IN 1985, I appeared in a production of Arsenic and Old Lace at the Forestburgh Playhouse in New York that starred Jayne Heller as one of the kindly, murderous old ladies. When I encountered Jayne at a reunion of actors who’d worked at Forestburgh recently, we shared stories of what we’d been working on and what jobs were in the offing. I told her about “Steinbeck and the Land,” a piece I had put together to help commemorate the centennial of Steinbeck’s birth and that I hoped to develop into an educational piece that I could tour to schools. Jayne listened, smiled, and said, “Oh, I really liked John Steinbeck.”
“Did you know him?”
She nodded.
“How?”
“Have you ever heard of a musical called Pipe Dream?” “Of course.”
“Well, I was in it.”
“Tell me about your experience,” I asked. But it was impossible to talk in-depth at the party and we made arrangements to get together in the near future when we could speak without interruption. Meeting several months later at her Manhattan Plaza apartment in New York, we sat down with her husband, Les, who accompanied her to many of the rehearsals and performances, and talked about the show.
Click the file to read the full article Published by The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, Volume 15, Number 2, Fall 2004, pp. 117-128
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