Typecast?

Chris is a thirty-two-year-old African-American actor whose specialty is Shakespeare. Chris attended a conservatory, and during his last year there, he was cast in the role of Dull in a production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost because, the head of the school told him, “he had no vision of an African American [playing] any role in the play but a character named Dull.” (The character of Dull is a “bumbling police officer,” who, in this particular production, was to be dressed in a fat suit.) Though the head of the school’s behavior was unacceptable, Chris worried about confronting him, not knowing who he could report him to and that doing so would just end up with him blacklisted from future work on the stage. Even though performing the role of “Dull” was an incredibly painful experience for him, Chris stuck with the role, hoping it would be worthwhile for his career. He made a few important connections as a result of the production, which eventually led to his being able to work with a prominent Shakespearean actor at the Globe Theatre in London.

Chris is a thirty-two-year-old African-American actor who particularly loves the work of William Shakespeare. As a young actor, he set himself the task of becoming “one of the best Shakespearean actors in the country.” Unfortunately, Chris says, he at times has met with resistance from people in the theater world because of his racial identity, particularly with regard to his performing the works of his favorite playwright. Chris says that there seemed to be certain people who “did not think African-Americans belonged doing Shakespeare.” Despite this stumbling block, Chris maintains his passion for Shakespeare and for the theater.

In speaking about what draws him to acting, Chris describes the way that developing a character allows him to explore the full spectrum of human emotions:

“You get to explore so many different facets of yourself. And you get to develop, actually, bring to fruition, parts of yourself that most people have to leave dormant … You get to explore violence and anger without it having the repercussions of, or you get to be immensely sad, and you get to work through things that most people leave buried with a lid on it.”

Chris did not originally plan to pursue acting as a career: he started doing debate his senior year in high school, and this helped get him a scholarship to a college in Louisiana. The scholarship, which covered half of his tuition, required that he be a drama major. He initially accepted it because he wanted to stay close to home, but he liked his theater classes, and so he began to consider drama more seriously. He remembers one of his theater teachers telling him “you either have to commit to [theater] or don’t do it at all. This is one of those things; you either do it one hundred percent or you don’t do it.”

Chris decided to give theater a shot. He finished all of the theater courses offered at his college in less than two years, and then, in his junior year, he transferred to another Louisiana school and enrolled in the theater program there. A theater company came to do a workshop with his theater class during that year, and the director of the theater company happened to also be directing a show at a top conservatory. He encouraged Chris to apply, and offered to write him a letter of recommendation. Chris was accepted, and for the next four years, he studied theater at the conservatory.

Despite the fact that he did not get directly involved in theater until high school, Chris has been drawn to performance throughout his life. When he was in the eighth grade, his English teacher had the class read Romeo and Juliet. The students were asked to memorize a passage from the play, and to stand up in front of the class to perform. Chris absolutely loved the assignment, and he says this is when he “fell in love with Shakespeare.” When Chris moved with his mom to Louisiana from California after eighth grade, he says that Shakespeare was his “refuge.” Over the next few years, he immersed himself in Shakespeare whenever he could. He read as many of the plays as he could get his hands on, watched every movie version he could find, and read every related book he came across. Shakespeare remained his favorite playwright through college, and when he got to the conservatory, he worked hard with his voice teachers to master the language of Shakespeare.

Chris recounts that he felt there had been a number of times during his four years at the conservatory in which the fact that he is African-American may have played a role in decisions made about casting. One of these occasions was particularly painful, and Chris remembers it vividly. In his last year at the conservatory, Chris tried out for a production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. After the auditions, the head of the school called Chris into his office, and told him that “he had no vision of an African-American [playing] any role in the play but a character named Dull.” (The character of Dull was a “bumbling police officer” who, in this particular production, was to be dressed in a fat suit.) To make matters worse, two non-African-American students in the year below Chris had been cast in leading roles, something that rarely happened, and something that made him feel even more “undercut” than before. Chris knew the behavior of the head of school was unacceptable, but the head of school was a “daunting man” in a position of power whom everyone was afraid of, and Chris didn’t feel like he knew who he could report such an incident to. Chris also worried that the head of school would try to get him blacklisted from future work on the stage for making the report. Ultimately, Chris reported, “I wasn’t prepared to say, ‘This is not acceptable.’ So I spent two months rehearsing, doing that play, playing a character named Dull … And, I cried every day we did that play, when I got off. It was awful.”

The production was a painful experience, and Chris stuck with the show hoping it would be worthwhile for his career. He made a few important connections as a result of being a part of the production, which led to work with a prominent Shakespearean actor at the Globe Theatre in London. With this actor directing, Chris landed work in a production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. He describes it as “a very hard, challenging, but an incredible experience.” To this day, Chris continues to view this actor and director as a mentor. 

Is there a point at which you think Chris should have left the show? How would you have handled this if you were one of Chris’ fellow cast members? Have you ever experienced a painful situation related to something you loved doing?