When Patrick Christiano takes the stage at the Southampton Arts Center as Truman Capote in Jay Presson Allen’s one-actor play “Tru” this weekend, it won’t be his first time channeling the late writer.
When he played Capote in 2011 at Players by the Sea in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., theaterlife.com reported that “Christiano captures the quirky Capote style of speech and manners to the letter, pulling out all the stops to convey a full range of emotions with intensity.”
Local audiences will have two opportunities to see Mr. Christiano reprise the role, on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3.
Adapted from the words and works of Capote, the play is set in 1975, the week before Christmas in the writer’s New York City apartment. An excerpt from “Answered Prayers,” Capote’s scandalous unfinished roman a clèf, had been recently published in Esquire magazine.
Having recognized thinly veiled portraits of themselves, Manhattan socialites such as Babe Paley and Slim Keith turned their backs on the man they once considered a close confidant. Alone and lonely, Capote, fueled by pills, vodka, cocaine, and chocolate truffles, ruminates about his life and career.
While Mr. Christiano has been a realtor in East Hampton for more than 30 years, he has deep roots in the theater as a critic, actor, and publisher of theaterlife.com, which covers Broadway and Off Broadway productions. A member of both the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle, he hosts “Spotlight on the Arts” on LTV, channel 20, in East Hampton.
His New York City acting credits include Richard in Harold Pinter’s “The Lover,” Felix in “The Owl and the Pussycat,” and Touchstone in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”
The arts center’s production will be directed by Will Pomerantz, the associate artistic director of Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater. Mr. Pomerantz has directed and developed plays and musicals at Guthrie Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, the Public Theatre, the Kennedy Center, the Mark Taper Forum, and many others.
Tickets are $20, $15 for members.
