our town, not only for flying our flag on the Post Road Bridge but the heartwarming evening Oct. 11 to honor our Westport heroes: the Police, Fire and EMS departments -- thank you. And to say thank you to the firefighters from the New York Rescue Company One. We are so very grateful to all those that serve to protect and defend our freedoms. So very proud to be an American.

Betty Lou Cummings, Westport

Sept. 27, 1994 Halifax Chronicle Herald Plummer anxious to return to Nova Scotia for benefit

Oct. 14, 1994 Halifax Chronicle Herald Plummer applauds Atlantic Theatre Festival

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ad, Oct. 21, 1993

YOU CAN tell a lot about an actor by what he chooses to open and close a solo show. Christopher Plummer, I was sure, would begin with Cyrano de Bergerac, one of his signature roles, and end with, oh, "The Tempest" or some such Shakespearean summation.

So he started and ended with "Through the Looking-Glass." Which was surprising and charming and kept me (and the rest of the audience) happily off guard for the entire 90 minutes.

His show is called "A Word or Two, Before You Go," and he performed it for a sold-out house at Carmel's Sunset Center. It's more autobiography than not, but there's a good deal of "than not" to it.

A distinguished classical actor, Plummer, 64, is a decade older than Ian McKellen and two decades younger than the late Laurence Olivier. The years have served him well: Age hath not withered, nor custom staled, etc.

Canadian by birth, he spent many years with the Stratford Festival in Canada and the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. He also has weathered Cyrano on television and Shakespeare on Broadway, playing Iago to James Earl Jones' Othello. Of his 50 films, it's probably "The Sound of Music," in which he played Baron von Trapp, that most people remember. In the coming season, he and Jason Robards will bring Harold Pinter's "No-Man's Land" to New York.

''A Word or Two" isn't an onstage autobiography, such as Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson's current memoir of their theatrical marriage, or a technical showpiece such as McKellen's "Acting Shakespeare." Instead, it gives thanks for a lifetime love affair with literature: essays and fairy tales, poems and stories, monologues and repartee, epics and one-liners.

It drops precious few names: no actors or directors, no lovers or spouses, not even very many of the writers he honors. It's their words he celebrates in his beautiful voice, spare gestures and a wide repertory of accents.

Plummer's text, which he devised, weaves the words of others around thematic areas: solitary childhood, acting, reading, marriage, religion, mortality. The result is a seamless collage that tells you everything he wants you to know about him, and nothing that he doesn't choose to tell. It's at once very personal and very private.

His choices are idiosyncratic and fascinating. Three times married and twice divorced (Amanda Plummer is the offspring of his first marriage, to Tammy Grimes), he is mostly cynical and flippant about marriage -- but he offers, in its totality, a simple, homely love poem that Archibald MacLeish wrote for his wife.

Religion brings forth the "Song of Songs"; W.H. Auden's strange and haunting psychological study of King Herod (recited in a Southern accent that made me think of Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell); the central argument between the devil and Jack Tanner in Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" ("To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer"); Captain Ahab's last defiant speech to Starbuck about his quest for the white whale.

As a good Canadian, he offers us a rich example of the quirky humor of Stephen Leacock. There's some of a memoir of Dylan Thomas (prose, not poetry); snippets of Shakespeare, cleverly conflated; Robert Frost's "Birches"; an erotic apostrophe from "Lolita." You can see he's eclectic.

Toward the end -- not at the end, which would have been trite, but toward the end -- he brought out a swordstick and gave us the last few lines of "Cyrano." They brought me to tears, as they always do. But I also thought it was lovely that he still clearly loves the play, after all these years of performing it, and wasn't reciting "Cyrano" because the audience expects it.

Caption:
PHOTO: Mercury News File Photograph
Plummer gives us a look at his inner self -- as much as he wants us to see. Photo

Sept. 16, 1993 Globe And Mail A Word or Two with Mr. Plummer [Stratford Festival benefit]

Sept. 21, 1990 Globe And Mail Plummer Backs Literacy Campaign [Ottawa benefit]

Sept. 20, 1990 Ottawa Citizen Play On Words [Ottawa benefit]

Thanks to Susan for the clips.

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Nov. 11, 1984, NY Times, Council for Arts Getting News Home
May 4, 1986, NY Times, Darien Lifts Sights with 'Music Man' ("No less an actor than Christopher Plummer, who now lives in Weston, came to "cut the ribbon" at those ceremonies, and to perform Shakespearean excerpts.")

Darien News, Nov. 15, 1984

Darien News, Nov. 21, 1984

"Three days of celebration saw 150 Darienites bring their talents to a stage dedicated by noted actor Christopher Plummer in an opening ceremony that will be cherished forever in the memories or performers and audience. ... Former resident Plummer set the high tone that prevailed on the refurbished stage those three days."

The first performance of A Word or Two, Before You Go was at the Darien Library in 1980.
1980 Darien News articles:

Nov. 20, 1980	Nov. 20, 1980
Photo posted by the Darien Library Flickr.com	Dec. 11, 1980	Dec. 11, 1981