Tag Archives: The Time is Ripe

Clifford Odets’ Journal

Clifford Odets (playwright in the 30s and 40s – inspiration to Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and more – immortalized a second time by the Coen Brothers in “Barton Fink”) kept a journal throughout his tumultuous life. One year of that … Continue reading

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Odets: Beethoven vs. Brahms, old forms, new forms

Entry from Journal March 24, 1940 You cannot live in old forms, or work in them, when your life has brought you ahead to a new point. Try better to keep a child in last year’s coat. It is simply … Continue reading

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Odets: “an inner light”

Entry from Journal March 17, 1940 The bad reviews of Night Music [Odets’ latest play] threw me back on myself, but that was good, that is very good, that is as it should always be! But the self independent, resolute! … Continue reading

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Odets: “all of 20th century life”

Entry from Journal – In this entry he describes the out-of-town tryout of his new play “Night Music” – It would be the last play the Group Theatre did as a company. The failure of “Night Music” was the death … Continue reading

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Odets on Stella Adler: “smoke-eyed and neurotic”

Entry from Journal February 22, 1940 Stella Adler was there with a party, smoke-eyed and neurotic — usually when you are dying she is more dramatic about the event than you are!

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Odets: Moussorgsky

Entry from Journal February 1, 1940 In the Moussorgsky songs, if you do not have the emotion you do not have the song, not even the shadow of the song. Chekhov could hope to find and did find actors to … Continue reading

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Odets: On Beethoven and Cezanne

Entry from Journal January 27, 1940 Perhaps this constant uncovering of the self is one of the prime impulses in the creative mechanism, it and the constant effort to relate the self to persons, things — a woman — outside … Continue reading

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Odets: “the cellar”

Entry from Journal January 23, 1940 But one must make sure to write from a firm core even though, in my opinion, an attempt to reach as broad an audience as possible should always be taken into consideration. I thought … Continue reading

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Odets: “the period of courtship”

Entry from Journal January 23, 1940 The period of courtship, in any matter, gets to be a shorter and shorter affair with me. This is because I am getting shorter and shorter on self-delusion. Let us get to the heart … Continue reading

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Odets: “the ‘demon’ in Mozart”

Entry from Journal January 21, 1940 John Barbirolli conducting the Schubert Seventh this afternoon, on the radio. An English musician or conductor! — the very words are contradictory! Although there are some good words to say for [Sir Thomas] Beecham, … Continue reading

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