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Theatre Huntsville's production of Tom Griffin's "The Boys Next Door" is an inspiring night at the theatre.  This play has been cast with some of the strongest and best actors in Huntsville.  "There's not a weak link in the bunch," says Director Jim Zielinski.  Not only the cast has won many local theatre awards, but the crew has won as well.

"The Boys Next Door" is the story of four men with varying degrees of mental or emotional disability who share their home and their lives with us.  We get a unique peek into a lifestyle that we may not be familiar with or have thought about before. 

Griffin’s story peers into the special, sheltered world of ever-chattering, chronically nervous Arnold Wiggins (Tom Voight), the opinionated, take-charge leader who also suffers a persecution complex; Norman Bulansky (Sam Marsh), a mentally disabled man who works in a doughnut shop and pines for both pastries and his little sugar plum, Sheila (Enzie Davis), a mentally disabled girl with whom he has fallen in love…and vice-versa; Lucien P. Smith (Horace Wilson), an older black man who has the mind of a child, but also the heart, and a fervent desire to show the world that he “means business”; and Barry Klemper (B. Dwayne Craft), a brilliantly intelligent young schizophrenic who deals with, or rather avoids, the harsh realities of the outside world by fancying himself to be a professional golfer…without ever learning the game.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

©2002 Jean Brandau, licensed to About.com
Photo ©2002 Jean Brandau, licensed to About.com