![]() ![]() Given the degree to which that is still such a syndrome in American life, it makes sense to deal with him dramatically, but because of the symbolic role he was thrust into-both during that disgusting video and after-it's hard to know who the man was. ![]() He exists as a symbol, maybe the symbol, of being a victim of police brutality. I interviewed Smith on the phone last week in advance of his return to Seattle. Rather, he told me, the show is constructed as a "postmortem interrogation" and "journey through the many lives and times of Rodney King, which were abbreviated, unfortunately." He doesn't portray King the way he did Newton. ![]() Smith returns to Seattle this weekend with Rodney King, a very different show. Spike Lee, who cast Smith in several post-Smiley roles, made a film of the Newton show, which, despite being excellent, can never touch the sensation of being in the room that night. Few stage actors I've seen have come within a mile of Smith's expressive vitality, his utter command of the room, his astonishing verbal dexterity (in terms of tempo, volume, pitch, timbre, force, and grace), and above all, his capacity as a writer-performer to harness those qualities in the service of a story that matters. "Changed my life" has become a corny platitude to describe things you enjoy, but Smith's show became a benchmark to me. The experience of seeing it has stayed with me ever since. In September of 1997, Smith came to Seattle to perform his riveting solo show A Huey P. His presence as Smiley, the stuttering chorus of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, guaranteed him a fixed point on my radar screen for life, though in truth, it was his role as the conniving, pre-doomed Eddie in Bill Duke's Deep Cover (1992) that made it clear Smith was a strikingly memorable talent I would never miss a chance to watch. Roger studied at Yale University and Occidental College and has taught at both institutions, as well as Cal Arts, where he currently directs his Performing History Workshop.Roger Guenveur Smith is a character actor who has been enlivening films for nearly 30 years. He was nominated for the Screen Actors’ Guild Award for his work in American Gangster and starred in the HBO series K Street and Oz. Roger’s many screen credits include Do The Right Thing, for which he created the stuttering hero Smiley, as well as an eclectic range of characters in Malcolm X, Get On The Bus, He Got Game, Eve’s Bayou, All About The Benjamins, Hamlet, Deep Cover, and the recently acclaimed indie films Mooz-Lum and Better Mus’ Come as the Prime Minister of Jamaica. Smith and his frequent collaborator, composer Marc Anthony Thompson, have been commissioned by San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre to present Five Hundred Lives per Mile, inspired by the construction of the Panama Canal and its human costs. Smith directed the Bessie Award-winning Radio Mambo: Culture Clash Invades Miami, the West Coast Premiere of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, and most recently, Steven Berkoff’s Agamemnon. His history-infused work also includes Frederick Douglass Now, Christopher Columbus 1992, The Watts Towers Project, Two Fires, Juan and John, Iceland, In Honor Of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Patriot Act, Who Killed Bob Marley?, and the ‘not-too-dark comedy’ Inside The Creole Mafia with Mark Broyard, cited by the Los Angeles Weekly as Production of the Year for both its premiere and revival runs. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm. Roger Guenveur Smith adapted his Obie Award-winning solo performance of A Huey P. ![]()
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