DAVID GRIMM
Chick
"A museum director's life might not at first be seen as a natural for stage dramatization. But the CHARISMATIC A. Everett 'Chick' Austin's life is a DYNAMIC WORK OF ART unto itself, filled with incident, color, and characters, and embracing a time between the wars that represented a period of unequaled cultural excitement in America ... Grimm is a writer with LINGUAL DEXTERITY and CLASSIC SOPHISTICATION. Here he displays his CUNNING, PUNNING WIT but he also shows his subject's shadows of zealotry, insecurity, and shame." — VARIETY
Based on the book "Magician of The Modern" by Eugene R. Gaddis
1M, 1F
In 1927, a passionate and rebellious young man, A. Everett ("Chick") Austin, was made director of America's oldest public art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. What followed was a career that shook up the city and reinvigorated the arts in America. But what is the cost — both personal and professional — of blazing such a trail? A play in three monologues based on the life and career of "Chick" Austin and his marriage to Helen Goodwin.
Premiere: Hartford Stage, 2007.
Directed by: Michael Wilson
Cast: Robert Sella, Enid Graham.
Commissioned by Hartford Stage, Hartford, Connecticut.
