Darryl Maximilian Robinson Provides His 'Waiting For Godot' Director's Notes
Sunday, September 01, 2024 - 1:00 PM
to Sunday, September 22, 2024 - 3:00 PM
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM See all dates and Times
Virtual Event
Between 1992 And 2001, In St. Louis And Chicago, Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Founder Darryl Maximilian Robinson Performed As Vladimir And Directed A Trio of Revivals of the Great Irish Playwright Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, And In The Process, Winning A 1998 WKKC Radio Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Director of A Play for His 1997 Staging of The Work at The Windy City's Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre With A Multiracial Cast!
"At the Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre, 208 W. Harrison Street, the multicultural Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago is currently putting on "Waiting for Godot," an existential dramatic and comedic piece by Samuel Beckett. And seeing Godot is worth waiting for. The play features Darryl Maximilian Robinson, founder and artistic director as Vladimir, Tom Carlson as Estragon, John Martin Keenan as Pozzo and Bruno Bafia as Lucky. Both Carlson and Robinson shine in their roles, playing off one another with challenging dialogue of over two hours in length. What is needed to keep the audience engaged are lots of changes in speech - including sounds, dialects and points of emphasis - and both Carlson and Robinson are successful in their efforts." -- D. Kevin McNeir, The Austin Weekly News ( Chicago ), Dec. 13, 2001.
"If one has to wait over two-and-a-half hours for someone who never arrives, it's hard to think of more engaging company than Darryl Maximilian Robinson. The versatile actor and director has cast himself as Vladimir in Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago's intriguing production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"." -- Myrna Petlicki, The Pioneer Press Oak Leaves, Nov. 21, 2001.
"We never learn much about this pair of funny, sad vagrants. DiDi, the more hopeful and confident of the duo, seems to be a dandy fallen on hard times. With impeccable timing, Robinson incorporates everyone from Looney Tunes cartoon characters to Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone into his performance. With eyes dancing gleefully one moment, he shifts from shtick to pathos - complete with tears streaking his cheek - in a split second. His bits of inventive comic business punctuate even the dullest of lines to "sell" them to the audience." -- Doug Deuchler, The Wednesday Journal of Oak Park, Nov. 21, 2001.
"If one must see that old groundbreaker of Theatre of the Absurd - Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" - you couldn't do better than Shakespeare Excaliber Company's superb production currently mounted in the tiny Heartland Cafe Studio. The cast exceeds expectations in this existential tragic-comedy, which has been called everything from a comic masterpiece to a depressing, tragic play that is terribly difficult to sit through. Designer / Director Darryl Maximilian Robinson is brilliant in the role of Vladimir. His vocal power and range are reminiscent of Paul Robeson, and his chameleonlike variety of facial expressions, sinuous body language, bold stance and total charisma are captivating." -- Beverly Friend, The Chicago Skyline, June 19, 1997.
"For much of its three-hour span, Darryl Maximilian Robinson's revival digs deep into a great play's fusion of gallow's humor and genuine despair." Lawrence Bommer, The Chicago Reader, June 5, 1997.
NOTHING TO BE DONE! Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and Excaliber Productions, Ltd. in St. Louis Founder, Artistic Director, Producer and Principal Actor Darryl Maximilian Robinson considers Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" one of the finest pieces of drama written for the stage.
He also considers it one of the most difficult stage plays to act in or to direct.
Mr. Robinson first mounted and played Vladimir in Godot in the Fall of 1992 at the historic Second Presbyterian Church in The Central West End of St. Louis, Missouri.
In addition to Mr. Robinson as Vladimir, this 1992 Excaliber Productions, Ltd. revival featured Michael Alt as Estragon, Carey S. Means ( known to millions of animated tv fans as The Voice of Frylock on the Adult Swim show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" ) as Pozzo, Patrick B. Hensler as Lucky and Philip Alexis Watt as The Boy.
J. L. Watt served as Production Stage Manager, Lighting Designer and Sound Technician and Visual Artist Todd Micheal Fichter created the Scenic Road Painting.
In the Spring of 1997, Mr. Robinson returned to the Beckett Piece again!
On this occasion Mr. Robinson directed, designed and played the role of Vladimir opposite Mark Poremba as Estragon, Kim Crawford as Pozzo and Chicago Theatre newcommer Shawn Lee Martin as Lucky and The Boy.
The 1997 ESC revival received several fine notices, and early in the folowing year, on Feb. 14, 1998., broadcast live locally with Theatre Critic and Host Nathaniel McLin of Critic's Corner on-the-air at WKKC Radio 89. 3 FM., Darryl Maxmilian Robinson was named winner of a 1998 WKKC Radio Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Director of A Play for the ESC's 1997 staging of "Godot", and Shawn Lee Martin was named winner of a 1998 WKKC Radio Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Debut Performance By An Actor In A Play for his effective portrayals of Lucky and The Boy.
In the Late Fall of 2001, with plans to close and shutter The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago looming ( as a result of the tragic advent of 9/11 ), Mr. Robinson returned to "Godot" for a third and final staging of Beckett's work, this time at The Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre of Oak Park, IL.
Mr. Robinson directed, designed, produced and played Vladimir opposite Tom Carlson as Estragon, John Martin Keenan as Pozzo and Bruno Bafia ( who also served as Production Stage Manager ) as Lucky and The Boy.
Now, 32 years after he first directed the play in St. Louis, and 23 years after he last directed the piece in The Greater Chicagoland area, Darryl Maximilian Robinson still has fond memories and takes great pride in having staged Beckett's most acclaimed work, and he expresses his deep gratitude and thanks to the trio of talented casts and crews who joined him in the huge challenge and true journey that is "Waiting for Godot"!
"...Darryl Maximilian Robinson vividly demonstrates how astute direction, superior acting and a wonderful sense of irony and humor can transform an intellectual masterpiece into an effervescent and lively evening of theatre." -- Mike Spitz, Nightlines Theatre, June 4, 1997.
https://patch.com/illinois/chicago/darryl-maximilian-robinson-three-renditions-waiting-godot-nodx
https://theatreblogofdarrylmax...
https://www.alignable.com/los-...
The Chicago Reader
June 05, 1997
WAITING FOR GODOT, Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago, at the Heartland Studio Theater. For much of its three-hour span, Darryl Maximilian Robinson's revival digs deep into a great play's fusion of gallows humor and genuine despair. But sometimes this production overstates the crisis, as in Vladimir's belabored final breakdown.
Beckett's two tramps are unforgettable prisoners of habit and victims of memory; loudly desperate to prove they were here, they also fear there's "nothing to be done." Robinson's Vladimir and Mark Poremba's Estragon are often worthy of Beckett, but Poremba's flat delivery can make Estragon's thickness more irritating than pathetic, and Robinson's grandiloquent Vladimir sometimes explodes into Robin Williams-style impersonations that seem more auditions than cries for help. (Bert Lahr, the most famous Vladimir, had only to imitate himself.) But the eloquence comes through: the play abounds with such minimalist gems as Vladimir's poignant "The air is full of our cries, but habit is a great deadener." Given the production's slow pace, few of these are lost, though a brisker tempo would have driven home the comedy.
Kim Crawford's pompous, privileged Pozzo is full of violent affectations in the first act but becomes more real in the second, when he's blinded into humility. Making a very impressive Chicago debut, Shawn Martin creates a winsome, Chaplinesque Lucky: his gracefully athletic delivery of the ill-named slave's monologue is acting verging on euphoria. --Lawrence Bommer
https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/waiting-for-godot-4/
EXCALIBER'S BEST DIRECTOR'S NOTE EVER!:
Theatre Lovers and Supporters,
Bestowed upon him exactly 26 years ago by experienced Chicago area radio personality, theatre critic and performing arts talk show host Nathaniel McLin, your humble servant in The Theatre, Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Founder, Artistic Director and Producer Darryl Maximilian Robinson, displays his 1998 WKKC Radio Chicago Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Director Of A Play for his staging of ESC'S 1997 multiracial cast revival production of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting For Godot" at The Heartland Café Studio Theatre in The Windy City.
The 2017 photo of Darryl Maximilian Robinson In His Awards Room is by J. L. Watt ( who also served as Production Stage Manager of the 1992 Excaliber Productions, Ltd. multiracial cast revival production of Beckett's "Waiting For Godot" at The Historic Second Presbyterian Church in The Central West End of St. Louis, Mo. ).
Though a recipient of a 1999 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance / Ira Aldridge Award nomination for Best Direction of An Ensemble for his staging of The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival of Athol Fugard's "The Blood Knot" at The Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre of Rogers Park and a 2001 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance / Ira Aldridge Award nomination for Best Direction of A Theatrical Production for his mounting of Le Roi Jones' "The Dutchman" at The Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre of Oak Park, Darryl Maximilian Robinson's solid win of the 1998 WKKC Radio Chicago Critic's Corner Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Director of A Play for "Waiting For Godot" at The Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre of Rogers Park was and is his Best Director's Honor Ever!
Again, much thanks to Host and Presenter Nathaniel McLin of WKKC Radio Chicago's Critic's Corner Fine Arts Awards.
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.
