Oakley Hall III

Oakley "Tad" Hall III (May 26, 1950^[1][2] – February 13, 2011^[3]) was an American playwright, director, and author. The co-founder and first artistic director of Lexington Conservatory Theatre, in 1978 he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fall from a bridge; he spent decades in recovery and in the process of creating a new life.

Early life and education

Hall was the eldest child of novelist Oakley Hall and photographer Barbara E. Hall, and the brother of Sands Hall. In 1963 he enrolled at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he first became involved in theatre. After being expelled, he returned to Los Angeles to live with his father, where he enrolled in the newly formed University of California, Irvine.^[4]

At Irvine, Hall met future collaborators Bruce Bouchard and Michael Van Landingham. He acted in numerous productions as part of the prestigious Irvine Repertory Theater, including a minor role in Clayton Garrison's production of Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, alongside lead actors Bob Gunton and Robert Cohen as well as Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson and William Berney. In fall of 1968, Hall, Bouchard, and Steven Nisbet (another future Lexington collaborator) received scholarships to study at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater.^[5][6][7]

In 1969, at age 18, Hall made national news in refusing the draft, mailing back his draft card and citing US war crimes in Vietnam for his reason in doing so.^[8]

In 1970, he starred in a short film ‘’Dionysus and the Maenads’’, conceived by writer Blair Fuller.^[9]

In 1974, he completed an MFA in writing from Boston University, studying under John Cheever.^[10]

Career

In 1976, Hall co-founded Lexington Conservatory Theatre, located in the Catskills town of Lexington, NY.^[11][12]

In 1977, his play Mike Fink was read at the New York Shakespeare Festival for producer Joseph Papp. It starred Mandy Patinkin, William Hurt and Glenn Close among others, and was directed by future Capital Repertory Theatre producing artistic director Peter Clough.^[13][14][15]

That same year, Hall received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.^[16]

In 1976–1977 Hall translated and adapted

Hall's 1978 play Beatrice (Cenci) and the Old Man, with its challenging, dark humor and incestual subtext, received mostly positive reviews but has not been produced again. "...perversely and engagingly humerous," according to critic Dan DiNicola. "[It] deserves serious and intelligent consideration as a work of both potential and merit."[19]

In 1979, Lexington Conservatory premiered his play Grinder's Stand, a historical drama written in blank verse exploring the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis. Directed by Peter Clough, the show starred Court Miller, Michael J. Hume, Richard Zobel, Sofia Landon Geier, Richard E. Council, Red Sutton and Bruce Bouchard. "If you care, really care, about theater you will get to Lexington to see Grinder's Stand between now and Sunday," said critic Dan DiNicola. "More than any other new play I have seen, it has the potential to become a richly significant piece of American drama."^[20]

The publication of Otis Bigelow's play The Prevalence of Mrs. Seal is dedicated to Hall.^[21]

Accident

On July 17, 1978, Hall suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fall from a bridge. He was rushed to Stamford Hospital and later to Albany Medical Center where he began a difficult recovery. In 1979, he told the Albany Times Union that he had just completed writing the final monologue of his play Grinder's Stand. He could not remember what happened that night. "I still don't remember if I jumped or fell," he said, on the eve of the LCT production of Grinder's Stand. "I also can't remember who at the National Endowment I'm supposed to send a copy of this play as part of the grant requirement...I'm a full time playwright, but it looks like this fall I'll have to find some kind of job. I'm completely out of money. I don't know where I'll go and I don't know what I'll do."^[22]

The written version of this monologue was lost, but had been read into an audio tape. The recording facilitated its recovery, except for one unintelligible line.

He eventually returned to California to live in Nevada City near his family; the story of his fall and recovery are told in Bill Rose's award-winning documentary, The Loss of Nameless Things.^[23]

Later life

In 1990, Hall submitted his play A Dying Art for consideration at the Reality Theatre Company's new play festival in Columbus, Ohio. It was selected for a staged reading that year. After revisions working with producing director Frank A. Barnhart and Artistic Director Dee Shepherd, it received a full production at the theatre in 1991, where it was noted as a highlight of the festival by The Columbus Dispatch.^[24] Richard Ades of The Other Paper described it as "a clever and gleefully perverse black comedy," noting that "it's well-served by Dee Shepherd's intense direction, and set designer Chris Jones's crumbling wall backdrop is more than adequate for a play too self-consciously theatrical to be mistaken for real life."^[25]

In 2002, Foothill Theatre Company in Nevada City, California received a $6,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the development of Hall's 1979 play Grinder's Stand.^[26]

Hall dated poet Molly Fisk in the 2000s. Her poem "A Theatrical Death" is dedicated to him.^[27][28]

Hall made a lifelong study of the pre-surrealist playwright Alfred Jarry, and over the years translated several of Jarry's plays from the original French. In 2008, he moved to Albany, New York to live with Hadiya Wilborn, who fostered a collaboration with acclaimed puppeteer Ed Atkeson. This resulted in a production of Jarry's Ubu Rex, performed by the Firlefanz Puppets at Steamer No. 10 Theatre in Albany, New York, directed by Oakley, with actor Steven Patterson in the title role.^[29] In the fall of 2010, Moving Finger Press published Oakley's novel, Jarry and Me, in which Oakley intertwines a memoir of his own life with a sly "autobiography" of Jarry. One of the last sentences of the book is, "Jarry dies with a grin on his face." That summer, he returned to the Community of Writers conference, co-founded by his father, as an author presenting his new work.^[30]

On February 13, 2011, Hall died of a heart attack at his Albany home. He was survived by his two children, Oakley and Elizabeth.

The Highlander Theater Company of Chase Collegiate School in Waterbury, Connecticut performed Oakley Hall III's Frankenstein in March 2012, directed by Robert Cutrofello, currently an English teacher and playwright in Hamden Hall Country Day School. This was the first production of this play in three decades.^[31]

In 2013, producer Curtis Burch announced he was developing a feature film about Hall's life, based upon the 2004 documentary by Bill Rose. Burch hoped the film would go into production in 2014. Screenwriter Fred Dekker had earlier been interested in directing it.^[32][33][34]

In 2015, Catskill's Bridge Street Theatre revived Grinder's Stand. It starred William Dobbins, along with Steven Patterson. Patterson had previously been a member of Lexington Conservatory Theatre in 1977, where he appeared in Hall's Ubu Rex and Hall's version of Tis Pity She's a Whore; in 2010 Patterson also starred in Hall's Albany revival of Ubu Rex.^[35][36][37]

Plays

Produced Plays

• Ubu Rex (translated and adapted from the play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry)
• Doorman
• Mike Fink
• Frankenstein (based on the novel by Mary Shelley)
• Ubu Enchained (translated and adapted from the play by Alfred Jarry)^[38]
• A Dying Art^[39]
• Grinder's Stand
• Beatrice (Cenci) and the Old Man (based on the 1935 play by Antonin Artaud)

Unproduced Plays

• Melmoth the Wanderer (based on the 1820 novel by Charles Maturin)
• The Monks of Monk Hall (based on the 1945 novel by George Lippard)
• The Moonstone (based on the 1871 novel by Wilkie Collins)
• The Occultation and Lumification of Mr. Ubu^[40]

Productions and notable readings

• 1976 Frankenstein at Lexington Conservatory Theatre^[41]
• 1976 Ubu Rex at Hansen Galleries, New York City. Directed by Oakley Hall III
• 1977 Ubu Rex at Lexington Conservatory Theatre, a PROVOS series presentation^[42]
• 1977 Doorman, Cash and Mental Health at Lexington Conservatory Theatre, a PROVOS series presentation.^[43]
• 1977 Mike Fink, a staged reading at
  Dwight Shultz, Dominic Chianese, John Glover, Lenny Baker, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Clifton James. Directed by Peter Clough.^[44]
• 1977 Frankenstein staged reading at Fairfield University, October 31, 1977^[45][46]
• 1977 Doorman at New York Stageworks. Directed by Bill Partlan, starring Brent Jennings December 12, 15, 21 and 22.^[47][48]
• 1978 Beatrice (Cenci) and the Old Man at Lexington Conservatory Theatre. Directed by Wendy Chapin^[49]
• 1978 Grinder's Stand staged reading produced by Phoenix Theatre, starring John Seitz, Tom Klunis, Kenneth Welsh and Mimi Kennedy. Directed by Bill Partlan. At Marymount Manhattan Theatre.^[50]
• 1978 Ubu Enchained at Lexington Conservatory Theatre, a PROVOS series reading^[51]
• 1979 Grinder's Stand at Lexington Conservatory Theatre. Starring Court Miller and Sofia Landon Directed by Peter Clough^[52]
• 1982 Frankenstein at Capital Repertory Theatre. Directed by Peter Clough^[53]
• 1991 A Dying Art at Reality Theatre, Columbus Ohio. Starring Richard Boorman, Elaine Miracle and Michael Day. Directed by Dee Shepherd^[54][55]
• 2002 Grinder's Stand at Foothill Theatre Company.^[56]
• 2010 Ubu Rex in collaboration with Firlefanz Puppets at Steamer 10 Theatre in Albany, NY^[57]
• 2013 Frankenstein at Cleveland Ensemble Theatre, Directed by Ian Wolfgang Hinz^[58]
• 2015 Grinder's Stand at Bridge Street Theatre. Directed by John Sowle^[59]
• 2018 Grinder's Stand at TruNorth Theatre in Bismark, ND. Directed by John Clemo. ^[60]

Novels

• The Archons 1974 (unpublished)^[61]
• Jarry and Me 2010

Cultural references

Hall has been mentioned in music, including The Tigersharks' "The Ballad of Oakley Hall III"

References