Unfortunately, “Happy-Go-Lucky” star couldn’t make it to tonight’s presentation of the Virtuoso Awards at the Lobero Theatre due to surgery recovery, but Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, Rosemarie DeWitt, Melissa Leo and Michael Shannon were on hand to talk their roles in five of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. James Cromwell did the honor of presentation.
It’s a shame DeWitt was the only one on stage lacking (criminally) an Oscar nomination, but moderator Roger Durling kept the conversation away from awards as much as he could.
A considerably amount of the discussion was spent on the nature of these actors’ careers, floating between the big screen, television and theater with a particular ease. Many of the Virtuosos swept the comment aside with the usual “we go where the work takes us” rhetoric, which is fine, but Davis made a compelling comment regarding the state of the profession.
“When you think about actors, you think about Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie,” she said. “But most of them look just like us here on stage.” The indication, of course, is the middle class actor and how often he or she isn’t given the proper credit, be it on television, on stage or, certainly, on the screen.
“Please, go to New York,” DeWitt said. “See a play. Some of the greatest actors in the world are working on stage,” but their names aren’t well-known. It’s an interesting topic with the SAG dispute of late, which finds middle class actors at the forefront of a fight for credit. Durling, of course, didn’t pursue that line of questioning.