Babe’s Legacy

Thomas Babe, who died earlier this month, was my favorite American playwright. I had the privilege of directing the first Los Angeles production of his powerful, fascinating play “A Prayer for My Daughter.”

With four wonderful actors--Peter Henry Schroeder, Carmen Argenziano (who won a Los Angeles Theatre Critics Assn. acting award), Terrence O’Hara and the late Forest Shirley--”Prayer” was an amazing journey into Babe’s multileveled, metaphysical world. It was a play, as one critic noted, that “makes practically every previous American play (or movie or television drama) about crime seem simplistic in comparison.”

I also had opportunities to direct Babe’s “Kid Champion,” which presented an almost cannibalistic expression of the demands of super rock ‘n’ roll stardom, and “Taken in Marriage,” which investigated the complex and disturbingly truthful “views” women have on “wedded bliss.”

Babe’s voice will not be silenced by his untimely death, however. His plays will continue to provide challenges and insights for actors, audiences and directors for the rest of time.

PHIL BOROFF

Pasadena