Orson Welles
Some say that Orson Welles was a genius, but he
always denied that. He did give us Citizen Kane,
considered by most critics to be the best film ever made,
but after that, his career took one long downward plunge.
The play finds Welles trying to find the
financing for one of his film projects. It's a difficult
task, since most of the Hollywood community considers him to
be a "looney".
Pondering his life with his "other self", he
tells us about his alcoholic father, his lonely years as a
"gifted child", his rise as the "boy genius" of Broadway and
the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that panicked
America and made his name a household word.
But "genius" can be self-destructive -- as was
the case with Welles. Time after time, with a new post-
Kane success within his grasp, he would knowingly
make the wrong move, thereby destroying everything he'd
built.
Containing wry stories about William Randolph
Hearst, Columbia Pictures' Harry Cohn, and Rita Hayworth,
Michael B. Druxman's ORSON WELLES is the "boy genius" at his
best.
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