THEATER: Solo show portrays presidents' butler

By Jack Hill

Lawrence Hamilton appears in the one-man show Looking Over the President's Shoulder, opening tonight at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — Actor-singer Lawrence Hamilton carries the latest Arkansas Repertory Theatre production, James Still's Looking Over the President's Shoulder, all on his own shoulders.

Still's play is a one-man show in which Hamilton will portray Alonzo Fields, who served as the first black chief butler at the White House from 1931-53, during the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D.

Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. Gilbert McCauley is directing Hamilton; neither man is a stranger to the Rep's stage.

Hamilton was last seen as Louis Jordan in Stephen Koch's Jump, produced at Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, in which Hamilton as the Brinkley-born Jordan was surrounded by other cast members.

"And this is not really a oneman show, either," Hamilton says with a laugh, "because Gilbert is my co-pilot. We're telling the story of how a man looks back on his life and times and wonders if he has done his best.

"The play was written after Fields had passed, and a lot of the material that Still found came from Library of Congress records and Fields' memoir, My 21 Years in the White House, and his recollections are very much about him, and they say a lot about who he was. He's very discreet, so it's not an expose dealing with scandals." In evaluating the life of Fields, Hamilton says he feels a kinship with the White House butler.

"My grandmother was a domestic in people's houses, so I heard a lot of advice from her.

She would always call me 'Precious' and tell me, when people did me wrong, 'Don't be ugly!' I know that we don't see people caring about everybody else as much as they should, which used to be the case." Hamilton, who directed the 2006 production of Crowns, acted in the 2007 production, Fences, and first appeared at the Rep as Whining Boy in The Piano Lesson. He later created Souvenir, an evening of song that featured the songs of fellow Arkansan Randy Goodrum.

Although Hamilton debuted on Broadway in 1979 in Timbuktu!, which starred Eartha Kitt, he's best known for his

Broadway - and later in the

national tour, and in Europe

- role as Coalhouse Walker

Jr. in the musical Ragtime. His

other Broadway credits include

roles in Jelly's Last Jam, Play On

and Sophisticated Ladies. He is

now director of cultural affairs at

Philander Smith College.

McCauley's directing cred

its at The Rep include Fences,

Polaroid Stories, Trying to Find

My Way Back Home, The Glass

Menagerie, Joe Turner's Come

and Gone, The Piano Lesson, A

Soldier's Play and Arms and the

Man. He is an associate profes

sor in the department of theater

at the University of Massachu

setts.

"I think that Alonzo Fields

had a great deal of respect for

the institution of the presiden

cy," McCauley reflects. "He val

ued the position he was in and

became a scholar as the years

went by. There was something

about the way he carried him

self. He was someone who could

have so much humility and dig

nity at the same time.

"He had a real gift in combin

ing grace and elegance. It's rare

that you see those qualities these

days, and it makes you look at

his life and think, 'Is there a way

I could emulate that?'" Finding similarities between

Fields and Hamilton has been

an interesting part of the play's

process for McCauley.

"There's something about

the way that Lawrence draws

people in," McCauley says. "And

Alonzo all his life had wanted

to be a concert singer, like Law

rence. And the play reveals how

Alonzo comes to the realization

that he's not a failed artist. And

just as Alonzo was with Presi

dent Roosevelt during the dif

ficult time of the Depression,

we see that he was someone

who felt a great deal of lovefor his country." During the time Fields worked in the White House, he was conscious of wanting to remember his impressions, but at the same time, equally aware of his responsibility to be a part of history's background.

"He would write in this kind of shorthand, as he didn't want people to think he was a snoop," Hamilton says. "He did

want to remember the things

he saw and heard, and the play

is about his remembering and

reflecting on those times." Others who have a hand

in the production are Rafael

Colon Castanera as produc

tion manager, Shelly Hall as

costume designer, Lynda J.

Kwallek as properties designer,

Mike Nichols as set designer/

technical director and Jason

Pruzin as sound designer andengineer. Bill Marshall is guest lighting designer for the show.

Hamilton says he may have learned a lesson when it comes to one-person shows.

"This may be the last oneman show I do. There's too much work if you're the only one on stage. Gilbert wanted me to do the show about [U.S. Supreme Court Justice] Thurgood Marshall, but I know that would be some serious business."Looking Over the President's Shoulder 8 p.m. today-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m.

Sunday; 7 p.m. Wednesdays; 7 p.m.

Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 15, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Sixth and Main streets, Little Rock Sign-interpreted performance for the hearing-impaired: Wednesday Tickets: $20-$35 (501) 378-0405, (866) 684-3737, or www.therep.org

Weekend, Pages 61 on 01/30/2009