AllOtsego.com: Madam, I’m Adams

Madam, I’m Adams

11/27/09

Madam, I’m Adams

SAM GOODYEAR ART BEAT

Recovering from an agonizing back ailment in the fall of 1994, I was very kindly looked after by George and Carolyn Goetz, with whom I was working cheek by jowl (since 1991) launching and nurturing Leatherstocking Theatre Company.
To take my mind off myself, George brought me a play to read. It had been sent to the company in its earliest days in response to a call for original scripts; among LTC’s aspirations was the development of new works.
I read Howard Ginsberg’s “Jefferson & Adams” with fascination, wonder and mounting excitement. (I even was temporarily oblivious to my throbbing lower back, the sure sign of a hit.)
Carolyn was putting together the 1995 season and “J&A” was under serious consideration.
We had waited to develop our audience before plunging into the unknown, but we were feeling ready to risk it. My opinion was wanted on the script.
Yes, I said, let’s do it.
“I think Hugh would be good for the role of Adams,” said George.
“Definitely,” I said. “He’s one of the best actors around, one of the best actors anywhere. Remember him in...?”
“No,” George said. “I said ‘you,’ not ‘Hugh.’ I think you would be good for the role of Adams .”
Perhaps it was the early stages of my hearing impairment. Or perhaps I couldn’t believe my ears.
I was once told never to pass up a piece of pie when it comes around. It may not be offered again.
“Sold!” I said.
The play opened July 3, 1995, at Hyde Hall.
Since then it has had a remarkably varied and successful life.
It is an annual event at the Adams house in Quincy, Mass., every Fourth of July. It is likewise an annual event every Julyat the Kimball Theatre at Colonial Williamsburg.
A television adaptation, aired on PBS nationally July 4, 2005, was nominated for an Emmy. The most recent engagement was for Historic Carlisle, in Carlisle, Pa., in September.
I have been fortunate enough to have played the role of Adams in every one of the productions since the premiere.
It has led to my developing a one-man show of my own, “The Man from Massachusetts,” and I have had the honor to appear as the great president in 14 states, at various venues and for various occasions: launching the Adams dollar coin for the U.S. mint in 2007, observing Constitution Day at a university in Tennesssee, addressing a regional meeting of the Colonial Dames, attending President Obama’s inauguration and, just this autumn, appearing in a PBS film, “Faith and Our Founding Fathers,” to be released in 2010.
Directed by award-winning film-maker Lee Groberg, the 90-minute documentary features interviews with scholars and historians and their conclusions about the religious practices of our founders.
Film sequences depict specific events and intimate moments of the primary figures in the forging of our republic.
There is no way to do justice to the thrill of hobbling as an older John Adams in the garden at Peacefield in Quincy, especially as the present-day layout is exactly as Abigail Adams had conceived it.
Scratching a letter to Thomas Jefferson with a quill pen at Adams’ desk was another unhoped-for moment of cinematic excitement, for me, at any rate.
Then there was a night of filming in Independence Hall itself. I didn’t pinch myself once, for if it had been a dream, I certainly didn’t want to wake from it. No, really, how lucky can one man be?
There have been many gratifying moments for me in this project.
The invitation itself, for a start, the reenactments at the very places where some of the most important modern history – ever – occurred, the unilaterally friendly, kind and intense solidarity of the entire crew, the thought that this will be shared with millions of viewers next year.
But there’s more.
Mr. Groberg asked me if I could recommend an Abigail for the Quincy sequences. Well, could I ever.
I had long wanted to play John Adams opposite the Abigail of a performer whom I have long admired, someone who graced the Leatherstocking stage on numerous occasions, dazzlingly so: Linda Goetz, daughter of none other than those who had brought me all of this in the first place, George and Carolyn.

It was the least I could do in immeasurable gratitude.
You will see her walking in the garden reading a letter from her (geographically) distant husband.
The Goetzes and I have planned a champagne evening for the premiere. Maybe you will join us?

Sam Goodyear’s column
on the arts

in Otsego and
Delaware counties
appears weekly.

The other John Adams

Otsego County’s Sam Goodyear,
John Adams to the world, at
Independence Hall.

Labels: 12-04-09, art beat

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM

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