Monday, April 02, 2007

The Greatest Role of my Career: Big River, Spring 2005
























I was January 29th 2005. I was in the middle of my run with the Ritz's production of Some Enchanted Evening. At this time I was teaching drama at Green Tree School and I was still at Congreso After-School program. I was on the train going to Villonova to auidtion for Villonova Theatre's production of Big River. Big River is a musical about Huckleberry Finn and a run away slave Jim and their unlikely friendship. Jim was running away from slavery. Huckleberry was running away from responsibility. So they took a journey down the Mississippi on a make shift raft. The beauty of the story was watching the these two unlikely companions develope an unbreakable bond. They became brothers. Huck had to unlearn all the things he was taught about blacks being sub-human and see Jim as a father figure. Jim had to learn to trust Huck. The story was written by Mark Twain but was developed into a Broadway musical in 1981. I only wanted to audition for Jim and I expected stiff competition for the part. When I got to the audition I allways size up my competition. I heard him before I saw him. I heard a loud booming voice laughing and talking when I got to the theatre that sounded very familiar. It was none other than Gary Giles. He was a fine African-American actor in Philly. I met him when I understudied him in the fall of 2001 in Baby Case at the Arden. I also saw him in a lot of shows around town. I immediatly conceeded loss. Not because I thought he was more talented than me but because he was a better fit for the part and his work was well known. I knew he was going to get cast. So I felt like this was a waste of time. But then I felt a sense of calm. I wasn't getting the part now, I thought, so be loose and show them what I have. I first sung "Love Me" from Smokey Joe's cafe. The director Peter Donahue remarked that I sounded just like the actor from the broadway recording of the show. He called me back to read for Jim. I had a very good reading. I really put alot of energy in that audition as I tried to capture Jim's anger and fustration in my reading. I was then called back for the dance audition. I never claim to be a dancer. The first time I danced in a show was when I did the national tour of Tom Sawyer. But I move well. I had a very good dance audition. So that night after the audition on the long train ride home I felt very good about my audition. The last two male African American actors were Gary and I. So it down to me or him for the role of Jim. I told him he had it in the bag. He said I would get it. When I audition well I don't care what happens after that. I can't control people's opinions. The next day Peter Donahue called me and offered me the role of Jim! I was shocked! I beat Gary for the part! I really thought he was going to get it. He called me to congradulate me and promised to come see me in the show and he did. (Ironically Gary and I went out for the Center Theatre's production of Big River a year later. I did The Secret Garden there in 2001. It came down to me and Gary again and Gary got the part.) I was very excited to land the part of Jim! It was a dream role for me! The highlights in the show for me was my monologue in act two where Jim is missing his two children and he is telling Huck a story when he slaped his little girl because he told her to do something and she wouldn't do it. It turned out she was deaf and couldn't hear him. He felt very bad about that and the memory brought him to tears. I loved that monologue. My solo song at the end of act II called "Free At Last" was an exceptional song and I sang it very well. The musical director, Jim Ryan, let me sing the song my way. I liked to change notes in songs to show my higher range. Jim liked it and let me keep it. This show really displayed my acting skills. I was starting to think theatres in Philly were starting to see me as a singer first actor second. So I was out to show I could really act! Larry Cox Jr. played Huck and he was excellent. We had great chemistry! This show received alot of press and was reviewed by five newspapers. I got glowing reviews in four of them and a luke warm review from the Philadelphia Inquier. This was the greatest role of career at this point and would be very hard to top.