"Everybody excels in some one thing. Some in many. All
you've got to do is discover what."
-- The Gentleman Caller
in "The Glass Menagerie"
Kevin Kilner has discovered what he most excels in.
A scholar athlete at Dulaney High School in the mid-1970s, a defensive midfielder on Johns Hopkins lacrosse teams that won three consecutive national championships, and an erstwhile Baltimore banker, Mr. Kilner now has taken a winding road to Broadway.
Tomorrow, he will open in the 50th anniversary production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," starring as The Gentleman Caller opposite the legendary Julie Harris. The production is directed by Frank Galati, best known in these parts for writing the screen version of Anne Tyler's novel, "The Accidental Tourist."
"I know I'm spoiled with this particular group of people," said Mr. Kilner, 36. "I've never worked with people who are so generous, so talented and so prepared and ego-less."
Ms. Harris, a multiple winner of Tony Awards, will play Amanda, the mother figure in "The Glass Menagerie." The production also will star Calista Flockhart as her pathologically shy daughter, Laura, and Zeljko Ivanek as Laura's brother, Tom, who invites a co-worker -- a one-time "high school hero" named James Dulaney O'Connor -- home for dinner.
O'Connor is The Gentleman Caller on whom Amanda and Laura fix such high, and tragic, expectations.
The role of The Gentleman Caller, whose high school triumphs mirror Mr. Kilner's to some extent, "really is reflective of my own life in a lot of ways," he says -- just as the line about finding what one excels in "speaks to me about my journey as an actor."
But I think that applies to every human being. And I just am glad that I had the support from family and friends to find what that one thing was. There are so many people who go into a creative field . . . who don't have any support and don't get any breaks. A lot of times I think the biggest break for everyone is what happens at home . . . and by that I mean my family, my friends
and my hometown."
Early in the play's run, Baltimore will be represented in the theater by more than one of the stars. Two bus loads of Mr. Kilner's friends and family will travel to New York on celebratory excursions arranged by his mother, Dorothea, a teacher at Pot Spring Elementary School, and his father, Edward, a marketing consultant.
For those who knew Mr. Kilner in high school or at Hopkins, his circuitous journey to the Great White Way has been a constant source of delight. He had never expressed any interest in a dramatic career in college, where his muscular, 6-foot-3-inch frame made an appropriately intimidating figure on Homewood Field.
His only previous theatrical experience had been a production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" at Dulaney. As captain of both the lacrosse and football teams, he was recruited to appear in the show's chorus primarily because he could lift any female chorister over his head.
In fact, however, Mr. Kilner long harbored thoughts of becoming an actor. But he had kept them to himself, he says, not wanting his lacrosse teammates or friends "to think I was totally out of my mind."
Upon graduation from Hopkins in 1981, he pursued a more conventional path, taking a Masters of Business Administration course at Loyola College and working as a commercial lender and mortgage banker in town.
But a conventional career was not for him. While taking night courses in theater at the Baltimore Actors' Conservatory, he found that he was "having more fun at night, and was more interested in what I was doing than in what I was doing in the daytime." In 1985, he chucked conventionality and headed for New York.
His relatively swift ascent to a starring role on Broadway has been impressive, especially in a business where "overnight" success often occurs only after decades in the trenches.
Like many beginning actors, Mr. Kilner served apprenticeships in industrial films and TV commercials. But he soon graduated to off-Broadway stage parts, including, prophetically, the role of The Gentleman Caller in Paul Sorvino's American Stage Company production of "The Glass Menagerie" in 1988.
Shortly thereafter, he moved to Hollywood. He appeared as a "a kind of sleazy guy" opposite Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits in "Switch," and made memorable appearances on such shows as "China Beach," "L.A. Law," "Tales of the Crypt" and NBC's "Movie of the Week."
"In film or theater, I either play guys who are very sensitive and very, I guess, closer to how I am in life, or these psychotics -- crazy sort of guys who will kill you," he says with a chuckle.
In Los Angeles, Mr. Kilner also helped found INCLINE, The Theater Group, an ensemble company that specializes in "evocative and provocative" stage works.
It was at INCLINE that Mr. Kilner met actress Jordan Baker, with whom he lives in New York -- and who currently is starring as "C," the character she originated in Edward Albee's riveting off-Broadway play, "Three Tall Women," which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for drama.
"The Glass Menagerie" will have a limited run, scheduled to end Jan. 1, at the Roundabout Theater, "right smack-dab in the heart of Times Square."
'THE GLASS MENAGERIE'
Where: Roundabout Theater, 1530 Broadway, New York City
When: Nov. 15 to Jan. 1, at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; matinees 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays
Tickets: $50
Call: (212) 869-8400