Rutgers Graduates and Students to Present ORPHANS at the Times Square Arts Center

 

Four Rutgers University students and recent graduates are working together to mount a production of Lyle Kessler's Orphans June 1-3 at the John DeSotelle Studio, the Times Square Arts Center, in Manhattan.

Brandon Fox, who graduated from Rutgers earlier this year, first read the play in a scene study class while he was a student.

"I fell in love with the play's truthful heart contained within these incredibly surreal circumstances and characters and it became my favorite play," Fox said after finishing a rehearsal. "The experience of reading it for the first time felt almost dreamlike."

The director, Nicholas Polonio, saw universal themes such as loss and loneliness, abuse and arrested development. Orphans seemed like the perfect play for the Meisner technique and attention to language from studying Shakespeare.

What really caught Polonio's eye about the play was "this sense of joy and nostalgia from these characters who are placed in these extreme circumstances" he said. "This idea that despite it all, life will prevail."

Brandon Fox ('17) plays Phillip and Garrett Forster ('17) plays Treat, while Nicholas Polonio ('19) directs and Tashi Quinones ('20) is the production stage manager. Curt Rozell plays Harold.

Three of those involved in the production have taken or are still training in the Rutgers Mason Gross BFA Acting program, one of the nation's top Meisner-based acting training programs that also includes studying Shakespeare at the Globe Theater in London.

Orphans tells the story of two adult orphans living in North Philadelphia who are abandoned by their father and whose mother passes away. Out of frustration, fear, boredom and the desire for wealth, one of the brothers kidnaps a Chicago businessman who, it turns out, is also an orphan.

"I think this story is so important," Polonio continued, noting the play remains as timely today as when it was first produced in 1983. "How we deal with inherent loneliness and separation is quite universal."

This show comes nearly 25 years after Kessler's classic debuted in 1983 at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles, two years later getting a now legendary Steppenwolf production in Chicago directed by Gary Sinise starring John Mahoney, Terry Kinney and Kevin Anderson.

Sinise later said the show launched the three actors' movie careers and Mahoney said that even years later, he continued to receive mail about the production.

The show also is a reunion for Fox and Forster, who worked together on Sardanapalus by Jake Mariani as their final production at Rutgers.

"The production team intends to put up a production that really delves into the idea of nostalgia, perspective and reality," Polonio said of his goals.

Fox said putting together the production was an education in itself, dealing with everything from getting rights to setting up rehearsals, finding the right space and marketing.

"Coming out of Rutgers and going into the acting business in New York City was a bit of a culture shock," Fox said. "I think no matter where you trained in the craft of acting the business will always take a bit of getting used to but that is why I am so grateful for the amazing training I got at Rutgers. They do an amazing job preparing you for the 'real world' and gave me the tools and connections I needed, not just for my craft, but to better help me navigate the acting industry.

He added that he sees aspects of this play that make it resonate with wider audiences around the world - and keep it topical today.

"That's why I'm very excited to delve into a story that feels so meaningful," Fox said. "We all struggle with the demons from our childhood, trying to figure out a world that seems so vast and hard to comprehend, and the painful feelings of grief that follows losing the people you love."

Orphans - Nicholas Polonio directs this production of Lyle Kessler's play starring Brandon Fox, Garrett Forster and Curt Rozell with stage manager Tashi Quiñones and fight choreography consultant Analiese Puzon.

June 1-3, at 7 p.m. John DeSotelle Studio, 3rd Floor, MainStage Theater, Times Square Arts Center, 300 W 43rd St., NY, NY. $20/ $16 students. Tickets are available by clicking the Tix. link.