Plays

 

 

Barry wanted to be remembered as a serious actor who was also a playwright, preferring the stage to television work - “I’m going to work towards being completely independent – that means not having to accept offers that you don’t want to take for the sake of making a living. I don’t want to have to humble myself just to make a living. I want to be independent.”


Barry started his career as a child actor playing little boy roles such as Circle In The Round Theatre and appeared in at least one school play, progressing to drama school. He also read everything Shakespeare wrote. Later in his career he wanted to focus on getting back onto the stage, preferably with a good, innovative regional theatre group and worked at the Los Angeles Actors Theatre and the Mark Taper Lab.  

I am still researching this section, trying to locate a copy of Barry's play Flower Farts (Charity)

 

 

Known stage appearances:-

1963:

Click on image right for details.

Sheraton Palace Hotel: Garden Court Theatre website

Thanks to Jamie Gold for this information.

1968:

Synopsis of Review - "The Looking-Glass, Amen" -

This review of Edward Morris's and Barry Brown's play,
"The Looking-Glass, Amen" was written by Winfred Blevins of
The Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1968. The play (whose
characters consist of a mixture of classical literary, historical,
and imaginary individuals) deals with the opposing philosophies
of the two hostile groups: on the one hand, the representatives of
force (Captain Hook, Geriatrics, Hitler, etc.), and on the other,
the fantasists and the idealists (Don Quixote, Peter Pan, and the
Mad Hatter.) In the end, the more philosophical characters
(represented by the second group) win out. Brian DeMille
directed the play, and John Brownlee excelled in his performance
as the Mad Hatter.

 

 

A new avant-garde play "The Looking Glass, Amen," written by Edward Morris and 18-year-old Barry Brown, opens Thursday night at the Off-Hollywood Theater, 1076 N. El Centro Ave., under the direction of Brian De Mille.

June 9, 1968

1969:

 

 

The Sacramento State College Summer Stock Co. will present as its Drama Festival, four original plays.

"The Looking-Glass, Amen" will open the season. The play is by Edward Morris and Barry Brown, Los Angeles writers who have had several other plays produced there.

July 20, 1969

 

We Can Always Hide Behind the Stones on Easter Island by Barry Brown and Ed. Morris.

This play was performed in front of an invitational audience at the tiny 30 seat Oxford Theater from June through to July 19 and was described as an improvisation exercise in acting, directed by Howard Amacker in a spoof on student rebellion. John Brownlee appeared in the cast as a collegiate con man.

We Can Always Hide Behind the Stones on Easter Island (L.A. Radio):- Sunday FM Log, Aug. 24, 1969 (7.00pm, one-hour) on KNAC, with John Brownlee, Brian deMille and Barry Brown.

1971:-

Charity - Barry chose to appear in the production using the name "Dean Montgomery". The name of the play was changed for the production. Barry originally penned it as "Flower Farts."

 

THE EVERGREEN STAGE (5060 Fountain Ave.) Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8:30pm. Two one-acts, "Tiny Flame" by Frank Constantine and "Charity" by Barry Brown.

Performed Jan. 24 & 31, 1971

1973:-

PLAY WITH A TIGER by Doris Lessing - American Premiere performed at the Evergreen Stage, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood June 1, 1973. This play was reviewed in The Los Angeles Times. Cast included Belle Greer, Klair Bybee, Patricia Valian and Bill Miles, also Barry & Jim's sister Marilyn Lynn.

Please also click image (right) for actor Klair Bybee's memories.

Long Day's Journey Into Night as "Edmund" with Geraldine Fitzgerald.

The Prytania Energy Theatre, 1973. Stated by Jim Brown to have been Barry's career highlight and his favourite play.

 

 

 

Tina Howe's mischievous look at the way we tiptoe around modern art Museum performed at the L.A. Actors Theatre, April 29, 1976 - under direction of Dana Elcar and Richard Jordan.

Barry's character was "Michael Wall", a photographer.

Special thanks to Sean Michael Rice, who donated all of the memorabilia on this page associated with MUSEUM

(click on images to view in full)

1976: MUSEUM

Photo:- Left: Ralph Waite - Background: Barry Brown - Centre: Ron Rickards - Right: Sean Michael Rice

Cast of MUSEUM - Barry is positioned fifth from right, middle row (wearing a black cap)

 

 

1977:-

MGMT by Jon Arlow (Directed by Robert Calhoun) - click images below for details (Thanks to Jim Brown).

 

 

Barry also wrote and produced plays for the Los Angeles Actors Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum. Most of Barry's stage work was in the "Equity waiver" theaters that proliferate in Los Angeles, where actor's unions waive their usual requirements so long as the house is less than 99 seats.

Below is a short extract from an interview kindly loaned to me by Wayne Lawless in which Barry briefly discusses his play "Charity" - about a young, gay man who befriends an old bigoted gent in the nursing home and turns his heart around.

Barry was 20 years-old when this interview took place in 1971, precise date unavailable.

Interviewer: What acting school did you go to?

Barry: Well, in San Francisco - I went to about three or four different drama schools. I went to Elizabeth Holloway, and Ruth Dwyer. And then in Los Angeles, I went primarily to a place called The Princess Theatre, which is no longer in existence. I never really got that much or found out or learned that much about acting, until I started acting - you just cannot learn from a drama school.

The only time you're in a situation where you're acting, is when you're on the stage or you're on camera - and that's it - but the only really rewarding stage experience I had, was last February -- because I write plays and I produce and direct them.

Interviewer: You do?

Barry: Yes - but in fact, we had a New York opening last month - October opening - in New York - West 18th Street.

Interviewer: A play you had written? What was the name of it?

Barry: It was called, Charity - they changed the name. I had a different name for it. I called it Flower Farts. And I did it in Los Angeles - in February and I played the lead in it. It's a hell of a good play - about an older man and this young guy, who is supporting the old man in the rest home - and visits him all the time. But anyway, it was a hell of a rewarding experience. I did my own play.

Interviewer: But that's amazing, at your age to have it produced.

Barry: Well - nowadays - if you're a good writer, it doesn't matter, you know. I started out with a friend of mine, a really good friend, named Edward Morris. We started out together. We quit our drama school - this is in '67, the end of '67 and we had written a play that we thought was good, rented our own theatre and produced it - and it got rave reviews, and we didn't know how to handle the theatre, but since then, we just continued to write plays. We wrote one other play together, and we then split off - we can't collaborate anymore. We went our own directions.