The Boys Next Door

by Tom Griffin

Moderated by Charles Ratcliff

This comedic-drama about four men with intellectual disabilities living in a group home in New England, focusing on their daily lives, challenges, and aspirations through a series of vignettes, all overseen by their dedicated but weary social worker, Jack.

About the playwright 

Tom Griffin

Griffin was born in Providence, Rhode Island and grew up there and in Warwick, Rhode Island. He graduated with a B.A. in theater from the University of Rhode Island in 1969. He then acted with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, and taught playwriting at the University of Rhode Island.

His play The Taking Away of Little Willie was performed at the 1979 Mark Taper Forum Playworks Festival, and then at Theatre Three in Dallas. The characters were a child with disability, “a caring, self-sacrificing mother”, “an intelligent, bitter father” and “a self-appointed community guardian”. A reviewer in Dallas wrote, “The development is predictable here and there, but the play nonetheless crackles with tension.” In 1980, Griffin’s play Einstein and the Polar Bear was selected for the National Playwrights Conference. The main characters are a reclusive novelist living in a small New England town and a woman from Manhattan who arrives claiming that her car has broken down. It was picked up by Mark Lamos for the Hartford Stage Company, and then transferred to the Cort Theater on Broadway. Reviewers were highly critical, particularly about what they considered “achingly artificial dialogue”, and the play closed after four performances.

About the moderator

Charles Ratcliff

Charles is happy to collaborate in the exercise of discussing and incorporating works with diverse perspectives. “This is true Theatre appreciation.” He was seen in Theatre Memphis’s Read2Relate staged reading of Blues for Mr. Charlie (by the incomparable author, James Baldwin), as well as other Theatre Memphis productions of The Thanksgiving Play, Inherit the Wind, and The Glass Menagerie. Other credits include Playhouse on the Square’s Murder on the Orient Express, Dance Nation with Lone Tree Live, and The Comedy of Errors at Tennessee Shakespeare Company. Outside of the theater, Charles is a Speech-Language Pathologis and Vocologist with a deep passion for communication. He has also taught in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders, combining his love for performance with a dedication to educating others. He wishes continued success to the Read2Relate program.