Another Waits-does-Burroughs track this week, as we’re joined by stage manager and Black Rider alumnus Penny Foxley for some discussion of her first-hand experience working on the play. We talk through Robert Wilson’s micromanagement of actors’ gestures, the fun of doing the show compared to its bleak content, and the presence of the crossroads myth in the 1930s blues of Robert Johnson.
Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Crossroads, The Black Rider, Tom Waits (1993)
Cross Road Blues, King of the Delta Blues Singers, Robert Johnson (1937)
Crossroads at 1h16m7s from The Black Rider: The Casting of the 12 Magic Bullets (filmed at the Weiner Festwochen, via YouTube), Wilson/Burroughs/Waits (1990)
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