Entertainment
Kenny Boys’ characters keep him working
By Press Release
Jun 9, 2008 - 9:17:08 AM

Kenneth Boys as the exorcist, Dr. Pinch, in a scene with Darien's Antoinette LaVeccha in "The Comedy of Errors."

Kenneth Boys says his ambition in the theater is simply “to keep working.” At 55, Boys has earned a living as a performer for 35 years-except for one month back in the late 1970s when he subsisted by working in a bank. His view characteristically reflects the uncertainties of the acting life and the superstition associated with the stage.

“Don’t make it appear as if I’m bragging,” he says. “I don’t want to jinx myself. Maybe I won’t get another job after this.” Boys is making his fifth appearance with Shakespeare on the Sound in the festival’s 13th annual outdoor production, “Julius Caesar, ” which runs June 12-28 in Rowayton’s Pinkney Park and July 4-13 in Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich.

One indelible cameo was Boys inventive interpretation of the comedic character of “Dr. Pinch” in “The Comedy of Errors” last season. As a seer supposedly endowed with the ability to exorcize demons, wearing a black beret, eyepatch and cassock and waving a crucifx, Boys portrayed the good doctor with an engaging animation and a throaty wail that provoked waves of laughter from the audience and prolonged applause when Kenny took his bow at the end of the night.

It speaks to his versatility that Boys plays Flavius and three other supporting characters in “Julius Caesar,” Shakespeare’s politically-charged probe of tyranny, patriotism and the human soul at its purest and darkest.

For Boys, the outdoor festival is “like a paid vacation” that carries for him all the appeal of TV and the movies and even Broadway.

“It’s one of the most appreciate audiences for which an actor can perform,” he says. “Many in the crowd are kids. I’ve watched them grow up. But the atmosphere is old-fashioned, like Central Park used to be for Shakespeare in the Park before you had to be a celebrity to get a seat.”

“You know that if you do your best the audience will be there for you. They know Shakespeare. They come out at 4 p.m. to stake out a spot for their blankets. Then they come back 3 1/2 hours later for the play. It’s also one of the few theaters where you get to interact with the board of directors. They are all there to make it work.”

The New York-based Boys returns to Connecticut after a run in Jerry Herman’s “Dear World” in Philadelphia and a break of only a single day before rehearsals started for the familiarly symbolic and emotion-laden “Julius Caesar.”

He appeared in the iconic movie “All That Jazz” with the late Roy Scheider, toured with the late Robert Goulet in “Camelot” and was off-Broadway in “Great Expectations” at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Outside of his work with Shakespeare on the Sound, the part most memorable for him was in a stage production called “Steeplechase” that never got out of workshops and readings. The author, John Pielmeier, also wrote “Agnes of God,” which became a movie starring Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda.

“But Steeple Chase just died,” Boys reports. “Why it didn’t click, I’ll never know,” he said. “That’s the theater.”

There is no charge for admission in either Pinkney or Baldwin park. But a donation of $20 is suggested, $10 for students and seniors. Reserved seating is also available. For additional information see Shakespeare on the Sound online at www.shakespeareonthesound.org


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