Plays and Personalities – 2 – And Personal Triumphs

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CHARLES STANLEY in PETER HARTMAN’s Vistas of the Heart Revealed. (Photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

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. (Photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

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. (Photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

‘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.

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. (Left photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

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

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: NEIL FLANAGAN did over 300 performances in LANFORD WLSON’s The Madness of lady Bright.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: HELEN HANFT was a great actress and STEVEN DAVIS an irreplaceable image in many revivals of TOM EYEN’s Why Hanna’s Skirt Won’t Stay Down.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: 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. (Photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

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: 1965 CHARLES STANLEY (with PAT HOLLAND) as H.M. KOUTOUKAS’ “Medea.” “Medea’s myth precedes and terrifies…even Medea!” (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: GWEN VAN DAM (left) as a dying whore being taken financial advantage of by Madam MARY BOYLAN in Tennessee Williams’ Hello from Bertha won the Coffee Cup Award and the hearts of all viewers.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: JENNIE VENTRISS was beauty MARTHA GALPIN’s plain roommate in LANFORD WILSON’s Ludlow Fair, 1965. (Photo: JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: BERNADETTE PETERS in Dames at Sea.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: LINDA ESKENAS in TOM EYEN’s Frustrata (Photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE), Cino at La Mama production.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: EDDIE BARTON and MARY BOYLAN in H.M. KOUTOUKAS’ A Letter From Colette.

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: WALTER HARRIS was unforgettable as Kenny, the youngest of a generally immature family in LANFORD WILSON’s The Sand Castle both at the Cino and (above) La Mama. (Photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: VICTOR LIPARI (here with JANE BUCHANAN) acted with relentless intensity a confused young modern husband in ROBERT HEIDE’s “Moon” (Photo: JAMES D. GOSSAGE)

JOHN GILMAN (left) was stunning as the first gay man in theatre histiory to have it more together than his straight neighbor (ROBERT FRINK) in this unfortunately blurry copy of a photo by JAMES D. GOSSAGE of BOB HEIDE’s “Moon.”

PERSONAL TRIUMPHS: JEFF WEISS in “A Funny Walk Home” terrified the audience with his rage and power. Jeff said he acted in hopes of scaring audiences away so he needn’t act again. He carried a certificate of insanity from the Army to use when he wanted to turn down roles.

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

AFTER HOURS 1: MONA KATZ’s Royal Roost Bar across the street from the Cino was a cooling-down place after the Cino’s gates were closed. It was also where certain Cino employees spent their time during performances. One man worked at the Cino only to earn “Mona money.”

AFTER HOURS 2: Artists who never oficially played the Cino would drop by late and play there. Dancer LARRY REE came after work in the Metropolitan Ballet dance company to dance at the Cino. One night while writhing as a demon in Hell in the comic book production of Faust, he lost his loincloth, becoming, so far as I know, Off-Off’s first nude dancer. He gained fame as Ekathrina Sobechanskaya, prima ballerina of his Trockadero Gloxinia Ballet, a superb travesty troupe which entertained balletomanes worldwide. Photo copyright by Victor Carnuccio, used by permission, from his site Artflux.

BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER HOURS a lonesome Cino fella could always find a friend or friends upstairs at The Thompson Gallery, a few doors up the street.

ANYTIME: Joe would retire from it all into a storeroom behind the kitchen, fitted up as a den. Among many other comforting things, there hung on its walls a few studies of Cinoites like this lovely one of dancer/actor EDDIE BARTON. At Joe’s Judson Church memorial, Eddie, wearing only a jockstrap, smeared himself with Vaseline, sprinkled himself with glitter, and walked on his hands all around the huge auditorium — a feat of which, remarkably, no one seems to have taken a photograph!

Huge ELMER KLINE (seen here in a Hot Peaches video) looked like a Russian politician, wrote, acted, supported TOM O’HORGAN faithfully, and somehow always had large apartments stray actors could crash in. (picture courtesy Suki Weston)