Dan's Papers - June 19, 2009 -

This Sunday at Guild Hall, Visiting Mr. Green, a major play with local roots, will be presented as a staged reading. It was written by Shelter Island summer resident Jeff Baron, who has penned several other plays as well as TV shows including "The Tracey Ullman Show" and "A Year In The Life."

Visiting Mr. Green, which has been performed worldwide and has won countless awards, stars Peter Sabri, and legend of stage and screen, Eli Wallach.

Wallach needs no introduction. The very charming actor has been very busy. "I just got back from Germany two months ago," he said. "I shot a movie there, it's called The Ghost and is about a ghost writer. It's directed by the great director Roman Polansky."

Discussing the play at Guild Hall, Wallach said, "Visiting Mr. Green is very interesting. It addresses how two people, one an old man in his 90s, and the other in his 20s, communicate. It's very funny."

Wallach, who is known worldwide as a movie star and around these parts as a treasured local icon, loves Guild Hall. "The John Drew Theater itself and the stage are just wonderful. It's a beautiful, beautiful theater."

Wallach has a long history of not only acting, but of a love affair of East Hampton. "When I got out of school I said, 'Broadway here I come,' but the army didn't think so, and I got drafted into the war," said Wallach, who grew up in a predominantly Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn - his was one of the only Jewish families in the neighborhood. "My birthday is Pearl Harbor Day. I went to Hawaii and was stationed there."

While in the Army, Wallach was asked by his superior to put on a play for patients in a hospital in France. He helped write, and acted in, a play called Is This the Army? His career ultimately exploded in Hollywood and on Broadway. He has had major roles in legendary films like Baby Doll written by Tennessee Williams in 1956 and The Good The Bad and The Ugly. (He still keeps in touch with Clint Eastwood. "I spent four months in Italy and Spain with Clint filming The Good the Bad and the Ugly. He lives in California now and he's quite a busy guy." )

Wallach, who is now in his 90s, is still very active as an actor. Currently, he plays the role of a patient in the new HBO series "Nurse Jackie" starring Edie Falco. He also had a cameo in the movie The Hoax with Richard Gere. "All I had to do was go for a swim in that one," he joked.

But for Wallach fans, one of his most interesting roles was in "Batman" - not the movie produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, but the original TV series in the 1960s where he played the evil villain Mr. Freeze.

In addition to his love of acting, Wallach has had a long love affair with East Hampton - a passion he shares with Anne Jackson, his wife for more than 50 years. "My wife and I came to East Hampton 40 something years ago. It's beautiful here. Now it's very busy, with airplanes flying around and such, very busy. It wasn't that way when I got here, but the quality of the area hasn't changed at all."

Wallach's involvement with the play Visiting Mr. Green has an interesting back story. The work got its start thanks to a reading in New York City that led to telephone call to Wallach by a producer who knew that a role in the play would be a perfect fit. It started when Jeff Baron, the play's author, rented a "little theater in Manhattan."

Baron explained, "At the intermission of the show, even without a rehearsal, four producers offered to do it."

The process of getting a play produced usually goes like this: If a playwright is very lucky and persistent, a producer sends one of his or her assistants to the show, then the assistant writes a one page synopsis and a one-sentence synopsis of it. "After reading the one sentence synopsis, a producer wanted to have a meeting with me," said Baron. "He had Eli on the phone telling him that he had a show for him."

Describing the play itself, Baron said, "Much of it is about what it means to be a father and what to do when your kid isn't what you want him to be. It's interesting that we're doing it on Father's Day."

The part is perfect for Wallach, who is looking forward to the performance at Guild Hall. "I can't wait to do it," he said.

Visiting Mr. Green: John Drew Theatre, Guild Hall. Sunday, June 21, 8 p.m. guildhall.org