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Wednesday, December 04, 2002

By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic

"I drove Miss Daisy twice before," says Roger Robinson, who does a feeling performance as Hoke, the chauffeur, in "Driving Miss Daisy" at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

	Roger Robinson takes the wheel as chauffeur Hoke Coleburn in the Pittsburgh Public Theatre production of "Driving Miss Daisy." (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

That was 12 years ago. "They were both wonderful ladies," he says. "Well, all three have been wonderful," he adds, including Rosemary Prinz, his current co-star.

Robinson decided to do the play again because now, age 62, he better matches Hoke, who ages from 60 to 85 in the play. "I'm closer to my own mortality. I think I'm better this time around."

But the main difference is that Robinson's mother, 92, who lives in Seattle, has recently declined into dementia, "so the play resonates for me." Miss Daisy ages from 72 to 97, and Robinson speaks of the journey the two take into friendship, finding it remarkable they can do that even in old age. He recalls the play's final image of Hoke feeding Daisy a piece of pie -- and as he does, his eyes fill with tears at emotion remembered from both play and life.

"You can hear the absolute silence that means the audience is really involved," he says.

That's what Robinson asks of theater, either as performer or audience: "Just move me! I want to laugh, cry and be moved. Theater is one of the last places we can come together to celebrate the human condition. That's why it's important to do black playwrights and [those of other races], especially in America, the epicenter of the world -- so we can all see the experiences we all go through."

Given that feeling, and given Robinson's high standing among African-American actors, it's no surprise that he has had much experience in August Wilson plays. He played Hedley in "Seven Guitars" on Broadway and Becker in "Jitney" in London. He's done both "Piano Lesson" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" twice, and he was in the original reading of "King Hedley II" in Seattle that preceded the premiere at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, alongside Lawrence Fishburne and Danny Glover.

His Wilson connection goes all the way back to the original Yale production of "Fences," when he was going to play Gabe until the dates changed. Clearly he's a member in good standing of the unofficial August Wilson stock company.

So right now Robinson is "heartbroken" not to be in the Broadway revival of "Ma Rainey" opening Feb. 6, starring Whoopie Goldberg and Charles Dutton. "I really lobbied for it," he says. His role would be Toledo, the philosophic piano player, but because Dutton is now old for Levee (the role in which he made his Broadway mark almost 20 years ago), all the roles are being cast older.

"Put it in the paper that I'm heartbroken," he says -- "and I'll send the clipping to August!"

His Broadway appearance in "Seven Guitars" came about because Zakes Mokae, the great South African actor for whom the role of Hedley was written, had trouble learning it. Hedley is Haitian and "the connections beneath the lines" defeated Mokae, Robinson says. Mokae was let go in San Francisco. Robinson was called in, and he "rehearsed like hell" while the understudy performed, then went on in the final week. Los Angeles followed, then Broadway.

The London "Jitney" was scheduled for the National Theatre in October 2001. Paul Butler had played Becker, the central role, from the 1996 Pittsburgh premiere through the 2000-01 off-Broadway run, including most of 15 regional theater productions in between. But he had a TV show and couldn't go to London. The first choice for a replacement was Charles Brown (Elmore in "King Hedley II" in Pittsburgh, 1999), but he was ill. The second choice was Tommy Hollis.

And here Robinson tells a strange, sad tale. Two days after 9/11, a mutual friend phoned him in Manhattan to say she hadn't been able to reach Hollis. He assumed that was because many phones were still out of commission, but he offered, since Hollis lived near by, to go to his apartment. When he and the police broke in, they found Hollis dead. The first phone call Robinson answered in the apartment was from Hollis' sister; the second was from Wilson's main producer, Benjamin Mordecai, calling to offer the "Jitney" role.

Robinson had 10 days to learn the role, then he flew to London to join a company that included the core group of Stephen McKinley Henderson (Turnbo), Anthony Chisholm (Fielding) and Willis Burks II (Shealy) that had stayed the same for five years, ever since Pittsburgh.

"It was one of the most frightening things I've done," says Robinson. "But God bless those guys, they rallied round me." As to having to do it so quickly, he says with pride, "that's what they hired me for."

London hailed "Jitney," which went on to win the Olivier Award as the best new play of the year. "We got standing ovations from the English, which is rare." And Robinson himself was praised by a leading critic who had seen "Jitney" in New York for giving it a new dimension.

In discussing Wilson and his two main directors -- Lloyd Richards, his mentor who helped develop the early plays and directed the first six on Broadway, and Marion McClinton, who has directed the last two -- Robinson notes that Wilson now takes a more active role, and it wouldn't be surprising if he decided someday to direct his work himself.

Robinson recently talked to McClinton, who says Wilson's newest movie script of "Fences" is "incredible, better than the play." McClinton is said to be scheduled to direct that long-awaited movie with Morgan Freeman spoken of for the lead.

Robinson's acting life doesn't revolve entirely around Wilson. He speaks fondly of playing Chekhov, notably in an adaptation of "The Cherry Orchard" by Emily Mann, set in the American South, with Jane Alexander and John Glover. He recalls being part of the American Shakespeare Festival 35 years ago, where "Philip Bosco taught me more about playing Shakespeare than anyone else."

Next, he's off to Atlanta to play Ruby Dee's husband in "Saint Lucy's Eyes." He says Dee "hasn't aged more than about 10 minutes" in years. Robinson's in his prime, himself.