Billie Holiday

BILLIE HOLIDAY


SYNOPSIS

Just an hour before her major perfomance in Carnagie Hall, Billie Holiday, together with her pianist, stops by the bar where she used to sing before she was arrested and sent to prison. She asks her friend, the bar owner Charlie, to let her practise a bit since she was kicked out of a rehearsal room in her hotel. During her practise, while she sings some of her most famous songs, Billie opnes her heart to Charlie and starts demanding alcohol to help her overcome her fear. At first Charlie reluctantly gives her a drink or two, but soon the situation spirals out of control and her performance in Carnagie Hall comes under a question.

DIRECTOR’S VISION

When Ksenija came to me with the idea to stage the show on Billie Holiday, I found myself in a dilemma how to present decades of tempestuous life of a famous person in one single theater show. Trying to solve that “problem” the idea emerged to swing into another extreme and present only little bit more than an hour from her life, one really short and seemingly insignificant moment, the one that might tell us most about Billie Holiday. Therefore most of the facts from her life were cut out from the text, and we kept only a few historical elements: the fact that she was imprisoned due to illegal drug possession and that shortly after having left the jail she sang in Carnagie Hall to a packed audinece. Such a drastic limitation in story, place and time not only brought the text closer to the ideals of classical dramaturgy, but also enabled me as a director to focus on what I am most interested in – human emotions, that is painting a vulnerable human soul desperately trying to control her life and resist demons that prevailed her. Musical cuts adjusted naturally into the structure of the show, as an integral part of the story, in the situation when Billie was rehearsing using her good friend, the owner of a bar she stopped by announced, just before the preformance. In this amazing cooperation with Ksenija featuring Billie Holiday and Robert Kurbasa featuring her friend Charlie, I tried to discard as many outer elements as possible, trying to open human hearts on the stage and thus touch the hearts of the audience.

THEATER – Croatian National Theater in Split
WRITERS – Ksenija Prohaska and Arsen Anton Ostojic
DIRECTOR – Arsen Anton Ostojic
SET DESIGN – Slaven Raos
COSTUME DESIGNER – Neda Makjanic-Kunic
MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS – Ivan Bozicevic
LIGHT DESIGN – Miroslav Mamic
SOUND DESIGN – Damir Punda
PROMPTER – Zlata Kovacic

CAST

BILLIE – Ksenija Prohaska
CHARLIE – Robert Kurbasa
PIANIST – Ivan Bozicevic

PREMIERE

February 11th 2006

CRITICS COMMENTS

Director Arsen A. Ostojic created a meaningful performance, thus joining a group of young Croatian movie directors (Lukas Nola, Vinko Bresan), who have successfully been making up for the lack of theater directors for over a decade.”
Ostojic’s talent as a director is also manifested through the fact that he divided the weight of the plot on all three characters… while Ksenija Prohaska has, after Marlene Dietrich, successfully brought back to life another famous singer on stage.”
(Tomislav Cadez, “Jutarnji list”, Feb. 14, 2006)

Nevertheless, singing the hits of Billie Holliday the way Ksenija Prohaska did was the main artistic event of this production and its unavoidable worth. In this context one should point out the discreet leadership of Ostojic as the director, good piano accompaniment of Ivan Bozicevic and, of course, actor Robert Kurbasa as “Charlie” for listening to all the platitudinous words headed for his ears.
(Vlatko Perkovic, “Vijenac”, Feb. 16, 2006)

After the show was over the audience applauded so much that Prohaska could not resist performing an encore, which is not usual for a piece described as a serious theatrical performance.
(Vesna Bozanic-Serdar, “Novi list”, Feb. 12, 2006)

The talk in the theater lobby among the audience in Split was that the sold out performance of Prohaska and her interpretation was excellent. They were particularly enthused by the singing qualities of the heroine of this musical drama… There is no reason to doubt that after Marlene Deitrich, Prohaska has a new hit show!
(Dragan Miljus, “Vecernji list”, Feb. 12, 2006)

Judging by the reaction of the capacity audience, the show achieved its goal…
(Croatian News Agency HINA, Feb. 12, 2006)

For her role as the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday, Ksenija Prohaska truly became an African American. However, the seemingly endless applause she received from the audience in Spilt was not for her courageous transformation, rather for her excellent performance in the musical drama “Billie Holiday” that premiered last night in the lobby of the Croatian National Theater in Split. Ksenija and Robert Kurbasa as costars and Ivan Bozicevic as their musical partner left Split residents, who did not hold back in their praise, in awe.
(Vanja Simundic-Bendic, Slobodna Dalmacija, Feb. 12, 2006)

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