Speakeasy with David Daniels
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
If you were to hear opera singer David Daniels’ voice before you saw him perform, you might make a mistaken guess as to his gender. Countertenors such as Daniels sing in a vocal range usually associated with sopranos and other classical female singing styles. Daniels’ renowned approach has redefined the countertenor style for a new generation of opera audiences. The first countertenor to give a solo recital in the main auditorium of Carnegie Hall, Daniels sings the role of Orpheus in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo & Euridice at the Atlanta Opera, Nov. 14, 17, 20 and 22.
How young were you when you began singing as a boy soprano?
I think I remember singing when I was 3 or 4 years old. It was probably more like screaming and driving my older brother crazy. He plays the cello, so he’s the only one in my family who doesn’t sing. My mother was a soprano, my father a baritone, and they both taught voice at Converse College. My mother taught me to sing in my “head voice.” I sang professionally as a boy soprano probably from age 9 to 16. Even though my voice changed, I kept the ability to sing this way as a teenager. Now I’m 43, and I still sing this way.
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(Photo Courtesy the Atlanta Opera)
About five years ago, the Alliance Theatre asked me, possibly due to a clerical error, to take part in a panel discussion with the winner and runners-up in its first Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition. The clear winner for “funniest person in the room” that day was Megan Gogerty, whose Kendeda contender Love Jerry was produced — to no little controversy — at Actor’s Express in 2006. Gogerty returns to Atlanta to perform her one-woman show, Hillary Clinton Got Me Pregnant, at Synchronicity Theatre Nov. 5-22. A professor at the University of Iowa, she recently recorded an album of songs about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The most hyperbolic possible headline would read “28-Year-Old Canadian Takes Over Dad’s Garage!” to 
F. Gary Gray jump-started his career in the early ’90s doing music videos and short films. Since then, the director has stood the test of time as one of the most reputable directors currently out there. Gray has worked with Hollywood A-listers, including Mark Walhberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Donald Sutherland and Kevin Spacey. His most recent film, the cat-and-mouse thriller Law Abiding Citizen, opens Oct. 16. Citizen follows Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) who, feeling betrayed by the judicial system, decides to take justice into his own hands to the dismay of district attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx). Here, Gray discusses the movie, his evolution as a director, and the film industry.
Tony Award-winning dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp once again explores the dynamics between music and love through her latest production, Come Fly With Me. Using the sounds of Ol’ Blue Eyes, she tells the love stories of four couples during one evening at a club. As always with Tharp, viewers should expect a night of great dance, vivid colors, and “the exploration of ‘Romance’ with a capital ‘R.’” Come Fly With Me opens Wed., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., at the Alliance Theatre.
New York Times best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey doesn’t just write novels based on the drama of loves lost and found. Most recently, he’s been turning out cliffhangers with his Sleeping with Strangers series. His new addition, Resurrecting Midnight, follows international vigilante hit man Gideon as he travels to Argentina to help a former lover and uncover secrets of his past. Dickey discusses his new thriller at the Borders Lithonia on Thurs., Sept. 3, 7 p.m.; the Decatur Book Festival on Sat., Sept. 5, 4:15 p.m.; and Medu Bookstore on Sat., Sept., 12, 2 p.m.
Any doubts that David Fulmer writes staid drawing-room mystery novels will be dispelled by the title of his Decatur Book Festival workshop “Sex & Violence: Writing About Them Without Sounding Like a Virgin Pacifist” (Fri., Sept. 4, 4 p.m.). While most of Fulmer’s work to date has been mysteries set in the South, he’s made a couple of changes of pace. His newest novel, The Blue Door, recently nominated for a Shamus Award, takes place in Philadelphia in 1962. He’ll also try his hand at theatrical drama when the DBF 
Though notorious as the cursed “Scottish play,” Macbeth has been lucky for Rick Miller. The Canadian actor/comedian’s popular one-man show MacHomer casts the Shakespearean tragedy with about 50 voices from “The Simpsons.” Miller brings MacHomer to Georgia Shakespeare Wed.-Sun., Aug. 26-30. He discusses the show’s cocktail of high and low culture and why casting Barney Gumble as Macduff is more than just a pun on Duff Beer.
Award-winning stand-up comedian Doug Stanhope doesn’t just crack jokes about inflammatory topics like abortion or child pornography, he cracks funny jokes about such material. His uninhibited advocacy for drugs and booze (“Did you ever try to sleep sober? It’s impossible!”) can disguise his rigorous support of individual rights and willingness to attack any religion for “retardation of human intellectual progress.” You may recall Stanhope from telling a filthy joke to a baby in The Aristocrats, co-hosting Comedy Central’s “The Man Show,” or briefly running for U.S. president as the Libertarian Party candidate in 2008. He performs Aug. 8 at Relapse Theatre, and wants the word to get out that the show is BYOB: “Most of my audience are raging alcoholics, so I don’t want them to get the DTs.”