Julie Taymor has been in NY working non-stop on trying to get the Spiderman Musical to a place where it can finally open. The knives have been out for some time for many reasons. One, this is the biggest show ever. Two, it just keeps previewing and charging people full price even though it is a work in progress. Three, she’s messing with the status quo of how things are supposed to go.
This clearly is taking its toll on her and on her team. How difficult is it to work at this frenetic pace for months. It is hard for directors in general but they usually see the end of the line once their show opens and then they go off and take a vacation and work on something else. Taymor has been going and going for months and months. I don’t even know how she puts one foot in front of the other anymore. No matter what happens on this, she is a lesson in leadership and perseverance.
She took a moment and spoke to the TED 2011 conference in CA yesterday on her experience.
Here are some of her quotes:
Anyone who creates knows — when it’s not quite there…where it hasn’t quite become the phoenix or the burnt char. And I am right there.
It’s right there in the palm of my hands…In all of my company’s hands. I have beautiful collaborators. We as collaborators only get there all together. I know you understand that. You stay there going forward and you see this extraordinary thing right in front of your eyes.
You must be true to what you believe as an artist all the way through but you almost have to be aware that the audience is out there in our lives at this time and they also need the light. And it’s this incredible balance that I think we walk when we are breaking ground, that’s trying to do something that you’ve never seen before, that the imaginary worlds, where you actually don’t know where you are going to end up. That’s the fine line at the edge of the crater as I have done my whole life.
She is breaking ground, she is pushing the envelope. I am excited to see where she will take this show and the theatre world.
Taymor Feeling the Heat Over ‘Spider-Man’ (NY Times)
Julie Taymor Directs the Most Expensive Musical in Broadway History
