At first I had thought this would be another depressing attempt at making people aware of the homeless situation in NY, but to my surprise I found myself quoting and repeating lines long after I had left the theater. The sense of community and the gentleness that Galinsky was able to bring across in each character was a welcome contribution to a very real and sometimes frightening lifestyle to those of us who have no direct experience with. Galinsky’s performance itself was not unlike a well crafted Bach chorale or fugue where one musical motif seems to merge seamlessly into the other creating layers at times harmonious and other times resolving into an unexpected cluster of dissonance once again opening us up to yet another motif or character which all seem to be born of each other thru Galinsky himself. I thoroughly enjoyed this piece and found myself afterwards wanting to invite each of them home for a nice hot meal.
Wayne Lopes. Production Manager at The Kitchen and Musician, Performer

When "The Bench" started, I remember feeling that a "homeless" play seemed so out of touch with the prosperous days of the new millenium. Quickly that dissipated, as I became entranced with the different characters, and the way Galinsky played each one. Most interesting to me was the facial expressions preceeding each characters diologue. Galinsky could deliver one line from one character, then instantly recieve that line and react as another character. Very impressive. It also made me realize that although the characters in the play enjoyed similarities like lack of money and food, they were totally different people and interacted like anyone else in dealing with problems, society and eachother. Overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable play, and a great performance by the man we call...Galinsky.
Andrew Einhorn - Television and Internet Television Producer

When you first hear that an actor will be playing five characters simultaneously, you think that it will be nothing but confusing. You think Eddie Murphy or Mike Meyers and slap-stick comedy. But Galinsky's "The Bench" is neither slapstick nor chaos. It is a perfectly executed play about four homeless men and their love for the same woman. Galinsky gradually introduces us to the four men, allowing the audience to become familiar with each characters movements, facial expressions, voice, dialect and posture. I was impressed by the easy way in which Galinsky moved from character to character. He possessed a great amount of focus throughout his performance, never breaking concentration. I also found myself completely focused during the performance and was mentally drained at the end. Galinsky's movement from character to character was fluid. Instead of pausing to "get into character," he moved with ease from one role to the other. This shows a great understanding by him of each individual character. All were developed quite thoroughly. The development was substantial enough for the audience to recognize which character was going to speak next simply by observing Galinsky's posture or walk. I came away from the performance marvelling at how one actor can be so talented and achieve so much. I really felt there were five people on stage.
Audrey Aloi Online Editor outdoorexplorer.com

I’m a seen-everything New Yorker and I’d like to report that Galinsky in his BENCH is a phenomenon to behold. He gives a virtuoso performance playing, inhabiting, really BEING five distinct, raunchy, very human characters, all in intense relationship with each other. And Galinsky plays them all at the same time, simultaneously! Check out the set, also it’s a entrancing use of video. The work is provocative, inventive, fun and powerful, and the erotic sequences are unforgettable.
Nicholas D. Wolfson Workshop Leader and Fine Artist

The show moves with a fluidity that disguises the essential complexity of the conceit, a continuous multi-character dialogue performed by one chameleonlike performer. The audience is riveted to the face of this expressive actor as he steers us through his story of love among the homeless. Each character is endowed with real emotions and intellect, and each interaction brings out their most human qualities. As theater, it is provocative and rewarding; as an innovative presentation of the narrative, it works so well that one begins to wonder why every other play hasn't been staged so simply and elegantly.
Mike Z Film maker and Activist

I had the pleasure of seeing Galinsky perform his one man show, "The Bench" last week at The Kitchen. As an unsuspecting audience member, he was able to take you to such a place that you were awaiting "who" would do/say what next. I say "who" would do/say what next in that he is a great actor, as well as character writer, pulling the audience in deep into the life of each character. While it is one man on stage and he never changes costume, he is quick and witty with the lines and his choreography so that you get the feeling that he is not alone, that all four characters are appearing at once. Within the context of serious subject matter, he keeps this story somewhat light, flipping back and forth, comically and dramatically. His use of video depicting the city streets was rather smart, further allowing the transcendence past a one-man theatre piece. Having worked in the industry for years, I have seen so many shows that leave you no where, while I left ths show feeling that this actor/writer/performer had a lot to say and the means to say it.
Kerry Scheidt Development Associate The Kitchen

Galinsky's performance was extremely fun and I enjoyed the myself very much. The characters were very real and I could see each one very clearly. I even had my favorites. It was a very good night at the theatre. Unlike most one person shows, after the first few minutes of The Bench, you feel like you are watching an entire ensemble. It had it all, a great set, great story and hue of characters from which to love or hate coming at you all at the same time, no breaks for character change or regrouping. It was a real "One Man" show. I even look at homeless people a little differently.
Allison Findlater Media/Traffic Supvr. Cline Davis & Mann

Galinsky exquisitely channeled the souls of four down and out passionate souls, and their environment. Superb acting; in his eyes I saw pain, horror, longing, love, true change as he transformed in milliseconds from one character to another, seamlessly. Never was the audience lost as to which of the five characters were embodied heart and soul. Galinsky's vocal range captures the metallic timber of voices that have weathered the icestorms of street life and heart break. Through homeless characters Galinsky portrays the desperate and youthful longing we all are prey to.
Annie Lanzillotto Literature Curator The Kitchen

I saw Galinsky's performance of the The Bench. It was a powerful performance, especially in light of the fact that it was a one man show. It didn't take much for the show to work. The stage was big; the set was simple. A construction cone, debris, trash, a shopping cart and some bags. They all served to communicate a trash strewn alley where the homeless congregate. A monitor projected images of the city onto a large screen at the back of the stage. I felt I was outdoors, watching everything from my own private bench. Although the story of love has oftentimes been used, it was presented in a fresh and moving context. Amazing how only one actor was able to communicate all of that with nothing more than his voice and his body.
Scott A. Ettin Freelance Writer

Anytime one man plays four, it is an interesting show. Galinsky successfully portrays these characters in an entertaining, engaging way. You leave feeling amazed that someone can remember and act out these different personalities, their feelings and their desires. An interesting introspective into lives of four men. I would try to do a bit more with the video montage though. Maybe synch it with the different scenes or something.
Michael Teich Director of New Business, Pseudo Programs, Inc.

This reminded me a bit of Whoopi Goldberg's one women Broadway Show from years back. Like Whoopi, Galinsky taps into the nerve, wit, and emotional space of the homeless ghetto that few could successfully capture without being sanctimonious or downright irritating. Only here, Galinsky employs the frenetic tempo and technology of the internet age to create an even edgier narrative. The near insanity of one actor taking on multiple characterssimultaneously seems to make sense in this world of towering surveillance video screens. It is a world that we all to often view through the impersonal and deadening eyes of technology. Fortunately, a talented performer, poet, and artist offers a more valuable set of spectacles to look through.
Matt Sislowitz Multi-media Consultant

It was a riveting experience to watch Galinsky bring several characters to life, switching from character to character with ease as they conversed with each other. He made a believer out of me. Each of Galinsky's characters is richly developed, colorful, and thoroughly memorable.
Bill Tibbals Fine Artist and Actor

I came off the street, got into my seat, the lights went down and I was on...The Bench. A one-man four-character play by writer/performer Galinsky performed at The Kitchen for most of the first week in April, the first thing one notices is that Galinsky really looks like shit - as he should, considering that all the characters are living their lives on the streets (and benches) of an unnamed metropolis in post-industrial America. Completely disheveled and dirty, Galinsky pimp-shuffles his way out from behind a pile of garbage and begins to acquaint us with the first of four characters whose lives are connected - almost in spite of themselves - in the effort of daily survival. Its all here, massive split-screen video backdrops placing us slowly into the vast, lost corners of every city - dimly lit subway stations at 2am with the odd human loping across the view-finder, a monoxide haze in an orange sunset cut by a black skyline, ghetto streets and gutted cars under the metal-halide streetlamps - and Galinsky showing us a tenacious, if beaten down, humanity within it all. Somewhat like a curb-side soap opera, Galinsky gives us 4 distinct male personalities that find themselves uncovering secrets between themselves and his one female character, Lorraine. As is often the case with secrets between friends (OK, people with mutual interests who don't quite trust each other), the revelation leads to an explosive confrontation that is all the more mind-blowing as one performer makes us feel like the stage is peopled with a small crowd. No easy task. And in spite of that difficulty, Galinsky simultaneously endows each character with a look, a walk, and a talk that makes it easy to forget that we're watching only one performer. I was left being reminded that, Mayor Guiliani's Potemkin-like attitude to the contrary, there is a lesson to be learned and a price to be paid for what our cities do to people. The truth is, we do care what people think about us and, in particular, what our children think about us. Galinsky's portrayals made me remember what happens when a society is afraid to talk about the biggest forces shaping it. Today, a new force is shaping our economy and our lives and I wondered if our kids will have learned to recognize those social and political priorities that best preserve human dignity and potential. I thought these sober thoughts while sitting in a dark theater on 19th Street watching Galinsky, his images, and his characters. If entertainment needs a purpose, let this be it.
Th. (T-Bo) Linder - Former Director of Sound Design and Co-founder of Pseudo Programs, Inc.

Galinsky's performance in his one-man show, "The Bench", is nothing less than mesmerizing. Within minutes of the lights going down we are pulled into a streetlight world of pathos, bittersweet humor, & most of all, pure humanity laid bare among the most wretched of conditions. The characters Galinsky effortlessly & fluidly segues between are infused with more depth and personality than can usually be found in most performers' portrayals of just one character. Galinsky brings his characters to life through richly varied gesture, personality, & mannerisms, but most of all through the empathy he creates between them & the audience. Each character has his or hers own unique set of strengths & weaknesses, cruelties and kindnesses that we can all recognize as our own. As we experience through them just another typical night on the street, we are reminded of the search for love, purpose, & dignity that we as people all share. In short-form theater I cannot think of a more accurate examination of the beauty & ugliness of the human spirit than can be found in "The Bench". That's the truth, Ruth. The performance was incredible. Comments on staging, lighting, etc... The bench needs to be further back. We were in the back of the audience & had a hard time seein the stuff at the front of the stage. The lighting was too harsh through most of it.... there should be a more neon/hallogen ambience instead of just straight on stage lighting.... definitly needs to be more low-key & dramatic. The red during the luv scene was perfect though. Pure backlighting might even be appropriate in some parts. Also more constant background noise would be cool. Where exactly was Genesis-P? I heard some sound FX, but I don't know if I'd really count it as sound design per say. Maybe the volume was too low. The projections were cool - especially the ones shot from street level, ie the perspective of the characters. The surveillance cam angles were interesting, but lacked relationship to the story - less immediate, unless their purpose was to create a contrast between the dehumanization created by the recorded image/our distanced perception of the homeless & the pure human drama unfolding in the foreground. Maybe the occasional projection onto you to indicate passing cars... Can you tell I went to filmschool? But all this is really nitpicky.... Your strong performance really filled the room with a vibe that let my imagination fill in what cracks there were. Totally killer.
Eric Knuble - Multi-media Artist

After seeing Galinsky last Friday night at "The Kitchen", I was so impressed on so many different levels. The writing was incisive, poignant and moving and served so well by a performance that was inspired. In a short period of time, Robert paints a picture of people so real so alive and so human that you get that very special and rare treat of forgeting that you're in the theatre. For a period of perhaps an hour (it's hard to tell because you're so mesmerized and the time goes too quickly, like your favorite Disney ride), you meet and become intimitely involved with several characters who for some reasons life has passed by. These people are likable, repulsive, desperate, sympathetic and humorous--conflicting traits which make Galinsky's characters eminently interesting and watchable. Galinsky moves through his characters with ease and clarity showing a remarkable range and sincere commitment to telling a story-- a powerful, vivid picture of life on the fringe. The performance is aided by a very imaginative and simple set design. Several roadside junkpiles with unique items are placed strategically at diagonal corners and a large split-film screen is placed in the back playing scenes of urban street life. The images are fairly non-descript so as not to compete with the performance and have a haunting feel as though shot through a distant video surveillance camera. The effect generates a feeling of timelessness, an atmosphere of passing street life with which we are all familiar and yet distant. It is against this backdrop that Galinsky brings the edge of life into focus. I could not recommend this more highly. GO! GO! GO!
Jay Potter Actor - Media Artist