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Conrad promotes poetry, museum, Pittsburgh
Sunday, March 19, 2000 By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
When David Conrad agreed to participate in a fund-raiser for the International Poetry Forum, he figured the selections would be the usual "greatest hits."
Director Samuel Hazo, however, surprised him.
And delighted him.
"He picked the most obscure, kind of strange, interesting collection of poems," says Conrad. He's talking on his cell phone while engaging in that most improbable of Los Angeles activities: Walking.
The 32-year-old actor, an Edgewood native who could be returning to television with a Fox series called "L.A. Confidential," is among the notables participating in Friday's "Turn-of-the-Century Impromptu" at Carnegie Music Hall. He attended Poetry Forum events as a child and was intrigued by Hazo's profession. "When you're a kid, you don't know too many poets."
This week's program will reunite Conrad with onetime co-star Brooke Shields. They appeared in an independent movie called "The Weekend," which was released in Europe but not in this country. Conrad, aware that Shields studied French literature at Princeton University, invited her to participate.
"Why don't you come down and do it? People will be like, whoa, she's reading French."
Conrad has never met James Earl Jones, and he's thrilled by the prospect. "He's about as good as you get in the acting world. It's unbelievable to listen to him; it's like he's from another age, really."
Conrad will read four works, including a Nicholas Beil poem titled "Adam" that's actually closer to a monologue, some light verse by Ogden Nash and probably something by the late Spanish poet Gabriel Celaya, known for his social protest. "The poems I get to do range from an utter sort of frivolous kind of fun to mad raging. It's going to be an interesting arc for me."
Much like his career.
In the fall, the sometime Pittsburgher will be seen in the movie "Navy Diver," starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron and Hal Holbrook. It's about Carl Brashear, the first African-American deep-sea diver in naval history. Even after losing half of his left leg during the recovery of a nuclear warhead in 1966, Brashear continued to dive.
"The reports I got were good," Conrad says of the 20th Century Fox movie. "I mean, if you hear anything, that usually means somebody thinks it's good. And if you hear nothing, that means somebody thinks it's bad and they're not saying anything."
The actor, who made his mark with the short-lived ABC series "Relativity," should learn by the end of the month if Fox will proceed with a series based on "L.A. Confidential" and related crime fiction by James Ellroy. He shot the pilot with Kiefer Sutherland and Eric Roberts.
Conrad planned to meet with the director of a Sandra Bullock film, but "that's still in the early stages." He also is likely to join Kathryn Spitz and Doug Mertz in the Pittsburgh premiere of "Three Days of Rain" May 10-27 at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. A comic drama about parents and children, it's a three-actor, six-character play that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
A year ago, Conrad was in San Francisco at the Geary Theater, where Tom Stoppard's "Indian Ink" was making its United States premiere. The San Francisco Examiner critic gave it a mixed review but called Conrad, who played a dashing British soldier in India in the 1930s, one of the "bright standouts in a large, uneven ensemble."
Pittsburghers may remember Conrad from another Stoppard play, "Arcadia," at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1996. When Conrad comes to town, he plans to meet with organizers "trying to put together what's going to happen to the Hazlett," former home of the Public Theater.
"I'd seriously like to be involved with that, and I have friends who are trying to move themselves back to Pittsburgh, and I'm trying to be a catalyst for people to do that, including myself," says Conrad, who keeps apartments in New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh (which his parents, who have retired to Stone Harbor, N.J., sometimes use).
"Pittsburgh's the place I want to be. It's the place I want to work, or if I ever raise kids, if I ever get married, that would be the place to do it. And I feel like it would be a great venture -- for me, it would be a dream come true to be able to be on the ground floor of a theater being created in Pittsburgh. So, I'm going to try to hook up with them, to see if they need me or if there's a place for me."
Conrad also hopes to appear in a play at the new home of the Public, the O'Reilly Theater. Once next season's schedule is announced, he will offer to audition. "I don't sit around and wait for people to offer me parts. I'm going to go in there and read for them."
Another project even closer to Conrad's heart is the proposed National Museum of Broadcasting, with buildings straddling the border of Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg. The museum would include a house and garage that once belonged to inventor and Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad, whose research and experiments launched the world's first commercial broadcasts and, soon after, Westinghouse's KDKA-AM.
David is Frank Conrad's great-grandson, and he says of the organizers, "They have a really remarkable plan; they have a great blueprint. They have a lot of really thorough research, and they have a lot of things to offer.
"They just haven't been able to 'P.R.' it correctly and frankly -- and I hope you put this in the article -- I think Westinghouse and KDKA should be ashamed of themselves. Because KDKA has offered nothing but advertising time, which is nice but I think garbage, and Westinghouse is absolutely a disgrace."
KDKA-AM management has been meeting with Conrad Project organizers during the past year and recently launched a promotional campaign. The station is running hourly public-service announcements to generate support for the project. It also set up a link on its Web home page (www.kdkaradio.com) to the National Museum of Broadcasting home page.
Combined with the monetary grant from its parent company (the CBS Foundation has committed $5,000), KDKA believes that raising public awareness is crucial to saving the Conrad property.
"Our goal is to save this project. We want people to know how vital this is to Pittsburgh," says KDKA assistant program director Jeff Hathhorn, who is the station's liaison to the proposed museum. "What we can do from a promotional aspect is how we can help them. At least we've been able to put our foot in the door and keep it from shutting."
The $5,000 is on the higher end of CBS Foundation grants, says Helene Blieberg, executive director of the organization in New York. "We tend to make smaller grants, leveraged with in-kind services," Blieberg says. "It's our practice to combine our resources with our funding and anticipate stronger results."
It would cost the Conrad Project $320,000 to buy the building, with perhaps $65,000 needed to get the ball rolling. "The problem is they haven't been able to get foundation money," although they have offers of matching grants, but that means initial funds must be raised, Conrad says.
"They haven't figured out a way to coordinate a relationship with, I guess, certain government figures or certain people who pull strings in either the state or the city and, let's say, somebody who's a philanthropist. I guess I've been trying to figure out a way to bridge that gap."
Proving he is willing to do more than just talk, Conrad says, "If the TV show goes, I'm willing to give two or three episodes' worth of cash to that. Because how much damn money do I need?"
Conrad endorses Project plans for something more than just a museum -- a combination community center, sound studio and Internet cafe serving nearby residents. After the March 1 shooting rampage that put Wilkinsburg in the news for all the wrong reasons, such a development could be both healing and represent a commitment from the city and Allegheny County toward the community.
"I grew up in Edgewood, and I know where Wilkinsburg's gone. I think it'd be a good thing," he says.
Conrad, whose family has been in Pittsburgh since the 1840s, says there's a lot of money in the city -- old family and foundation money, new computer and software money. "Why not tap that? Here's an outlet by which you can show your goodwill toward a small town and put yourself on the map as here we are, doing this thing for Pittsburgh."
Sounds almost poetic in its simplicity and generosity, doesn't it?
This story contains reporting by PG radio writer Adrian McCoy.
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