Mulford Barn To Broadway?
Unless you are in the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney musical "Babes In Arms," where else but in East Hampton could you go to see a play in a barn and know that it might be headed for Broadway?
Where else would some of America's leading playwrights launch their plays in a field? Where would actors such as Alec Baldwin, Mercedes Ruehl, Roy Scheider, Danny Aiello, Anne Jackson, and Eli Wallach express interest in reading plays while seated on bales of hay?
A group called the Manhattan Drama Collective will put on a series of readings in East Hampton this summer at the barn on the historic Mulford Farm in the heart of the village. Plays by Jon Robin Baitz, Terrence McNally, Joe Pintauro, and Patsy Southgate, The Star's theater critic, will be read.
The Inspiration
The readings, which stem from a trial run at the barn last fall of Mr. Pintauro's "Sand Castles," will raise money for the East Hampton Historical Society, which owns the site. "Sand Castles," which was read by Ms. Jackson, Mr. Wallach, Kelly Curtis, and others, was a sellout, with eager playgoers having to be turned away.
Mr. Pintauro will have two plays in the series. The first, which will open the series on June 21 and 22 at 5 p.m., is "The Dead Boy." The series will end with his play "Faith" on Sept. 26 and 27.
Mr. McNally's play, "Andre's Mother," will be read on July 6 and 7, followed by Ms. Southgate's "Solo," on Aug. 9 and 10, and "A Fair Country" by Mr. Baitz will be on the boards on Sept. 6 and 7.
Helpful Trial
The Manhattan Drama Collective was founded by Mr. Pintauro and Patricia Watt, who is producing the readings, to celebrate contemporary American playwriting. Ms. Watt said Edward Albee and Wendy Wasserstein may participate in next summer's series.
"I normally don't care for play readings," said Mr. Pintauro, "but last year, working with really good actors, like Eli and Anne, was enormously helpful to me."
This series, he said, was not just to scout out good material but also to give playwrights a chance to work on their plays with some of the many experienced actors that spend time on the South Fork. All of those mentioned above do. He added that the series would lean toward a "post-Ibsen style."
"I feel we've rather dropped the ball on the great tradition of American playwriting - Inge, Williams, Miller - and maybe it is time to get back to that."
"To return," he continued, "to the language/story/classical realistic ap proach with a little lyricism - not too much - thrown in."
The group also would like to pick one play a season from a writer who is not as well known - new plays by new writers.
"I've been coming to the East End since I was a child," said Ms. Watt, who for some years owned and ran Havana 1919 in Amagansett. Five or six years ago she returned to her "family business" - the theater.
Ms. Watt's father, Douglas Watt, was the drama critic of The New Yorker for many years. Her mother is a producer and actress who, as Ethel Madson, starred in 14 Broadway shows.
Promising Possibilities
"I've had the idea of a series of play readings out here for a long time," she said. This year Ms. Watt also is producing an Off-Broadway vehicle, "Stones in My Pathway," about the great blues singer Robert Johnson, as well as a musical based on her father's columns called "Tables for Two," which uses his music and lyrics.
Mr. Watt explained that after the success of "Sand Castles" a number of playwrights, actors, and directors expressed interest in participating in the series. While none of the actors mentioned actually have been cast, all have local residences and all have expressed interest in being included in one or more of the plays. In addition, Mr. Baitz, like Mr. Pintauro, lives in Sag Harbor, Mr. McNally in Bridgehampton, and Ms. Southgate in Springs.
The playwrights will choose their directors, and Mr. Pintauro is hoping that Mr. Baldwin or Mr. Scheider will direct "The Dead Boy," for instance.
Priesthood
"The Dead Boy" is about what is happening to priests in the Catholic church in light of recent scandals, and how the church, from cardinals to lay members, is affected by challenges to the faith. Mr. Pintauro knows the priesthood at first hand, having joined it as a young man.
"Faith," Mr. Pintauro's second play, takes place on the East End and could, he said, be a play that follows "Men's Lives," which was adapted from Peter Matthiessen's book of that title about local fishermen, and "Heaven and Earth," a play about North Fork farmers which opens at Bay Street this summer.
It is set in the present day and is about people who have moved here from afar and people whose families have been here for generations. Specifically, it is the story of a Jesuit, whose sister is married to a Bonacker and lobster fisherman turned carpenter, who tries to make a new life here. It is also about how theological politics and differences are still so strong that they can separate families.
AIDS Drama
"Andre's Mother" by Mr. McNally is a stage adaptation of his Emmy Award-winning television film about a mother and her son, who has AIDS.
Ms. Southgate's "Solo" is a work-in-progress about a woman alone on New Year's Eve in New York City.
"Gaby Rodgers - who flogged me into it - will direct," said Ms. Southgate. Ms. Southgate, who does frequent profiles for The Star, has written several short plays, including "Freddy," which was published in the Evergreen Review and produced by Ms. Rodgers at Guild Hall. It starred Clarice Rivers and the artist Jim Dine astride a wooden horse, played by the sculptor William King. Ms. Rodgers, who also has a Springs house, has directed numerous works here over the years.
Mr. Baitz's play, "A Fair Country," was seen at Lincoln Center. This is a new version, however, in preparation for a production by Steppenwolf in Chicago in the fall. It focuses on a family of Americans in South Africa and how politics and responsibility affected a marriage and the children of that marriage.
"Jon makes politics extraordinarily intimate. I think this is one of the most stunning plays he has written - I was enraptured by it."