Keith Curran

Keith Curran, as an actor, appeared with Judy Kaye and Imogene Coca in the Broadway tour of “On The 20th Century”, playing opposite Ms. Kaye as “Bruce Granit”, a vain, desperate film matinee idol, and also toured as Rooster Hannigan in “Annie”, as “The Tinman” in “The Wizard Of Oz” and in “Noises Off” as “Whatshisname who has to jump up the stairs with his pants at his ankles”. Off B’way, Keith played multiple roles in “Mayor, The Musical”, the Giraffe in “Just So” with Andre DeShields, played “Chris the Waiter” in a revival of “Beyond Therapy”, and was one of three “Back-up Singers” in “For The Record” with Randy Graff. Regionally, in short tours and in Summer Stock, he played a wild variety of roles. In William Bolcum’s “Casino Paradise”, in Philadelphia, (a pre-Broadway production that stayed just where it was), he played “Sunny Shine”, a 6’6” transvestite prostitute (a role originally written for a black woman), then played “Boris Adzenedzanadza, a Hngarian artist, in “An American In Paris”, opposite Lenora Nemitz, and played both Vittorio Vidal, the Italian movie star, and the jazz singer, “Big Daddy”, in “Sweet Charity”, with Georgia Engel, followed by “Bud Frump” in “How To Succeed...”. Then, At Kansas City Starlight he played Rooster in “Annie” opposite Eileen Brennen, “Captain Hook” in “Peter Pan” and “Marco The Magnificent” in “Gigi”, again opposite Ms.Nemetz. At The Williamstown Theater Festival he played the Uber-soldier “Miles Gloriosus” in “A Funny Thing...” with George Wendt, and “The Jesus Inmate” in “Marat Sade...” and The Tenor in “Lend Me A Tenor”. At The McCarter Theater in Princeton he played a ‘Keystone Cop” in a new musical based on the silent film era, again opposite Randy Graff. He also appeared there in “St. Joan”, played Jacob Marley in “A Christmas Carol”, and played two of “The Seven Deadly Sins”, in a new production of “Mephistopheles In Hell”, which included shorts scenes commissioned by American playwrights. He was “Envy”, written by Edward Albee, and “Gluttony” written by John Guare.
As a playwright, Keith’s first and second plays, “Dalton’s Back”, a young man living simultaneously in a satisfying present and a horrifying past, and, two years later, “Walking The Dead”, described in a college syllabus as “The first play by a major American playwright to have, at its core, a transsexual character. In this instance a FTM”. The play itself happens in the space the play is actually happening in. It is a “Performance art memorial service”, designed by the dead man’s lover, “Maya”. Deeply moving and hysterically funny, it has seen many national and international productions. Both plays have been published, and in a variety of languages. His third play, “Sidekick” won the Actor’s Theater of Louisville’s well known, prestigious, “One act play contest”. Louisville commissioned a companion piece, “An Enraged Reading”, a Theater Company satire. Mr. Curran’s fourth play, “Church of the Sole Survivor” was produced by Portland stage (after they secured a grant to rip up the theater’s floor to accommodate the set’s section of practical ocean). During this absurd, non-absurdist play, characters exit and enter via the ocean. It is too complicated to explain the plot, but it is a serious, deeply funny treatise on addiction and magical thinking. It won the “Best Play” award from several publications, including The Boston Globe. His fifth play, “The Stand-In”, was first presented Off B’Way by Naked Angels. A sensation, a scheduled four week run became a nine month run. It was then moved, pretty much intact, by commercial producers to LA, where it ran for two years and won over twenty awards, including LA Weekly’s “Best Play” award, and The Los Angeles Times signification of “Event Of The Year”. It will, with luck, soon be a pretty major Motion Picture. His new play, “White Noise” deals with how a charismatic, progressive, college Hippie, “Casper”,* who organized every March for equality one can imagine, can be met forty years later, an angry, white supremacy-leaning racist. Welcome to Trumpworld.
Mr. Curran, as a writer of screenplays and teleplays, has worked for/with every major studio in Hollywood. Voted “a “Lifetime Member” of the Writer’s Guild five years ago, a designation made to only one writer each year, his original television series, “Birthmark”, a comedy drama about two very different, if attached, 23 year old brothers, Peter and Patrick — joined quite literally at the hip — is currently on option jointly by Showtime/ BBC. The first season, among many events, sees Patrick come out as gay to his homophobic, Siamese Twin brother, Peter. The series is essentially a metaphor for marriage. When, at the end of season four, a cutting edge surgery successfully separates the 23 year old brothers, the series becomes a metaphor for divorce.