#katy sullivan

[themakeupbrush]

Katy Sullivan at the 2023 Tony Awards

[shakespearenews]

So how does an actor start to find a connection to such a determined villain? “I am someone who understands ambition,” says Katy Sullivan, who plays Richard in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new production, running February 2 to March 3. “The first thing you have to do is [ask], What is that tiny little rock-climbing handhold that you have in common with the character, however different from you they are? Ambition is sort of my connection to him at this point.”

[tarotmantic]

Ben Platt at the 2023 Tony Award Nominee Luncheon | Photos by Jenny Anderson/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions

i am so very excited about these photos and about the tony awards okay i want a parade sweep xoxo. very awesome to see ben and colton together again, and of course to see all the other nominees (names are in alt text and tags!). i might collate other photos from the event, especially those of micaela!!! but we'll have to see because strictly speaking i shouldn't even be doing this i am so behind on classwork </3

[caroleditosti]

'Cost of Living' Broadway Review: Are Lives Lived Well or Wasted?

See the Cost of Living for the performances which are striking and memorable.

Gregg Mozgala, Kara Young in Cost of Living at MTC (Jeremy Daniel) What price do we place on our own inherent value? What is the rock bottom cost we have to pay to live with dignity and be fulfilled emotionally, physically, materially? These subtle questions as well as questions about our need for respect and life-giving emotional and spiritual connection compose the themes of Martyna Majok’s…

[allgirlsareprincesses]

Love At First Sight (2023)

Okay, we’re going to talk about the new Netflix romance directed by Vanessa Caswill, Love At First Sight, because I’m seeing almost no chatter about it and that cannot stand. Full disclosure, I’ve never read the book on which this movie is based, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, so I’m reacting only to the film (which I’ve now seen 4.5 times in 2 days).

The Surface Reading

It’s a perfect, tight, adorable little RomCom that’s heavy on the Rom and light on the Com, with a wrenching dash of angst and the most hair-twirling chemistry between two leads that has graced our screens in years. Truly, if all you want is 90 minutes of two actors being saccharine precious cinnamon rolls, look no further!

There are simple takeaways here, like that chance can only take you so far, but in the end you have to choose to love. Or that change and loss are part of life and you can’t run from them. Or that London is a massive labyrinth of eccentric people that probably looks 400% cooler onscreen than it is in reality (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never visited, so this and the 90s Parent Trap are the extent of my knowledge about the city, sorry).

Anyway, I adored how straightforward the story was - that the narrator (played brilliantly by Jameela Jamil) tells you directly in the first two minutes that it’s a story about love, fate, and statistics. She then repeatedly describes every development as it is happening, the characters’ histories and internal monologues, and all the context you need to follow the thin but fast-paced plot. The writing, performances, and production design are all solid, allowing the audience to get lost in the romance as it unfolds.

BUT if you’re slightly unhinged like I am and you’re always looking for more layers in your media, HAVE NO FEAR! There is in fact more going on in this little movie than you might expect.

Color Theory

For starters, the use of red and green in the film is fascinating. Yes, I realize the action of the story takes place a few days before Christmas, so you might assume it was just a seasonal aesthetic choice, but if you look closer, you can see very carefully selected shades of red and green repeating throughout the film. The red is a cool, deep rose color, sometimes pink, while the green is cool and dark, like oxidized bronze rather than emerald. Further, while they appear over and over, these hues are rarely used in a purely decorative or festive way. Instead, they play a role in the separation and coming together of the couple. On a color wheel, red and green are complements, perfect opposites that are never adjacent but always joined in the middle.

The title card during Hadley’s introduction is literally a green stripe over a red stripe, then the hallways of the airport are green, and of course Hadley’s ever-important backpack is a rosy red. As the couple grow closer on their flight, the light turns pink. Once in London, a green van takes Oliver one way while a red taxi takes Hadley the other. At her father’s wedding, Hadley is dressed in red (“the color of a bruise” she calls it), contrasting beautifully against her green jacket. Upon realizing Oliver’s true purpose, she chases after him on an iconic red double-decker bus. Meanwhile at the living memorial, Oliver’s father is dressed in red while his mother wears a faded green, as if to say she is already beginning to fade away. The event is decorated with green drapery and streamers, and there are even stacks of red and green chairs in the stairwell where Oliver begs his mother to receive treatment.

Hadley gifts her red and green bouquet to Tessa, and when she is driven away, a green-clad narrator returns the red backpack to Oliver. Wandering London alone, Hadley exchanges her painful red heels for a pair of green trainers (“sneakers!” she insists), and tries to call her dad first in a red phone booth and then on a phone from a stranger sitting in a cluster of red chairs. Finally, Oliver chooses to pursue Hadley to the wedding reception which is lit in pink, and where they finally share the long-awaited kiss.

There are many more examples, but in general we see that green indicates separation and loss, while red symbolizes joining, intimacy, and (what else?) love! It lends the film a gorgeous, subtle aesthetic without being garishly festive, and shows the lovers’ emotional journey from lonely childhood to vulnerable, loving adulthood.

Death and Rebirth

Speaking of which, there’s plenty of rebirth imagery too! When Hadley and Oliver meet, they are both still children, struggling with the impending loss of parental security through divorce and death. Thus, when they board the plane, it is as if they enter an underworld or womb, separated from their families and remade as new adults. They emerge on the other side into a hallway (read: birth canal), as each must still confront their own dying childhood before they can join as full and equal partners. Hadley journeys to a bright, red-strewn celebration of life, while Oliver must enter a dark green commemoration of death, his fear driving him deeper to hide in another hallway. Here his mother comes to find him, begging him to emerge into life, but Ollie still can’t confront her death alone.

Thankfully, Hadley travels to this underworld to find him, bursting into the memorial like a bright red flower. Even the bruise metaphor works, acknowledging the pain they are both experiencing at the changes in their lives. But Oliver still refuses to face his fears, trying to take a shortcut around death to life with Hadley. Still, she knows he’s not ready (likely because she’s not yet, either), and gently pushes back. And so, Oliver returns to the underworld, and Hadley walks off alone until she descends barefoot through a soggy riverside tunnel (birth canal again!). Finally, she calls her father and admits she is “lost.” When he arrives, Hadley at last gathers the courage to ask why he ended their old life, and to tell him how much it hurt her. But as Oliver predicted, she forgives her dad and even begins to accept his new bride.

Back at the memorial, Oliver is reminded by Hadley’s red backpack - his unaddressed emotional baggage - to be honest about his pain. In at last openly mourning his mother and his own childhood, Ollie takes a step into adulthood, just enough for his family to nudge him that extra bit to go after Hadley. And so, the family delivers him to his bride, who has meanwhile learned to dance again, even through her heartbreak. With one last confession, the two consummate their love with a kiss, bathed in pink light before an open door.

Happily Ever After

There’s so much more, with the hand-holding, numbers, Shakespeare, Dickens, the music, and beyond, but the point is that this cute, charming little romance is actually very deliberately constructed. It follows timeless patterns and motifs which we instinctively understand through visual and auditory language. And the narration plays a huge role in this as well, not unlike the prologues and epilogues of the Bard’s plays in that they state the story’s lessons plainly: that we cannot always be prepared for unwelcome surprises, but that we can make the choice to love every day.

Anyway, Vanessa Caswill deserves all the flowers and if you haven’t seen her gorgeous adaptation of Little Women (with all due respect to the marvelous Greta Gerwig and Gillian Armstrong), please do yourself a favor and watch that after you finish this!

[dyhlanobrien]

Katie Douglas as Jackie Sullivan Percy Hynes White as Elliot Wazowski Pretty Hard Cases S1

[llnah]

[sullivanbeaubrown]

THE BEST NRB MEMBER POLL IS OVER

the votes are in and... what’s this? oh my god... he’s done it! the mad lad’s done it!

TOM BURGESS IS TUMBLR’S FAVORITE NRB MEMBER!!

congratulations to tom and to all of our participants! let’s give them a hand, especially to our top three - tom burgess and his runners-up, sullivan beau brown and laurie blake!

thank you to everyone who participated! your votes, enthusiasm, engagement, and your beautiful artwork that resulted from this poll meant the world to me and, more importantly, to nrblr. i am so grateful to you all for taking this silly lil poll and running with it. thanks once again; until next year, i’m your host, sullivanbeaubrown, here to remind you that every no rolls barred member is, in fact, the best no rolls barred member. goodnight!

[su8arandspite]

i have this terrible, gnawing feeling that it might not work out for us this time…

good god i cant stop thinking about season 4!sullivan sisters

[clemsfilmdiary]

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973, Sam Peckinpah)

8/6/23

[worldviewmazovian]

i graduated in 2016 from undergrad meaning there's been almost two entire 4 year undergrad classes who have graduated since me and ppl r still writing the same campus panic articles i was reading in like 2014. many from the exact same people.

every "adult world" institution (ie, businesses, the state, newsrooms) these guys said would be undone by callout culture and educating ppl about microaggressions has not only remained largely the same in this time but arguably have moved rightward in their internal cultures!

[nezoid]

NYC May 2023 🖤🖤🖤

- The Thanksgiving Play with D'Arcy Carden , Katie Finneran, Scott Foley, & Chris Sullivan

- Grey House with Laurie Metcalf, Tatiana Maslany, Paul Sparks, Sophia Anne Caruso, Millicent Simmonds

- Prima Facie with Jodie Comer

If you have the means, please go see these plays!

They were hilarious, creepy, moving, and made me think. They evoked emotions and feelings and left me wondering. Experience it yourself! 👏🎉💗

[lauriesmydemon]

tom and/or sullivan for bingo!

[beyondlife-beyonddeath]

[motownfiction]

very quick supporting character guide

instead of working on my conference paper (or in between getting stuck on my conference paper), i’m going to highlight the supporting characters after all.

carrie sullivan: reserved bookworm with an untapped wild side. quietly studious and observant, almost like she can predict the future. becomes a professor of existential philosophy and middle-names her daughter after kierkegaard. charlie’s wife; cordelia’s mother. will give you the benefit of the doubt, even if she knows she shouldn’t.

lola deluca: ball of pure energy and nonstop ideas. an innovator first and a romantic second. four-foot-eleven but acts ten feet tall. opens a vintage diner in her hometown. daniel’s one and only younger sister. kevin’s wife; emily and aurora’s mom. will stop at nothing to achieve her goals (or to help you achieve yours).

katie sheehan: shy but adventurous. longs to circumnavigate the globe, either by herself or with someone she really loves. tall redhead with big green eyes. future photojournalist. kevin’s one and only younger sister. steph’s wife. wants to see the world, but more importantly, she wants to tell you all about it.

kevin sheehan: brash, bold, and sometimes crudely funny. wants to happen to the world but isn’t quite sure how. future history teacher in the halls of his parochial alma mater, st. catherine’s. former birthday party magician. katie’s one and only big brother. lola’s husband; emily and aurora’s dad. still has dreams about seeing his name in lights (though he doesn’t quite know where).

elenore o’connor: quirky, individualistic, and hilarious. a deep feeler with a penchant for romance and fantasy. a future public defender. lucy and will’s eldest daughter, born to them when they were still seventeen. emma’s one and only big sister. veronica’s mom. covered in sparkles and boundless love.

emma o’connor: introverted but courageous. asks for what she wants and usually makes sure that she receives. a cerebral personality like her mother. a future film scholar. lucy and will’s youngest daughter, born eleven years after their first child. elenore’s one and only little sister. rational, practical, and rare.