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Darryl Maximilian Robinson Notes His 1997 Chicago Jeff Award Best Actor Win!
Nearly 27 years ago, on May 8, 1997, veteran and award-winning Chicago, St. Louis and Los Angeles stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson roused himself from slumber in his then very small, Logan Square neighborhood apartment on the near-north side of Chicago and began strolling up and down Logan Square Boulevard to check for early morning deliveries to newspaper vending machines. He was in search of a very specific entertainment news article which he expected to find in both the major dailys of that time in The Windy City: The Chicago Sun-Times and The Chicago Tribune. For on this particular date the illustrious and well-respected, city-wide theatre awards organization The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee was scheduled to publicly announce its nominees for outstanding productions and performers of the 1996-1997 Chicago theatre season and Darryl Maximilian Robinson's multiracial, non-Equity professional chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago was in the awards "mix" for its revival of the great South African playwright Athol Fugard's anti-apartheid dramatic masterpiece "Master Harold And The Boys." Darryl Maximilian Robinson's "early bird gets the worm" thinking prevailed when he obtained multiple copies of both major papers announcing the ESC Jeff-Recommended production had garnered two significant nominations! Without question one of the most moving and emotionally wrenching plays by the great South African playwright Athol Fugard is his personal memoir of racism known as "Master Harold And The Boys." The acclaimed playwright / director's original 1982 Yale Repertory and Broadway productions captured huge critical response and awards recognition ( including 1982 Tony Award Nominations for Best Play and Best Director for Fugard, and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor In A Play on Broadway for Zakes Mokae for his moving performance as Sam Semela ). There was a successful Showtime Television version of the play with Mokae recreating his award-winning role. And though the play is considered a great and potent dramatic work addressing the harmful effects of racism, by the early 1990s, not many regional or local American productions of the work were being staged. In St. Louis, during the Spring of 1993, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, Producer-Director of Excaliber Productions, Ltd. ( ably assisted by skilled co-designer and production stage manager J. L. Watt ) directed and played the role of Sam Semela in the work opposite talented young actors Philip Alexis Watt as Hally and Carey S. Means as Willie in a small, well-received revival of the work at The Wabash Triangle Cafe in St. Louis. Based upon the effect the work had on local audiences during that production ( the issue of racism was quite relevant then, as it is now! ), Mr. Robinson staged a more detailed 1997 revival of the work ( on this occasion ably assisted by dramaturg, co-designer and co-producer Jeff Helgeson ) at Chicago's Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre in the Windy City's northside Rogers Park neighborhood. Under the banner of The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago, Darryl Maximilian Robinson appeared as Sam Semela opposite skilled performers Kevin Heckman ( later replaced by the gifted Kevin Adair ) as Hally and Gregory Christopher "Word Jazzman" Armstrong ( later replaced by talented newcomer Eliyahu Miller ) as Willie. The production, designed, produced and directed by Mr. Robinson captured several favorable reviews and garnered for Mr. Robinson and The ESC multiple theatre honors including a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award Nomination for Outstanding Production of the Year ( to The ESC ); a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award Nomination for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play ( to Mr. Robinson ); a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Award Nomination for Best Leading Actor In A Play ( to Mr. Robinson ); and a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance Award Nomination for Best Sound Design ( to Mr. Robinson and Mr. Helgeson ). The ESC's 1997 revival of Athol Fugard's "Master Harold And The Boys" also received Letters of Commendation and Recommendation from The Chicago South African Consulat General's Office and The City of Chicago Dept. of Human Relations praising the effectiveness of the production and encouraging audiences to see the great Fugard's work. In addition to these notable accolades, at the end of the 1996-1997 theatre season, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Heckman and Mr. Armstrong were invited to perform a scene from The ESC's revival of "Master Harold And The Boys" at the June 9, 1997 24th Annual Citations Ceremony at The Park West Theatre in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of The Windy City. It was a wonderful evening that theatre veteran and Jeff Award Winner Darryl Maximilian Robinson will always cherish. Celebrating his own 50th anniversary as an American Stage Performer, he salutes all the nominees, winners and Jeff Commitee Members on their 50th as well.
Event Links
https://youtu.be/0EN_HRbNnak?si=9ESPCOBJVjFx6D4z
Virtual: https://go.evvnt.com/2255333-0
