Based on the real life love affair of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Clark and Carole is a contemporary fictional play about two love struck icons engaged in a spiraling series of letters and phone calls which become increasingly more personal and sensual. We are offered a revealing glimpse into the lives of two stars and the jeopardy caused by their deadly attraction to each other.
Premier review:
Last night was the first time, the NAC held a staged reading of (Rosary's) most recent play, fresh off a Word Perfect document, the world premier reading of Clark and Carole. And it was uplifting, funny and sad in a time where tragedy and comedy hold hands and make love, go through divorces and marriages, then part forever.
Rosary's inspiration for Clark and Carole as she laughingly says and her husband Bob enthusiastically confirms came from their own experiences falling in love after meeting on a flight. A good deal of the clever dialogue (When Rosary hears a particularly choice and hysterical line in regular conversation, she whips out her notebook and writes it down for "the feel of veracity.") and witty repartee was culled from their conversations via texting, e-mailing, mobiling. (Bob travels as a consultant.) Much of it is beguiling and steamy love talk which she includes in the play to her credit because it IS funny! This is an epistolary drama - written to be read.
The other inspiration for Clark and Carole is based on the sizzling yet sweet relationship and eventual marriage of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard from the Hollywood Studio legends days. Don't know who they are? You haven't seen Gable in the iconic civil war epic Gone With the Wind? Well, if you are 20 and can't wait for The Hunger Games to come out, you're forgiven. (Hell, I'm waiting for the film to come out.)
Clark and Carole gambits the turning points of Gable's and Lombard's lives: the click-snap falling in love when they meet, their gradual recognition of what has happened, despite being involved with others, and the tug and pull throughout, until they symbolically close what is beyond their power to resist.
The production directed by Tavia Trepte and acted by Chris LaPanta (-a la Clark Gable) and Leanne Barrineau (as Carole Lombard) highlighted with humor and pathos elements of the Gable/Lombard relationship. In the question and answer period afterward, one could understand the power of the bond between the characters and how it was likened to the one between Gable and Lombard. Gable never easily recovered from losing Lombard to a plane crash. He chose to be buried beside her, even though he had married again.The production of Clark and Carole expertly completed Rosary O'Neill's vision to reveal life's fullness with a tear and a smile especially when it comes to love.
reviewed by Carole Ditosti in her blog Technorati Women, Career and Money.
Read more: http://technorati.com/women/article/rosary-oneill-new-orleans-playwright-steps/page-2/#ixzz1sJdKnXno Money.
Inspiration was the enormous love affair of Gable and Lombard and how intimacy can be achieved through letters. In Gable and Lombard's case, they wrote sensual letters,
This is what one New York Literati, Jay Olstad said about the theme of my play Clark and Carole.
Gable & Lombard shared an elemental kind of love that transported them to the hightest highs and lowest lows, from stardom to star crash.
Their love took them to places where they fought, made up, shared the same passionate intensities. Gable was a man's man who loved sports, and Lombard was a woman's woman who could switch to a tom girl to play tomboy with Clark and the guys on a hunting trip. In this sense, there's a dimensional plane of the soul that transported them to love's highest heights as equal soul mates in the greatest love in their lives, and perhaps greatest love stories of all time, only to have their love killed by the flip of a coin.
Gable and Lombard were touring the country selling War Bonds. When their tours ended in Vegas, Gable had to return to Hollywood by train, but Lombard wanted to stay behind for a few days in the company of her mother and business manager. When their time came to return to Hollywood, Lombard wanted to fly but her manager wanted to take the train. They flipped a coin. Lombard won the toss but lost her life when the plane crashed into a mountain, killing all.
It was said that Gable was so distraught following Lombard's death that he drove his powerful car recklessly at night full speed down California's twisty roads. One friend of Gable said, "He's suicidal." Another friend said, "No, he is not suicidal. He's just reached a point where he doesn't care whether he lives or dies."
In short order, Gable experienced what few people do: He was the world's most famous star madly in love with an equally famous soul mate. And then fate took her away, plunging him in to the darkest depths a lover can endure.
During the war, Gable joined the Army Air Corps and flew tail gunner on B-17s. The tail gunner was considered its most dangerous position.
The late 1950's movie "The Misfits" is sad to see knowing it was both Gable and Monroe's last movie. These great stars of love and adventure died soon after. The doctors said that Gable died of a heart attack and Monroe of an overdose. But I say they died of broken hearts.
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