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At the corner of Huntington and Dead End
New Huntington director revives Depression-era urban drama

By Judith Sandler

Nicholas Martin makes a bold entrance onto the Huntington Theatre Company stage with the selection and casting of his debut production. The incoming HTC artistic director opens the season in the Boston University Theatre on September 8, directing Sidney Kingsley’s Depression-era drama Dead End, a gritty slice of urban life with an enormous cast and spectacular set.

	Preparing for the biggest roles of their careers, Dead End Kids (counter-clockwise from bottom) Keith Fasciani (SFA'01), Rollin Carlson (SFA'00), and Dennis Staroselsky (SFA'00) take a rehearsal break. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

Martin has cast 13 Boston University students and recent graduates, 3 in principal roles, among the more than 40 actors.

“There’s a spirit in these kids that’s unequalled in my knowledge of young actors,” says Martin. “They’re among the most committed, the most talented young people I’ve ever worked with. Somebody’s doing something right at BU.”

By welcoming School for the Arts actors, he is setting the stage for a renewed alliance between the company and BU, where it is in residence. “Not to denigrate the past,” he says, “but I feel we’re doing something else now.’

“This is what I mean to do,” Martin says, quickly dismissing any doubt that this play is a harbinger of a new era. “There won’t always be a place for BU students, but there usually will be — certainly as understudies and certainly if the school continues to deliver students like this.”

Martin’s first glimpse of the Boston University talent pool was in the internship programs at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in western Massachusetts, where he has served as resident director for the past three years. He cast SFA actors when he directed the 1997 WTF production of Dead End. And he became more familiar with the theatre arts division and its actors when he attended SFA productions throughout the past year.

Rollin Carlson (SFA’00) was initially astonished at “seeing the huge community on the stage, people of all ages — kids and older adults — as opposed to just those in their early 20s. But everyone was there to participate and collaborate in the art of theater; that was familiar, that felt like home.” Leaping from graduation onto the professional stage and into the principal role of Angel, one of the Dead End Kids, is “a dream come true, a wonderful gift,” he says.

For another member of the gang, Dennis Staroselsky (SFA’00), who plays Spit, the production inspires “an indescribable feeling that I’m a part of something enormous, and it’s exciting as hell.” Carlson feels that the huge production has “a visceral energy that seems “larger than life.”

Alhough not Staroselsky’s first professional role, Spit is his first major stage role. And he feels like he’s starting at the top. “Nicky’s attitude is that we’re producing great theater. He encourages everyone. He started off by saying that no one can make a fool of themselves in rehearsal, which gives an actor a lot of freedom.”

“I couldn’t be more excited,” says Keith Fasciani (SFA’01), whose role is Dippy, another one of the Kids. “Though I’m still a student, Nicky gave me a shot. He took a risk on me, which is fantastic.”

Before rehearsals began, Martin worked with the six Kids, running through and discussing the play, and taking them on a Duck Tour of Boston. “He wanted us to hang out and get to know each other,” says Fasciani, and by the first rehearsal, they were developing a chemistry.

“It already feels like we’ve known each other for a long time,” Staroselsky says.

Playwright Kingsley also sought the authenticity and energy of young people when he directed the 1935 premiere of his play.

Rejecting trained actors, he toured a dozen boys’ clubs to find street kids with the mix of desperation and bravado that was right for the parts.

With principal roles in the longest running Broadway show at that time, the original Dead End Kids become Broadway stars before they were cast in the 1937 movie with Humphrey Bogart.

As they grew in popularity, they changed their name to the Bowery Boys and made 90 feature films in the next 20 years, with such actors as James Cagney and Ronald Reagan.

The play is set in the depths of the Depression in a New York tenement on 52nd St. at the East River, where the poverty and squalor of the slums rubs shoulders with the extravagance of a neighboring high-rise.

“Kingsley’s drama . . . had a profound social impact,” writes Scott Edmiston, Huntington Theatre Company literary and artistic associate and BU faculty member, in the Huntington newsletter, Spotlight. “It was the first play to be presented in a command performance for the White House. FDR subsequently created a commission on slum housing, and Dead End was credited in Congress for passage of the Wagner Housing Bill ‘for the elimination of unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions, and the development of decent, safe and sanitary dwellings for families of low income.’ ”

“Dead End is epic, beautiful, big, and inspiring,” says Staroselsky. “It’s the perfect debut for Nicky.”

Having the resources of Boston University “played a huge part in my choosing Dead End, particularly as a first production,” explains Martin. “The theater was generous to let me do this great play, because it’s not cheap. The school has been welcoming and enormously generous with me — both financially and emotionally. I want to give some of it back. I intend to continue what I’ve started here.”

“Nicholas Martin is a fabulous addition to our faculty,” says Walt Meissner, School for the Arts associate dean. “He is known as one of America’s hottest stage directors, but he most impressed the school and the Huntington Board with his commitment to the training of young theater artists. Judging from the commitment he’s already made to our students, faculty, and alumni in the production of Dead End, he is certain to have a profound effect on our program and solidify our position as one of the strongest theater programs in the country.”

 The Huntington Theatre Company opens its 2000–01 season with Dead End by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sidney Kingsley. The production runs from September 8 through October 8 at the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave. Discounts for BU students are $5 off the single ticket price, with $12 student rush ticket two hours before curtain. BU staff and faculty receive $5 off regularly priced tickets. Staff, faculty, and alumni receive a $10 discount for subscriptions. Call 266-0800 for tickets and further information.

28 September 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations