PBS高端访谈:女演员兼歌手奥德拉·麦唐娜的舞台生涯

 　　JEFFREY BROWN:Finally tonight: a leading lady of musical theater and much more.

　　When Audra McDonald sings of going back home in a song by John Kander and Fred Ebb¹, she means it.

　　New York is her home, but she spent much of the last four years in Los Angeles playing the dramatic role of a doctor in the television series "Private Practice."

　　ACTOR:You don't like me?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD,Singer/Actress: No. No, I don't.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:It was just the latest in what's become a whirlwind career of new challenges that includes work in films and opera and now serving as host in "Live From Lincoln Center" on PBS.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Good evening. And welcome to the best seat in the house.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Then there's her true artistic² home, musical theater. At just 42, McDonald is already among the most honored performers in Broadway history.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I found the theater and I found my home. I love you. Thank you so very much. Thank you.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:The winner of five Tony Awards, including for "Carousel³" in 1994, and "A Raisin⁴ in the Sun" 10 years later.

　　And last year, she won for her acclaimed⁵ role as Bess in a new production of the Gershwin' "Porgy and Bess." We talked recently at Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, D.C., as she just released her first solo⁶ album in seven years. Titled "Go Back Home," it celebrates her love of musical theater.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I feel most at home on stage, since I was a little girl, since I started in the dinner theater in Fresno, Calif., and there was something about, you know—look, performers are needy⁷. We're needy beasts. So, you know, there's what you get from the audience.

　　And for me, it's the rush of being forced to be so in the present.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:McDonald has long been known as a champion of contemporary songwriters and what most often attracts her to a particular song is the story it tells.

　　One example on the new album, the song "Baltimore" by the songwriting team of Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:The song talks about certain—one shouldn't fall for men from Baltimore.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Right.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:And while I have not had any experience with men in Baltimore, I certainly can ...

　　JEFFREY BROWN:No knock on Baltimore.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:No, no, no, no, but I certainly can relate to the type of men that the song describes. And so for me, I had an immediate⁸ reaction. I thought, well, I know that story. I can sing that.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:In the liner⁹ notes for the album, McDonald explains the presence of the song "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music."

　　At age nine, she writes, she needed a song for her first audition¹⁰ with a professional theater group in Fresno. She performed it with her father, who died six years ago and clearly had a huge influence on her life.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I practiced it with my dad playing the piano. And so we went down to the theater not realizing that they would have an accompanist there. But I didn't know that accompanist. I didn't know that person, so my dad, my huge, hulking dad, got down and sat down on the piano and played it.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:You're telling the story as though you remember it extremely well.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I do.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:You do?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I do, absolutely.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Yes.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Every bit of it. I remember—my dad was 6'6'', this strapping¹¹, huge guy. He had humongous hands.

　　And he would just put his hands down on the piano to play and you could hardly see the rest of the keys. And he was so big. And I just felt very safe, you know?

　　JEFFREY BROWN:You also describe yourself in those notes a young girl with a little potbelly, hyperactive and overly dramatic.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Yes. Yes, yes, and yes.

　　I was all of those things.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Yes?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I'm some of them still today.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:I won't ask which ones.

　　But the theater was the outlet¹² for that. I'm thinking of the overdramatic part.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Absolutely, the hyperactivity and the overdramatic part.

　　I was very insecure and had been diagnosed¹³ as hyperactive, and was a drama queen. And, you know, I was sort of famous in my family, not just my immediate family, but the rest of my family, too. My aunts use to say, oh, that one. Everybody knew that I was this child. Well, we're having a thunderstorm. We're all going to die. You're nine. Don't think about those things. It's your problem.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Somebody said, put this girl on a stage.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:So, literally¹⁴, it was like let's channel this energy before we kill her. It was something just before she drives us crazy.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Well, I was wondering if this hyperactivity explains all the different things you do.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Hopping back and forth¹⁵?

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Probably. Probably.

　　It's interesting now, because my hyperactivity—I think what the theater did for me in terms of channeling all that energy is that it doesn't feel like hyperactivity to me now. It just feels like, I have got this to do and I have got this to do. And, oh, I need to do more concerts, and, oh, but I'm curious about being on television or I want to learn about being—acting in front of the camera. Or maybe I should work on an opera. Or it's time to do some more Shakespeare. So ...

　　JEFFREY BROWN:This is the conversation in your head all the time?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:All the time, and laundry and the kids and someone needs to feed the dogs. Those are the other things.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Do any of these different forms scare you at this point?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:All of them.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:All of them?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Every single day, they all still scare me, you know?

　　I think I read somewhere that Barbra Streisand started to develop -- to develop more and more stage fright as the years went by. And I understand that. They all still scare me very much, because I'm afraid I'm going to fail, and so that's why.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Really?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:Absolutely.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Yes. So what do you do?

　　AUDRA MCDONALD:I stay hyperactive and go back out there, and maybe I fail at times.

　　But there's—I have to say there is a drive that just—that's in there somewhere that says, get back out there, get back out there every time.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Audra McDonald will get out there this summer performing in concerts throughout the country.

　　My conversation with Audra McDonald continues online, where she talks about the stamina¹⁶ required and the stress involved in her recent acclaimed role in "Porgy and Bess."

1 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

2 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

3 carousel   

n.旋转式行李输送带

参考例句：

• Riding on a carousel makes you feel dizzy.乘旋转木马使你头晕。
• We looked like a bunch of awkward kids riding a slow-moving carousel.我们看起来就像一群骑在旋转木马上的笨拙的孩子。

4 raisin   

n.葡萄干

参考例句：

• They baked us raisin bread.他们给我们烤葡萄干面包。
• You can also make raisin scones.你也可以做葡萄干烤饼。

5 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

6 solo   

n.独奏，独唱；adj.单独的；adv.单独地；v.放单飞，单独表演

参考例句：

• Tara is currently working on a solo album.塔拉眼下正忙着制作个人专辑。
• There's wonderfully lyrical flute solo in the middle of this symphony.在交响乐中间有一段奇妙的抒情长笛独奏。

7 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 liner   

n.班船，定期班机

参考例句：

• They sailed to America in a large liner.他们乘坐一艘大客轮航行到美国。
• The liner flew straight to Nanjing.客机径直飞往南京。

10 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

11 strapping   

adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• He's a strapping lad—already bigger than his father. 他是一个魁梧的小伙子——已经比他父亲高了。
• He was a tall strapping boy. 他是一个高大健壮的小伙子。

12 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

13 diagnosed   

诊断( diagnose的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Some foetal malformations cannot be diagnosed until late in pregnancy. 有些胎儿的畸形部位得等到妊娠后期才能诊断出来。
• He diagnosed the trouble that caused the engine to knock. 他找出了引擎咔咔响的毛病所在。

14 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

15 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

16 stamina   

n.体力；精力；耐力

参考例句：

• I lacked the stamina to run the whole length of the race.我没有跑完全程的耐力。
• Giving up smoking had a magical effect on his stamina.戒烟神奇地增强了他的体力。