Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507030122
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This week, Bostwick - at 50, a father for the first time - brings his infant son, Brian, and wife, Sherri, back to the city that bears Washington's name for another national birthday party on the Mall.
``I finally one-upped George,'' joked Bostwick in a telephone interview punctuated by the cries and gurgles of his 7-week-old son, resting over Dad's shoulder. The Father of Our Country had no children of his own but was stepfather to the son and daughter of his wife, Martha Custis Washington.
Tuesday night (at 8 on WBRA-Channel 15), at PBS' annual ``A Capitol Fourth'' concert, Bostwick will add his voice, which once helped earn him a Tony Award, to 100th-birthday tributes to composer Oscar Hammerstein II and Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler.
Producer Walter Miller ``pulls me out of musical retirement every couple of years,'' said Bostwick, ``and I always say, `I don't want to sing anymore. Now I've got to go back to my singing classes for six months and try to figure out how to do it.'
``But every time I go back to my singing, the older I get, the stronger my voice gets. Now I'm 50, and my voice is stronger than ever. It's a real boost, gives me confidence.''
Bostwick said he attended one of the July 4 concerts here years ago.
``What's sort of fun and sort of nerve-wracking is that these things are spontaneous,'' he said. ``You're expected to show up with a smile on your face and willingness to get it on the air.''
Concerts on the mall aren't really spontaneous, of course, as the increasing number of people who come to watch the rehearsals can appreciate. But there are indeed nerve-wracking hazards that come with doing a production live and outside, not the least of which is undependable weather.
This year's Memorial Day concert was a soggy affair that tested the troupers performing both for the television cameras and for a sparse audience huddled under umbrellas.
Tuesday, Bostwick will take the stage with country-music star Ricky Skaggs, the Irish group Chieftains, Broadway veterans Rita McKenzie and Leslie Uggams and opera singers Gregg Baker, a baritone, and soprano Sylvia McNair.
Military units will include the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets, the Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps, the Navy Sea Chanters, the Air Force Singing Sergeants and the Old Guard Salute Battery, which will provide cannon for the National Symphony Orchestra's production of Tchaikovsky's ``1812 Overture,'' under the baton of Erich Kunzel. Actor Stacy Keach will host.
This time, the traditional fireworks are scheduled to be set off during the show's finale, according to executive producer Jerry Colbert.
To hear Bostwick tell it, concerts have long been part of his Independence Day memories.
``From a young age, I was always the one who had to play at the barbecues. In high school, I sang folk music. We would sing at the high school functions and YMCA functions and family functions. There probably wasn't a Fourth of July when I didn't have my guitar out.''
Once known as one of the kings of television miniseries, Bostwick no longer makes his acting career the center of his life. Instead, he said, acting supports another long-time avocation, pottery, and his new one, fatherhood.
``I must spend 25 to 30 hours a week throwing pots, glazing, designing,'' he said. ``I sort of specialize in Japanese tea-ceremony utensils. I belong to a Japanese studio [in Los Angeles] that teaches Japanese ceramics, the language, ikebana. They encourage the arts. They see the aspect of beauty in the world as almost a religious element, as almost a spiritual element: If you're surrounding yourself with beauty, you're surrounding yourself with God.''
Bostwick also has a kiln at his home, and will be featured in an article in Ceramics Monthly, he said.
``It's a great hobby. Unless you're Kevin Costner, you don't have steady work, and you need something to do. I worry about people who work at computers, because at the end of the day, they don't see anything for their efforts. But even if I break a pot, I have the shards.''
by CNB