Actor-director Weil Richmond quit New York’s prestigious Circle in the Square Theatre School after one semester, walking out in the middle of a speech class after getting in a fight with the teacher. As Richmond gathered his things and headed for the front door, the teacher, who’d followed him into the hall, yelled “You’ll never do anything in theater for the rest of your life!”
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Richmond was initially taken with the character Norman Bulansky when he saw a production of The Boys Next Door while an undergraduate at the University of Kansas. When he decided to get into producing, he immediately thought of the play, and recruited filmmaker Matthew von Waaden, a friend from college, to direct; Richmond played Bulansky. During their three years in New York, Mefisto produced 12 shows, most of which more or less adhered to the company’s mission of bringing “little known or not often produced” works to the stage.
“We were thrilled, and at that point we were going to start popping up productions in Chicago and LA and start spreading it around, opening in other cities,” says Richmond. “On September 11, we woke up and it was a very different world.”
The Boys Next Door opens Wednesday, August 20, and runs through September 7 at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3; tickets are $25. For more information call 312-264-5441.
