THEATER TALK Looks at BILLY & RAY, Tributes Marian Seldes This Weekend

The new THEATER TALK illuminates the fascinating and contentious collaboration between director and co-writer Billy Wilder and writer Raymond Chandler while preparing the screenplay for Double Indemnity, the classic film noir adaptation of a James M. Cain mystery, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. Interviewed about the new play, Billy & Ray, now playing, are director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Beaches) and playwright Mike Bencivenga.

Wilder enjoyed working with other writers -- nearly all of his screenplays were created with someone else. However, Cain had a deal with Warner Bros. and wasn't available, so the studio brought Raymond Chandler, an obscure mystery writer for magazines, into the project instead. The two brilliant artists not only battled the Hollywood censors to create this film classic, but constantly fought each other as well. Bencivenga admits that plays about writers and collaborations are often tough to make theatrical, but underscores that in this case the partnership of Billy & Ray's two protagonists is a wonderful inspiration for this biographical comedy, now being staged by Marshall at The Vineyard Theatre, Off-Broadway.

Also, this week, THEATER TALK pays tribute to beloved actress Marian Seldes, who died this month at the age of 86, by reprising a highlight from the first of her many appearances on the program.

Hosted by Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins, this THEATER TALK episode premieres in the New York metropolitan area tonight, October 17 (2014) at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues on CUNY TV* Saturday 10/18 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 10/19 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 10/20 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner; Optimum/Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes podcasts.

Pictured: Left - Playwright Mike Bencivenga and director Garry Marshall on "Theater Talk." ; Middle - Larry Pine and Vincent Kartheiser as Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder in Billy & Ray; Right - The late Marian Seldes. (Bencivenga and Marshall courtesy Theater Talk/CUNY TV; "Billy and Ray" © Carol Rosegg; Seldes by Kalin Ivanov/CUNY TV)