Sunday Books & Culture
This week’s reviews include Connie Chung’s memoir of her journalism journey in “Connie” and Stage Door Productions’ fast paced “King Lear.”
Sunday Books & Culture is edited weekly by Vanessa Sekinger
CONNIE: A MEMOIR
by Connie Chung
Published by Grand Central Publishing (September 17, 2024)
Hardcover $16.25
Audiobook $15.25
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
I ran a television newsroom in Minneapolis during the 1980s and early 1990s (think Lou Grant rather than Mary Tyler Moore). At the time, only 2% of TV news directors were women. So, I looked forward to this book about a woman – and a minority woman at that – who rose to the top of her profession despite many roadblocks.
Connie Chung’s father fled China in 1944. He got his family to India where they waited another eight months until sailing to the U.S. Connie was the only one of ten children born here.
The traditional family faced financial hardships but did their best to acclimate into American life. Connie grew up sitting at the dinner table while her family watched “Uncle Walter” — Walter Cronkite — deliver the nightly news.
Living around D.C., Connie was able to get a few internships with the Government. In one, she wrote press releases and chased Congressional members around asking questions. This stint led her to pursue a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Having decided that TV was her field, she badgered D.C. newsrooms until she got an internship. She turned that into a paid position as newsroom secretary, then as a news writer, and after two years of grunt work, she signed a contract as an on-air reporter in June 1970.
Connie Chung is best known for her firsts and her failures. She made it to the network level covering major events for NBC, CBS, and ABC. She doggedly got exclusive interviews with noteworthy people. She was named co-anchor of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1993. But the record-breaking assignment came with intense difficulties with her co-anchor, and she lasted only two years before being unceremoniously dumped. In 1995, she did an interview with Newt Gingrich’s mother that almost ended her journalism career. I remember being appalled with her performance in that case and found her detailed explanation of the situation in this book very revealing.
This book also focuses on Connie and her husband Maury Povich. Two entirely different people who have managed to complement each other’s lives for 40 years. Her efforts to become a mother, to remain a journalist, and to support a group of young Asian women — named “Connie” after her — add to her legacy.
While I would hope that aspiring journalists would read this and learn from it, I am not optimistic. The book is full of references to famous journalists, but most people under the age of 30 will have no idea who they are. They also won’t understand how serious journalists are bound by ethics and decency. It was a different time for reporters and TV news. She was part of the golden age, and we all have benefited from her contributions.
Penny A Parrish is a local writer and photographer. You can see her pictures at www.PennyAParrishPhotography.com
KING LEAR
by William Shakespeare
Tickets $18-$25
Presented by Stage Door Productions
Directed by Bill Green
Reviewed by Dennis Wemm
Once upon a time, sometime before the time of Merlin, there was a king of Britain who wanted to retire. He gave the governance of his kingdom over to his three daughters. One of them was lusty, one was power-hungry, and the third, the youngest, loved the old man but would not falsely dissemble to get a chunk of land. The king set up a contest, asking that they express their love for him. The oldest wildly exaggerated her affection for the old man, the second one-upped her claims, but the third told him the truth that she loved and honored him as she should. Raging at her lack of flattery, the king divided his realm between the two oldest, banished the youngest to live with her new husband, the King of France.
Yes, we are in the land of fables and fairy tales with King Lear. Lear is the King of Britain. He should know that he can’t simply give up his duties and walk away from his family and their politics. His pride, power, and influence are a trap and it will follow him wherever he goes. The politics will go on without him. Giving up his authority and splitting up the kingdom is the worst thing he could do to preserve the kingdom.
Shakespeare’s King Lear packs a lot into a single play. It’s a play about fathers and children and their love and needs for each other and from each other. It’s a play about aging and the place of the elderly in our lives. It’s a play about daughters and their politics in a world where they really have no power but the power they get from the men around them.
It’s a play about legitimacy and illegitimacy. It’s a play about the raw trappings of power and how they can turn and bite back at those who turn away from power. It’s a play about how flattery to power is a trap for the flattered, innocent bystanders, and eventually the flatterers. Anyone who has watched a whole season of Survivors should feel right at home.
It’s a real challenge to do it well. Stage Door Productions does it well, if unevenly.
The play has “good guys,” who tell the truth, and only deceive to survive as outsiders in this mini-Game of Thrones. Lear (John Hellinger) is an 80-year-old strongman who has all the power in the beginning and must lose everything to regain himself. Cordelia (Kristen Morris), his youngest daughter, must tell the truth, because she is ruled by her heart. The Earl of Kent (Pedro Echevarria) is banished from Lear’s court and the kingdom and adopts a disguise in order to maintain his loyalty to the king. Edgar (Abdel Hamid Shehata), the legitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester (Matt Muggeridge), also hides his identity to survive the transition of power as Lear gives up his governance of the kingdom.
It also has “bad guys” who deceive and manipulate in order to swing the odds in their favor: Goneril (Heather McIntosh-Braden) and Regan (Keri Durrett) flatter their father shamelessly in order to get a big chunk of the country each (including the part that is to go to Cordelia). Their husbands, the Dukes of Albany (William Wilson, Jr.) and of Cornwall (Jon Quandt) go along with their wives’ good fortune and depending on their own nature, use their inheritance either cruelly or sympathetically. Edmund (Jaeden Cain), the older and illegitimate brother of Edgar, has it in for the entire world. He takes advantage of everyone else’s mistakes in order to insert himself into all the political equations within his view or grasp.
The victims are innocent bystanders not caught up in the British government’s turmoil. Either they are a) tools, foolishly blind to what is going on, b) complicit in the goals of those in power, or c) simply unable to get out of the way.
It’s a big cast with a lot of players, and not a lot of time is spent on a realistic setup of the psychology of each. We know them by their actions and how the trustworthy characters react to them.
In a world gone morally askew, who do we look for to know what’s right or wrong? Kent, Edgar, and Cordelia are generally trustworthy-but each has a weak spot or human failing that endangers them. The real voice of reason and wisdom ironically rests in Lear’s Fool (Chris Hlusko). The Fool is allowed to and required to tell the truth and give an unvarnished opinion as long as he does it wittily and talks really fast.
Costuming helps keep track of who is whom. Lear is neutral for most of the play, Edgar in black, Goneril and Regan in sparkly finery. Gloucester’s blue velvet costume starts off being uptight but as his fortunes ebb, becomes more and more disheveled. The King of France (Kirk Kaneer) and the Duke of Burgundy (Hlusko, in a double role) appear early to whisk Cordelia out of the action, she marries the King and comes back in the same blue that Gloucester wore-marking them both as collateral damage.
The stage area is large, wide, and spare, and all of it is used to support the action of the performances. The set is made up of stone and wooden walls, which are rearranged to give an impression of a different location for the scenes. And there are a lot of locations to show. In addition, sometimes the location changes without a real change of “look.” The scenes are listed in the program but consulting the program to find where you are is a bit of a distraction because the action happens fast.
Clearly the actors are well prepared for the show; each is a memorable character, clearly drawn by director Green and each performer. The personality of each actor was shown through the mask of their character, and we could identify exactly what each was hearing and reacting to immediately. Diction is pretty crisp and clear; this is essential in a script that has little to offer but words tied together beautifully. The relationships of characters are well drawn, focus was taken and given smoothly, and the performers shared the stage well.
There were a few issues that are personal preferences. I felt that often Lear’s line “attacks” showed the same level of energy whether he was depressed, enraged, or whimsical. However, Shakespeare lets the character shine in the only scenes where he is truly humble and vulnerable, particularly with the Fool and with Cordelia. These played well because of the character’s investments in each other.
Other really satisfying moments were the scenes between Edgar, his brother Edmund, and his father Gloucester. The two “Eds” carried off their relationship very well indeed. Their reconciliation scene was touching, and may be the most believable performances of it I have seen. It made for a nice variety and made for engaging theatricality. Sometimes lines were spoken rather than “enacted.”
Some background music, as well as pre-show and post-show, were well performed by Harry Wilson’s solo percussion.
Lighting was carefully planned and timed well. It enhanced focus well, insuring my attention was where it was supposed to be. I would have liked a little more visual “cuing” as to time of day and the environment of the outdoor scenes.
Physicality was well developed, and the battle scenes were well prepared and rehearsed.
For those who worry about the usual “Shakespeare problems:” the length of the play and the archaic and poetic language, worry not. The play began at 8 PM and was out around 10 PM. The language, especially speeches that define each character, are somewhat adapted from the original word choices, although the vast majority of the script remains unchanged.
I enjoyed this production of King Lear very much, and applaud State Door for taking up a potentially difficult play and performing it well. You should go!
Dennis Wemm is a retired professor of theatre and communication, having taught and led both departments at Glenville State College for 34 years. In his off time he was president and sometimes Executive Director of the West Virginia Theatre Conference, secretary and president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and generally enjoyed a life in theatre.
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