Andrea Powell

Photo Credit: Powell's twitter

Like most people, Andrea Powell gets up and goes to work.  Unlike most people, her colleagues are Harrison Ford and Viola Davis. 

Powell, a North Carolina resident and professional actress, has just been cast in Ender’s Game, a sci-fi thriller set to be released March 2013.  The film is set in the future and revolves around Ender Wiggin, a child genius trained by the government to fight against a hostile alien race that has invaded Earth.

The film’s stacked cast includes Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield and Abigail Breslin.  Asa Butterfield, the star of Martin Scorsese’s five-time Academy Award winning film Hugo, will play Ender Wiggin.  And Powell has been cast as his mother, Theresa Wiggin.

“I’m incredibly excited,” Powell said.  “It’s like it’s too good to be true.”

           

Powell, who will also appear in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 as the vampire Sasha later this year, said she doesn’t know exactly how she landed her role in Ender’s Game.  

“I mean you never really know,” Powell said.  “The casting director knew me from other projects, and she thought I’d be right for the part, so I auditioned.  The director liked what I did, and I went to New Orleans for a meeting with him.  After a long wait, I got the call.”

Powell said filming for Ender’s Game will begin next week in New Orleans, but that the cast has already had several rehearsals.  Powell said she wasn’t nervous about working with her celebrity castmates.    

“I don’t get intimidated by celebrities,” Powell said.  “To be in the room with all these people at once, you see that they’re all really normal.  They’re human beings.”

Powell has been acting since she was a child.  At age 12, she was cast as the lead in a school production of Oliver, and she has been doing some form of acting ever since.  After graduating from high school, Powell went to the University of Hawaii and later to Louisiana State University to study theater.  Over the past 20 years, Powell has appeared in numerous T.V. shows and films.  In 2010, she was cast as a recurring character on the T.V. series The Gates.

Paul Ferguson, Powell’s husband and acting coach, said Powell’s success—especially her most recent success—is well deserved.

“This is an ideal experience,” Ferguson said.  “I think of it as a reward that she’s earned every bit of.”

Ferguson and Powell just celebrated their 18^th wedding anniversary.  They have worked together on various theatrical productions for more than 20 years.  Ferguson, a writer, director and professor at UNC, works with Powell on her auditions and has directed Powell in many of his original musicals and adaptations. Ferguson said he and Powell are each other’s biggest fans.

“We’re a team,” Ferguson said.  “That’s one of the secrets to our success.  We both believe that neither of us would be able to be as good as we are without the other.  I hope that I’m able to help her go further as an actor.  And I know that she helps me go further than I could as a writer and a director.”

Powell credits Ferguson and her friends’ continued support for much, if not all, of her success.

“Having love and health and friends I think makes me a better actor,” Powell said.  “In a way, I don’t think success could have come to me if I didn’t have that perspective.”

Powell and Ferguson have mentored many of Ferguson’s students at UNC.  Ferguson’s students said they were excited, but not shocked, by the news that Powell had been cast in a major motion picture.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Laura Ann Tully, a senior dramatic art major, said.  “Andi’s a brilliant actress and a wonderful person.  She totally deserves this success.”

Kallie Wray, a junior dramatic art and communication studies double major, agreed. 

“She’s an inspiration,” Wray said.  “She’s able to achieve anything she sets her mind to, and she keeps such a good attitude.”

Tully said she sees Powell as a role model.

“She’s a great example of a good person making it,” Tully said.  “You always want good people to make it.  It’s really refreshing to see.”

Powell said that it is impossible to predict whether being cast in Ender’s Game will skyrocket her to stardom.  Regardless, Powell said that becoming famous isn’t one of her priorities.  

“There was a time when I was more single-minded about pursuing my acting career,” Powell said.  “Ultimately I figured out that the most important thing in my life is love, which I have.”

Powell said that she’s not sure what she will do after she is done filming Ender’s Game.  She said she hopes another project will come along, or else she will have some time off.  If nothing else, Powell said landing her role in Ender’s Game will lead to interesting experiences. 

“And that’s all I really want to do,” Powell said. “To live a life full of interesting experiences.” 

Bold Choice, Big Show

"Henry IV" is one long show.  It runs over three hours, and one is acutely aware of it at times.

Despite its long running time, PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of "Henry IV" is well done.  The actors are well cast, the language well handled and the action fast-paced — especially in the latter half.  The production runs until March 4 in the Paul Green Theatre.

"Henry IV" is a coming of age tale that marks Prince Hal’s assent to the throne.  Amidst political unrest, Hal, a rowdy young man who spends most of his time drinking in a tavern with his band of misfit friends, rises to be crowned Henry V by the play’s conclusion.

The PlayMakers actors seemed to have more fun in Acts II and III of the play.  And the audience did, too.  This isn’t surprising, as Act I, in typical Shakespearean fashion, is mostly obligatory exposition.  

A note of caution to theatergoers not familiar with the play’s storyline: read the plot summary in the playbill beforehand.  Otherwise, you are in danger of being completely confused for the entire first Act.

The trick to Shakespeare is to never make how his words are said more important than what is said.  The actors in "Henry IV" were especially adept at letting Shakespeare’s text speak for itself.  The language, which could be difficult for less capable actors, never sounded stilted or overdone coming from the PlayMakers actors.  They handled each word with grace and strength.

Michael Winters, who plays Sir John Falstaff, Prince Hal’s surrogate father figure, is especially adept.  He skillfully plays the bumbling, good-natured Falstaff, whose weight is the butt of most jokes throughout the play.

But the show is certainly an acquired taste.  It doesn’t have the wide audience appeal that PlayMakers’ next production, “Noises Off,” which runs April 4 to April 22, will undoubtedly have.  "Henry IV" is a historical drama, after all.  It won’t bring in big crowds.  There were many open seats at the performance Saturday night and after two intermissions, yes two intermissions, the theater was even emptier.

The costume design was contradictory.  Though most of the actors were adorned in standard period costume, Prince Hal was dressed in distracting modern clothing.  He sported a hooded sweatshirt that looked like something out of a Gap advertisement in Act I, ripped jeans in Act II, and a white suit circa 1920s mobster in Act III.

The purpose of dressing Prince Hal in modern garb was most likely an attempt of the costume designer’s to emphasize Hal’s status as the leader of a new generation.  But this didn’t read. It was too bold.  His modern dress was distracting and unnecessary.  Costume design should never steal focus from the action onstage or from the playwright’s text.  Metaphors are best left to Shakespeare, not to costume designers.

Needless to say, "Henry IV" is definitely worth seeing.  The set is incredible with its steel scaffolding and trap door center stage.  The actors are skilled, the direction seamless and the sound and lighting design impeccable.  The production is a bold choice for PlayMakers and the company does justice to the enormous undertaking.

Shakespeare, whoever he (or she) was, would be proud.

Stay tuned for a review of "Henry V" within the next few weeks.

"Henry IV" and "Henry V" will run until March 4 in rotating repertory in the Paul Green Theatre.  Shows are at 7:30 p.m with additional 2 p.m. weekend matinees. For a complete calendar of show times, refer to the PlayMakers calendar.

Tickets range from $10 to $45.  To purchase tickets, call PlayMakers' box office at (919) 962-7529, or visit the PlayMakers website.

A.O. Scott

Photo credit: nytimes.com

A.O. Scott is a film critic at the New York Times.  Before joining the New York Times in 2000, Scott wrote for Newsday, Slate and the New York Review of Books.

Scott writes fantastic reviews.  His writing is crisp, his opinions are well founded and most importantly, his reviews show that he really does love movies.  This is the most important requirement for the job.  You must love films to be a film critic.  And A.O. Scott definitely does.

In the introduction for the “Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made” on the New York Times’ website, Scott writes that the purpose of reviews is to start arguments, rather than settle them.  He says that arguments are “one of the solemn duties of criticism and, most importantly, one of the great pleasures of movie-going.”  That said, Scott doesn’t believe in sugarcoating.  His writing is brilliant because it isn’t reigned in.  Scott writes what he thinks and if it’s going to start controversy, then all the better.  Controversy, according to Scott, is every great critic’s goal.

But Scott doesn’t try to pretend that his reviews aren’t biased or flawed; rather, he embraces the fallibility of his writing and the writing of other critics like him.  He understands that while films may survive the test of time, individual critics most likely will not.  And this is how it should be.  After all, as Scott notes, “While film critics are only human, the movies are divine.”

For a taste of A.O. Scott’s writing, you can refer to his review of Midnight in Paris.