Stephen McKinley Henderson
The Actors Center Journal Vol. 1, No. 1, September 2009
The Actor’s Voice
A Personal Reflection
by Stephen McKinley Henderson
Every day I am as old as I’ve ever been. Every day I have all of my experience informing my choices, which makes my mistakes far worse in my own eyes. And no matter how many commendations or accolades I receive, there are memories of people who were an inspiration in my youth, who guided and encouraged me, and were unrewarded, never surviving to see the success of which they were such an essential part. The only comforting balm is the hope that I have made my work, not myself, the center of the experience. Empathy for the experience of others feeds the imagination for crafting a character’s back story and offstage life. This can fortify the justified reality needed to fully live in the world of a play. We must know ourselves of course, but it is equally important that we know and appreciate others.
There was a photograph my grandmother once cherished. It was lost during several relocations in the upheaval of 60’s urban renewal. I can see it with my childhood eyes. A black and white of Martha Raye drinking champagne from Count Basie’s wing-tipped Stacey Adams shoe. Behind her hung the classic advertisement of a tuxedoed gentleman drinking from the slipper of a lovely blonde in silver evening gown. Once or twice a year at family gatherings this picture was pulled out in reminiscence of what my grandparents considered their favorite night-out at the Black Orchid, a Kansas City after-hours spot sometime in the late forties. Mama Sally and Daddy Mack, as Sally and McKinley were affectionately known, were only together a few times a year after they both remarried. But they had stolen moments without their new spouses at some rare family gatherings when he would ask if she still had that picture, she would produce it, music played, and the lyric was laughter.
Human joy outlives human woe. The difficulties that surrounded my childhood I have no need to share. Suffice it to say that family connection was sometimes lacking, but from time to time we had our moments; and as Lloyd Richards said, “A minute is a measurement of time; a moment is a measurement of meaning.” I believe in the ability of Theatre to deepen our appreciation of life’s meaning. I don’t know why some humans have to be convinced of human interconnectedness. I don’t know why life is cheap to some and precious to others, but I am willing to strive in an art form that honors human connection. I am willing to join the struggle to sensitize myself and others to our mutual challenges. I am willing to struggle with the paper lives of poets and raise them from pages to stages, or screens, in an attempt to reveal the capacity of the human spirit. Some may see these thoughts as idealistically lofty. Well, we need ideals. And we need them to be lofty.
The Actors Center makes certain that no matter how lean the times may be, we must never lose sight of the fact that Acting is honorable work. No matter how jaded some casting professionals or industry officials may become on occasion, we must grow ever more resolute to survive and transcend “the business” in pursuit of the craft and art. Those who teach and train at the Center do a great service to our profession and to dramatic art. We are comrades in arms and the struggle continues.
**Stephen Henderson’s Broadway credits include August Wilson’s King Hedley II and the revival of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Dracula, the Musical, and Drowning Crow. Off-Broadway, Mr. Henderson played Pontius Pilate in Stephen Adley Giurgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and his signature role as Turnbo in August Wilson’s Jitney. His film and television work includes HBO Films Everyday People by filmmaker Jim McKay which premiered at 2004 Sundance and New Amsterdam for Fox Television in 2007. Mr. Henderson is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance for University at Buffalo, State University of New York, a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company, The Actor’s Center, and a Fox Foundation Fellow.
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Stephen McKinley Henderson
