THREE PHASES
BY ROBERT
BARRY FLEMING
It’s hard for me to pin down influences and inspirations to any one source, as I’m the sum of everything that I have seen and experienced, but some of the seminal influences that really shaped who I was and aspired to be as an artist probably happened broadly in three phases. The first phase, unquestionably, was the “just being exposed” phase as a child to the visual arts in museums and various ballet and opera companies in New York City; listening to many Rodgers and Hammerstein cast albums, Mahalia Jackson, Motown 24/7, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Leontyne Price; playing Travis in A Raisin in the Sun at Kentucky State University under the direction of the incomparable Dr. Winona Fletcher, and then seeing the stunning work of the Negro Ensemble Company and my first Broadway musicals with the miraculous magic and artistry of Geoffrey Holder and George Faison in The Wiz with Stephanie Mills as well as Alvin Ailey and the Dance Theatre of Harlem as a teen; and becoming a training company member of Philadanco as a preprofessional dancer transitioning from being a collegiate gymnast. Phase two would be my L.A. years as a performer in the early ’90s. Working with Ron Link in what was to be my Broadway debut as an actor in Bill Cain’s play Stand-Up Tragedy, which started at the Mark Taper Forum, and getting cast shortly after as Young Jelly in the world premiere of George C. Wolfe’s Jelly’s Last Jam at the Mark Taper Forum. Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who played Buddy Bolden in that production, has been a pal ever since, and he continues to inspire and influence me by his example over and over again. Those were two of the most formative experiences for me. But also seeing astounding work that ranged from Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror and Twilight, Ron Vawter’s Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, lots of Reza Abdoh’s searing and visionary work at L.A.T.C., the mind-blowing Pomo Afro Homos, the radical spirit of bold satire of the Five Lesbian Brothers, and Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre to catching Ian McKellen’s Richard III and the world premieres of Angels in America and The Kentucky Cycle; doing guest spots on sitcoms with George Carlin
Robert Barry Fleming + Ruben Santiago-Hudson in Jelly’s Last Jam at Mark Taper Forum, directed by George C. Wolfe PHOTO Jay Thompson
and Dave Chappelle, series with the likes of Amelia McQueen, Alex Rocco, and Terri Garr, and movies opposite Brendan Fraser and Guy Pearce; developmental readings and workshops; playing opposite O-Lan Jones and Hawthorne James; watching directors direct me, like Garry Marshall and Curtis Hanson in film and L. Kenneth Richardson on stage; and watching the artistic leadership of Gordon Davidson, and later Molly Smith at Arena, was such an eclectic mix. I see all those peoples’ influence in what I do now as an artist and leader. Phase three probably starts with working with the brilliant Robert O’Hara to everything up to the present. I feel like I grew up and began to mature as an artist a bit at the Public Theater, again, under George C. Wolfe’s tenure, and I was decidedly influenced by taking time to study at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival before that and reinvestigate my process. Reimagining and reanimating a sense of ongoing inquiry as praxis helped me see the work of friends and varied colleagues and masters, like Luis Valdez from the Teatro Campesino family, Moe Angelos’ light touch and openhearted elegance in her portrayals in The Builders
Association projects led by Marianne Weems, fully embodied total theatre experiences of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil, and Peter Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, or witnessing Robert Lepage in Elsinore by Ex Machina—these examples have all seared themselves into my creative brain. It is reinvestigating Toni Morrison’s canon and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, and every novel, play, biography, documentary, and so many more artists who inspire and influence me today. Having an ethos of lifetime learning and discovering geniuses like Tarkovsky or Roy DeCarava and brilliant young artists like Bradford Young, or just being moved by the work of artists near and far, like Chloé Zhao, Idris Goodwin, Whitney White, Taibi Magar, or Barry Jenkins; those are the sources of inspiration that keep me both humbled and growing. Robert Barry Fleming is the Executive Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville.
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