Lyle Kessler on What Spurred Him to Write Orphans & Why the Play 'Celebrates ... I hope people will be deeply moved, deeply entertained, deeply joyful. About the author: Philadelphia-born playwright Lyle Kessler began his career as an actor, studying with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio before turning his attention to writing plays. Kessler’s dramas, including The Watering Place, which opened on Broadway in 1969, are known for their gritty realism and dark humor. After spending the past 30 years in Los Angeles, Kessler has returned to New York City to help marshal his best-known play, the 1983 psychological thriller Orphans, to a Broadway debut on April 18 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre starring Alec Baldwin, Ben Foster and Tom Sturridge. A success around the world since Steppenwolf Theater's 1985 production in Chicago and New York, Orphans is the story of orphaned brothers living a rough life in North Philly and what happens when they kidnap a Chicago gangster. I was born in Philadelphia, and I’ve tried to escape that city all my life.
Patricia Bosworth: Alec Baldwin on Theatre: 'Everything Matters' Some years ago I interviewed Alec Baldwin at a tribute for the legendary Elia Kazan. We talked about how Kazan had directed Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and how his performance as the brute Stanley Kowalski had revolutionized American acting in style and sensibility. Alec really loves theatre. He had once challenged himself by starring as Stanley in a Broadway revival of Streetcar and he was swaggering, vulgar, and very, very funny, playing the character like a wiseguy and a baby. When he screamed "Stella!" and then collapsed sobbing, I forgot all about Brando. "When you're doing a play there's no such thing as too much work," he told me then. Flash forward to 2013: Alec has returned to Broadway for the first time since 2006 in Lyle Kessler's surreal psychological thriller, Orphans, playing a mysterious gangster named Harold. "Why did you choose Orphans?" "The language," he said. Rehearsals were intense, he went on.
The Infernal Machine (play) The Infernal Machine is a play by the French dramatist Jean Cocteau, based on the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus.[1] It received its première in 1934 under the direction of Louis Jouvet.[1] Bradby, David. 1998. "Cocteau, Jean." "The Infernal Machine", translated into English by Carl Wildman. Stage Milk | Acting Information and Theatre Reviews