November 14, 2024 • 61 mins
Ben Guillory (born Bennet Guillory on November 7, 1949, in Baton Rouge, Louisana) is a revered veteran African-American actor, theatre producer, and director of both the stage and screen. Raised in San Francisco, California, Guillory co-founded the Robey Theatre Company in honor of pioneering actor, public speaker, and opera singer 'Paul Robeson' with actor Danny Glover (of Lethal Weapon (1987) fame in Los Angeles in 1974, and serves as its artistic director. He received an Ovation Award nomination for Featured Actor in a Play in 2008, for his performance as Wining Boy in. "The Piano Lesson" produced at The Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles. A highly sought-after supporting actor on the large and small screen, he has appeared in such films as the Oscar-Winning film The Color Purple (1985), and the biographical TV film The Tuskegee Airmen (1995). His television credits include guest spots on television shows such as Dynasty (1981), The Jeffersons (1975), JAG (1995), and numerous other programs. Guillory is slated to appear in the film The Harimaya Bridge (2009), which is post-production as of May 2009. - IMDb Mini Biography By: twilliamson7
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, baby, it's the even more fabulous mother love. Feeling
rather fabulous today. We can't go anywhere, but well, I'm
not down that far. I'm really not. I want to
thank you all for tuning in saying hello. I appreciate it.
We've been going through so much lately, I mean, just okay,
we've just been going through so much lately, and we
(00:20):
got to find some some brevity, you know what they say,
A breath of fresh air, A breath of fresh air,
and we just need to understand who we are and
who we are and that we can get through any
kind of crisis together. And we are in a crisis
in one of the great ways for us to find
(00:40):
some brevity, you know, find joy in the day, find
fun and laughter every day. Make you listen, this is
a good one. Smile. It makes people wonder what you're too.
That's one of my favorites always. And another one of
my favorites. It's a beautiful day. Now watch some son
of a let's get eaters jack it up. Okay, I
(01:03):
clean that. I'll do that. You sho see what they
do there. I clean that it really really well. And
so with that, and I'm sure that you are by
now who listen to us and you know, come back
and pick up the restream and you know, pick it
up on YouTube and Instagram and Twitter, whichever one that is.
I don't know. He's like that website happens like some
(01:23):
kind of psychological issue. You don't want to be Twitter.
You got that inmbedded or other. Now you want to
be a ask Hey, keep it moving. That's all I'm saying.
We have to keep it moving because life is going
to go on whether you're in it, in participatory or not.
And this is what we're made for. We're made for
each other. We made the boo with each other. Yeah,
(01:43):
we do. And it's not you know, it's nothing crazy
about wanting to be entertained in dark times. I mean,
you think about it. A dance and music and the
theater and television and movies and music teaches us together.
I mean, I don't care where you're from, I don't
care what your culture is, I don't care who you are.
(02:06):
We all can find a human connection. And I find
a lot of my human connections in the entertainment industry
because that's what I'm here for. To entertain, but not
just to entertain. We'll entertained and be and give you information.
I want you to have the best information that you
can and so you know where we're going. We can't
(02:27):
make choices if we don't have all the oh the
white choices, if we don't have all of the information
to say, oh yeah, why is it not gonna do this?
Oh yeah, I don't know. I want to do that.
You gotta have a plan. You gotta and sometimes I
prepay it from straight up. You're gonna have to plan
a DC all the way to X, Y Z and
(02:47):
then you come back and you double them up on them,
and you got to find the place. You're none of
the person to hear about have a chance. I just
want you gotta know that I'm not here. I'm not
a mistake. You're not a mistake might have been, you know,
doing good plans, doing something m.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Hm.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And just so you know, I do this for a
living and I have some kind of uh. They put
me on a new medication, you know, with the diabetes.
They were trying to make a killing off of me,
and and not just me, everybody else. And one of
them one of the sided uh side effects is dry mouth. Now,
so if you see that's all it is. I'm just
(03:28):
I have to make my own web, you know. Okay,
this is not right. I got to keep my mouth
with moisture in it. And so one of the things
that excites me is still excite me. You know. I
get up and jump up the out of the bed,
and I nor more pits saintan off as soon as
(03:49):
I hit the flinging Oh yeah, we're here to recap
it and run the mouth. Not really. I am in
control chaos, and being in this industry, it is controlled
chaos because and they can go off the rails at
any time and say you got to be stay it
fast to what you want to do, have a passion
for what you want to do. You know, just you
(04:11):
don't have to say, look, oh mother love, you don't understare,
oh no, what to do? Aboviol okay. And I hear
it all the time, and I say the same thing
all the time, Okay, that's you want to get this out.
You gotta get it out. And we as humans, we
would hold so much. Just imagine the creativity and or
(04:36):
the chaos that can come out when you're stepping in
your purpose, when you're doing something you know, and and
the Bible is theres there's nothing new under the sun.
God and saw it, seen it, made it, and we
got to handle it and work in that environment. Whomever
you conceive God to be, because it is of God.
A lot out there. I mean, think about this. I don't
(04:56):
pay with all your mind technologies and all the great
things that you do. You know, I'm I'm fascinated with
steal and the trucks that they you know, that made
the trucks are made out of in those big giant tires.
Somebody's gotta make that. Somebody had to come up with that,
so that wan So that lets you know that our
brains can just keep on moving and growing it and
(05:18):
sometimes we can drive ourselves, you know, a little batty.
I know I am, and I'd rather know than I
am than people trying to get PuTTY's wrong with her.
There's nothing wrong with me. It might be something wrong
with you, but there's nothing wrong with me. I think
I'm well put together as well. That's just if I
don't think you're gonna thank you. I don't put it
out there. Who won't put it out there? You know
(05:39):
you could put it out there, you know, get ready
because you don't have to get a ready and he
got ready. Okay, I was waiting on your baby. Hey, hey,
mister Yware, can you hear me? Can you see me?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I can see you, okay, sel how are you?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Ladies and gentlemen, they just missed the Gilry. He is
one of the co founders. See that's how we do.
We just wait, take a chew up. He is the
co founder of the Ruby Theater. A beautiful setting, and
we're gonna find out all about him and what's going
on and what's to happen. This is mister Gilby. Thank
you for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Good to see you. It's good to see you. It's
always good to see you. So now let's just talk
about you. Let's talk about Ben because you're transparring to California,
just like I am. Tell us where you grew up.
What was like like for you when you were like
twelve thirteen years old? Now, oh listen, okay, see you
already already you already gave the faces. You already get
(06:39):
a face, and you know what the face is when
you're going your figure and you hope nobody saw it.
I saw it. So everbody you being a young boy
growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, you know, I grew up in the Bay area
in the Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I grew up in the San Francisco area and live
in a big part of my life. I have there
and moved to low things with the the eighties and
have been here ever since.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
The work. See, and you're here for the work. I
understand that completely. They asked for me to come out here,
they sent for me, and I want to crazy, right,
you know, I'm the crazy hit. I'm like, okay, I'll go.
And I've been here about as long as you have
been here, back to the late eighties, and we're still
going strong. When did you get to see, because you've
(07:27):
done a lot of great things. Oh and let me
come ind you and say thank you, thank you, thank you,
sir for your service to this country. Because they take
a special kind of person with a special kind of
mentality to show up and want to be trained and
struck on equipment and run to a gunfight. So my hat,
my hat and heart are with you. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I would have.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh wait a minute, you know what, that's my bad.
That's my bad on on that and well take that
apology for all the for all the soldiers that are
out there are you a veteran in this business. See
that's what happened when you go crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I want it in the business, but not in the.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
In the military. But you know this is this is
kind of like the military. There's cerden rules and regulations
that you got to go on with.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, you know, it's really different than the military because
nobody's really shooting bullets.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
That difference.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well you got a point there. That is a big difference.
So what what cut you? And said you wanted to
be in the in the in the entertainment industry. When
did you know that? Yous of the theater?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You know, the arts have always appealed to me since
I was the barriers of it, like most kids, don't.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
It stuck with me. But before it's really took a
whole me.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
When I was in my late TI and I started
to understand about dance, about music, about the theater, and
it just looked on fast forward. There worth an opportunity
to be a part of a theater company in and
San Francisco and the American Conservatory Theater, and they gave
(09:08):
me a scholarship to study there and I did and
that was it And I was written by that bug
and have been there ever since.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You know, we all want to tell stories. We all have.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Stories to tell, personal stories to tell, and I had
quite a few.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I wanted to tell more because I was a political.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Mind, of socially conscious mind, and that's what attracted me
to Paul Ropson, because of his social consciousness and his service.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And all that he did and went through and.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Gave up in the end to speak truth to power.
So Roby is Paul Robson's nickname, and he's the inspiration
for the rob Theater Company. Danny Glover and I found
it back in nineteen ninety four. By the way, Saturday
(10:16):
is our thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, it's our thirtieth anniversary, and we're having a party
to shape. Thank you to all of the people, all
of the Arthur's degnician, designers, volunteers, supporters, donors that have
been supporting us over the last thirty years.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Here of the Lost Theater Center. At seven o'clock. There'll
be a.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Drinks, We have a film promently the evolution of the
Roby Theater Company, and.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Some food, some music and some dancing to go to party.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
See that's that's the party, you know, now we couldn't
do anything else. When we were young, we knew how
to have a party. You could put a have a
whole guert party on four dollars and eighty past and
go to the dollar store and everybody sickety.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
The dollar.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Listen when the dollar store went up to two dollars,
you know, and now they've gone out of business, you know,
but it was, it was, it was a great run
by it lasting. So this is your passion. It's the theater.
What it keeps you, keeps you attracted. And how did
you have mister Danny love of me?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, we knew each other, uh interesting when we were
teens because she knew up the.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Championships, so we both grew up the champions and we
would see each other. But then when we started working.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
In the theater, we really, uh, I want to get
collaborated with get a lot of work. And of course
as young church we'd be sitting around and as this men,
you know, I'm talking to seventies, there wasn't a lot
of work for us in mainstream theater. The American Conservatory
(12:10):
Theater where we both studied, it was a wonderful program,
but there wasn't work for actors of color to speak of,
other than the obligatory servant in some grand production that
was basically Eurocentric. And so we both had a notion,
(12:31):
what are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What kind of work we do?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
We need to figure out how to access the kind
of work that we wanted to do, which was had
a social consciousness through. So we got to talking as
young guys do, and we said, well, will you make it?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I make it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We're gonna found our own theater company and loaned the hole.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
In the early nineties that forward again.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We said yes, we're going to do this and that
movie start. And I was working down here as well,
and so we saw that, you know, in Los Angeles
at the time, there were over two hundred theaters. There
was one black Field got a two hundred two hundred
(13:19):
that was an Inglewood playoff and Inglewood Park.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
On a slant in the hill that when it rained,
they flooded out.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And I went to several productions and understood that there
were wonderful people. They're passionate people, talented people, gifted people.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
They were telling stories. They wanted to direct, they wanted
to write, they wanted to produce.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
But they hadn't had a lot of practically drinks in
any of.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Those categories, and I thought, well, what's missing.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
The passion is there, and there certainly is a myriad
of stories.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
To catch up on and tell about the black experience.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But we needed a kind of training for some you know,
and I'll qualify that because some folks take to academic
training for the performing arts.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Especially particularly for theater. Some don't.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Some really work on their own clock and some don't.
But those who who who do are welcomed the help.
And when we found.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
The theater, so we'll re theater company.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
The idea was to build an institution where artists of
color could come and study and take time to understand
the craft and kill the craft, because they're no shortcuts
for this, you know, there are One have to work
(14:56):
hard at this craft. That's what makes it it's easy.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
That's how you know. You could tell the producer. That's
how you can tell the amateurs from the professionals. The
amateurs think they can do and they go, well, you
I can do that. I can do that. That looks easy.
I said, well that's what that's what professionals do. We
make it looks easy. I couldn't. I can't tell the
many people that have caught on my talk radio program
and said, oh my god, this is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
All of you I want to do this.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I'm like, Okay, you do know this. You do no,
this is a skill set. You need to see them
and understand that. They staid, well, can I just be
in front of a microphone? It just work my mouth.
I'm like, nobody, do you You gotta have something going
on you And then they'll come back and go, honey,
you do this every day. I couldn't even give one guest.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
For the whole month.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I'm said, because you don't know what you do. You
just and you have to tell them sometimes. And now
in this generation, they wanted everything yesterday and you have
seen the dynamics change it. I am so honored and
so humble by you guys understanding that we can tell
our best stories ourselves. We can make a place for
(16:10):
them to do this, and this is what you guys
have done and thirty years you know, y'all wants to
start this like right before my third birthday for the
second time, right because you gotta have a fashion for it,
and it doesn't always go as well as you would
like red to go. So starting and starting to say
(16:30):
an African American theater for people of colors that look
like us, some people probably look at you like you
had a third alnu million for here. And then what
kind of pushback did you get? Who's from from from
the industry, from you know, because it's always an a
fair you know, and even coming into doing what you
(16:51):
what you guys are doing, I don't.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I don't know, you know, they pushback. I suppose I
don't subscribe.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I'm too busy.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, I mean, you know, people talk.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
They're always gonna talk, and they're gonna say what they say,
and they're gonna do what they're gonna do, and they're
gonna be impacted by what they're impacted by.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And that's fine. Glass.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
What we do is theaters. What we do here is
work with the genesis the playwright, train the playwright, help
them understand how what it takes for the enough boats
of the foundation to be a writer that can be
a contributor into the community.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
And with actors as well, and with technicians.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And designers, all of those come in and play a part.
It's a collaborative effort, a thick collaborative, collaborative effort.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Is on going.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's really never ending because it's all about evolution. We've
been evolving from We started out as a reader's theater
where we simply read a play more in office, and
two years later we started producing plays.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And about eight years later.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
We started developing new works, commissioning new works so that
we could tell exactly the stories that we wanted to
tell and reinterpreting black classics. Our mission statement is to
develop and produce stories about the global Black experience and
(18:40):
reinterpret Black classics. That is the mission statement of the
Roby Theater Company, and we stayed true to that.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I think for the last play we did last.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Year was The Talented Tential, which your quest us and
written way back in the eighties. It's a it's a
wonderful piece. Before that, we developed some play entitled The
Heated Discussion, which was triggered not only but on a
large part by George Floyd.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
What happened now The whole idea, well, the idea.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Of that play was what do we do about the
wanton murders with impunity by the authority the black people?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
What do we do about that? What can we do
about that?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
We've been trying to do things about that for decades centuries,
and you say you and so we commissioned the playwright
wonderful play right there.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
We've had a long.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Term relationship with sebe D Simon, and he rode to
play a heated discussion and we've had two different productions
of it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Already, because.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's still happening, those murders by the authorities, those.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Shooting us down in the streets or.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I'm scared brush and they could care less. I mean,
I remember Rodney King, and we saw this unfolding in
real time. We solve this, and all of us have
had our faces on the floor. And all he asked
was there was no reason for him to be beaten
like that. There was no reason for im matills. There
was never a reason for any of our black men
(20:25):
to be hung from trees and you know, drawn and quartered,
and we keep we have to keep the fight going.
We can have to be more important to us than
it is to other people, because how I'm not gonna
care about you more than I care about me, So
that means somebody's gonna get short change in this. And
that's why the collaboration for us is critical, you know.
(20:46):
And we still in the twenty first century. There's still
a lot of us who don't want to participate. Don't
when I got mind, you get yours. No, I'm not
gonna reach back, and you know, bring bring somebody up.
Now you're trying to get all up them up saying
we're never gonna get to the progressive case that we
need to be. You could, you know, you could fill
it around the edges. We have wonderful times to people
(21:08):
like you and mister Glover. We have all of these
artists and we have you know, these writers. You know,
and when I wrote three books, and let me say
that was probably the hardest thing I ever did in
my life, okay, because I just would have never thought
that anybody. Why would heybody buy a book about what
I'm saying. But you know, if you don't tell your story,
(21:29):
somebody else will and then they'll make it go like
they wanted to go. And you have to be I
love the fact that you stay stay in the stay
right here, and you stay in the you stay in
the game, and you ate it the game and you
realize that not everybody's gonna be able to do it.
How do you work with people that you know they
(21:51):
want to do it. But then you can say, uh, well, no,
we don't think that's gonna be for you. And I've
wrote there because when I first got out here, they said,
oh my god, you know I have that's beautiful A
tone and kitchen were gonna get you singing lessons now like,
don'n do that? You only need to do that. Well, no,
you don't undersett it. No you don't understand. I'm not
gonna waste my time, my money, my Indian effort to
(22:15):
try to do something that I know I'm not good at.
I'm not going to waite people say oh no, no,
did you do it? That's w somethings you just should
not do. How do you work with that when you come.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Well, you know, it's to be upfront, honest, without being
vers without being mean about it, because you're right. There
are some areas, there are some topics, there are some
location occupations.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
That are not like for some people who.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Want to do it, and usually usually we're pretty quick
trying to do it, and then they start to understand
what it cakes to do it or what kind of
level of talent they might happen, and that can be painful.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
It's the real world.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
And see that's what we need to do. Because we
are young people. They've just gotten to me. They didn't
got out of hands, and they want everything like right now, well,
I want to come in and I want to be
a director, had whatever you director or nothing, but I
want you to meet. So you want to You're gonna
go on with meet And then you realize that they can't,
but they don't have the acrement to, you know, to
(23:32):
follow through with that. And a lot of this business
is a sound planning and following through and it takes
a lot of work and patience. And people just wanted
yesterday and I'm like, well, what what is it that
you want? What I want to do? What you're doing,
mister Gilray, are you ready to put thirty five years?
Thence tell us, oh no, I've got it right now exactly.
(23:54):
And I appreciate the fact that you say you can
you can do you know, tell this is my favorite one.
We're going to go in a different direction. We're going
to go in another direction. That's telling you, you know, okay,
we're not going to use you book. You know, we
thank you for coming in for your time, and you'll
have to be mean about it. And even when they
get on. When they get on, you know the sex.
(24:15):
So are you one of those kinds of leaders that
you look over them over their shoulders, or are you
the kind they say, let me see what you have
and then we let's put together what you have.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
The second, individually, you know, each situation is specific to itself,
but generally speaking, in working in a collaborative manner with
with other designers and an artist, when they come an
audition or we have an interview or we have the
conversation that is about will we be working together, it's
(24:50):
very clear and specific as to what is expected, what
needs to happen to tell those studies, what is required
to tell the story, and then there's a layer of
imagination that comes on it.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
But first, in the theater, we.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Have to tell the story that the playwright wroth and
so those folks who are going to work on that
proadjast need to know what the specifics are the requirement
and tell stories and then what a vision the director
and producer has. Yeah, so in that conversation we find
(25:35):
out whether or not that person is on the same page,
and if they are.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
And there is.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Reason to trust each other, you let that person.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Go to work you let him or her and go
and do what they do. You let and you are there.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Hopefully there's no reason to look over their shoulders.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And that's the fact.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yes, we come together and we talk, and yet we
look and see what each other are doing, to see
how things are. Just opinion doesn't process things change moments and.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Movie I learned that's a hard way. I thought there
was this thing really colorful with the dialogue. When you
get the white pages and then you get the next reading,
and you get the green pages, and then you get
yellow pages, and then you get blue pages and so
and you have to go in with that. And to me,
that's one of the most exciting things about this. Said no,
(26:33):
but you can get this out, you know, because there's
a lot of nervous energy when you're doing anything like this,
and when you could do the same play. You have
done the same play over and over. It was three
or four nights, and each night it's different, Each audience
is different because you don't know what they're gonna take
from it, what they're gonna walk away from it. And
(26:54):
the fact that you want to tell him, like, really,
you know, what did you call it a need a discussion?
You know, and people get uncomfortable with it, but you
got to speak truth the power. We cannot be afraid
of each other. We can't be afraid of telling our stories,
telling them. Well, help you get that energy out it
and see what you can do, you know, and see
(27:17):
how you make a move others.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
There's a liberation that comes with that one.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
You know, there's a certain kind of freedom and liberation
that comes with being honest, being blatantly and sometimes painfully honest,
because the truth is the truth, and especially with us
people of color, black people specifically our heritage in this country,
(27:45):
well there is you know, so I need to tell
you or anybody that's black and probably.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Over ten years old, you know, we told or a lady.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
You find out that because when I was a kid,
I guess I was about nineteen years old before I
really started to think about being black.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Because we didn't have to. We didn't think about that kid,
it's fine.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's only when you get to high school and you
get around a lot of mixed uh folks who are
like that, and they started to say, oh, you're black,
and you know, you start to understand that there are consequences,
there are impacts, There are things that happened to you
(28:31):
simply because you.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
And because you're black. That's what a man of them said.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And people couldn't deal with the truth. You know the
reason and when you speak too the power, you know, somebody,
if you're not getting people angry, you're not really doing
an effecond job at it. Because like John, the late
great John Lewis said, if you're gonna get into trouble,
get in good trouble, how would you do because we're
(28:58):
gonna say, well, just like they want to say, they
want to say, we're gonna say, well, we got to
say we must stand together. And they said, our house
divided will not stand our black house are divided. I
mean when you got uh, my husband always says they
have no morals and they have no scoops. Guys are
out here getting these are pregnant and you know they
want to don't want to take care of their kids.
(29:20):
And oh he just he goes off about that. And
he's saying they got to learn to do the work.
This is life. Is not listening and it doesn't give
you a role man. And I don't know why people
are taking it so serious and not you know, bringing
out the best they can bring out of themselves to
be around other people and bring out you know, it
just goes that he's stand it for We're not coming
(29:40):
out of just lives. We're not coming out of this
whole life. Say we're not coming out alive, you know.
I mean, so why if I do some big, taculous stuff,
why not say we can conquer this. We have to
work on us together. Let's work on the you know,
to tell them the stories of our family for growing up.
(30:00):
And I remember my great grandmother, my grandmother, my mother
and all their girlfriends and everything, and I wanted to
sit up. I set up under the table and just
was listening to them. And the strong reason I was
here that I mean, my grandmother was friends with Madam C. J.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Walker.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I was like.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
My grandmother Madam DJ Walker when she came to the city.
She came to show, I'm how to do black people here,
how to braid it, how to put the hot flat
iron on it, the whole nine yards and and for
for Dack. And she's still like a like a mystical
person because people don't really know her stories. They want
(30:41):
to tell their version of the story instead of telling
the truth about the story. She knew full of brush man,
she knew the vacuum between the guy you know so.
And I lived in an all black neighbor I didn't
know it was all black neighborhood till everybody was. We
didn't have to think about that. And my mother had friends.
She had the Rainbow Coalition before there was a Rainbow courts.
She had black people, white people, Native American people. She
(31:03):
knew sports figures, she knew a whole lot of people.
And she used to scare me because she would say,
you know, I know everybody. I was like, I thought
she knew everybody. So you're kinda like walking on the edge,
says member. Back in the day, you know, you get
things touching up mensatic down the street. Just tighten that
butt up. And then she's gonna take you to your
mama and your grandparents, and then they're all gonna be
(31:23):
on you. And you're like, I'm never gonna do that again.
Why they gotta kills everybody. Everybody got to know. And
so we had that village. We had those people that
were looking, you know, to support one another. Our father
died when when I was nine years old. I had
two brothers and my mother. Our mother made sure that
they were around positive black men, positive beings that looked
(31:44):
like them, business owners, attorneys, thundertakers, you know, so we
she had that. You know. She would always say, keep
young people in your life because if you lived long,
your old friends are gonna bebo to carre your cats, kidd,
So get you some young people. Keep them in your
life and they will keep you young. What keeps you
young and on fire? Like this?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Working? Working? Yeah, it's a you know it is.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
I call it work, and it obviously is work because
there are certain demands and the administrative departments and that's
part of the job can be tedious. But I think
that that can be an art form in itself, that
kind of academic kind of work. But the whole idea
(32:34):
of discovery is, yes, revitalize and discovery how to tell
a story, how to work with an ensemble of creative
people and reaching a culmination and having the curtains go
(33:00):
and the audience responds, and doing it over and over
again live for a group of different people is just.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
There's nothing like it's nothing like that.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And it's because it's live. You have to remember, most
of us see everything through this medium, through the screen.
The screen.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
And so even when this is live, like what you
and I are doing right.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Now, it's not the same kind of life because in
the theater, and especially in our theater, you sit and
you're five to ten feet away from the.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Actors the.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Story, and they're almost in your life.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
You cannot help but almost be part of the story because.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
You're in such close by studios.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
And so that's that's element so reinvigorating, and so it's
that's uh, there's nothing that can compared to you.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
And when we see I mean and I love the theater.
I absolutely that that would be my second love radio
as my first. And I loved the theater. I was,
you know, as they used to bring people to Caramel
House in Cleveland, Ohio. That was a black theater and
they was bringing me wonderful well as a kid, I'm like,
(34:46):
why we gotta be around all these old people? You know,
there was people like Ruth are Davids and Ruby d
We got to meet so many actors you know that
were right there right there. I'm like looking at them
and I'm watching them and and I'm like, might't be cool?
Because that was where I had to go to get
my nervous energy out and to have people of this
(35:07):
caliber coming to our neighborhood and teacher, I did not
know we were black. They and they all looked alike.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
I mean, we all know we.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Don't all look alike. I couldn't even say that, no,
we do not all look alike. And it was just
so amazing. And as I got older and if they
were doing that thing, I'm like, wait a minute, if
it's not a guy and the lady that can the
cancer careful untain look yeah, And I was like why
I didn't get until I was like seventeen, and I
was like done with that thing. You know, you get
(35:36):
it when you get it, and you know and when
you gotta stay in the game to get it. So
now let's talk about your thirtieth anniversary at the Roadby
Theater coming up this Saturday.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Real again, it's a party and the whole spirit of mother.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
To stay thank you, to say say you to all.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Of the artist, active directors, the designers, the technicians, volunteers,
the audience, the people who have supported us financially or
do this three decades, and to say a simple salute and.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Thank you so much because they couldn't ha done with that.
It's that simple.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
We could not have done this work without the participation
of all of those elements, all of those people, because it.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Is a collaboration. Is the collaborative.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Eforts of fear.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
You know, there is really no such person as a
one person show.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
See now, don't speak to get my mule, doesn't matter
to run around the studio.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I think a group of artists that makes it happen.
And even though there might be one face on the stage,
there is a plessora of artists behind them, behind that
stage that is making it all happen and making.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
It happen to this and that's what we're doing on
Saturday is really a party. Jermaine Alexander, who is a
filmmaker and an.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Actor and and something much worked with the Roby Theater
Company for two years, has been working on a piece
of work about the Roby Theater Company, Updating. It was
in two thousand and twenty. It was a twenty fifth
anniversary that we had a documentary made by Julie Smith
(37:50):
who's a filmmaker out of New York and did a
lovely job.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
And now.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Germaine is updating that has done another piece of work
Updating and bringing this current about the world.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Co Theater company. That is the centerpiece of what will
be screamed in theater two here at the Los Angeles
Theater Center on saturdayday night to day clock. And the
rest is some music, you drinks, some food.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Oh I'm there, so you say food, I'm there. I
tell people all the time I work for food and
soak dealer and telepac tooth spacee I do. I don't
know what, like what else am I working for? This
is what we do. Yeah, oh yeah, listen. You feed
them and I would always have food for the crew.
(38:46):
Always I would cook something up, big pot of spaghetti things.
And then it got so well some mother love we
have a for dinner. I'm like, I'm off the clock
at twelve.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
I f.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
And I found when you keep your tru happy and
you're all working together, I didn't. I didn't realize how
what you said about it's a collaborative effort. I used
to do a television talk shall Yes Mosel, And there
were one hundred and forty seven people that worked on
that show. And I'm like, it's one hundred and me,
(39:19):
one hundred and forty eight, the other one hundred and
forty seven that I mean may made me look like
a pro, I'm telling you. And it was without the
grips and the gaps of the camera people and the
craft services people's security. All those people come together as
one unit. And that's where you know that you could
stick a tests out just like so busy. You know
(39:40):
you got it then. And there's nothing like a happy truth,
happy cast and truth.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Well, you know, people who are taken care of they
you take care of your people, your people will take
care of you, your super foul You know, people appreciate
me one some one.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Experior for you. And it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
It's the right thing to do when we when we
go on the road. And I tell these people all
the time, you know, these people that work in your industry,
they think they crap on things. You know, think they're
king and Queen turdon. You know, no, you're not the king. No,
and they you know, they want to dominate the second
just you know, be just food and disrespectful to the
(40:24):
people that you know, come up to them in a
restaurant and they say, hey, hey, mister Gil, mister bil
I came to the road. We see that I'm just
want to stop and say, hey, you know, get away
from me. I don't know nothing from you. I'm like,
oh no, you didn't, you did not, And I'm like,
these are the people that you could in the seats,
these are the bucks that you wanted to seat, and
(40:45):
you're gonna tell this person get away from me. Don't
come out in public visit I say, don't come out
in public, and the people will tell you the truth.
There's one of the biggest reasons I keep doing this
is because what I this is what I do. But
people come up to you after they've seen the play,
after they've been to the theory that this, you know,
(41:06):
got this response, and they come up to you because
you don't never know what they're coming in to that
show with. You don't know if they're coming in from
a funeral, a breakup. You know, you just don't know,
and they're coming in to catch that relief, to get
some of that, get some of that brevity into their lives.
And then they go out and they say, I really
(41:27):
enjoyed that, you know, and you want to get somebody.
I like it when it's in I can stand that
you was talking our lives, talking about fast and you know,
I'm okay, we'll make that mental note. I'm not gonna
blow them off because you can get you can learn
from anybody. You should learn from everybody. And one of
the things I wanted to do was I wanted to
learn what everybody on that set, what their job was.
(41:48):
And I was like, oh, I couldn't do that. I
don't want to be pulling with no life, no heavy
quit my arm, and I'm real clumsy. So they have
to put the dust tape on their motherlod trip cause
something you don't need to out and so everybody has
an important role and you can't do it by it.
I hate people to say, oh, I'm a self made woman.
I'm a self made man. Oh, so shut up. You
(42:12):
know how praisey you sound. You're saying that your parents
have anything to do with you. And oh, I didn't
really like that. We don't say stupid stuff like that.
That's just me. You know. The one thing you know
you can say about you tear on food, baby, and
you take food. Senior said, I'm what, I'm a seasoned
citizen and I'm gonna with my seeding novel flavor that
(42:34):
we have. What is your take on the future of
the theater and how do we keep it going and
keeping people involved and want to be there and want
to be entertained or work in the business. You know, I.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Future of theater. It's always been here and it will
always be here because.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
What we said are about it being live and there
is no.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Substitute for that. There is no replacement for being live
in the moment with an audience in front of you.
They the audiences may shrink and swell long occasions and
depending depending on who knows what, and I'm not going
(43:28):
to even try to predict that, but we do.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's simply going to continue as long as I'm run.
And that's just for given. And I you know, here
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
It is over.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Last count there were over two one hundred theaters in
Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
There were more.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
Theaters here in Los Angeles but anyone anywhere else in.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
The country that includes New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Florida up
there is more prestigious.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Theater theater in some of those places. But there is
more quote theater here in Los Angeles. And I'll tell
you why.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Because those artists who get off the bus every day
and come from wherever they comes come with a little bit.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Of money and a big dream in their heads that
they want to build and.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Ship out a career in television and film. And believe me,
nobody comes to Los Angeles to build a career.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And that comes to build. Let's go to New York.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I'll go to New York.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Why go to New York too?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
But they come here to build television and film, and
they too find out that this is short lived.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
There is a lot of down time in between work.
When you're an actor or any kind.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Of creative artist in the industry, there is simply a
lot of downtime.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Even at best, when you audition as.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
An actor, you get the job to you get a
couple of days here on the sitcom, and then you're
looking for another job.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I get four or five days here on an episodic,
then you're looking you're auditioning again. You may get a
film and work for a while and make a lot
of money and then not work for a year.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Okay, So there's a lot of downtime.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
And if one is a progressive artist, if one is
a self artist, they find a way to collaborate.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
To get with someone else and say you got five
hundred dollars. I got four hundred dollars, she got eight
hundred dollars. Let's put on a plank.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Okay, and let's.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Mount the play. Invite some people. Maybe we'll invite some
industry people.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Maybe we'll get some attention, Maybe we'll get representation, Maybe
we'll get a casting.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Person to see us that might be interested in us
for some reason. And we at least, if nothing else,
we are working at tract. We are doing it. We
are yes.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
And so some of those groups roll into small black
box theaters they're.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
All over Los Angeles, and some of those become membership here.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
And then there's the lord houses or the union houses
like the Mark Taper and the Kurt Douglas and and
and and and that. So there's all kinds of work here.
Some of it's uneven. Yes, but if you work long enough,
(46:31):
it's even time. By that, I mean your word gets strong. Yes,
but you want one month to be yourself started.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
You can't wait. You can't wait.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
If you wait, that's what you end up, you see,
And that, to me, that is crazy. Why would I
wait on somebody to tell me, Okay, you have this
roll and you're gonna work for a week are you
gonna work for three days? And if I got one,
I can get to a three more and that and that.
A lot of times that they don't understand about managing
(47:03):
their time when they're in this business, you know. And
you see how they'll come out and get off the
bus with these big dreams and they didn't have a plan.
You gotta have a plan. And I tell people, you know,
LA is not for everybody. New York is not for everybody,
you know. And I've got to hurt people to come
out to come to see us. And I said, I
don't know how you do it. Every day I'm like,
(47:25):
cause this is what I ability to eat. I'm gonna
coming from Ohio. They're still waiting for me to come
back home. I said, I am home. I live in California, Okay,
but you're gonna come back home. That's gonna get on
your nerve after a while. I'm like, well, when it
gets something. And I always said that I will leave
when the work stops. The work is not each other
(47:48):
because I am here to work. I'm here to bring
out my my mother lovedness and share it with the
world and whatever that's gonna be. But I make sure
that if I'm not doing this, I can do that.
And I learned how to do that, then I can
learn how to do this. And I'm telling I wanted
to know what everybody did. I wanted and everybody's well,
(48:14):
that might be coming audio. Now that you are you
involved in the uh in the audition? How does that?
Speaker 3 (48:24):
Yeah, I'm involved in everything literally, so you know it's
it's it's it's not a really just a general statement.
Specificity is what this.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Is all about.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Being specific, being particular, knowing the details. It's the devil
of the details. Everything needs a certain kind of attention
otherwise things will fall through the crafts and.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Do notice it. If you're the audience, you may not
be able to put your finger in ideas.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
But your sense that something is incomplete, not correct, not worthy.
So always there is attention must be paid to the work.
And so for me, I'm involved as producing artistic director,
(49:26):
I'm involved in every faces of the production. Again, as
you were saying earlier, I don't look over both shoulders,
keep an eye on things because that's my job.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
But no, I don't dictate. I find hopefully people who
know what they're doing, have a real desire.
Speaker 4 (49:49):
And energy and let them do their work, let them
be creative, let them go through.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Their discovery and creative process, and.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
Let the chips all where and all times hit the mark.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
Sometimes you know so much, but that's over learning process
as well.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
And one of the things I love about the theater,
besides the fact that it's live and you get that
instant connection right there on the stage and you go
come out better than you went in or more kicked
off when you go out, because you know they hey,
you know, you know when you can hit that nerve,
whatever that nerve is, whether it's up down sideways, whether
(50:28):
they're ready to cuss you out, because how dare you
stand on my chue top? Why you're telling all my
business in the theater and like it's everybody's story. One
of the things I would love to be able to do,
and it's gonna come, is to celebrate African American and
women of colored trailblazers and tell their stories and what
(50:49):
they've done and what they've done to get to where
they are and where we're still, you know, looking to
get where we need to be. I mean, we just
had a crazy election and if for the same reason
people do not believe a woman, kid be and and
that high power of the job. You ther have a
crazy person and then have somebody who has more answers.
There was no reason for Hillary Clinton to not win
(51:12):
that election. But don't get to see me. That's what
I'm talking about, to see, uh, the fire and literacy
the President's wise. I only saw just you know, like
a couple of episodes I saw.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
I saw some of it with biolar.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Okay, Yeah, that was pretty that was pretty deep, you know,
because you need to see more stories. Yeah, it's wonderful work.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
There's so much work now, there's such a volume of work,
and there's so many people doing good.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
Just me either, I'm like, what do we need five
hundred channels for? See, that's another reason why they love
the theater, because we can go to the theater and
see it from beginning, the art and the end, you know,
and it's just you know, it's gotten crazy. It is
of the gotten crazy when you look at it. I
don't want to ask you about the few that's about
(52:06):
the future of theater. When you look at it, how
important is it for you? Ord is it's mental young people,
you know, talk to the young old about this time
all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
It's just, you know, this is just hurt of life.
You know, someone like us that have you know, we've
got some experience under our belt. We've been around the blocks.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
A few times.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
We know a few things, you know, and we know
what we don't know is too because it's very important,
you know, and the past that knowledge on is there's
paramount and to help.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Other young people understand and we all win when that happens.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
See, there is no reason not to be sheering.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
And that's well, that's well that you couldn't you know,
you can't buy that. You have to live that, and
I wouldn't want. Uh. The next generation, well, our son
is in the next generation behind us. And we have grandchilds.
You got grandkids yet, you know. Yeah, listen, if I
(53:28):
had known grandparents who was this great, I just skipped
over being that mother party that hurts.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Mom.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
They do that a bunch of times over. This is
kind of crazy. Yeah, And we have families in our neighborhood.
We had three families that had fourteen kids in each
family and the mother and father, so sixteen people living
in a four bedroom project, like they just making babies
for a revolution. I wasn't that that's take too much
and I couldn't, you know, damage the childlife. That's me
(53:57):
for your mamas, because my son was at my my
you crazy, you know, and I'm just being straight up.
You know. That's why my dad had to stay with you,
because you need to be in a controlled environment. I
left so hard. I was like, that's the first time
I heard that, you know, you know, you got to
teach them, you know, we got to show them, you know,
by showing up and letting them know that you can
(54:19):
do this. Maybe this is not what you want to do,
but you can do You can do something positive in
the community. And don't just talk yourself out of success.
How many times do they talk themselves out of success
because they don't believe that they can do it. What
would you say to a young playwright who wants to
be a playwright and they just need a little extra push,
(54:41):
you know, to get them on that side? What would
you what would you What kind of advice would you
get to them.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
To continue to write? Who continue to write because you.
Speaker 1 (54:50):
Don't and it's.
Speaker 4 (54:54):
Nobody has made you any promises.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Don't expect anything. Work hard because there's the payoffs.
Speaker 4 (55:04):
It might not be the payoff that you thought you
were going to get.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
But there's a payoff the hard work and follow through.
And you even the people I've.
Speaker 3 (55:18):
Met along the way, the friendships I've made, the acquaintances,
the associations that I've.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Met along the way, have been a big win.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Other than.
Speaker 3 (55:32):
You have to understand what is valuable. You know, people
have values and they may not be the same values that.
Speaker 2 (55:46):
This person over here has or that person over there has.
Speaker 5 (55:49):
You have, they understand and determine what you really leave
that over it and if it's camaraderie, if it's money.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
This is not a right or long thing.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
It's a choice.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
And you know with choices come consequently, So be careful
what you.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
Wish for because you have to be real specific. As
my great grandma used to tell her. She said, baby,
you've got to be real pacific. You got to be
a specific grandma. Yeah yeah, And I thought I said
real particular, but she would tell us that it's real
patific and what you have. Don't just ask God for
a man. You gotta have God for a good man.
(56:38):
Don't ask God for a good wife. And you know,
and you not, you got your stuffers all over here,
all raggedy and can or she would kill it. I
was like, oh, I don't think I would ever do that.
That sounds like something crazy. And to be married to
somebody like every day for like years and years and years.
And then I looked up and I'm like, we min
it gads for fifty two years. I'm not even sixty
(57:00):
two years old. What the heck did that go? And
it's worked. Relationships take work, and even in this industry,
when you can have a great captain crew, you do
a good run and then you go to the next one,
and then you go to the next one. Don't burn
your bridges. You know, well, if I burn a bridge,
(57:21):
I don't mean to go back. But I don't need
to burn bridges like that. And we need to understand
and learn how to be cohesive together as a people,
as business people, as as creative people. You and Danny
Glover have created something so great from one of our
theatrical giants, Paul Robson. And I mean, when you think
(57:45):
about that, that's a pretty big deal. And if you
don't know who Paul Robinson is, google it. I'm sure
he's googleable. They got listen. If I'm googlable. I know
you could find Paul robeson. So when it's all said, uh,
and your time, whether you know it or not, because
I'm gonna down the keyboard. I'm just letting y'all know,
(58:06):
y'all gonna be talking to you and in my head
gonna hit the thing. My whig might pop off if
I have one on that day, and I'm just gonna
be right here the keyboard. And I'm serious because this
is what we do when and what you do when
you turn around and you see what you've done, what
do you want us to be live past that it? Lady?
(58:28):
What did you want to be your legacy?
Speaker 2 (58:32):
A see, you know I've been asked that question and I.
Speaker 1 (58:42):
It just just don't you know, it's a job.
Speaker 3 (58:47):
If the job well done best one hand and moved
some people move ya audience, and they learned something and
they away.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
Inspired, you know, and I have satisfaction. So I think
that is contagious in the work. They get it. They
get the love that it takes to do this, They
get the commitment that it takes to.
Speaker 3 (59:20):
Do this, They get the determination and the courage because
what we do takes in the movements amount of a
very certain kind of courage to say, look.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
At me, what I'm doing is important and it's worth
you stopping.
Speaker 4 (59:37):
What you're doing to see what we're doing over.
Speaker 2 (59:40):
Here, because there is profundity in this.
Speaker 1 (59:46):
Oh well, I love that word. It is always a pleasure.
Thank you so much, mister van Gilliway. Hey, go hang
out with them on November to twentieth. All that over
at the Robe Theater. Thank you, my dear. It has
been my pleasure to serve you. And no matter how
big and tall, sure it's small matters. Now what game
you everybody needs a much a dove knowing it? Peace? Minute?
(01:00:14):
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Hi, baby, it's the even more fabulous mother love. Feeling
rather fabulous today. We can't go anywhere, but well, I'm
not down that far. I'm really not. I want to
thank you all for tuning in saying hello. I appreciate it.
We've been going through so much lately, I mean, just okay,
we've just been going through so much lately, and we
(00:20):
got to find some some brevity, you know what they say,
A breath of fresh air, A breath of fresh air,
and we just need to understand who we are and
who we are and that we can get through any
kind of crisis together. And we are in a crisis
in one of the great ways for us to find
(00:40):
some brevity, you know, find joy in the day, find
fun and laughter every day. Make you listen, this is
a good one. Smile. It makes people wonder what you're too.
That's one of my favorites always. And another one of
my favorites. It's a beautiful day. Now watch some son
of a let's get eaters jack it up. Okay, I
(01:03):
clean that. I'll do that. You sho see what they
do there. I clean that it really really well. And
so with that, and I'm sure that you are by
now who listen to us and you know, come back
and pick up the restream and you know, pick it
up on YouTube and Instagram and Twitter, whichever one that is.
I don't know. He's like that website happens like some
(01:23):
kind of psychological issue. You don't want to be Twitter.
You got that inmbedded or other. Now you want to
be a ask Hey, keep it moving. That's all I'm saying.
We have to keep it moving because life is going
to go on whether you're in it, in participatory or not.
And this is what we're made for. We're made for
each other. We made the boo with each other. Yeah,
(01:43):
we do. And it's not you know, it's nothing crazy
about wanting to be entertained in dark times. I mean,
you think about it. A dance and music and the
theater and television and movies and music teaches us together.
I mean, I don't care where you're from, I don't
care what your culture is, I don't care who you are.
(02:06):
We all can find a human connection. And I find
a lot of my human connections in the entertainment industry
because that's what I'm here for. To entertain, but not
just to entertain. We'll entertained and be and give you information.
I want you to have the best information that you
can and so you know where we're going. We can't
(02:27):
make choices if we don't have all the oh the
white choices, if we don't have all of the information
to say, oh yeah, why is it not gonna do this?
Oh yeah, I don't know. I want to do that.
You gotta have a plan. You gotta and sometimes I
prepay it from straight up. You're gonna have to plan
a DC all the way to X, Y Z and
(02:47):
then you come back and you double them up on them,
and you got to find the place. You're none of
the person to hear about have a chance. I just
want you gotta know that I'm not here. I'm not
a mistake. You're not a mistake might have been, you know,
doing good plans, doing something m.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Hm.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
And just so you know, I do this for a
living and I have some kind of uh. They put
me on a new medication, you know, with the diabetes.
They were trying to make a killing off of me,
and and not just me, everybody else. And one of
them one of the sided uh side effects is dry mouth. Now,
so if you see that's all it is. I'm just
(03:28):
I have to make my own web, you know. Okay,
this is not right. I got to keep my mouth
with moisture in it. And so one of the things
that excites me is still excite me. You know. I
get up and jump up the out of the bed,
and I nor more pits saintan off as soon as
(03:49):
I hit the flinging Oh yeah, we're here to recap
it and run the mouth. Not really. I am in
control chaos, and being in this industry, it is controlled
chaos because and they can go off the rails at
any time and say you got to be stay it
fast to what you want to do, have a passion
for what you want to do. You know, just you
(04:11):
don't have to say, look, oh mother love, you don't understare,
oh no, what to do? Aboviol okay. And I hear
it all the time, and I say the same thing
all the time, Okay, that's you want to get this out.
You gotta get it out. And we as humans, we
would hold so much. Just imagine the creativity and or
(04:36):
the chaos that can come out when you're stepping in
your purpose, when you're doing something you know, and and
the Bible is theres there's nothing new under the sun.
God and saw it, seen it, made it, and we
got to handle it and work in that environment. Whomever
you conceive God to be, because it is of God.
A lot out there. I mean, think about this. I don't
(04:56):
pay with all your mind technologies and all the great
things that you do. You know, I'm I'm fascinated with
steal and the trucks that they you know, that made
the trucks are made out of in those big giant tires.
Somebody's gotta make that. Somebody had to come up with that,
so that wan So that lets you know that our
brains can just keep on moving and growing it and
(05:18):
sometimes we can drive ourselves, you know, a little batty.
I know I am, and I'd rather know than I
am than people trying to get PuTTY's wrong with her.
There's nothing wrong with me. It might be something wrong
with you, but there's nothing wrong with me. I think
I'm well put together as well. That's just if I
don't think you're gonna thank you. I don't put it
out there. Who won't put it out there? You know
(05:39):
you could put it out there, you know, get ready
because you don't have to get a ready and he
got ready. Okay, I was waiting on your baby. Hey, hey,
mister Yware, can you hear me? Can you see me?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I can see you, okay, sel how are you?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Ladies and gentlemen, they just missed the Gilry. He is
one of the co founders. See that's how we do.
We just wait, take a chew up. He is the
co founder of the Ruby Theater. A beautiful setting, and
we're gonna find out all about him and what's going
on and what's to happen. This is mister Gilby. Thank
you for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Good to see you. It's good to see you. It's
always good to see you. So now let's just talk
about you. Let's talk about Ben because you're transparring to California,
just like I am. Tell us where you grew up.
What was like like for you when you were like
twelve thirteen years old? Now, oh listen, okay, see you
already already you already gave the faces. You already get
(06:39):
a face, and you know what the face is when
you're going your figure and you hope nobody saw it.
I saw it. So everbody you being a young boy
growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Well, you know, I grew up in the Bay area
in the Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I grew up in the San Francisco area and live
in a big part of my life. I have there
and moved to low things with the the eighties and
have been here ever since.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
The work. See, and you're here for the work. I
understand that completely. They asked for me to come out here,
they sent for me, and I want to crazy, right,
you know, I'm the crazy hit. I'm like, okay, I'll go.
And I've been here about as long as you have
been here, back to the late eighties, and we're still
going strong. When did you get to see, because you've
(07:27):
done a lot of great things. Oh and let me
come ind you and say thank you, thank you, thank you,
sir for your service to this country. Because they take
a special kind of person with a special kind of
mentality to show up and want to be trained and
struck on equipment and run to a gunfight. So my hat,
my hat and heart are with you. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I would have.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh wait a minute, you know what, that's my bad.
That's my bad on on that and well take that
apology for all the for all the soldiers that are
out there are you a veteran in this business. See
that's what happened when you go crazy.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I want it in the business, but not in the.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
In the military. But you know this is this is
kind of like the military. There's cerden rules and regulations
that you got to go on with.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, you know, it's really different than the military because
nobody's really shooting bullets.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
That difference.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well you got a point there. That is a big difference.
So what what cut you? And said you wanted to
be in the in the in the entertainment industry. When
did you know that? Yous of the theater?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You know, the arts have always appealed to me since
I was the barriers of it, like most kids, don't.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
It stuck with me. But before it's really took a
whole me.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
When I was in my late TI and I started
to understand about dance, about music, about the theater, and
it just looked on fast forward. There worth an opportunity
to be a part of a theater company in and
San Francisco and the American Conservatory Theater, and they gave
(09:08):
me a scholarship to study there and I did and
that was it And I was written by that bug
and have been there ever since.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You know, we all want to tell stories. We all have.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Stories to tell, personal stories to tell, and I had
quite a few.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I wanted to tell more because I was a political.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Mind, of socially conscious mind, and that's what attracted me
to Paul Ropson, because of his social consciousness and his service.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And all that he did and went through and.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Gave up in the end to speak truth to power.
So Roby is Paul Robson's nickname, and he's the inspiration
for the rob Theater Company. Danny Glover and I found
it back in nineteen ninety four. By the way, Saturday
(10:16):
is our thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Yeah, it's our thirtieth anniversary, and we're having a party
to shape. Thank you to all of the people, all
of the Arthur's degnician, designers, volunteers, supporters, donors that have
been supporting us over the last thirty years.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Here of the Lost Theater Center. At seven o'clock. There'll
be a.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Drinks, We have a film promently the evolution of the
Roby Theater Company, and.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Some food, some music and some dancing to go to party.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
See that's that's the party, you know, now we couldn't
do anything else. When we were young, we knew how
to have a party. You could put a have a
whole guert party on four dollars and eighty past and
go to the dollar store and everybody sickety.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
The dollar.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Listen when the dollar store went up to two dollars,
you know, and now they've gone out of business, you know,
but it was, it was, it was a great run
by it lasting. So this is your passion. It's the theater.
What it keeps you, keeps you attracted. And how did
you have mister Danny love of me?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, we knew each other, uh interesting when we were
teens because she knew up the.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Championships, so we both grew up the champions and we
would see each other. But then when we started working.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
In the theater, we really, uh, I want to get
collaborated with get a lot of work. And of course
as young church we'd be sitting around and as this men,
you know, I'm talking to seventies, there wasn't a lot
of work for us in mainstream theater. The American Conservatory
(12:10):
Theater where we both studied, it was a wonderful program,
but there wasn't work for actors of color to speak of,
other than the obligatory servant in some grand production that
was basically Eurocentric. And so we both had a notion,
(12:31):
what are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
What kind of work we do?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
We need to figure out how to access the kind
of work that we wanted to do, which was had
a social consciousness through. So we got to talking as
young guys do, and we said, well, will you make it?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I make it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
We're gonna found our own theater company and loaned the hole.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
In the early nineties that forward again.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We said yes, we're going to do this and that
movie start. And I was working down here as well,
and so we saw that, you know, in Los Angeles
at the time, there were over two hundred theaters. There
was one black Field got a two hundred two hundred
(13:19):
that was an Inglewood playoff and Inglewood Park.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
On a slant in the hill that when it rained,
they flooded out.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And I went to several productions and understood that there
were wonderful people. They're passionate people, talented people, gifted people.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
They were telling stories. They wanted to direct, they wanted
to write, they wanted to produce.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
But they hadn't had a lot of practically drinks in
any of.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Those categories, and I thought, well, what's missing.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
The passion is there, and there certainly is a myriad
of stories.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
To catch up on and tell about the black experience.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But we needed a kind of training for some you know,
and I'll qualify that because some folks take to academic
training for the performing arts.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Especially particularly for theater. Some don't.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Some really work on their own clock and some don't.
But those who who who do are welcomed the help.
And when we found.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
The theater, so we'll re theater company.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
The idea was to build an institution where artists of
color could come and study and take time to understand
the craft and kill the craft, because they're no shortcuts
for this, you know, there are One have to work
(14:56):
hard at this craft. That's what makes it it's easy.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
That's how you know. You could tell the producer. That's
how you can tell the amateurs from the professionals. The
amateurs think they can do and they go, well, you
I can do that. I can do that. That looks easy.
I said, well that's what that's what professionals do. We
make it looks easy. I couldn't. I can't tell the
many people that have caught on my talk radio program
and said, oh my god, this is wonderful.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
All of you I want to do this.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I'm like, Okay, you do know this. You do no,
this is a skill set. You need to see them
and understand that. They staid, well, can I just be
in front of a microphone? It just work my mouth.
I'm like, nobody, do you You gotta have something going
on you And then they'll come back and go, honey,
you do this every day. I couldn't even give one guest.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
For the whole month.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I'm said, because you don't know what you do. You
just and you have to tell them sometimes. And now
in this generation, they wanted everything yesterday and you have
seen the dynamics change it. I am so honored and
so humble by you guys understanding that we can tell
our best stories ourselves. We can make a place for
(16:10):
them to do this, and this is what you guys
have done and thirty years you know, y'all wants to
start this like right before my third birthday for the
second time, right because you gotta have a fashion for it,
and it doesn't always go as well as you would
like red to go. So starting and starting to say
(16:30):
an African American theater for people of colors that look
like us, some people probably look at you like you
had a third alnu million for here. And then what
kind of pushback did you get? Who's from from from
the industry, from you know, because it's always an a
fair you know, and even coming into doing what you
(16:51):
what you guys are doing, I don't.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I don't know, you know, they pushback. I suppose I
don't subscribe.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I'm too busy.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, I mean, you know, people talk.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
They're always gonna talk, and they're gonna say what they say,
and they're gonna do what they're gonna do, and they're
gonna be impacted by what they're impacted by.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And that's fine. Glass.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
What we do is theaters. What we do here is
work with the genesis the playwright, train the playwright, help
them understand how what it takes for the enough boats
of the foundation to be a writer that can be
a contributor into the community.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
And with actors as well, and with technicians.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And designers, all of those come in and play a part.
It's a collaborative effort, a thick collaborative, collaborative effort.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Is on going.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's really never ending because it's all about evolution. We've
been evolving from We started out as a reader's theater
where we simply read a play more in office, and
two years later we started producing plays.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And about eight years later.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
We started developing new works, commissioning new works so that
we could tell exactly the stories that we wanted to
tell and reinterpreting black classics. Our mission statement is to
develop and produce stories about the global Black experience and
(18:40):
reinterpret Black classics. That is the mission statement of the
Roby Theater Company, and we stayed true to that.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I think for the last play we did last.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Year was The Talented Tential, which your quest us and
written way back in the eighties. It's a it's a
wonderful piece. Before that, we developed some play entitled The
Heated Discussion, which was triggered not only but on a
large part by George Floyd.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
What happened now The whole idea, well, the idea.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Of that play was what do we do about the
wanton murders with impunity by the authority the black people?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
What do we do about that? What can we do
about that?
Speaker 3 (19:29):
We've been trying to do things about that for decades centuries,
and you say you and so we commissioned the playwright
wonderful play right there.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
We've had a long.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Term relationship with sebe D Simon, and he rode to
play a heated discussion and we've had two different productions
of it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Already, because.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's still happening, those murders by the authorities, those.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Shooting us down in the streets or.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I'm scared brush and they could care less. I mean,
I remember Rodney King, and we saw this unfolding in
real time. We solve this, and all of us have
had our faces on the floor. And all he asked
was there was no reason for him to be beaten
like that. There was no reason for im matills. There
was never a reason for any of our black men
(20:25):
to be hung from trees and you know, drawn and quartered,
and we keep we have to keep the fight going.
We can have to be more important to us than
it is to other people, because how I'm not gonna
care about you more than I care about me, So
that means somebody's gonna get short change in this. And
that's why the collaboration for us is critical, you know.
(20:46):
And we still in the twenty first century. There's still
a lot of us who don't want to participate. Don't
when I got mind, you get yours. No, I'm not
gonna reach back, and you know, bring bring somebody up.
Now you're trying to get all up them up saying
we're never gonna get to the progressive case that we
need to be. You could, you know, you could fill
it around the edges. We have wonderful times to people
(21:08):
like you and mister Glover. We have all of these
artists and we have you know, these writers. You know,
and when I wrote three books, and let me say
that was probably the hardest thing I ever did in
my life, okay, because I just would have never thought
that anybody. Why would heybody buy a book about what
I'm saying. But you know, if you don't tell your story,
(21:29):
somebody else will and then they'll make it go like
they wanted to go. And you have to be I
love the fact that you stay stay in the stay
right here, and you stay in the you stay in
the game, and you ate it the game and you
realize that not everybody's gonna be able to do it.
How do you work with people that you know they
(21:51):
want to do it. But then you can say, uh, well, no,
we don't think that's gonna be for you. And I've
wrote there because when I first got out here, they said,
oh my god, you know I have that's beautiful A
tone and kitchen were gonna get you singing lessons now like,
don'n do that? You only need to do that. Well, no,
you don't undersett it. No you don't understand. I'm not
gonna waste my time, my money, my Indian effort to
(22:15):
try to do something that I know I'm not good at.
I'm not going to waite people say oh no, no,
did you do it? That's w somethings you just should
not do. How do you work with that when you come.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Well, you know, it's to be upfront, honest, without being
vers without being mean about it, because you're right. There
are some areas, there are some topics, there are some
location occupations.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
That are not like for some people who.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Want to do it, and usually usually we're pretty quick
trying to do it, and then they start to understand
what it cakes to do it or what kind of
level of talent they might happen, and that can be painful.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
It's the real world.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
And see that's what we need to do. Because we
are young people. They've just gotten to me. They didn't
got out of hands, and they want everything like right now, well,
I want to come in and I want to be
a director, had whatever you director or nothing, but I
want you to meet. So you want to You're gonna
go on with meet And then you realize that they can't,
but they don't have the acrement to, you know, to
(23:32):
follow through with that. And a lot of this business
is a sound planning and following through and it takes
a lot of work and patience. And people just wanted
yesterday and I'm like, well, what what is it that
you want? What I want to do? What you're doing,
mister Gilray, are you ready to put thirty five years?
Thence tell us, oh no, I've got it right now exactly.
(23:54):
And I appreciate the fact that you say you can
you can do you know, tell this is my favorite one.
We're going to go in a different direction. We're going
to go in another direction. That's telling you, you know, okay,
we're not going to use you book. You know, we
thank you for coming in for your time, and you'll
have to be mean about it. And even when they
get on. When they get on, you know the sex.
(24:15):
So are you one of those kinds of leaders that
you look over them over their shoulders, or are you
the kind they say, let me see what you have
and then we let's put together what you have.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
The second, individually, you know, each situation is specific to itself,
but generally speaking, in working in a collaborative manner with
with other designers and an artist, when they come an
audition or we have an interview or we have the
conversation that is about will we be working together, it's
(24:50):
very clear and specific as to what is expected, what
needs to happen to tell those studies, what is required
to tell the story, and then there's a layer of
imagination that comes on it.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
But first, in the theater, we.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Have to tell the story that the playwright wroth and
so those folks who are going to work on that
proadjast need to know what the specifics are the requirement
and tell stories and then what a vision the director
and producer has. Yeah, so in that conversation we find
(25:35):
out whether or not that person is on the same page,
and if they are.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
And there is.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Reason to trust each other, you let that person.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Go to work you let him or her and go
and do what they do. You let and you are there.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Hopefully there's no reason to look over their shoulders.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And that's the fact.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yes, we come together and we talk, and yet we
look and see what each other are doing, to see
how things are. Just opinion doesn't process things change moments and.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Movie I learned that's a hard way. I thought there
was this thing really colorful with the dialogue. When you
get the white pages and then you get the next reading,
and you get the green pages, and then you get
yellow pages, and then you get blue pages and so
and you have to go in with that. And to me,
that's one of the most exciting things about this. Said no,
(26:33):
but you can get this out, you know, because there's
a lot of nervous energy when you're doing anything like this,
and when you could do the same play. You have
done the same play over and over. It was three
or four nights, and each night it's different, Each audience
is different because you don't know what they're gonna take
from it, what they're gonna walk away from it. And
(26:54):
the fact that you want to tell him, like, really,
you know, what did you call it a need a discussion?
You know, and people get uncomfortable with it, but you
got to speak truth the power. We cannot be afraid
of each other. We can't be afraid of telling our stories,
telling them. Well, help you get that energy out it
and see what you can do, you know, and see
(27:17):
how you make a move others.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
There's a liberation that comes with that one.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
You know, there's a certain kind of freedom and liberation
that comes with being honest, being blatantly and sometimes painfully honest,
because the truth is the truth, and especially with us
people of color, black people specifically our heritage in this country,
(27:45):
well there is you know, so I need to tell
you or anybody that's black and probably.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Over ten years old, you know, we told or a lady.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
You find out that because when I was a kid,
I guess I was about nineteen years old before I
really started to think about being black.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Because we didn't have to. We didn't think about that kid,
it's fine.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's only when you get to high school and you
get around a lot of mixed uh folks who are
like that, and they started to say, oh, you're black,
and you know, you start to understand that there are consequences,
there are impacts, There are things that happened to you
(28:31):
simply because you.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
And because you're black. That's what a man of them said.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And people couldn't deal with the truth. You know the
reason and when you speak too the power, you know, somebody,
if you're not getting people angry, you're not really doing
an effecond job at it. Because like John, the late
great John Lewis said, if you're gonna get into trouble,
get in good trouble, how would you do because we're
(28:58):
gonna say, well, just like they want to say, they
want to say, we're gonna say, well, we got to
say we must stand together. And they said, our house
divided will not stand our black house are divided. I
mean when you got uh, my husband always says they
have no morals and they have no scoops. Guys are
out here getting these are pregnant and you know they
want to don't want to take care of their kids.
(29:20):
And oh he just he goes off about that. And
he's saying they got to learn to do the work.
This is life. Is not listening and it doesn't give
you a role man. And I don't know why people
are taking it so serious and not you know, bringing
out the best they can bring out of themselves to
be around other people and bring out you know, it
just goes that he's stand it for We're not coming
(29:40):
out of just lives. We're not coming out of this
whole life. Say we're not coming out alive, you know.
I mean, so why if I do some big, taculous stuff,
why not say we can conquer this. We have to
work on us together. Let's work on the you know,
to tell them the stories of our family for growing up.
(30:00):
And I remember my great grandmother, my grandmother, my mother
and all their girlfriends and everything, and I wanted to
sit up. I set up under the table and just
was listening to them. And the strong reason I was
here that I mean, my grandmother was friends with Madam C. J.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Walker.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I was like.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
My grandmother Madam DJ Walker when she came to the city.
She came to show, I'm how to do black people here,
how to braid it, how to put the hot flat
iron on it, the whole nine yards and and for
for Dack. And she's still like a like a mystical
person because people don't really know her stories. They want
(30:41):
to tell their version of the story instead of telling
the truth about the story. She knew full of brush man,
she knew the vacuum between the guy you know so.
And I lived in an all black neighbor I didn't
know it was all black neighborhood till everybody was. We
didn't have to think about that. And my mother had friends.
She had the Rainbow Coalition before there was a Rainbow courts.
She had black people, white people, Native American people. She
(31:03):
knew sports figures, she knew a whole lot of people.
And she used to scare me because she would say,
you know, I know everybody. I was like, I thought
she knew everybody. So you're kinda like walking on the edge,
says member. Back in the day, you know, you get
things touching up mensatic down the street. Just tighten that
butt up. And then she's gonna take you to your
mama and your grandparents, and then they're all gonna be
(31:23):
on you. And you're like, I'm never gonna do that again.
Why they gotta kills everybody. Everybody got to know. And
so we had that village. We had those people that
were looking, you know, to support one another. Our father
died when when I was nine years old. I had
two brothers and my mother. Our mother made sure that
they were around positive black men, positive beings that looked
(31:44):
like them, business owners, attorneys, thundertakers, you know, so we
she had that. You know. She would always say, keep
young people in your life because if you lived long,
your old friends are gonna bebo to carre your cats, kidd,
So get you some young people. Keep them in your
life and they will keep you young. What keeps you
young and on fire? Like this?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Working? Working? Yeah, it's a you know it is.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
I call it work, and it obviously is work because
there are certain demands and the administrative departments and that's
part of the job can be tedious. But I think
that that can be an art form in itself, that
kind of academic kind of work. But the whole idea
(32:34):
of discovery is, yes, revitalize and discovery how to tell
a story, how to work with an ensemble of creative
people and reaching a culmination and having the curtains go
(33:00):
and the audience responds, and doing it over and over
again live for a group of different people is just.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
There's nothing like it's nothing like that.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And it's because it's live. You have to remember, most
of us see everything through this medium, through the screen.
The screen.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
And so even when this is live, like what you
and I are doing right.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Now, it's not the same kind of life because in
the theater, and especially in our theater, you sit and
you're five to ten feet away from the.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Actors the.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Story, and they're almost in your life.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
You cannot help but almost be part of the story because.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
You're in such close by studios.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
And so that's that's element so reinvigorating, and so it's
that's uh, there's nothing that can compared to you.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
And when we see I mean and I love the theater.
I absolutely that that would be my second love radio
as my first. And I loved the theater. I was,
you know, as they used to bring people to Caramel
House in Cleveland, Ohio. That was a black theater and
they was bringing me wonderful well as a kid, I'm like,
(34:46):
why we gotta be around all these old people? You know,
there was people like Ruth are Davids and Ruby d
We got to meet so many actors you know that
were right there right there. I'm like looking at them
and I'm watching them and and I'm like, might't be cool?
Because that was where I had to go to get
my nervous energy out and to have people of this
(35:07):
caliber coming to our neighborhood and teacher, I did not
know we were black. They and they all looked alike.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
I mean, we all know we.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Don't all look alike. I couldn't even say that, no,
we do not all look alike. And it was just
so amazing. And as I got older and if they
were doing that thing, I'm like, wait a minute, if
it's not a guy and the lady that can the
cancer careful untain look yeah, And I was like why
I didn't get until I was like seventeen, and I
was like done with that thing. You know, you get
(35:36):
it when you get it, and you know and when
you gotta stay in the game to get it. So
now let's talk about your thirtieth anniversary at the Roadby
Theater coming up this Saturday.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Real again, it's a party and the whole spirit of mother.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
To stay thank you, to say say you to all.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Of the artist, active directors, the designers, the technicians, volunteers,
the audience, the people who have supported us financially or
do this three decades, and to say a simple salute and.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Thank you so much because they couldn't ha done with that.
It's that simple.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
We could not have done this work without the participation
of all of those elements, all of those people, because it.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Is a collaboration. Is the collaborative.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Eforts of fear.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
You know, there is really no such person as a
one person show.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
See now, don't speak to get my mule, doesn't matter
to run around the studio.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I think a group of artists that makes it happen.
And even though there might be one face on the stage,
there is a plessora of artists behind them, behind that
stage that is making it all happen and making.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
It happen to this and that's what we're doing on
Saturday is really a party. Jermaine Alexander, who is a
filmmaker and an.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Actor and and something much worked with the Roby Theater
Company for two years, has been working on a piece
of work about the Roby Theater Company, Updating. It was
in two thousand and twenty. It was a twenty fifth
anniversary that we had a documentary made by Julie Smith
(37:50):
who's a filmmaker out of New York and did a
lovely job.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
And now.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Germaine is updating that has done another piece of work
Updating and bringing this current about the world.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Co Theater company. That is the centerpiece of what will
be screamed in theater two here at the Los Angeles
Theater Center on saturdayday night to day clock. And the
rest is some music, you drinks, some food.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Oh I'm there, so you say food, I'm there. I
tell people all the time I work for food and
soak dealer and telepac tooth spacee I do. I don't
know what, like what else am I working for? This
is what we do. Yeah, oh yeah, listen. You feed
them and I would always have food for the crew.
(38:46):
Always I would cook something up, big pot of spaghetti things.
And then it got so well some mother love we
have a for dinner. I'm like, I'm off the clock
at twelve.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
I f.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
And I found when you keep your tru happy and
you're all working together, I didn't. I didn't realize how
what you said about it's a collaborative effort. I used
to do a television talk shall Yes Mosel, And there
were one hundred and forty seven people that worked on
that show. And I'm like, it's one hundred and me,
(39:19):
one hundred and forty eight, the other one hundred and
forty seven that I mean may made me look like
a pro, I'm telling you. And it was without the
grips and the gaps of the camera people and the
craft services people's security. All those people come together as
one unit. And that's where you know that you could
stick a tests out just like so busy. You know
(39:40):
you got it then. And there's nothing like a happy truth,
happy cast and truth.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Well, you know, people who are taken care of they
you take care of your people, your people will take
care of you, your super foul You know, people appreciate
me one some one.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Experior for you. And it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
It's the right thing to do when we when we
go on the road. And I tell these people all
the time, you know, these people that work in your industry,
they think they crap on things. You know, think they're
king and Queen turdon. You know, no, you're not the king. No,
and they you know, they want to dominate the second
just you know, be just food and disrespectful to the
(40:24):
people that you know, come up to them in a
restaurant and they say, hey, hey, mister Gil, mister bil
I came to the road. We see that I'm just
want to stop and say, hey, you know, get away
from me. I don't know nothing from you. I'm like,
oh no, you didn't, you did not, And I'm like,
these are the people that you could in the seats,
these are the bucks that you wanted to seat, and
(40:45):
you're gonna tell this person get away from me. Don't
come out in public visit I say, don't come out
in public, and the people will tell you the truth.
There's one of the biggest reasons I keep doing this
is because what I this is what I do. But
people come up to you after they've seen the play,
after they've been to the theory that this, you know,
(41:06):
got this response, and they come up to you because
you don't never know what they're coming in to that
show with. You don't know if they're coming in from
a funeral, a breakup. You know, you just don't know,
and they're coming in to catch that relief, to get
some of that, get some of that brevity into their lives.
And then they go out and they say, I really
(41:27):
enjoyed that, you know, and you want to get somebody.
I like it when it's in I can stand that
you was talking our lives, talking about fast and you know,
I'm okay, we'll make that mental note. I'm not gonna
blow them off because you can get you can learn
from anybody. You should learn from everybody. And one of
the things I wanted to do was I wanted to
learn what everybody on that set, what their job was.
(41:48):
And I was like, oh, I couldn't do that. I
don't want to be pulling with no life, no heavy
quit my arm, and I'm real clumsy. So they have
to put the dust tape on their motherlod trip cause
something you don't need to out and so everybody has
an important role and you can't do it by it.
I hate people to say, oh, I'm a self made woman.
I'm a self made man. Oh, so shut up. You
(42:12):
know how praisey you sound. You're saying that your parents
have anything to do with you. And oh, I didn't
really like that. We don't say stupid stuff like that.
That's just me. You know. The one thing you know
you can say about you tear on food, baby, and
you take food. Senior said, I'm what, I'm a seasoned
citizen and I'm gonna with my seeding novel flavor that
(42:34):
we have. What is your take on the future of
the theater and how do we keep it going and
keeping people involved and want to be there and want
to be entertained or work in the business. You know, I.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Future of theater. It's always been here and it will
always be here because.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
What we said are about it being live and there
is no.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Substitute for that. There is no replacement for being live
in the moment with an audience in front of you.
They the audiences may shrink and swell long occasions and
depending depending on who knows what, and I'm not going
(43:28):
to even try to predict that, but we do.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's simply going to continue as long as I'm run.
And that's just for given. And I you know, here
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
It is over.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Last count there were over two one hundred theaters in
Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
There were more.
Speaker 4 (43:49):
Theaters here in Los Angeles but anyone anywhere else in.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
The country that includes New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Florida up
there is more prestigious.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Theater theater in some of those places. But there is
more quote theater here in Los Angeles. And I'll tell
you why.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Because those artists who get off the bus every day
and come from wherever they comes come with a little bit.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Of money and a big dream in their heads that
they want to build and.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Ship out a career in television and film. And believe me,
nobody comes to Los Angeles to build a career.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And that comes to build. Let's go to New York.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I'll go to New York.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Why go to New York too?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
But they come here to build television and film, and
they too find out that this is short lived.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
There is a lot of down time in between work.
When you're an actor or any kind.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Of creative artist in the industry, there is simply a
lot of downtime.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Even at best, when you audition as.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
An actor, you get the job to you get a
couple of days here on the sitcom, and then you're
looking for another job.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
I get four or five days here on an episodic,
then you're looking you're auditioning again. You may get a
film and work for a while and make a lot
of money and then not work for a year.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Okay, So there's a lot of downtime.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
And if one is a progressive artist, if one is
a self artist, they find a way to collaborate.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
To get with someone else and say you got five
hundred dollars. I got four hundred dollars, she got eight
hundred dollars. Let's put on a plank.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Okay, and let's.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Mount the play. Invite some people. Maybe we'll invite some
industry people.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Maybe we'll get some attention, Maybe we'll get representation, Maybe
we'll get a casting.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Person to see us that might be interested in us
for some reason. And we at least, if nothing else,
we are working at tract. We are doing it. We
are yes.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
And so some of those groups roll into small black
box theaters they're.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
All over Los Angeles, and some of those become membership here.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
And then there's the lord houses or the union houses
like the Mark Taper and the Kurt Douglas and and
and and and that. So there's all kinds of work here.
Some of it's uneven. Yes, but if you work long enough,
(46:31):
it's even time. By that, I mean your word gets strong. Yes,
but you want one month to be yourself started.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
You can't wait. You can't wait.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
If you wait, that's what you end up, you see,
And that, to me, that is crazy. Why would I
wait on somebody to tell me, Okay, you have this
roll and you're gonna work for a week are you
gonna work for three days? And if I got one,
I can get to a three more and that and that.
A lot of times that they don't understand about managing
(47:03):
their time when they're in this business, you know. And
you see how they'll come out and get off the
bus with these big dreams and they didn't have a plan.
You gotta have a plan. And I tell people, you know,
LA is not for everybody. New York is not for everybody,
you know. And I've got to hurt people to come
out to come to see us. And I said, I
don't know how you do it. Every day I'm like,
(47:25):
cause this is what I ability to eat. I'm gonna
coming from Ohio. They're still waiting for me to come
back home. I said, I am home. I live in California, Okay,
but you're gonna come back home. That's gonna get on
your nerve after a while. I'm like, well, when it
gets something. And I always said that I will leave
when the work stops. The work is not each other
(47:48):
because I am here to work. I'm here to bring
out my my mother lovedness and share it with the
world and whatever that's gonna be. But I make sure
that if I'm not doing this, I can do that.
And I learned how to do that, then I can
learn how to do this. And I'm telling I wanted
to know what everybody did. I wanted and everybody's well,
(48:14):
that might be coming audio. Now that you are you
involved in the uh in the audition? How does that?
Speaker 3 (48:24):
Yeah, I'm involved in everything literally, so you know it's
it's it's it's not a really just a general statement.
Specificity is what this.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Is all about.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Being specific, being particular, knowing the details. It's the devil
of the details. Everything needs a certain kind of attention
otherwise things will fall through the crafts and.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
Do notice it. If you're the audience, you may not
be able to put your finger in ideas.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
But your sense that something is incomplete, not correct, not worthy.
So always there is attention must be paid to the work.
And so for me, I'm involved as producing artistic director,
(49:26):
I'm involved in every faces of the production. Again, as
you were saying earlier, I don't look over both shoulders,
keep an eye on things because that's my job.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
But no, I don't dictate. I find hopefully people who
know what they're doing, have a real desire.
Speaker 4 (49:49):
And energy and let them do their work, let them
be creative, let them go through.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Their discovery and creative process, and.
Speaker 4 (49:58):
Let the chips all where and all times hit the mark.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
Sometimes you know so much, but that's over learning process
as well.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
And one of the things I love about the theater,
besides the fact that it's live and you get that
instant connection right there on the stage and you go
come out better than you went in or more kicked
off when you go out, because you know they hey,
you know, you know when you can hit that nerve,
whatever that nerve is, whether it's up down sideways, whether
(50:28):
they're ready to cuss you out, because how dare you
stand on my chue top? Why you're telling all my
business in the theater and like it's everybody's story. One
of the things I would love to be able to do,
and it's gonna come, is to celebrate African American and
women of colored trailblazers and tell their stories and what
(50:49):
they've done and what they've done to get to where
they are and where we're still, you know, looking to
get where we need to be. I mean, we just
had a crazy election and if for the same reason
people do not believe a woman, kid be and and
that high power of the job. You ther have a
crazy person and then have somebody who has more answers.
There was no reason for Hillary Clinton to not win
(51:12):
that election. But don't get to see me. That's what
I'm talking about, to see, uh, the fire and literacy
the President's wise. I only saw just you know, like
a couple of episodes I saw.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
I saw some of it with biolar.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Okay, Yeah, that was pretty that was pretty deep, you know,
because you need to see more stories. Yeah, it's wonderful work.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
There's so much work now, there's such a volume of work,
and there's so many people doing good.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
Just me either, I'm like, what do we need five
hundred channels for? See, that's another reason why they love
the theater, because we can go to the theater and
see it from beginning, the art and the end, you know,
and it's just you know, it's gotten crazy. It is
of the gotten crazy when you look at it. I
don't want to ask you about the few that's about
(52:06):
the future of theater. When you look at it, how
important is it for you? Ord is it's mental young people,
you know, talk to the young old about this time
all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
It's just, you know, this is just hurt of life.
You know, someone like us that have you know, we've
got some experience under our belt. We've been around the blocks.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
A few times.
Speaker 2 (52:34):
We know a few things, you know, and we know
what we don't know is too because it's very important,
you know, and the past that knowledge on is there's
paramount and to help.
Speaker 3 (52:53):
Other young people understand and we all win when that happens.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
See, there is no reason not to be sheering.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
And that's well, that's well that you couldn't you know,
you can't buy that. You have to live that, and
I wouldn't want. Uh. The next generation, well, our son
is in the next generation behind us. And we have grandchilds.
You got grandkids yet, you know. Yeah, listen, if I
(53:28):
had known grandparents who was this great, I just skipped
over being that mother party that hurts.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Mom.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
They do that a bunch of times over. This is
kind of crazy. Yeah, And we have families in our neighborhood.
We had three families that had fourteen kids in each
family and the mother and father, so sixteen people living
in a four bedroom project, like they just making babies
for a revolution. I wasn't that that's take too much
and I couldn't, you know, damage the childlife. That's me
(53:57):
for your mamas, because my son was at my my
you crazy, you know, and I'm just being straight up.
You know. That's why my dad had to stay with you,
because you need to be in a controlled environment. I
left so hard. I was like, that's the first time
I heard that, you know, you know, you got to
teach them, you know, we got to show them, you know,
by showing up and letting them know that you can
(54:19):
do this. Maybe this is not what you want to do,
but you can do You can do something positive in
the community. And don't just talk yourself out of success.
How many times do they talk themselves out of success
because they don't believe that they can do it. What
would you say to a young playwright who wants to
be a playwright and they just need a little extra push,
(54:41):
you know, to get them on that side? What would
you what would you What kind of advice would you
get to them.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
To continue to write? Who continue to write because you.
Speaker 1 (54:50):
Don't and it's.
Speaker 4 (54:54):
Nobody has made you any promises.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Don't expect anything. Work hard because there's the payoffs.
Speaker 4 (55:04):
It might not be the payoff that you thought you
were going to get.
Speaker 2 (55:08):
But there's a payoff the hard work and follow through.
And you even the people I've.
Speaker 3 (55:18):
Met along the way, the friendships I've made, the acquaintances,
the associations that I've.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Met along the way, have been a big win.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Other than.
Speaker 3 (55:32):
You have to understand what is valuable. You know, people
have values and they may not be the same values that.
Speaker 2 (55:46):
This person over here has or that person over there has.
Speaker 5 (55:49):
You have, they understand and determine what you really leave
that over it and if it's camaraderie, if it's money.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
This is not a right or long thing.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
It's a choice.
Speaker 2 (56:08):
And you know with choices come consequently, So be careful
what you.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
Wish for because you have to be real specific. As
my great grandma used to tell her. She said, baby,
you've got to be real pacific. You got to be
a specific grandma. Yeah yeah, And I thought I said
real particular, but she would tell us that it's real
patific and what you have. Don't just ask God for
a man. You gotta have God for a good man.
(56:38):
Don't ask God for a good wife. And you know,
and you not, you got your stuffers all over here,
all raggedy and can or she would kill it. I
was like, oh, I don't think I would ever do that.
That sounds like something crazy. And to be married to
somebody like every day for like years and years and years.
And then I looked up and I'm like, we min
it gads for fifty two years. I'm not even sixty
(57:00):
two years old. What the heck did that go? And
it's worked. Relationships take work, and even in this industry,
when you can have a great captain crew, you do
a good run and then you go to the next one,
and then you go to the next one. Don't burn
your bridges. You know, well, if I burn a bridge,
(57:21):
I don't mean to go back. But I don't need
to burn bridges like that. And we need to understand
and learn how to be cohesive together as a people,
as business people, as as creative people. You and Danny
Glover have created something so great from one of our
theatrical giants, Paul Robson. And I mean, when you think
(57:45):
about that, that's a pretty big deal. And if you
don't know who Paul Robinson is, google it. I'm sure
he's googleable. They got listen. If I'm googlable. I know
you could find Paul robeson. So when it's all said, uh,
and your time, whether you know it or not, because
I'm gonna down the keyboard. I'm just letting y'all know,
(58:06):
y'all gonna be talking to you and in my head
gonna hit the thing. My whig might pop off if
I have one on that day, and I'm just gonna
be right here the keyboard. And I'm serious because this
is what we do when and what you do when
you turn around and you see what you've done, what
do you want us to be live past that it? Lady?
(58:28):
What did you want to be your legacy?
Speaker 2 (58:32):
A see, you know I've been asked that question and I.
Speaker 1 (58:42):
It just just don't you know, it's a job.
Speaker 3 (58:47):
If the job well done best one hand and moved
some people move ya audience, and they learned something and
they away.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
Inspired, you know, and I have satisfaction. So I think
that is contagious in the work. They get it. They
get the love that it takes to do this, They
get the commitment that it takes to.
Speaker 3 (59:20):
Do this, They get the determination and the courage because
what we do takes in the movements amount of a
very certain kind of courage to say, look.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
At me, what I'm doing is important and it's worth
you stopping.
Speaker 4 (59:37):
What you're doing to see what we're doing over.
Speaker 2 (59:40):
Here, because there is profundity in this.
Speaker 1 (59:46):
Oh well, I love that word. It is always a pleasure.
Thank you so much, mister van Gilliway. Hey, go hang
out with them on November to twentieth. All that over
at the Robe Theater. Thank you, my dear. It has
been my pleasure to serve you. And no matter how
big and tall, sure it's small matters. Now what game
you everybody needs a much a dove knowing it? Peace? Minute?
(01:00:14):
Oh I get it?
Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
What can we afford?
Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Who can I talk to?
Speaker 6 (01:00:22):
Can I track my progress online? Do we have all
the documents?
Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
How quick is approval?
Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
There's a lot to think about when buying your first home,
but with AIB's support, getting your mortgage sorted is easier,
so you can focus on the questions you really care about.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Could this be home? Talk to us.
Speaker 6 (01:00:40):
Today, AIB for the life you're after. Lending criteria terms
and conditions apply. Alied Irish Banks PLC is an authorized
agent and servicer of AIB Mortgage Bank u C. In
relation to the origination and servicing of mortgage loans and mortgages.
Alid Irishbanks PLC and AIB Mortgage Bank u C are
regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
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