Orphans Star Bill Heck Finds a Home in Horton Foote's Masterpiece

Age: 31

Hometown: “I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved to Libertyville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, when I was 10.”

Currently: Playing hero Horace Robedaux in seven of the nine one-hour plays that comprise Horton Foote’s mammoth Orphans’ Home Cycle at the Signature Theatre Company, plus Horace’s father in the cycle’s opening play.

Saved by Sondheim: Heck discovered acting when he was a high school junior, a pivotal moment in his life. “My family was going through a rough patch, and I entered something of a rebellious stage—what my family calls ‘Bill’s dark years,’” he recalls. “I was very unhappy, lonely and angry, and my mother told me that I had to join an extracurricular activity.” Heck ended up trying out for Sweeney Todd and was cast as Judge Turpin, an experience that “turned me around,” he says now. “My grades came back up and I started hanging out with some really lovely people. It totally improved the quality of my life.”

Career Development: After earning a B.F.A. from the University of Evansville in Indiana, Heck moved on to N.Y.U. for a graduate degree in acting. From there, he worked in regional theaters and off-Broadway before settling in L.A. for two and a half years. “I’ve always hoped to maintain a bicoastal presence, and this [play cycle] is certainly helping to foster that,” says Heck, who speaks in a charmingly old-fashioned manner befitting his turn-of-the-20th-century character. On the west coast, he landed guest spots in numerous procedural series: The Unit, Without a Trace, NCIS, Medium, CSI: New York, Numb3rs and a showy role as “a misguided youth who found himself over his head in an armored-car robbery gang” in a two-part episode of The Closer. His TV crime spree was cut short when he was asked to submit an audition tape for The Orphans’ Home Cycle.

Foote Steps: Just as his small-screen career was gaining traction, Heck won the role of Horace, a character based on Horton Foote’s father—which meant a commitment of almost a year, first at Hartford Stage and now a full season off-Broadway at Signature. “It’s a lot of time, yes, but this is a better job than I could ever have hoped for in my career," he says. "I feel so humbled by it, just seeing all the people who worked with Horton and loved him deeply.” A trip to the late playwright's hometown of Wharton, Texas (Foote passed away in March at age 92) helped Heck prepare. “We stayed in the houses and saw the graves, which made it very personal,” he says. “In addition to the fact that it’s an amazing role, this has been an extremely rewarding personal experience.”

Three-Part Harmony: Mastering nine plays that rely on the art of conversation sounds like a tremendous challenge. “There’s definitely an arc and a journey,” Heck agrees, citing Foote’s specific instructions that the cycle should “follow Horace.” Part One, which shows his character’s abandonment as a child, “is pretty dark," he says. "There is more joy and celebration in Part Two [dubbed “the story of a marriage”], and Part Three [“the story of a family”] has bits of both—there’s a wacky comedy but also some of the deepest tragedy.” Concentrating on Horace’s relationships in each play helps Heck avoid feeling overwhelmed. “It’s been a gradual process of realizing the enormity of what we’re doing,” he says, “but in some ways it’s become more intimate because it’s about family, which is something everyone can identify with—and we’ve become a family on this project.”

Mild-Mannered Man: A man of few words (like his character), Heck allows that he’s not married, but laughingly says “no comment” when teased about being an eligible off-Broadway bachelor. Of his buttoned-down vibe, he says, “I have my moments, but I try and keep a mellow perspective whenever possible.” (Pursuing active hobbies such as mountain-climbing and skydiving may help him stay low-key in real life.) As for rumors that The Orphans’ Home Cycle will transfer to Broadway in spring 2010, Heck says, “I’ve heard rumblings, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. We’re all just trying to attend to the job at hand.”