Veteran and Award-winning Chicago-born and Los Angeles-based Theatre Artist and Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project Founder, Artistic Director, and Principal Actor Darryl Maximilian Robinson shares information and insights regarding his more than five decades of involvement in The Performing Arts.
Darryl Maximilian Robinson Notes His Upcoming 50th Anniversary As An American Stage Performer With A Talk On His Chicago Stage Roots On 'The Actor's Choice'
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Exactly 50 years ago, one month from today's date, on December 21, 1973, a skinny, apprehensive, stage-frightened, 13-year-old, African-American kid walked upon a makeshift stage in the gym at a now nonexistent middle school, the West Side of Chicago's Robert H. Lawrence Upper Grade Center, to play the role of Mr. Jones in that Chicago Public Schools facility's holiday play for students and staff entitled "A Black Christmas Carol." By the end of the second school day performance of that work ( after receiving ample laughs and applause ), the kid knew, above all else, he wanted to be an actor, a professional actor in The Theatre, and he would do all that would be required of him as a Student of The Performing Arts to achieve that goal.
During his high school years, ( as a Student Performer at Albert G. Lane Technical High School and Whitney M. Young Magnet High School for The Performing Arts, and as A Guest Student Actor Performer at Josephinum High School for Girls ) he would go on to perform many roles and receive educational training at many facilities. He would happily work with numerous professional arts educators, who were also working professionals in The Windy City's entertainment industry, including four years ( 1975-1979 ) giving public performances and receiving quality musical theatre training with The Chicagoland High School Theatrical Troupe.
And by 1980, he was a working, paid for his craft, stage performer.
His 1980s stage credits would include roles with The National Shakespeare Company of New York, The Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival and The King Richard's Faire and Bristol Renaissance Faire of Wisconsin, and St. Louis' historic Goldenrod Showboat docked at Laclede's Landing.
Ten years after his first appearance on the stage, he was honored to play The City of Chicago's Historic Founder.
For a time, in 1983 ( just two years after winning the 1981 Fort Wayne News-Sentinel Reviewer's Recognition Award for Outstanding Thespian of the Season for a gallery of his stage roles, particularly for the part of Fagin in a revival of Lionel Bart's classic musical "Oliver!" at Enchanted Hills Playhouse of Syracuse, Indiana ), for the highly-regarded Urban Gateways arts and educational organization, Chicago-born and stage-trained actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson, toured to numerous public and private schools throughout the greater Chicagoland area playing the Caribbean Island-born, African-American, French and English speaking Frontiersman and Founder of The City of Chicago, Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable ( 1745-1818 ), in local playwright Alice Rubio's highly-effective, one-act historical drama "Chicago: A Tale of One City."
Darryl Maximilian Robinson discusses a few of his most early Chicago Stage Roots during the September 19, 2016 edition of veteran entertainment journalist and reporter Ron Brewington's internet performing arts television show "The Actor's Choice" Episode 2.37.
After an intriguing interview with Guest Actor John Ruskin, Founder of The Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica, California, Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago Founder Darryl Maximilian Robinson talks of his training and experiences during the second half-hour of this informational program with Host Ron Brewington.
Happy Holidays And Enjoy.
Introduction To The Stage Career of Veteran and Award-winning Theatre Artist Darryl Maximilian Robinson Born in Chicago in 1960 and currently celebrating 50 years of involvement in The Performing Arts, Darryl Maximilian Robinson is a veteran and award-winning stage actor, play director, theatre producer and private acting instructor who has appeared onstage or been involved behind-the-scenes in more than 250 theatrical and literary arts productions around the country. He is best known for touring performances as His Most Revered Lordship, Sir Richard Drury Kemp-Kean, the hero of his original one-man show of Shakespeare and time-travel comedy "A Bit of the Bard" and for his 15 years of work as The Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of the multiracial, non-union professional, classical and contemporary chamber theatre, The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago. Mr. Robinson during the course of his initial training in The Theatre as a teen and early professional
Veteran and award-winning stage actor and play director Darryl Maximilian Robinson, Founder, Artistic Director, Producer and Principal Performer of both the multiracial chamber theatres, The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project, provides a new and interesting addition to his series of "street theatre"-style renditions of classic poems and dramatic speeches from great literary masters by presenting an edited version of Duke Prospero's "We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On" Speech from Act IV of William Shakespeare's romantic fantasy "The Tempest" just outside of Gate 11 of the bustling construction site of the highly anticipated new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art at Exposition Park in Los Angeles. The video rendition is greatly assisted by talented and noted fellow actor Danny Belrose, who provides production editing, videography and still photography for Darryl Maxi
To My Fellow Thespians In The Windy City: On March 25, 2024, The 50th Annual Chicago Non-Equity Jeff Awards Ceremony Will Be Presented At The Park West Theatre In the Lincoln Park neighborhood of The Windy City. As a pleased and proud 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award Winner for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play for his performance as Sam Semela in the 1997 Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival production of Athol Fugard's powerful anti-apartheid drama "Master Harold And The Boys" presented at the much-missed Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre of Rogers Park, and a happy previous, two-time, Non-Equity Jeff Awards Ceremony Presenter at the 1998 and 2003 Citation Ceremonies ( in the Actor In A Principal Role Category ) at The Park West Theatre, Your Humble Servant In The Theatre, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, strongly encourages all who work in, perform, support, teach or create Live Theatre in Chicago to attend this celebration.
Comments
Post a Comment