I have an excellent review for you of Tamara’s play TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER. I love this review because it exemplifies the reason I think Tamara is coming into her own as an actress of some gravitas. I won’t gibber too much and just let you read it. A preview below with a link to the press section. And what I love most about this review? It didn’t have to mention Tamara’s Emmy or her soap roles. It just lauded her on her merit as an actress.

Notable as larger-than-life Williams, theater veteran Jack Heller reveals the acute vulnerability beneath the playwright’s selfishness, roar and bluster. Tamara Braun, best known for her daytime television roles, matches Heller every step of the way as Williams’ female counterpart. The pair’s tour-de-force performances are intensified further by the intimacy of the small, black-box theater.

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Note to casting agents: Read this review several times over and consider casting an actress know knows her stuff instead of a fluff piece.

I should have had this up earlier, but alas I didn’t realize what the day was. This is an anniversary of sorts for us Tamara fans. It was on this day eleven years ago we first discovered the talent we know as Tamara Braun. This is the anniversary of her first airdate as our favourite mob moll, Carly Corinthos. I can still remember that episode, “The role of Carly Corinthos will now be played by Tamara Braun.” And that began four years of one of the best characters on GENERAL HOSPITAL and one of the most successful recasts on the show. In the subsequent years we were treated to a myriad of emotions and highs and lows as Tamara took us through Carly’s life both apart and with and apart and with and apart from Sonny (Maurice Benard). Together we experienced Carly’s disappointment at the thought she might not be able to conceive a child with Sonny and her desperation throughout the Panic Room storyline with the psychopathic Ric Lansing (Rick Hearst) and the South American run with Lorenzo Alcazar (Ted King). We were gripped when she gave birth to Morgan and dealing with the aftermath of Sonny’s shooting his wife in the head. The poignant alternate storyline where we went through the life Carly and Lorenzo had up until his death as the elderly Carly looked on and comforted him. Then the horror of a mother dealing with the death of her beloved Michael (Dylan Cash). All in all Tamara made Carly her own and no actress has really been able to capture that vulnerability and fieriness quite the way Tamara did. Carly’s maturity was never more evident as when Tamara played her, and her humanity was never more present as Tamara gave Carly that growth one has to expect if a long-term soap opera character is to survive. Thank you Mark Teschner for your good eye at realizing what Tamara could and did bring to the show. So Happy Anniversary Tamara.

I’ve been a little remiss at posting here due to the recent issues I had with the images I posted from Tamara’s play. The thing that has been running through my mind is, “How to proceed in terms of bringing Tamara’s fans what they’ve come to expect here?” And with good reason. So I’ve been juggling the pros and the cons in figuring out how to balance the needs of this site as well as those of the original authors/photographers and such of the various things that make up a fan website. So what I’ve decided to do is change the policy here at TAMARA OBSCURA. From here on I will post the content in the gallery or media sites and include in the post or page the original source, therefore any complications can be addressed by the fact I have posted the original source as well as comply with the nature of what is termed “Fair Use” for the purpose of furthering the understanding and education of people on the career of Tamara Braun. So without further adieu. I have an interview with Tamara on a wide range of things. First is her play, TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER where she explains her character Woman. She then goes into the survival of the Soap Opera genre as well as her role in the groundbreaking storyline involving the first Same-Sex marriage on daytime. Tamara also gives us a bit of insight into why she became an actress. I have added the article to the press section as well as cited the original source. Below is a snippet of Tamara’s interview.

Phyllis: Do you prefer acting for television, film or for the stage? Do you prepare for one differently than the other?
Tamara: I like the subtleties that film and TV allow that theatre does not. The camera does not lie. It picks up thought and inner life. But with film you have to wait so long to see the final product. TV airs much quicker than film and daytime…such quick turnaround but often I was too busy to watch.

In theatre, the audience becomes another entity to your performance. You try and not let them change your performance but inevitably one is affected by it. We are affected by people’s energy in life so of course we will be affected in the theatre. If the audience is with you on a certain night it can propel your performance to great heights and if they are not really with you (and the cast takes it in) then unfortunately the performance can feel off…in terms of preferring one more than others… I like them all for the challenges that each bring.

Examiner.com

• [ 001 ] PRESS: 04/26/2012 – TAMARA BRAUN TALKS TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, DAYS OF OUR LIVES AND AMC

I’m aware of some hinky things that have been going on with the site’s two media sections at OBSCURE MEDIA and TAMARA SOAP MEDIA. Apparently my host is moving servers one…more…time so that the security of the sites will be guaranteed. Fly meet ointment. TAMARA SOAP MEDIA is back and looking familiar, OBSCURE MEDIA this site’s regular media section housing all other content such as Tamara’s film, television and interview work is decidedly not its top billing. The template has been returned, however, the videos are not… well… Tamara Braun-ish. I’ve got a ticket into my hosting service one…more…time to find out what is going on. I’ll let you know when I know something which should be around the time of the next ice age. It’s been a tough week.

Tamara’s play TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER has its first review. The LA Times has given it a glowing review. See below with source credited. More below the cut:

Review: Tamara Braun in intimate ‘Tennessee in the Summer’

By Margaret Gray
April 18, 2012, 2:10 p.m.

If you’ve been struggling to dissuade your child from becoming a playwright, here’s an easy fix: Take the theatrically inclined scribbler to the Sidewalk Studio Theatre to see “Tennessee in the Summer,” Joe Besecker’s nightmarish portrait of the late-career Tennessee Williams, sweating, reminiscing, drinking and gulping Seconal pills in a New York City hotel room.

Besecker’s conceit is that Williams (the great Jack Heller) had an inner child — actually a young blond woman in a slip, played here by the slinky, sloe-eyed soap opera star Tamara Braun. As the lights come up, Williams hunches over his typewriter, surrounded by balled-up pages, while the blond sprawls on the bed, complaining of boredom and taunting Williams about his “recent string of box-office flops.” Eventually she lures a hustler (Robert Standley) into the room, effectively ending the workday.

“Woman,” as she is listed in the program, owes a great deal to Williams’ female characters, particularly Maggie in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” But she’s also a persuasive embodiment of that inner voice that can make the most successful existence an inescapable hell. At times her mockery becomes so vicious that I was tempted to grab a Seconal for myself. (The 33-seat space is very intimate. I essentially participated in the steamy sex scenes, staged fearlessly by director Sal Romeo.) But she can also be sympathetic, even loving, and in the most wrenching scene, when Williams’ brother Dakin (Standley again) tricks him into committing himself, she suffers alongside him.

Woman forces Williams to relive painful incidents from his past: encounters with his adored schizophrenic sister, Rose (Louise Davis), and pivotal moments in his 14-year romance with the muscular Frankie Merlo (Standley yet again). Davis is chilling as the mad, impish Rose, and also performs an unforgettable monologue as Williams’s equally crazy and far meaner mother, Edwina. The character of Frankie is the least well written, almost mawkish, and the point of his scenes seems to be to present Williams’ selfish, cruel side.

So vividly does this play depict a great writer’s misbehavior, isolation, terror and misery that even the most stage-struck youth in the audience is bound to fill out that law school application you brought along just in case.

SOURCE

Off to a good start. I’ve been combing the internet for any other reviews for the play. I’m so happy Tamara is getting good notices. As I’ve said before I’d kill to see this. There are three actors I’d love to see on stage, one of them is Tamara. The other two are David Strathairn who garnered himself an Oscar Nomination for his role as Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney’s Good Night And Good Luck and who is returning for season two of the SyFy channel’s breatkout series Alphas and the other is Keir Dullea who I’ve created a site for and who starred as astronaut Dave Bowman in Stanley Kubrick’s amazing work of art 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Keir founded a theatre group with his late wife, Susie, for helping talent both young and old to hone their crafts with script-in-hand readings of various plays. I’d love to see either of these three in something before I keel over. That would be the dream at least.

Happy Birthday Tamara! As we all know, Tamara was born on this day 41 years ago in a small village named Evanston. From there she journeyed out into the world to give us her talent and her beauty both internal and external. On behalf of TAMARA OBSCURA, OBSCURE MEDIA and TAMARA SOAP MEDIA I’m wishing a happy and wonderful day for our girl. Hoping she spends it with the people and puppy who mean the most to her. Thank you Tamara for all you’ve brought to our lives and for what you will bring. It’s been a joy thus far. Continued good wishes for a successful run of TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER.

I’ve scoured the internet for any more images of Tamara in her play TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER and I was able to find [ 13 ] more. I hope you enjoy. She just looks lovely. I’d kill to see this. I’m going to extend the offer for anyone who does manage to see this to please come to TAMARA OBSCURA and share your experience. I’m sure there are a ton of Tamara’s fans who’d love to know how she was. I know I do.

EDIT: ALL STILLS FROM THIS POST HAVE BEEN REMOVED DUE TO COMPLAINT FROM THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Tamara Tweeted me! I’m so happy right now. After a miserable day, to get this from her! I can die happy. Thank you Tamara, from the bottom of my heart. This meant so much.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve just renewed the domains tamara-braun.com and tamarabraun.org for another year. So I’ll still be here for all you Tamara fans to come and see what’s going on and anything regarding Tamara’s film, television or stage work. Be safe friends, I’m not going anywhere.

As we all know GENERAL HOSPITAL has been given CPR and has been renewed for another year. So here’s our duty Tamara fans. Let’s get together to tweet the current head writer to do what it takes to fix the character of Carly. We Carly fans know there’s something wrong with the way her current portrayer is playing her. Gone is the intricate and layered version Tamara created, and all that is left is this screeching harpy who can’t seem to make any of her pairings work. So here’s the mission if you choose to accept it, let’s begin tweeting current Executive Producer, Frank Valentini, and Head Writer, Ron Carlivati our wishes to see Carly fixed. Here’s Carlivati and Valentini’s Twitter handles:

I suggest being courteous but firm as to what’s wrong with Carly. Perhaps mention what Tamara did to bring the character alive for you. All positive thoughts here.