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Al Pacino Takes The Stage In "Hughie"

© Susan Duckett

This is my portrait of Al Pacino. You can buy a print of it here.

Al Pacino is best known for his roles in films like the "Godfather", "Dog Day Afternoon", and many other great performances. However his first love has always been the theater where his career began. He returns to the stage as much as he can as a performer and director.

He has also directed three movies about plays. "Local Stigmatic" was an experimental short film never released to the public. "Looking for Richard" was a successful documentary about Shakespeare's "Richard III" which gave great insight into the process actors go through putting a play together. He is currently editing his third experimental film, "Chinese Coffee", based on the play by Ira Lewis.

He recently completed a sold out run of Eugene O'Neill's "Hughie" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles which he directed and stared in with Paul Benedict (best known as Bentley on the Jeffersons). I was fortunate enough to be able to see this play and it was an experience I'll never forget.

The Mark Taper Forum is a beautiful theater located next to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where the Oscars are held. It is fairly small, round, and has a thrust stage that comes out into the audience so you feel closer to the actors. This gives it an intimate feeling that was perfect for this two man play.

The scenery in "Hughie" was wonderful! The stage was almost bare and everything was shaded in an odd sort of blue and black that gave the impression of moonlight or night time even though it was inside. It looked very surreal almost like a Salvador Dali painting. The floor had blue checks on it that gave it a strange moody, worn feeling. There was a big clock hanging by strings from the ceiling. Again it was colored blue and black. There was a desk for the clerk which was almost more of a representation of a desk than a real desk a hotel would use. There was a chair behind the desk. One of my favorite parts of the set was the box with a bunch of separate compartments for keys hanging by strings from the ceiling, suspended there, floating in space. It was also painted blue and black which again gave a very eerie feeling. All the props seemed to be there to give you an idea of what each was, instead of being a complete realistic set. In the front of the stage were two chairs, each with an urn next to it for ashes from Al's cigarettes. The chair in front of me was padded, old-fashioned and worn. The one on the left side of the stage facing me, was wooden. At the back of the stage was a screen with a kind of an abstract cityscape on it. In the middle of the screen was an open place to walk through and behind it was a ramp (the sidewalk) going from high

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