April 14 – May 7, 2023
Empire Stage
Tickets
By Marc Ponautte
In the middle of the pandemic, bored and housebound, South Florida actor and writer Charles Baran along with his husband, theatrical lighting designer Kirk Bookman, decided to try something new to pass the time. They ordered a bunch of LGBTQ plays from New York’s Drama Bookshop and spent the evenings reading them aloud in their Palm Aire apartment. When they got to TRU, a play about author Truman Capote and written by Jay Presson Allen, a lightbulb went off. Back in 1989, the year Charles and Kirk met, they had seen the Broadway production which starred Robert Morse and absolutely loved it. Kirk, who had worked on several regional productions of TRU in his career, felt that Charles was a good fit to play the scandal-plagued Capote and that they should find a theater in the Fort Lauderdale area and do it. Both thought that Truman’s life and story would appeal to LGBTQ South Florida audiences. After all, in the pre-social media era, wasn’t Truman Capote one of the first “influencers”? Aside from being a well-known author, Capote gossiped about celebrities, he gave fabulous parties, he knew everyone who was everyone and went everywhere that everyone wanted to be. Charles jumped at Kirk’s idea and the chance to play such an iconic figure. Charles had a natural instinct for impressions. Back in Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design he was known for entertaining his fellow 9th Graders with his Bette Davis impression over hot dogs and Mac n’ Cheese in the school cafeteria. Even during that first “pandemic-inspired” reading in their Florida condo, Kirk felt Charles had already captured the writer’s mannerisms and quirky speech inflections.
Charles had always been a fan of Truman Capote and knew a fair amount about his life. He had read several of his major books: In Cold Blood, The Grass Harp, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Back in the 1970’s in the heady days of Studio 54 and Xenon, where Charles was a busboy, he had several close encounters with Capote himself. “I was at 54 on a Tuesday night, it must have been 3 o’clock in the morning and the place was starting to clear out. I looked at the dance floor and there was Truman Capote, slow dancing to “Last Dance” by Donna Summer, his arms draped over the shoulders of a much younger Latino man, his eyes were closed and he swayed back and forth, a bit unsteady on his feet. It wasn’t the first time I had seen him. He was always at 54 with Warhol and Liza so I wasn’t surprised. The next morning, my phone rang. It was my mother telling me to turn on the Stanley Siegel show because Capote was on it ‘high as a kite and stewed!’ ‘Stewed’ was my mom’s favorite expression for a drunk. I turned on the TV and there he was, wearing the same outfit I had seen him in only a few short hours before, sans the younger Latino man of course, and telling Siegel he liked to ‘mix pills and liquor like cocktails’.”
The decision to mount a production of TRU was born. Next, Charles and Kirk had to find a venue. They called their friend David Gordon from Empire Stage and told him about the idea. David was on board and found a time slot that would work. Empire Stage seemed like the natural fit as Charles had a great time back in 2018 playing the lead in the world premiere of a play written by Nora Brigid Monahan called Aunt Jack which Charles later did Off-Broadway at New York’s Theater for the New City. For a director, Charles wanted someone he felt could understand the material and someone that had a great sense of comedy as well as pathos. TRU, while bittersweet at times, also has lots of moments that are uproariously funny. They approached Andy Rogow of Island City Stage whom they both greatly admired. Andy liked the idea and a production was in the works.
Set in 1975 and taking place over the course of two evenings, TRU finds Capote alone in his New York apartment at Christmas time after being ostracized by New York society for publishing a “semi-fictionalized” tell-all chapter from his unfinished novel Answered Prayers. To prepare for the role, Charles immediately immersed himself into all things Capote. “As of today, I’ve read most of his short stories, read the Gerald Clarke biography twice, which the play is based on, reread In Cold Blood and The Grass Harp, and discovered a book of Truman’s letters that I read a bit of every night religiously before going to bed. I’m also watching every Dick Cavett and David Suskind interview that Truman did back in the 70’s to further solidify Truman’s voice and hand movements. The old Johnny Carson interviews are especially funny. YouTube is a great resource for doing research!”
The Empire Stage production will open on April 14, 2023, and run until May 7, 2023. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 5pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.EmpireStage.com or by calling (954) 678-1496.
