Director and first-time playwright Daniel Henning discusses his new play Dickie & Babe: The Truth About Leopold & Loeb

BY JONATHAN RIGGS

“I did my first play when I was four, a production of Stone Soup,” Daniel Henning laughs, remembering. “It’s funny — I played the soldier who makes soup out of stone for his starving friends. Somehow I feel like I’m still doing that — creating small theater in Los Angeles!”

And what delicious soup it is — Henning has a prestigious bio stuffed full of theatrical accolades and accomplishments (including an NAACP award for best director), his thriving 18-year-old Blank Theatre Company and a brand-new play, Dickie & Babe: The Truth About Leopold & Loeb he wrote and directed, based on the first trial of the century.

“It’s a fascinating, shocking, surprising story, very different than the other tellings,” he says, “The false image is of these slick, 1920s killers who were rich—I get how that’s a fun little story—but no, they were boys, young boys who had been tormented from outside and inside forces. They were sick, and then they met. That to me is a much more compelling story.”

While it was the homosexual relationship between the two that first piqued his interest, Henning went deeper, sifting through every primary source he could, including shockingly in-depth medical reports on both killers, and using testimony and transcripts for the bulk of the second act.

“I felt like I couldn’t write their personal story until I knew every piece of info I could get. It’s 3-D, showing these boys in all of their facets,” he says. “I’m not drawing a conclusion—I’m letting you do that.”

The heart-racing thrill of great theater has always captivated Henning, from the moment he saw You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown at the age of two.

“What I do remember is the experience, the feeling,” he says. “It really did bore into my soul: that live connection between me and those performers.”

He gained more experience by appearing in a few movies as a child (including The Black Stallion) and continued to perform in the Bay Area in local theater. At 17, he left to attend NYU, where he took classes from Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet, and W.H. Macy, and as a senior, helped out on-set for a production Horton Foote was staging, starring Matthew Broderick.

“It was amazing. I’ve always been the kind of guy who makes his own experiences, and at NYU, some opportunities were there and some I had to create,” he says. “If I were a shrinking violet from Iowa, I would’ve been disappointed in NYU, but I definitely wasn’t!”

With all his training and experience, Henning returned to California to tackle LA’s pilot season, and ended up cast as Donald O’Connor’s understudy in a revival of Charley’s Aunt.

“I got a play, naturally,” he laughs. “Most people come out here to make real money, and I get a job doing theater!”

After surveying the LA theatrical landscape, Henning decided on a goal: to create quality theater for himself and others, so he founded his own company: The Blank Theatre Company.

“A lot of times, people who are creating theater forget that it’s for the audience, and not just for their own inner exploration. I think about how many bad experimental ’80s plays I saw in New York!” he laughs. “It’s not that I’m choosing Oklahoma or something to make everyone happy, but I am looking towards the audience’s experience.”

His philosophy became that of his theater company.

“I started the Blank as a way to ensure that I’d see good theater. I’m interested in new writers, new ideas, creating work for the future,” he says, citing his Young Playwrights Festival, which features the work of teenage writers. “Shakespeare’s important, but I don’t need to see one more production of The Tempest. It’s important we’re supporting plays for the future.”

That’s vitally important for Henning, who gets passionate talking about his labor of love, Dickie & Babe, and how good theater physically affects its audience.

“You cannot replicate the visceral experience of watching someone trying to show you the complicated nature of the human condition,” he says. “There is something tangible you feel watching excellent theater.”

Dickie & Babe: The Truth About Leopold & Loeb begins February 2 with an official opening night on February 8. It plays Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm through March 16. Purchase tickets by calling 323/661-9827 or visiting www.theblank.com.