"Get ___ it!"

Veteran actor Tyrees Allen starring in Stage West production ‘Between Riverside and Crazy’

by John English

Hoopla Correspondent

For Tyrees Allen, the most rewarding and most difficult parts of being an actor are actually one and the same—getting new work.

A veteran of the stage, small screen and big screen, Allen said he likes to offer a bit of advice to aspiring thespians.

“I always tell young actors, ‘You have to develop rhinoceros skin,’” Allen said. “You have to learn to not take things personally. You will be unemployed more than you will be employed...and you have to know that unemployment is not a reflection on you personally; it’s a numbers game. You have to keep your mind right and your body right, and when the opportunity comes, be ready for it.”

The North Texas resident, who has more than 55 television and film credits to his name, is currently performing in “Between Riverside and Crazy” at the Stage West Theatre in August and September.

Allen, 68, received the Elliot Norton Award for outstanding actor in Boston in 2018 for his role as Walter “Pops” Washington in the play, and said he was drawn to the role for a couple of reasons.

“It’s a terrific play,” Allen said. “It’s one of the best plays of the last 20 years, I think. It’s a really wonderfully adventurous, well-thought out and innovative play.”

According to www.stagewest.org, “Between Riverside and Crazy” tells the story of an ex-NYPD cop and recent widower named Walter “Pops” Washington who is stubbornly pursuing a lawsuit over an officer-involved shooting.

Barely holding on to the rent-controlled apartment he shares with his newly paroled son and motley surrogate family, he is ready to accept neither payout nor surrender.

But as tensions come to a head in a swirl of demands from family and friends, a final ultimatum from former colleagues causes Pops to draw the line and make some demands of his own.

Allen said the role is one of his favorites to play, and added that he does see a few similarities between himself and Pops.

“We’re both men of a certain age, although Pops is a little bit older than I am,” Allen said. “I feel like I understand him because I grew up with older guys like him; guys who, there is something very noble about them, but also very flawed about them, like most human beings.”

The play runs from Aug. 18-Sept. 11 at the theatre located at 821/823 Vickery Road in Fort Worth.

“I would just say strap in and enjoy the ride,” Allen said about the play. “The playwright (Stephen Adly Guirgis) is wonderful with language, and some of it is tough language, but it’s real. It’s just a heck of a ride.”

“Between Riverside and Crazy” received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Allen’s passion for his craft goes back nearly 50 years.

He grew up in Salina, Kansas, and was a part of a thriving community theatre scene during his early teen years.

A graduate of Marymount College in Salina with a degree in Theater Arts, Allen said he credits those early experiences as the reason he decided to become an actor.

“I started acting at the age of 14, and I

EVAN MICHAEL WOODS Tyrees Allen had roles in ‘Robocop’ and’ThePerfect Host’ before moving to DFW.