Photo Flash: Al Pacino Headlines Staged Reading Of THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL

Al Pacino headlined the cast of a sold-out benefit staged reading of David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummer, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in Beverly Hills, CA. In collaboration with The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, the Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award-winning Pacino reprised the title role of Pavlo Hummel, for which he won a Tony in the original 1977 Broadway production.

See photos below!

The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, the first in Rabe's acclaimed Vietnam War trilogy, follows a naive and directionless young man drafted into the U.S. Army. Alienated from his fellow soldiers and searching for meaning and status, the story of Hummel's life and military experiences unfold backwards after a fateful encounter in a Saigon brothel.

"The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel has great meaning for me," says Pacino. "The play was the first of its kind to explore the national trauma of Vietnam and has as much relevance today as it did 40 years ago. It's wonderful to be doing this masterwork of David Rabe's in this setting as a reading, especially because it will benefit such a great cause for our veterans."

Proceeds from the reading benefited the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles' Veterans in Art program www.shakespearecenter.org/veterans-1, a transitional training and employment initiative for chronically unemployed veterans enrolled in vocational rehabilitation programs in technical theatre, and also the National Association of Veteran-Serving Organizations (NAVSO), www.navso.org dedicated to improving the lives of veterans and military families.

"We are thrilled that SCLA's Veterans in Art program, inspired this collaboration on such a seminal play," says The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles Artistic Director Ben Donenberg. "Al Pacino's recognition of this successful signature program shows the value of the training we offer, and our veteran students contribution to theatre, and to our community."

The staged reading of The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, was directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, a two-time Golden Globe and five-time Emmy Award nominee and veteran director of Broadway and London's West End. In addition to Pacino, the cast included Joel Steingold (Ardell), Anzu Lawson (Yen/Mrs. Sorrentino), Rif Hutton (Sgt. Tower/Parham), Matthew Wolf (Kress/Mickey), Matt Nolan (Pierce/Sgt. Wall), Robert Baker (Parker/Brisbey) Darren Richardson (Corporal/Hinkle), Sheldon Donenberg (Jones/Grennel/Ryan), Karen Strassman (Mrs. Hummel), Chase Fein (Captain/Officer/Burns), Kazumi Aihara (Mamasan). Takuma Anzai, Toru Uchikado, Gavin Lee, Taishi Mizuno and Shin Shimizu played the "Chorus".

Photo credits - Reza Allah-Bakhshi/Capture Imaging