Darryl Maximilian Robinson Notes Multiracial Revival of Shaw's 'Don Juan In Hell' at Holstein Park

Archival Notes And Photos Of A Production Inspired by The Late, Great Charles Laughton-Charles Boyer-Sir Cedric Hardwicke-Agnes Moorehead 1950s Evening-Dress Dramatic Reading of The Work, And How Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Founder and Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning Principal Actor Darryl Maximilian Robinson Directed and Played The Devil With A New, Multiracial Drama Quartette for The ESC's 1998 Revival of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell at The Holstein Park Theatre In Chicago's Bucktown Neighborhood!

 

​Presenting George Bernard Shaw At A Chicago Park:​

One of the great traditions of the decades-old, Chicago non-Equity professional theatre community is for producers, directors and designers with extremely limited budgets to convert spaces that do not appear to be viable public performance spaces into just that! And when a director or designer rises to that challenge, stage magic can definitely occur. This was the case 26 years ago this spring ( March 5th through the April 12th of 1998 ) when Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Founder Darryl Maximilian Robinson brought his revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan In Hell" into a re-imagined gym space in The Chicago Park District's Holstein Park Feildhouse in Chicago's historic Bucktown neighborhood.

Sometimes a theatre director or stage actor is drawn to a dramatic or literary work simply because of the way it looks, or the way it was originally visualized on the stage. A legend of the English Stage and an Oscar-winning Best Actor ( for his wonderful and sterling character portrayal of King Henry VIII on screen ), the late, great Charles Laughton was no stranger to the wit, wisdom and feisty intellectual arguments made onstage in the works of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. However, it was quite the theatre season surprise and wonderful treat, when in 1952, he gathered a group of his Hollywood friends including internationally-acclaimed film star Charles Boyer ( who would receive A Special Tony Award at the end of the season ) as Don Juan, Sir Cedric Hardwicke ( who will go on to play Pharaoh Sethi in Cecil B. De Mille's The Ten Commandments ) as The Statue ( aka The Commander ) and Agnes Moorehead ( early on, famed in Orson Welles' 1941 Mercury Theatre Company Film Citizen Kane, later on, famed as The Enchantress Mother and Mother-In-Law-From-Hell Endora of 1960s TV's Bewitched ) as Don Ana, so he could direct the text and star opposite them as The Devil in a legendary staged dramatic reading of Don Juan In Hell, a noted third act dream sequence extrapolation ( often omitted in revivals ) from Shaw's epic 1903 drama Man And Superman. Most dramatic readings of a play, even with a celebrity cast, last for a run of about a night or two.

Charles Laughton's "reading" ran at New York's Plymouth Theatre for 66, and he also created a memorable original cast recording of Shaw's Comedy of Life After Death. Columbia Records Producer Paul Gregory's SL-166 1952 original cast First Drama Quartet recording in mono is how the work came to the attention of Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Founder and Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning Principal Actor Darryl Maximilian Robinson. He initially heard the First Drama Quartette in the late 1970s, then later played The Devil opposite Actor-Producer-Director Mark Carroll as Don Juan in a staged reading of the work for Mark Carroll Productions at Arlington Heights' Cutting Hall Theatre in 1986. After he formed his own theatre, Excaliber Productions, Ltd. of Chicago ( later The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago ) in 1987, Mr. Robinson decided he would in the future, if he found the right cast, return to the work as a fully-mounted production. 

Now celebrating his 50th anniversary as an American Stage Performer, Darryl Maximilian Robinson first staged a fully-mounted Don Juan In Hell in 1991 at both The Utopian Loft Gallery and Theatre and The Historic Old Post Office in St. Louis. The skilled Founding Excaliber St. Louis Resident Acting Company Members Christian Kohn as Don Juan, Walter Arlie Roberts as The Statue ( aka The Commander ) and Suzette Sutton as Don Ana did fine work ( some critically-praised ) working under Mr. Robinson's direction and effectively interacted with his portrayal of The Devil. It was a fine show.

Years would pass, and it was only in the late 1990s that Mr. Robinson felt pulled to Shaw's witty piece again.

And on that occasion he directed and played The Devil with A New, Multiracial Drama Quartette that included talented stage performers Samuel E. Ramirez ( aka Sam Ramirez, a highly-gifted and dashing Latino actor noted for his Windy City performances with The Factory Theatre, Latino Chicago Theatre, Theatre On The Lake and most recently Three Cat Productions ) as Don Juan, fine character actor Jim Spencer as The Statue ( aka The Commander ) and the lovely and comedically-skilled Liz Robertson as Dona Ana in the 1998 ESC revival of Don Juan In Hell at The Holstein Park Studio Theatre in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.

Fascinated by the 1950s evening-dress attire of Laughton's New York staged reading, and determined this new staging would more embrace "the love and beauty" aspects of the work mentioned numerous times by multiple characters in Shaw's wonderful text, Mr. Robinson had the cast in elegant attire ( as he did in 1991 ), and asked talented young painter and photographer J. L. Watt ( a member of The Excaliber Productions, Ltd. of Chicago St. Louis Resident Company ) to come up to The City That Works and serve as Special Visual Guest Artist for the run and create a massive and marvelous set painting. Sometimes, in the Theatre, its not just about the quality of the sound. Sometimes, it's about how it looks.

 

https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/darryl-maximilian-robinsons-1998-staging-don-juan-hell-nodx

 

https://theatre.fandom.com/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw%27s_Don_Juan_In_Hell_(_1903_)

http://www.abouttheartists.com/productions/100343-don-juan-in-hell-at-holstein-park-theatre-1998

 

https://m.peliplat.com/en/libr...

 

 

 

 

https://citizennewspapergroup.com/news/2023/dec/27/chicago-jeff-award-winner-darryl-maximilian-robins/

 

Most recently, Darryl Maximilian Robinson was named a winner of a 2022 Making The World Happening Award from Allevents.in for his numerous online theatre-related offerings during the early years of The Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Chicago-born and stage-trained actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson was most recently seen by Windy City theatregoers in his critically-praised dual roles of The Chairman Mr. William Cartwright and The Mayor Thomas Sapsea in the 2018 Saint Sebastian Players Chicago revival of Rupert Holmes 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' at the more than a century old St. Bonaventure Church for which he received a 2019 BroadwayWorld Chicago Award nomination for Best Performer In A Musical or Revue ( Resident Non-Equity ).

 

Darryl Maximilian Robinson has become noted as the very first black actor in American Theatre History to portray on stage a trio of classic dramatic roles including: Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" ( in a 1984 revival presented by The University Players of The University of Missouri-St. Louis and directed by AEA Member John Grassilli at The Benton Hall Theater ); King Henry II in a 1992 multiracial cast revival of James Goldman's "The Lion In Winter " ( directed by Mr. Robinson for his chamber theatre Excaliber Productions, Ltd in St. Louis and staged at The Wabash Triangle Cafe ); and Andrew Wyke ( opposite the talented actor Sean Nix as Milo Tindle ) in a 2000, 30th Anniversary, all-black cast revival of Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" presented under Mr. Robinson's direction by his chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago at The Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre of Oak Park, Illinois.

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