Actor Mandy Patinkin to appear at University Theatre fundraiser

By By Neil Mulka

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Members of the KU Friends of the Theatre decided they needed some star power to help raise money.

So they asked Mandy Patinkin, known for playing the death-avenging Inigo Montoya in the 1986 film, “The Princess Bride,” to come by for an interview.

“A Conversation with Mandy Patinkin” will be modeled after the Bravo show “Inside the Actors Studio.”

“It’s an in-depth interview without the actors promoting anything,” said Kip Grosshans, president of the KU Friends of the Theatre.

Theater and film students will have an interest in asking Patinkin about the film industry, Grosshans said.

“I need to come up with some good questions to ask him so I don’t look like an idiot,” Eric Avery, Topeka junior, said.

In addition to the interview Grosshans wrote a musical medley that will be performed by three University of Kansas students highlighting aspects of Patinkin’s career.

The performance features musical blurbs from “Evita,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Dick Tracy” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” which Patinkin performed in while he attended the University from 1970 to 1972.

The group will have only three group rehearsals before Saturday’s performance because all of the performers are in shows or have other commitments, Avery, who is singing in the performance, said.

“It’s a challenge,” he said. “It goes from one thing to another and the music is complicated in structure.”

Matt Jacobson, associate professor of theatre and film, is constructing a film montage of Patinkin on stage and on screen.The montage will show the breadth of his work, Jacobson said.

“Everyone remembers him from “The Princess Bride,” but not everybody knows him from the Showtime series ‘Dead Like Me’ or Broadway,” he said. “He’s been in everything from ‘Alien Nation’ to ‘Sesame Street.’”

Proceeds from the benefit will go to help fund a scholarship for theatre and film students and an installation of a digital personal sound amplification system, which helps hearing-impaired patrons by giving them receivers that pick up transmissions from the theater’s sound board.

This system will be installed into the Crafton-Preyer Theatre and costs about $10,000, Grosshans said.

The KU Friends of the Theatre do a fundraiser like the one scheduled for Saturday night about once every three years.

John Scheirman

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