Darryl Maximilian Robinson Cites 4 African-American Chicago Jeff Award Winners
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As the full rites, rituals and celebrations of the 2024 50th Annual Chicago Non-Equity Jeff Awards have reached their conclusion, your humble servant in The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation ( Non-Equity ) Award Winners for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play for his multiracial chamber theatre's staging of the great South African playwright Athol Fugard's powerful anti-apartheid drama "Master Harold And The Boys" staged at the much-missed Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood ( which also garnered a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation ( Non-Equity ) Award nomination for Outstanding Production of the Year ) feels both obligated and compelled to reflect on being blessed during his 50th anniversary as an American Stage Performer, to comment on his luck in being able to meet with, perform with, and work with ( sometimes briefly ) no less than four, gifted, fellow African-American Chicago Non-Equity Jeff Award Winners thoughout his stage career.
The very first of these happy occurrences took place in the late fall of 1981, when under the fine direction of then New York-based theatre artist Imani Douglas, your humble servant, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, was cast in the supporting roles of The Comic and The Passersby in the late and revered and beloved African-American Producer Val Gray Ward's Kuumba Theatre Company of Chicago staging of Ed Shockley's biographical drama with music "The Little Dreamer: Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues" staged at The Kuumba Theatre Company's performance space at The Historic Pakula Building in The Loop of Downtown Chicago.
Though this actor was still new as a professional on the Chicago Theatre Scene, and playing two relatively minor roles in the piece, the star of the show, the late, great and beloved African-American actress, singer, ensemble choir leader and concert presenter Sue Conway ( known to many as Sulanya Conway ) was always gracious, supportive and kind towards this performer's efforts in the show and was a true joy to work with.
Ed Shockley's 1981 musical drama begins with an older music legend Bessie Smith ( Conway ) in her dressing room preparing for a concert, and after she starts to reflect on her career beginnings, then remembers back to her younger days where multiple characters via flashback, including: a younger version of herself, her older brother and the legendary Ma Rainey, play their roles in shaping her into the "Empress of the Blues" that she would become. And, after reflecting on her life, towards the end of the play, Bessie Smith summons the energy, courage and inspiration she needs to go out and give a dynamite concert performance.
Sue Conway was quite effective in her dramatic scenes as the older Bessie Smith. She is a strong dramatic performer. But what brought the house down at each and every performance and had audiences cheering wildly through curtain calls was her incredible musical vocal renditions of Bessie Smith's classic blues hits performed during the closing, 30-minute concert performance, which featured on the ivories expert playing by the late, great Little Brother Montgomery, a legendary pianist, and at that time a last, surviving member of the real-life Bessie Smith's band. Sue Conway made local Chicago Theatre History with her work in The Kuumba Theatre Company's staging of "The Little Dreamer: Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues" and would win for herself and the show a 1982 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actress In A Principal Role In A Play for her sterling performance.
This theatre artist would never again have the opportunity to share the same stage as Sue Conway after her rousing Jeff Award-winning performance in "The Little Dreamer." However, serveral years later, soon after he won his own Jeff Award for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play for "Master Harold And The Boys," Ms. Conway made the time, and was gracious enough to attend a performance of the multiracial Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago's 1999 Jeff Reccommended revival of Athol Fugard's "The Blood Knot," also at The Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre. She seemed delighted to have an opportunity to see this old stage actor's work, and a few days later, mailed to the theatre one of the most loving and kind letters this artist of 50 years of stage performances has ever received.
Needless, to say, since her passing in 2015, there are still many in the professional Theatre and Music communities of Chicago who truly feel her loss.
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Another fine artist your humble servant in The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, had the pleasure of working with is the fine and gifted African-American performing artist Walter King, Jr. Both of us residents of the West Side of Chicago, this stage actor came to be delighted to know the multitalented Mr. King, Jr., and served for a very short time in the capacity as an Emcee and comedic assistant during a couple of 1980s public nightclub engagements for his acclaimed show of Magic and Illusion for which he has become known around the entire country as "The Spellbinder."
Mr. King, Jr is a skilled entertainer and veteran stage performer who is not just noted as a wonderful interpreter of the art of illusion, but is a fine teacher of Magic as well.
However, what many of his decades of audiences and fans may be completely unaware of is that he is also quite a very talented dramatic actor. Walter King, Jr is one of the very first Non-Equity African-American actors to be recognized by the Chicago Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee. In 1981, Walter King, Jr. won a Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play for his searing and intense performance as a gang member in The Kuumba Theatre Company's revival of the urban drama "The Mighty Gents."
Currently speaking, based on his decades of committed work and mastery of his craft, the entertainment industry continues to be impressed by the fine talents of Chicago's very own Walter King, Jr. as exemplified by his recent 2024 well-received performances as "The Spellbinder" at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. And this veteran theatre artist truly wishes him much continued success.
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It was only during the 1990s, after your humble servant in The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, had served and presented multiple stagings of numerous multiracial productions of The Classics, as The Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago, that he would come to meet, respect and admire the work of two additional African-American Non-Equity Jeff Award Winners. And it was in the capacity of serving as their Director in two stage classics on the Chicago Stage that he came to know them best.
"Director Darryl Maximilian Robinson emphasizes the more farcical aspects of the plot. The performances, played in a melange of natural accents, range from Kelvin Blunt's Chicago-style Algernon Moncrieff to Phillip Gibbs' downstate John Worthing to Doris Craig Norris' deep-south Lady Bracknell to the exquisite Myra Oiga's Filipino Cecily. The Scott Joplin incidental music ( performed by Dick Haymes and James Levine ) gives the action a silent movie giddiness." -- Mary Shen Barnidge, The Chicago Reader, January 26, 1995.
Revered as a fine stage actress in the local African-American professional theatre community of Chicago since the 1970s, the late and very talented Ms. Doris Craig Norris is best remembered for her powerful performance as a distressed woman in the Black Ensemble Theatre of Chicago staging of "Trouble In Mind" for which she captured a 1977 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actress In A Principal Role In A Play.
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However, it would be some 18 years later that this theatre artist would have the true joy and delight to direct Ms. Norris as Lady Bracknell in the ESC's 1995 100th Anniversary Revival Production of the brilliant Oscar Wilde's rollicking comedy of manners "The Importance of Being Earnest" staged at Producer Norris's and the late and talented Actor, Musician, Producer Gregory Christopher Armstrong's Hidden Stages Theatre performance space near the Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago.
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Ms. Norris was a delight for this artist as a director to work with and she totally succeeded in finding the comedy that the role of Lady Bracknell required. The cast and crew were very pleased to act and interact with her and were duly impressed by her work.
Sadly, some 20 years after the ESC's "Earnest" revival, in 2015, we saw the passing of Chicago Jeff Award Winner Doris Craig Norris. A 2015 Special Celebration of Life was held in honor of Ms. Norris at The Black Ensemble Theatre of Chicago. And here is a comment regarding that event provided by Black Ensemble Theatre Founder, Director and Producer Jackie Taylor:
"TO EVERYONE, including, but, not limited to FAMILY, FACEBOOK, FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES:
"REMEMBERING DORIS CRAIG NORRIS"
THIS IS A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF DORIS CRAIG NORRIS! MANY OF US ARE MORE BLESSED TODAY BECAUSE SHE LIVED AND IN HER OWN WAY SHE ENRICHED OUR LIVES!
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Black Ensemble Theater
4450 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60640
HOSTED BY: Jackie Taylor and Donn Carl Harper
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The first employee of the Black Ensemble Theater has passed away. Her name was Doris Craig Norris and those of us who knew her called her DC. She was an actress, teacher and entrepreneur - one of the first African Americans to receive a Jeff Award (1977) and the first business manager of the Black Ensemble Theater. (1978) She also made the greatest cabbage and cornbread that you could ever imagine. Thank you Doris my friend for the many dinners and the unselfish love all these years. You will be greatly missed.
- Jackie Taylor
With the greatest respect and affection, this theatre artist and the entire ESC remembers and salutes the work and contributions of skilled Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning Actress and noted theatre producer Doris Craig Norris.
It would be four more years before this theatre artist would again have the joy of working with another African-American Jeff Award-winning actress, and it would occur 14 years before this talented lady actually would win the prize.
As an actor, your humble servant in The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, first had the pleasure of working with the versatile and skilled African-American character actress Felisha McNeal when she appeared as part of a trio of comedic storytellers and this performer played the dual roles of Clyde and Rueben in the 1988 ETA Creative Arts Foundation midwest premiere of the late, playwright Ray Aranha's "Sons and Fathers of Sons" at the group's popular venue on South South Chicago Ave. In The Windy City.
Ms. McNeal impressed this artist right then, but years later, when she starred as Mama Younger in the 1996 Hidden Stages Theatre of Chicago revival of playwright Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin In The Sun" ( a performance for which she received a well-deserved 1996 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Award nomination for Best Leading Actress In A Play ), this actor and director knew she was a gifted African-American artist he would truly enjoy acting with as well as directing. The only question was, what play and when and where to mount it?
By the late 1990s, this theatre artist could only afford to produce and direct revivals of the classics on a flimsy, shoestring budget.
However, with a cast and crew willing to work for no money or just a small percentage of the night's box office receipts, this old stage actor and play director was thrilled when Felisha McNeal agreed to appear as A Special Guest Performer in the role of Big Mama Pollitt opposite this artist as Big Daddy Pollitt in the 1999 Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival of Tennessee Williams's classic family drama "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" staged with a multiracial cast at The Pulaski Park Studio Theatre in the near-northside's Wicker Park neighborhood.
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The show was well-received and effective. And, Felisha McNeal was, as expected, great in the role of Big Mama.
This actor and director has the most positive and fond memories of sharing the stage with this talented lady.
You, fellow Theatre Lovers and Supporters, therefore, can only imagine this theatre artist's delight and surprise some 14 years later and reading the news of the annual Chicago Non-Equity Jeff Awards Winners only to see the name of the talented Felisha McNeal announced as winner of a 2013 Non-Equity Jeff Award for Outstanding Actress In A Supporting Role In A Play for her highly-effective portrayal in the ETA Creative Arts Foundation revival of "Jar The Floor."
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And if there is any doubt as to the grit, determination and tenacity of actress Felisha McNeal leaving a clear and powerful legacy for all gifted African-American thespians in the Greater Chicago Area to follow, more recently, the gifted artist captured her second Jeff nomination, a 2023 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award nomination for Outstanding Performer In A Supporting Role In A Play for her acclaimed work in The Raven Theatre's staging of "The October Storm."
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This artist therefore is pleased and proud on behalf of The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project to extend kudos and heartfelt congratulations to the highly-talented Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning Actress Felisha McNeal on her many contributions and successes in Chicago Theatre.
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And with the inclusion of this article, your humble servant in The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, completes his personal and professional celebration of the 50th Annual Chicago Non-Equity Jeff Awards.
Cheers, Chicago Theatre Artists, and Much Bread and Roses!
