The Film Society
A two-act play by Jon Robin Baitz (1961-), about about the staff of a prep school in South Africa in the 1970s, and a teacher who tries to keep politics out of his film club. Baitz, an American playwright, screenwriter, television producer, and occasional actor, had been born in Los Angeles, California, but was raised raised in Brazil and South Africa , before the family returned to California, where he attended Beverly Hills High School. He drew on his own background for this play, basing some of the play on a few formative school years he spent in South Africa, where his headmaster, like the character “Balton”, had once been a radio actor. First performed in Los Angeles in 1987 and this followed by an off-Broadway production with Nathan Lane in 1988, winning him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding New Play. It was remounted by the Keen Company at the Clurman Theatre, New York in 2013. Directed by Jonathan Silverstein with Euan Morton (Jonathon Balton), Richmond Hoxie (Hamish Fox), Gerry Bamman (Neville Sutter), Mandy Siegfried (Nan Sinclair), David Barlow (Terry Sinclair) and Roberta Maxwell (Mrs. Balton). Production stage manager, Theresa Flanagan; sets by Steven C. Kemp; costumes by Jennifer Paar; lighting by Solomon Weisbard; music and sound by Palmer Hefferan; production manager, Justin Elie; dialect coach, Gillian Lane-Plescia.
Sources
Jon Robin Baitz Rejoins “The Film Society” by Rob Weinert-Kendt in TDF Stages http://wp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/09/jon-robin-baitz-film-society/
Review New York Times[
