Plays and Personalities – 2

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CHARLES STANLEY in PETER HARTMAN’s Vistas of the Heart Revealed.

DEBORAH LEE in Wallace Stevens’ Carlos Among the Candles. Charles and Deborah, friends and frequent collaborators, were multi-talented and endlessly experimental, and definitely prefigured ‘Performance Art.’

Director MARSHALL W. MASON and playwright LANFORD WILSON set challenging artistic and professional standards, here, on the La Mama set of The Sand Castle. It played the Cino, too.

‘Lady’ HOPE STANSBURY wrote and starred in ANDY MILLIGAN’s movies, acted widely, awed us all, and waited Cino tables, too. (Photo: CONRAD WARD)

DEBORAH LAWLOR provided this Village Voice pic of (front row, l. to r.) JOE CINO, the Caffe Cino’s superstar actor and director NEIL FLANAGAN, Neil’s wife JACKIE at the 1965 Obies. Behind them, Joe’s lover JOHNNY TORREY, Unidentified, and artist KENNY BURGESS.

JOSEPH C. DAVIES, one of Joe Cino’s oldest and best friends.

(Left, top to bottom) BOB DAHDAH, ANDY MILLIGAN, and NEIL FLANAGAN directed, and BOB and NEIL acted in, many Cino plays old and new, and largely shaped the Cino atmosphere. (Center, top to bottom) Actor/writer JEFF WEISS, writer SAM SHEPARD, and director TOM O’HORGAN each did only one show at the Cino, yet left indelible impressions. (Right) Writer RUTH KRAUSS did three plays at the Cino, yet no one I’ve asked ever met her, a record bettered only by one JERRY CARUANA, who did five, yet seems to have known no one.

PHOEBE WRAY as Marie Antoinette in JOSEF BUSH’s French Gray, 1967. ‘They say I took bread from their mouths! But people don’t eat diamonds! Style is a heavy responsibility, and magnificence costs money!’ ROBERTA SKLAR directed.

While building the set for French Gray, Bill Haislip and I joked about doing dignified ‘readings’ of De Sade. Bill took the idea to JOSEF BUSH, who expanded it into De Sade Illustrated at the Old Reliable Theatre Tavern, where many Cinoites went when the Cino closed. The show moved to Off-Broadway with DAVID GALLAGHER, ZITA LITVINAS, and BILL, who had all appeared at the Cino in my Lights, Camera, Action.

TOMMY GARLAND, dancer and, on busy nights, the Caffe Cino’s sandwich-maker.

Playwright/actor/model DONALD L. BROOKS also was important in rebuilding the Cino after the fire.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: MAGIE DOMINIC’s Snow White, in CHARLES STANLEY’s production with BOB LAWLOR (her Prince) and KENNY BURGESS (The Forest Animals) 1967. See Magie’s PAGE. (Photo: CONRAD WARD)

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: 1967, JACQUE LYNN COLTON lit up the place as Xmas Past in SOREN AGENOUX’s Charles Dickens’ A Xmas Carol. (Photo: Billy Name.)

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: Tall KEITH CARSEY in Reginald Rose’s Crime in the Streets, his back turned on MILTON WYATT, 1963. (Photo: CONRAD WARD.)