Three, three four.

Riveting performances from these by timeless playwrights.

Featuring alumni and students from the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts.

And an interview.

With the award winning actor Mr.. Wendell Pierce, star of television and.

Film and stage.

As we dive in to the classical canon.

Oh, my dear mom, you know my daughter.

Welcome to classical canon, where we dive into the classical theater canon from a new lens.

Today, we will be sitting down with Wendell Pierce as he prepares for the role of Othello at Shakespeare Theater Company, featuring performances from Joshua Leggett, Tyree Hope Davis, and Toshi Moon Cooper.

I am your host, Liana Noble.

Let's go places.

Her arraignment and state of bodies would be rea would life we had led since thy exile.

Think with thyself.

How more unfortunate that all living women.

Since thy sight.

Which should make our eyes flow with joy and hearts dance with comfort, constrains them to weep and shake with fear and sorrow.

Making the mother, wife and child see the sun.

Husband and father tearing thy country's Bibles out to nine enemies.

Most capital, thou burst us our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort for but all we can enjoy.

For how can we?

How can we for our country, pray with manacles through our streets, as they triumphantly tread on our country's ruin.

Of having bravely.

Shut the poem of thy wife and child's blood for myself, son.

I cannot wait and fortune till these wars determine.

If I cannot persuade thee to show a noble grace on both parts.

Then to seek the end of one.

Thou shalt no sooner march and assault thy country.

Trust to it.

Thou shalt not.

On the mother's womb that brought thee.

Into this world.

William Shakespeare.

So last year we had Doctor John Carney here with us, and he spoke about hearing Shakespeare for the first time in Posa and falling in love with the language, and how that was his intro to really diving into classical theater.

What has your journe been like in classical theater?

What was that thing that happened that made you want to dive further into it?

It was my first year at Juilliard.

I remember exactly where I was September 1981.

I was in the Village Vanguard Jazz Club, one of my favorite jazz clubs in New York.

And, we were doing Romeo and Juliet at the time.

And Shakespeare was kicking my butt.

I was just I just could no and I could not get the verse.

I couldn't understand the verse.

I couldn't tell the difference between verse and prose, understand what the meter was and all of that.

And I was listening to a guy name off the blithe, alto jazz singer, player.

And I remember the actual tune do do do do do do do boo doo doo doo.

Let it be.

And I love the tune.

And that was humming it to myself.

Arthur Blithe is very avant garde.

So when he went into a solo like Little Free Jazz.

Ooh, little of.

That, that.

Oh, I love it.

And when he went into his solo, I kept humming it in my head that the melody didn't look to the dirt.

And I'm looking around the club.

Who did it that did to do that to the.

And he's going, And when he came to the end of his solo, we were right together.

Good alert.

Doo doo.

Did that do the deed?

And I realized he knew exactly where he was at all times in the solo, no matter how free he was, he understood the form of it.

And then I realized Shakespeare is like jazz.

There's the form of it, and you have the ability within the form to be as free as you want to be just on, or the form the way off.

The blithe honor, the form of that song.

Right?

Because when he finished his wild solo, we were right on the melody together.

He knew exactly where he was.

And that's when I started.

I started to understand that's the freedom within the vers and prose of Shakespeare, right?

That you had the freedom of thought, you have the freedom of expression, and that you get the technical proficiency to understand the language.

But that does not limi you and how you can express it.

And like jazz, with a finite amount of notes that exist in the world, but an infinite amount of combinations.

Love that.

And I love that in so many ways.

I'm a I'm a tap dancer, and I grew up with, Dizzy Gillespie spending tim with Dizzy Gillespie a lot.

So, so just just thinking of the melodies and the rhythms and the jazz of it all.

Love that.

I teach a class at Shakespeare Theater Company's graduate studies program.

This focused on the African Growth Theater, which was our Aldridge's, company an exciting industry.

Yes, yes, yes, his inciting incident.

And, you know, he IRA Aldridge was also our first black Othello.

So very long ago.

Great tragedian.

Yes, yes.

What has drawn you to do Othello now.

Well, I realized that, you know, I'm late to the game.

I looked up one day and I said, wait a minute.

You know, I better do this soon.

I think subconsciously, it wasn't until a couple of years ago when I did that.

The salesman, I discovered, subconsciously, I was staying away from all of these roles, these great roles.

Besides people not having the vision of seeing us in the roles or seeing me in the role.

But once I did death of a salesman, I realized I may have fear, but now I have courage.

Encourages acting in the face of fear, not in the absence of it.

And so I started to look at all the roles that I wanted to play, and that was high up on the list.

And I said, I want to get to it.

And, that's why at this place, in this moment of time, now's the time to do it, you know?

And, so it's been as I've been preparing for it, I realized the journey itself is so satisfying, you know, because it's, it's like a puzzle.

It's like a challenge especially with classical texts.

You know, we're in the contemporary writer says, you know, he does it like this, or he says it for this reason or this is what's happening.

Shakespeare was so wonderfu at putting it within the text, you know, within the words.

You look at the the name Othello right in the middle of it.

Hell, he's in hell.

Desdemona.

Demon.

Right in the middle of her name.

Right?

All the men, all the names they end with, a vowel sound.

Right.

So it's, a lot of people call it, the o play o. You always exclaiming, right?

I think of Richard the Third, you know, was ever a woman in this human world, was ever a woman in this humor one.

I'll have her, but I will not keep her long.

Like Duke Ellington used to do.

Since we were in DC, we always do a block called Right Block Core and then.

Did a little.

Didn't doodle doo doo doo.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo that boom boom.

They did it a d do do do do do do do do do do.

Boo boo boo.

Boo boo boo boo boo boo boo do it.

It moves me.

Yes.

Yes, it.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

That's it.

Love that, love that.

Yes.

Thank you.

We have some recen graduates as well as a student from the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts.

I'm going to pass the mic so that I can write.

A few years ago, I dreamed I was going to do something big in my life.

It seemed too wonderful to be true.

But that dream was with me.

Nigh and day would give me no rest.

So I said If God has given me this dream, he'll give me the power and knowledge by which to realize it, for its message was good.

Good for my own people, good for everyone.

It reached.

I dreamed a plan.

First.

It was a jumble of thoughts that gradually straightened itself out.

Then characters came into being and they began to think, and then to talk.

And as they talked, I put it down on paper for all my thoughts, and all they said were filled with a big message.

If a black bellboy with not much schooling could imagine himself a playwright, that by believing and working, he could write a play that was interesting and entertaining enough to hold an audience.

It would prove to the world, without a shadow of a doubt, that any man can do what he desires to do, can become anything he decides to be.

For you see, you are all characters I have dreamt Garland Anderson, 1924.

Hello.

Hello, my name is Toshi Cooper.

I am a junior acting major at the Chadwick Boseman College of Fine Arts and my question for you is, what was a piece of advic or direction that you received while you were at Juilliard that has stuck with you?

A teacher taught me.

That every.

No one can teach you how to act.

People can give you different approaches to the work.

And what it is, i every teacher gives you a brick, and you should consider every brick.

And then you choose which ones to build your house with.

That is the most important.

Be open to everything and see what works for you.

That's very important.

When I got out of school and into the business, that was very helpful because, you know, everybody has an opinion, everybody has an idea or whatever.

And then I was able to go, this works for me.

This doesn't work for me.

So that that's, that was my greatest.

The gift that a teacher gave me.

Another thing was when I was working on speech.

I'm from New Orleans.

So you know what's up, baby?

You know, that's how we.

Got, you know, all of that.

You know what I'm saying?

So when I was tryin to, you know, work on my speech, you know, I had a great, freedom voice and speech, teacher.

And it was getting to me.

It wasn't, you know, when you work on acting, I' sure you going through this now.

It's a very personal thing.

Yeah.

Sometimes you feel like you take it personally, then trying to say something to me, it's saying.

But really, a teacher said, I'm not trying to change you, Wendell.

I'm just trying to give you tools like that.

Once you have the ability to to hold on to those tools, you can talk anywhere you want to.

My name is, Joshua Leggett, class of 2025 at Howard University.

And my question for you is, with such a reverent and robust career in theater and film and television, what are your dreams looking like nowadays?

You just said it.

I try to do, the trifecta.

I call it, a film, television and theater.

Each year.

That's what I try to do.

And people say, man, that's hard.

I go, yeah, let's see.

I whether I'm doing, a marvel movie.

Yeah.

Or a big studio movie or a student film.

It's still film.

My doing Othello happened because I met Simon.

Godwin through a mutual friend and he said, I'm looking for American actors who were who want to do Shakespeare.

And, who want to.

I'd like to have relationships with me.

And I said so we started talking about this like two years ago when I met him.

And now here we are.

And I think, that's what you do.

Thank you, thank you.

I am Tyre Hope Davis, also a 2025 graduate from Howe University.

Chadwick Boseman, College of Fine Arts.

And my question is, what advice would you give to young actors who are embarking on a career in theater?

Having received the bricks, having fallen on their face, have the tools.

And now going into this career of theater.

First of all, be a student of your craft.

To be a student of your craft and be a student of your business to whom you should know, about what's happening in al the theaters around the country.

They used to have when, whe magazines were still coming out.

American theater magazine used to put out an edition in August of the entire seasons of all the regional theaters around the country.

And I used to get that, an I used to look at and go, okay, that looked that production, that production.

And I would, I would, you know, I would circle the production I wanted to be in thought about.

I would let my agents know, hey, this is something I'm looking at.

I would reach out to the theaters, to the casting folks and the producers and all, and let them know I'm interested.

A lot of times.

A lot of times, people don't know.

First of all, they may not know you, and then you get to my point in the career.

They think you don't want to do it.

You know, he doesn't want to come in, do this.

And like, of course I would.

You would come here and do it.

Of course.

And that's and that's, that's what I would say.

Be a student of your craft.

Also, when I be a student of the business, that's student of the business, being a student of your craft is knowin what productions are happening, knowing wha new playwrights are out there, knowing what filmmakers out there as young actors, they should know about you.

At the Lorraine Hansberry in San Francisco, the Saint Louis Black Rep at, the Actors Theater of Louisville.

Make sure Portland stage in Maine knows about you.

Hartford stage.

And especially in theater, it's just you.

I know you're a writer.

Yeah.

And so, you know, you have that connection, especially with you being.

I'm going to give him a shout out.

He's at, Baltimore Center stage right now.

They're a part of TCG, right?

Yeah.

You have the relationship at Baltimore Center Stage.

Make sure that you mee all the other literary directors who are part, who are around the country and let them know that you play is something that you would love to bring to their theater.

Tell them, you know, and it' the same thing with all of you.

Let people know in the other theaters that you want to be there.

While I was a student at Howard University, they require us to come see shows at Shakespeare Theater Company.

And oftentimes we go, oh, okay.

And there was this production that I saw, and I saw Earl hide it.

Oh, yeah.

And I saw Avery Brooks, and I saw a production of the edit of his plays that was set in Africa.

Yes.

And seeing those actors, the actors on the stage allowed me to see myself.

Yes.

And we were all sitting there.

We didn't expect this production.

We expect to see this production.

And there were actors there, you know, Earl Hyman was one who I was familiar with on The Cosby Show, but I didn't know about his breadth of work as a classical, as.

A classic black.

Actor.

Who was living in Scandinavi for a good 2 to 3 decades, doing classical work over there an just a little piece of trivia, I joined that company.

Yes.

Yeah, of the Oedipus plays.

And we did them literally at the foot of the Parthenon.

At the theater Herod.

Atticus, where Thespis stepped out from the choru and first spoke the solo lines.

That's why we are called thespians.

And on that very spot and I'll never forget the night I came out and it was a full moon, and I. It stopped me in my track as I looked up at the Parthenon.

As I'm doing Creon and Oedipus plays, and I'm sitting.

I'm on the very spot where Greek theater started, and it was something that was so moving and so beautiful to me because I realized how important what we do is.

Entertainment is just a byproduct of what we do.

The role of theater and art as well.

What thoughts are to the individual when you reflect on who you are, where you've been, where you hope to go?

Theater is for the community as a whole, where we gather collectively and reflect o who are we, what are our values?

We see the stories, and then we go out and tr to act on those values, right?

That's the role of what we do.

And at that very place, they used to do the very same plays year after year after year as, you know, these morality plays of saying, this is who we are, remember?

And these are cautionary tales, so we won't make the same mistakes in our lives, in our communities and who and who we're going to be.

And that's very important.

You know.

Yeah.

And and in classical theater what you realize is we are such, because we know the those who do not have our best interests at heart.

And, we see it now, you know, where, our culture and who we are and our history is literally trying to be.

There are folks who are trying to erase it, the great late Albert Murray.

It's the intersection between life and we as a people.

The literal intersection i culture, how we deal with life, and we see it in everything that we do and how creative we are with it, and how to be adaptive.

And that is what culture is.

And that's the role of art.

How am I going to intersect with this?

That's why art is political.

That's why art is impactful.

That's why art is transformative.

It touches you.

It's the humanity.

The enjoyment of it is a byproduct but it's that that changes you.

So when you hear about the blight in the jazz club and you go, oh, I understand Shakespeare now as I study Othello and realize that there were all of these Spanish writers writing about this one play I'm reading now, The Black Man of Flanders, which predates Otello.

Right.

And so you have to realize that, We were here, and our stories and our culture are thousands of years old, if you think about it, someone else has thought about it at some of that, that other point and what makes it classic is the fact that it spoke to them.

Then it's speaking to us now, and we'll speak to people long after we're gone.

When the work doesn't do that, it's not classic.

When it does, it is class and, you know, Shakespeare.

August Wilson, Bill Gunn.

If you don't know about Bil Gunn, check out Bill Gunn and, beautiful classic work.

And that's why I like to do classical work.

One thank you.

And that's well, we can't wait to see you in Otello.

Yeah And embracing this role.

Yeah.

And that's the role of classical theater continues to resonate just like the music of life.

In which a array, brave soldier doth he lie.

Leading the plain.

And by his bloody side yok fellow to his honor own wounds.

The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies.

Suffolk first died in York.

All haggled over comes to him.

Where in Goa he lay in steeped and takes him by the beard.

Kisses the gashes that did bloodily yawn upon his face.

He cries aloud to my cousin Suffolk.

My sou so thine keep company to heaven.

Tarry sweet soul for mine.

Then fly abreast as in this glorious and well forgotten field we kept together.

And our chivalry.

Upon these words I came and cheered him up.

He smiled me in the face, brought me his hand and with a feeble grip he says, dear my Lord, commend my service to my sovereign.

So did he turn and over suffer neck.

He threw his wounded arm, kissed his lips, and so a spouse to death with blood.

He sealed a testament of noble ending.

Love.

The pretty and sweet manner of it forced those waters from me, which I would have stopped.

But I had not much men in me and all.

My mother came into my eyes and gave me up to tears.

William Shakespeare.

Thank you for tuning in to classical canon.