By Sheba Mason

Photography by Hunter Manning

Alec Baldwin got inspired to organize a benefit reading to support his alma mater, The Lee Strasberg Creative Center. Titled Outcasts, the one-night-only performance featured five one-act plays by playwright and director John Patrick Shanley. In addition to winning the 1987 Academy Award for Best Screenplay for Moonstruck, Shanley won both a Tony for Best Play in 2005 for Doubt: A Parable, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama.

“My acting career literally began at the Strasberg Institute on 15th Street with Geoffrey Horne and Marcia Haufrecht,” said Baldwin. “I will always be grateful that I began my career here. Strasberg gave me a technique built upon a foundation of truth. Among the great playwrights working today, John Patrick Shanley’s writing, with both the humor and the drama marbled together, demands a focus and agility that I acquired largely through Strasberg. I have long admired Shanley’s remarkable work and I am grateful for the opportunity to celebrate that work while benefiting my theatrical alma mater.”

When I caught up with Alec Baldwin after the show, I asked him on behalf of DOWNTOWN about what aspect of the plays spoke to him personally.

“John has people say things they don’t ordinarily say. I love John’s plays, and there are other playwrights, but I love John Patrick Shanley’s plays. It’s very fertile comedy. It’s funny when you walk in a room and say things you wouldn’t normally say-they’re not inappropriate, but [the characters have] been pushed… where they’re at the point, what else can be said, to be really frank.”

I had to ask fellow comedienne Susie Essman, from Curb Your Enthusiasm who also performed in the reading, if any real-life moments from her life seem like prime material for the show. “It changes all the time, so it’s different every day. That’s all I’ll say!” she laughed.

Rebecca de Mornay and Alec Baldwin perform in a scene from Last Night in the Garden I Saw You.

Victoria Krane, president of the Lee Strasberg Creative Center remarked, “This is inspired theater. Yesterday we celebrated Lee Strasberg’s 124th birthday. I want to thank everyone involved, and that unsolicited phone call from Alec Baldwin who offered to do this fundraiser with John Patrick Shanley and all these amazing actors.” Four of the evening’s performers—Alec Baldwin, Rebecca De Mornay, Jamie Hector and Alessandra Mesa—are alumni of The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.

Susie Essman and Jeff Garlin performing in The Bonnet.

“Each of these new pieces gives voice to the overlooked, the unheard, the exiled among us—the true outcasts,” said John Patrick Shanley. “It’s a challenging and exciting evening featuring actors who are fearless in their work.” The five new one-act plays written by Shanley included The Upside Down Man with Alec Baldwin and Alessandra Mesa; The Bonnet starring the beloved married duo from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Jeff Garlin and Susie Essman; The Estimate with Debra Messing and Ivette Dumeng, who also served as co-director for the evening alongside Lori Kee; Heartbreak with Sidney Williams, Jamie Hector, and Erick Betancourt; and Last Night in the Garden I Saw You with Alec Baldwin and Rebecca De Mornay.

The start-studded audience included Meg Ryan, Lee Fryd, Sharon King Hoge, LaVon Kellner, Eleanora Kennedy, Ellie Manko, Gillian McCain, Katharine McEwan, Kathy Roeder, David Strasberg, Lindsey Strasberg, Scarlett Strasberg, Sari Tracht, Desiree Von la Valette, and Roberta Wallach. DTM