I Will Be Cleopatra: An Actress's Journey

By Zoe Caldwell

Book Overview

The daughter of a plumber and a taxi dancer born in Australia at the height of the Great Depression, Caldwell first demonstrated her talents at the age of nine when she appeared on the stage as Slightly Soiled in Peter Pan. Hampered by a mild dyslexia, she felt that acting was the only way she could communicate, and by the age of fourteen she was appearing professionally in national radio soap operas. Caldwell spent the next ten years honing her skills as an actress, before she was sent to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1958, where she began a Shakespearean acting career that would culminate in her stunning portrayal of Cleopatra, the Bard's greatest female role. Caldwell's own uniquely charming and powerful voice--one that she brought to her roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and as Maria Callas in Master Class --shines throughout this intimate memoir. Rather than emphasizing the stories of her adult triumphs, however, Caldwell deliberately focuses on the early influences and experiences that molded her as an actress: her enchanting first visits to the theater, sandwiched in between her parents, where she sat in "the gods," way up in the cheap seats; her early teachers and coaches who taught her not only how to use her diaphragm but also how to keep people "awake and in their seats"; and her journey--steerage class--to England at the age of twenty-five to perform at Stratford with many of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. As Caldwell reveals in these pages, acting is not a craft practiced in isolation. With an experienced eye, she describes her fellow performers, writers, and directors who have shaped her career: from Charles Laughton and Albert Finney to Edith Evans, Paul Robeson, and Laurence Olivier. She has performed the works of major playwrights from Shakespeare and Chekhov to Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams, many of whom she knew personally. Her insights into the actor's craft reveal the completely undiluted and remarkably fine voice of an artist still impassioned about her craft and dedicated to its perpetuation in its purest form. I Will Be Cleopatra represents the literary culmination of a legendary theatrical career and a fascinating life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039304226X
• ISBN13: 9780393042269
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Required Reading for Aspiring Actresses!

Zoe Caldwell OBE is one of theatre's finest living actresses with one problem. Outside the theatre circles, most people haven't the faintest clue who she is. Despite that she has won four Tony awards and is probably in the New York Theatre Hall of Fame, most people don't know who she is. In this book, she chronicles her modest upbringing from Melbourne, Australia and her experiences in the Australian theatre before venturing to Stratford to act in Shakespeare and finally to North America where she settled in Westchester, New York with her husband, producer Robert Whitehead and their two sons. She also worked as a stage actress. THe book stops by the time that she plays Cleopatra in Shakespeare's play. To her, the stage is the thing and the ultimate pursuit for the actor in their art. She doesn't go out and sell herself to endorse products. She doesn't get the roles that go to other equally trained and veteran actresses in the films and television nor does she care about that. She is quite happy being in the theatre. I was kind of interested in her experiences with Dame Edith Evans, Albert Finney, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, and others and her time abroad in England before coming to America where she has felt most at home in the theatre on stage mostly in New York. This quadruple Tony Winner is a winner in the field of drama where she pursues the ultimate experience as the actor in playing before the audience. She has never failed her audience.

Great writing from a theatrical diva

Having just journeyed to Melbourne (from Sydney) to see Miss Caldwell in Durenmatt's "The Visit", which is part of the Melbourne Theatre Company's 50th anniversary season (she was also in their first production in 1953),I chanced upon her "semi-autobiography" in a local bookshop. This covers the first half of her dazzling life. Her prose is like her acting: direct, simple, intelligent, moving, riveting and unforgettable. Anyone even remotely interested in the theatre should take the opportunity to read this marvellous book. And if there is ever a chance to see the lady on a stage, RUN, don't walk, to get in line. A great book by a great artist.