STAGE PLAY “WHO LIVES?” BRINGS ACTOR/DIRECTOR NEW KIDNEY AND LIFE
(PRLEAP.COM) While casting the play, actor (Flounder in "Animal House") and director Stephen Furst offered donated kidney. In the early 1960s, an anonymous committee of ordinary citizens in Seattle selected kidney disease victims from a pool for an experiment with something new: a kidney dialysis machine. If the experiment worked, a small number of people would live instead of surely die from kidney failure. But who among the pool would live? How would the committee choose? Based on that premise and creating his own committee, playwright Christopher Meeks wrote "Who Lives?" The play centers the action on one person, attorney Gabriel Hornstein, who desperately needs what the committee offers.In real life, thanks to kidney dialysis, director Stephen Furst, 53, best known as an actor for his major roles in "Animal House," "St. Elsewhere," and "Babylon 5," has been able to live a mostly normal life after his kidneys gave out because of diabetes—but he’s needed a kidney. Along came a set of amazing circumstances.
Initially, in order to help others in his situation, Furst had volunteered for a radio talk show about kidney disease. "Kidney Talk" is an online show blending humor, insight, and information about living life to its fullest despite kidney disease. On that show earlier this year, Furst and co-host Lori Hartwell interviewed playwright Christopher Meeks about the publication of "Who Lives?" Both hosts found the play fascinating, and in a business trip later that week, Furst mentioned the play to doctors in San Francisco.
Within a week, the Aronoff Center for the Arts, a large theatre in Cincinnati, wanted to produce the play with Furst directing. Furst flew to Cincinnati in June to cast the play for a September premiere, and while there, mentioned to someone that he’s on dialysis, looking for a kidney. He then received a call. A stranger wanted to donate a kidney to him. Doctors checked to see if the donor and Furst matched. They did. Furst will be prepped for his transplant on July 26th
As Furst says, “A miracle has happened. An anonymous donor came forward and donated a kidney to me in Cincinnati. I have never met this person before. All I know is that he is a 39-year-old male. I feel pretty good and will feel even better after the transplant.”
The play will now be produced at the Aronoff Center for the Arts in Cincinnati in January. In celebration of the play’s ten-year anniversary, the play was published earlier this year though White Whisker Books. It’s available at Amazon.com, BN.com, and on the shelf at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena (626-449-5320), among other places.
"Who Lives?" was first produced at the 24th Street Theatre in Los Angeles in July 1997. In a “Pick of the Week” review of the play, the LA Weekly wrote, “Christopher Meeks takes this factual scenario and transforms it into a thought-provoking drama, which relates a timely story about both ethics and morals…. Meeks’ script is smartly written.”
Daily Variety wrote, “To personalize the astronomically difficult task of the committee, Meeks has created a distinctively complex character in Gabriel. When the dying Gabriel discovers the committee has passed him over, he utilizes his ruthless abilities of persuasion to gain the treatment he needs to stay alive. The committee acquiesces on one condition: that he become one of them.”
Meeks also writes fiction, and his short story collection, "The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea," was featured in Entertainment Weekly’s August 11, 2006 issue as one of five great books from small presses—after which, sales soared. Earlier in the year, the Los Angeles Times called Meeks’ book “poignant and wise, sympathetic to the everyday struggles these characters face.” The collection has received great reviews from across the country as well as in England, Ireland, and the Czech Republic. Who Lives? comes from the same press, White Whisker Books.
Meeks has had three full-length plays mounted in Los Angeles, has published four children’s books, has written articles that have appeared in over twenty publications including the New York Times and Cinefantastique, and has had many of his short stories appear in literary journals. He teaches at USC, CalArts, Santa Monica College, and UCLA Extension.
Stephen Furst played Flounder in "Animal House," Dr. Alexrod on "St. Elsewhere," and Vir Cotto on "Babylon 5." He’s also directed many television shows and five television films including "Path of Destruction" and "Dragonstorm."
To hear Stephen Furst interview people with Lori Hartwell on "Kidney Talk," go to http://www.rsnhope.org/programs/kidney_talk3.php. For the interview with Christopher Meeks about "Who Lives?", scroll down to March 13th and click on “Play Now”.
For a Expanded Books interview with Meeks, go to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgq5N-Me7j4
Media Contact: Christopher Meeks, Christopher@chrismeeks.com, (310) 493-4576. http://www.chrismeeks.com
Meeks’ agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, NY: (212) 627-9100.
Published by White Whisker Books, www.lulu.com/white-whisker ISBN: 978-1-84728-375-7
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