On Broadway, a playwright becomes an actor, saving a show

NEW YORK – Keenan Scott II made his Broadway acting debut this week successful “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” which is simply a singular milestone. It's adjacent much singular erstwhile you see helium besides wrote it.

The actor-turned-playwright was pressed into acting duties astatine the past infinitesimal Tuesday nighttime to support his amusement unfastened portion each astir Broadway battles spikes successful COVID-19. He saved astatine slightest 1 performance.

“Like immoderate different actor, I’ve ever wanted to marque my Broadway acting debut successful immoderate amusement wanted to prosecute me,” Scott says. “I did not cognize it was going to hap similar this and connected my amusement during the aforesaid season.”

His heroic efforts saved the nighttime but it wasn't enough. Late Thursday, COVID-19 claimed “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” joining “Waitress” and “Jagged Little Pill” arsenic shows closed this wintertime owed successful portion to rising corruption rates.

Scott's way to the signifier was frantic connected Tuesday. He had near the theatre and was connected a subway level waiting for a bid to instrumentality him location to Brooklyn erstwhile helium got the telephone from producers: Come backmost to the John Golden Theatre close now.

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Two non-COVID-19 illnesses had already stretched the seven-person formed but present an histrion had tested affirmative for COVID-19. While everyone waited for a PCR effect to spot if it was a mendacious positive, Scott was being readied.

He was hooked up to a microphone, crewmembers were piecing unneurotic a costume for him and checking his footwear size. A signifier manager printed retired the publication and Scott highlighted his lines. At 7:55 p.m., the 2nd trial came backmost — positive.

Five minutes later, Scott was onstage.

“It was conscionable beauteous to beryllium up determination with my brothers — we are each household present — and for maine to beryllium capable to measurement successful to prevention the amusement for that nighttime truthful the assemblage tin get what they deserve. They purchased tickets. They’re traveling to travel spot us. They are besides battling and trying to enactment diligent with being harmless with this caller variant but inactive wanting to travel retired and enactment us.”

“Thoughts of a Colored Man” is made up of related vignettes and acceptable implicit the people of a azygous time successful Brooklyn, wherever 7 Black men sermon gentrification, violence, radical and intersexual individuality and what it means to beryllium portion of a community. Several characters, ranging successful property from precocious teens to mid-60s, person circumstantial themes to exemplify — Wisdom, Anger and Happiness.

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Scott went connected arsenic Wisdom, a 65-year-old man. While the playwright had performed assorted characters successful his play implicit the years astatine workshops and festivals, helium had ne'er played Wisdom before. But helium knew the blocking and cues, and had primitively trained arsenic an histrion and was a slam poet. He went connected with a publication successful hand.

“That was a situation of sorts, but it was truly large to beryllium up there. The histrion maine ever wanted to beryllium up there,” Scott says. “There wasn’t adjacent capable clip for maine to get tense oregon adjacent wrapper my caput astir what was what was happening. I deliberation if I would’ve known the time earlier oregon thing similar that, you know, there’s clip for nerves to build.”

Multiple Broadway shows, including “Hamilton,” “Aladdin,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” person called disconnected performances successful caller days due to the fact that of breakthrough microorganism cases successful their all-vaccinated casts and crews.

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Other creators who person gone into their ain Broadway shows see Sara Bareilles slipping into “Waitress,” Sting successful “The Last Ship” and Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who made respective onstage visits to his amusement “American Idiot.” But they each had days oregon weeks to prepare.

“My woman really said, ‘Are you arrogant of what you did tonight?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ Because arsenic a performer, I cognize however hard it is adjacent erstwhile you person 4 weeks of rehearsal and you’re afloat prepared,” Scott says. “So to bash what I did successful a abbreviated magnitude of clip — you know, fractional a costume, being capable to deed my mark, deed the lights, deed astir of my cues, being capable to prosecute with my actors — I was genuinely arrogant of what I did.”

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Mark Kennedy is astatine http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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