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Larry Returns to his Roots


Brock

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Larry Luckinbill recently returned to his acting roots at the University of Arkansas to talk with fellow students... as April Robertson of The City Wire reports:

 

FAYETTEVILLE — The theater is half dark, the curtain is drawn, and the actors are awaiting their entrance. He sits quietly, but the anticipation builds, as he wonders what’s going to happen.

 

“In this moment, the whole audience is together,” he said. “It’s like they’re holding hands. This is different from the movie theatre.”

 

Laurence “Larry” Luckinbill discussed his career as an actor and his experiences as Sybok, a character from the 1989 movie Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Saturday (June 23) at the David W. Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus.

 

Since graduating from the University of Arkansas drama department in 1955, Luckinbill has won an Emmy, was nominated for a Tony and became the McIlroy Family Visiting Professor for Performing and Visual Arts. During his week-long stay, he has donated his papers to the Mullins Library and presented Clarence Darrow Tonight! and Teddy Tonight!, two of his original one-man shows, as part of Boar’s Head Players 2012 summer season.

 

An exhibit of his donations is on display in the Reading Room of the Mullins Library. The collection encases letters, photographs, action figures and props from a long and lively career of more than 40 years of acting in Star Trek, on Broadway and in one-man shows. His development as an actor also led to experience in writing and directing.

 

Fans attending a reception for him Saturday at the UA had the chance to ask Luckinbill, discuss their favorite memories of his work and get autographed photos oof him as Sybok.

 

Questions began eagerly with his Star Trek memories.

 

“The movie pitch for Star Trek was ‘wagon trains in space,’” he said. “That was it, they were hooked.

“We had to make a decision after the first set, and the network wanted to cancel it, but (the director) said, ‘No, we’re going to keep it.’”

 

The sets for Star Trek were simple.

 

“Sets had been erected [already], so they just dressed them up a bit,” Luckinbill said. “People hadn’t been to space before.”

 

Work on the set was a good fit for his acting style and personality.

 

“I loved William Shatner as a director,” he said. “We got along very well. There was a struggle with him and Leonard [Nimoy]. Leonard was exactly what Spock was — disengaged. But he had an ego, which Spock wasn’t supposed to have.”

 

Heidi Thompson, a long-time Trekkie (or Trekker), asked Luckinbill about the spiritual aspect of playing Sybok.

 

“Absolutely, there was a spirituality to it,” he said. “Bill [the director] wanted a televangelist, but I did my own thing and he never said a word.

 

His challenge was to mold the character, since “it wasn’t much on paper,” and to make of it what he could.

 

Luckinbill married Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, the stars of I Love Lucy.

 

ARTICLE: http://www.thecitywire.com/node/22529

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Well he is a good actor, that might have something to do with it as well. 

Interesting that -- with the exception of the bottom row of guys with whom I'm unfamiliar, going only by this pic and doing no further research as to who they are, what else they've done, the rest of the cast are all really gay in real life and now I can't help wondering if that was a deliberate, conscious decision on the part of the producers, director, etc. or a bit of a coincidence.  I'll have to read up further to find out about the other three and what went into the casting decisions.  For those whom I am familiar, I think they'll do more than justice to their respective roles and I hope that this is one of those Broadway productions that somehow or other gets taped for posterity and ends up on PBS or elsewhere that a broader audience (and those of us who aren't going to make it o New York anytime soon!) can find it and revel in what looks to be, at least based upon the cast, a stellar production.  :peachonthebeach:

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  • 3 months later...

Saturday: NEW episode of Dave’s Gone By (#653 – “A Little Bit of Luck”) 

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actor LAURENCE LUCKINBILL (The Shadow Box, The (original) Boys in the Band, Lyndon). Plus: Inside Broadway and more! 

Watch live, Sat, June 2, 11-2pm(Eastern) on the radiodavelefkowitz FB page or via the Dave's Gone By website.

Says Rabbi Sol about this week’s show: “I know from experience that it takes mucho courage to stand onstage in a one-man show, but Tony nominee Laurence Luckinbill has thrived in solos about the likes of LBJ and Clarence Darrow. Can the Lubavitcher Rebbe be far behind?” 

 

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