|
PRODUCTION NOTES:
Our "double-sided Kandinsky" painting is inspired by two Kandinsky works:
Accent in Pink, 1926 and Improvisation XXXI (Naval Battle), 1913. The
set design is inspired by Kandinsky's Unbroken Line, 1923, and the poster design
incorporated Kandinsky's Light, 1930.
The play is based on a true story.
Growing up in Buffalo, New York, David Hampton idolized Sydney Poitier and turned his
fantasy of secretly being Poitier's son into a hoax that eventually invaded the lives of
many prominent New Yorker's in the early 1980's. Hampton called himself David Poitier and
through charisma and sheer bravado convinced everyone that he was the actor's son.
Playwright Guare first learned of the
real-life hoax from his friend Osborne Elliott, who was one of Hampton's victims. Guare
kept the story and the newspaper clippings stashed away for seven years until using them
as the starting point of a play beginning in 1990.
His comedy touches on tensions that
discolor life in the '90s - racial tension, homophobia, homelessness, celebrity status,
the perennial fears of having one's privacy invaded and conflicts between parents and
children.
James Tyra, Linda Parrish, and Hal Kohlman
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Zak Lowery - Suzanne Charney - Jon Womastek - Doobie Potter - Michele Feltman-Strider -
Mary Freeh
Produced by special
arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Originally produced by
Lincoln Center Theatre, New York City.
|
May 7 - May 29,
1999
