From the West Village Cherry Lane Theatre, to Atlanta Georgia, NYC Playwright Galinsky Brings his Heart and his ‘Bench’

By Amiri Byrd

The first time New York Playwright and Poet Robert Galinsky had a eureka moment around the issue of homelessness was in New Haven Connecticut in 1986. It was a freezing winter night of five degrees Fahrenheit and he and his roommate and theater collaborator Robin Selfridge, were living above a Popeyes Chicken, just off Yale University campus. As they entered their building, they stepped over an elderly man, shivering and crouched in the doorway. They knew the man. He was a local “street person” known as “Graveyard.”

Galinsky playing a character in The Bench at Cherry Lane Theater.
Photo credit: Aidan Grant

They got into their second floor well heated apartment and looked at one another and said… “What are we thinking!? We gotta get ‘Graveyard’ some chicken from Popeyes to warm him up!” So they went back downstairs and purchased a huge meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, and coffee. “Graveyard” was incredibly grateful as the two handed him this hearty gift, said goodbye and went back upstairs to their home, feeling good about themselves.

Within minutes, they again looked at one another and said “What are we thinking!? We have a couch, blankets, pillows, and heat. We ‘gotta bring him up.” So, they went back down again and invited “Graveyard” upstairs. He was utterly shocked and gracefully refused the offer. But Galinsky and Robin demanded that “Graveyard” get out of the cold and spend the night. He acquiesced and came upstairs. He was so cold they had to help him take each step up to the second-floor landing. “Graveyard” stayed for three nights until the weather broke.

Gary Cole playing a character in a charity reading of The Bench in Hollywood

This was everything Galinsky had learned from his parents about how generosity brings humanity to less than humane situations. His parents were proud of him but also thought he was out of his mind and over 30 years later, Galinsky still brings love and joy to our unhoused neighbors through: benefit readings, free workshops, sock donations (he has personally given away 10,000 pairs of Bombas Socks through their “Giving Partners” program), and through his Off Broadway play, The Bench A Homeless Love Story, touring theaters, colleges, and prisons from NYC, to Hollywood, and now a run at the Conyers Rockdale Center for the Arts in Georgia, August 3-5.

“People experiencing homelessness, and their families, tell me again and again that knowing their stories are being told through my play The Bench has made them feel alive and worthy of living again,” says Galinsky. “They are thrilled that The Bench shows them as sentient human beings capable of emotions, and audiences alike are re-energized, because of the play.”

Galinsky sees The Bench’s impact through the messages of thanks from those with homeless sons, daughters, brothers and sisters and through emails and notes from audiences who share how they are less afraid to reach out to our unhoused neighbors. In Georgia, Galinsky continues to bring hope to a hopeless experience, through his play, The Bench.

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