Theater: Before I Leave You (2011)
In the time period previous to my 14 year hiatus from the theater(1994-2008) I had had two leading roles in a play: Hiroshi in Hibakusha: Stories from Hiroshima and Harada in Ripples In The Pond. I handled those two roles well as evidenced by the nice theater reviews I received. My first lead role after my return to the theater was Koji in Before I Leave You, a self-absorbed theater professor. My character was in virtually every scene of the play and the sheer volume of dialogue surpassed any role I had done before. After landing the part and having read through the play a couple of times it occurred to me should I gracefully drop out of the project while it was still a couple of months away before first rehearsal. I didn’t see myself as having the same problems as in Japanoir but the size of the role and a 19 year span since Ripples In The Pond gave my pause. But like every other challenge in my journey I had to assume the positives would outweigh the negatives so I buried myself in the process of learning lines.
As it turned out I only had a couple of line issues but I mostly overcame them by the time the run started. I had to put most of my focus on this character’s journey from scene to scene and his overall arc in the play. One of the big revelations for me about doing this play was the sense of how well had I developed this character and what was I putting out there on stage night after night. If the Director and Stage Manager stop giving you notes, then I must have finally gotten it down. Well, knowledge can come in many different colored packages. At the end of the run the production office gave us a farewell packet that included all of the reviews for the play. After reading them in the safe confines of my New York apartment I thought to myself, “OMG, was I that bad?” Like everything else in life you have to honor the good with the bad so I’m quoting from all of the reviews about my performance:
Broadway World (10/28/11) “A Different Cambridge Love Story” by Nancy Grossman – “Kubota has the unenviable role of playing the heavy when it becomes increasingly evident that Koji views himself as the sun or the moon, but definitely not one of the stars. To his credit, Kubota elicits disdain, or perhaps dislike, but his portrayal tilts toward cliche’ as the overbearing, unforgiving father and the misunderstood husband. He also stumbled on many of his lines on opening night.”
HUB Review (10/28/11) “A Lost Opportunity at The Huntington” by Thomas Garvey – “… a flat central performance from Glenn Kubota, who brings little depth or complexity to the irritating Koji.”
New England Theater Geek (10/29/11) “Friends in the Autumn of Life” by Dan Gewertz – “As Koji, the lithe Glenn Kubota got off to a slow start on Thursday night. Some lines sounded stiff, and he stumbled over a couple. But by the second act, he was in fine form. It is an achievement of both Kubota and playwright Alfaro that Koji remains so darn likable, even while displaying a lack of love and loyalty. He even shows no affection for his ethnic heritage. “At least Peter is a hybrid”, he says of his mixed-race son. “I’m like my father, a pure-bred, marked for life.” Kubota’s portrayal grows stronger and more complex as the play moves along. The same can be said of Before I Leave You.”
EDGE National Arts & Entertainment Editor (10/31/11) “Before I Leave You” by Robert Nesti – “Not so for Glenn Kubota who has the thankless role of Koji and plays it with so little charm that he perversely achieves Alfaro’s intentions. If she wanted a heavy for her story of love and betrayal amongst the Cambridge gentry, she finds one in Kubota. His wooden manner became even more apparent in his exchanges with Goldfarb and with Peter, played with a sure-hand by Alexis Camins.”
Variety (11/1/11) “Before I Leave You” by Frank Rizzo – “… an awkward, wooden performance by Glenn Kubota…”
(11/1/11) “A Cambridge Story: The Huntington’s Before I Leave You” by Bryce Lambert – “Kubota doesn’t lend his character Koji much sympathy or depth, but he is damn good at coming off as a prick whe we’re sure will eventually push his son away and his wife into Jeremy’s arms.”
The Phoenix (11/2/11) “Cambridge Moves to Boston in Before I Leave You” by Carolyn Clay – “And Glenn Kubota captures both the intellectual verve and the spectacular selfishness of Koji.”
Event Insider (10/30/11) “Before I Leave You – 4 Stars” by Revonda Pokrzywa – “Kubota’s Koji has an honest selfishness that makes him almost charming. In the end, it is his selfish pursuit of his desires that makes it possible for his friends to pursue their own. In a way, this makes him almost the hero of the piece.”
I didn’t have to include all of these reviews in this blog but I wanted to because for me it’s about the journey and not the little blips along the way. Samuel Beckett once said:
“ever tried, ever failed,
no matter.
try harder, fail harder,
fail better.”
