Baltimore-born, award-winning actor and producer/director Charles S. Dutton will perform his dramatic one man show, "From Jail to Yale: Serving Time on Stage," in a benefit performance for the Greater Baltimore Urban League, Friday, September 24, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. at Morgan State University's Murphy Fine Arts Center, 2201 Argonne Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21251. The autobiographical performance follows Dutton's life on the street in Baltimore through Hagerstown Junior College, and Towson State University and later to Yale's Drama School.
Dutton will recall how he grabbed a book from his cell on his way to solitary confinement and how it changed his life. He formed a prison theater group and readied a play from the book for a talent show. He says, "doing the play before a sea of hard men I felt this eerie kind of power. I could make them quiet, I could make them think. It was the only thing positive I had at that time in my life..., I suddenly knew what I was born to do." Shortly after forming a penitentiary theater workshop, Dutton was stabbed and hospitalized. A long recuperation period gave Dutton a chance to think. "I told myself: If I live through this, I'm retiring from this world of stupidity."
Once recovered, Dutton was sent to a prison in Hagerstown, Maryland where he became a model prisoner, and studied at Hagerstown Junior College. The same year he was paroled, 1976, he received his Associate of Arts degree. He completed his undergraduate education at Towson State University, majoring in theater. While at Towson, Dutton was persuaded by a professor to apply to the prestigious Yale Drama School in Connecticut. Dutton was skeptical, but to his surprise he was accepted. As a Yale student, Dutton met Lloyd Richards, the longtime drama school dean, and playwright August Wilson who began to create characters for Dutton. He took a role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the story of several jazz musicians in the 1920s. He first performed in the play during Yale's repertory performances. He says, "The role paved the way for other parts in Wilson's plays, including The Piano Lesson."
Dutton was a stage star by the time The Piano Lesson Broadway opened in 1990. By then he had several television credits to his name. He appeared in Miami Vice and Cagney & Lacey and had taken some supporting film roles. He still preferred live theater. "I never imagined myself working in television or doing a "From Jail to Yale: Serving Time on Stage' sitcom."
Television producer Stan Daniels offered to create a situation comedy about a working class Baltimore family for which Dutton used his nickname "Roc." Many other TV, stage and movie roles followed. The series most Baltimoreans associate with Dutton is The Corner, the gritty documentary-styled series co-written by Edward Burns and "Homicide" author David Simon. It swept the Emmy Awards. "I went to prison. That's how I escaped. If I hadn't got caught I might have fallen by the wayside, like some of the characters in 'The Corner'."
Howard Henderson, CEO of the Greater Baltimore Urban League says, "Dutton's support of the mission of the Baltimore Urban League is longstanding; however, his support at this juncture through this performance will help sustain us, provide an opportunity for the League to grow even stronger, and serve as a vital bridge to the League's future."
Event tickets are available through Ticket Masters www.ticketmaster.com, or phone @ 410-547-SEAT (7328) or by calling the Greater Baltimore Urban League @: 410-523-8150. Tickets may also be purchased at The Murphy Fine Arts Center, 2201 Argonne Dr., Baltimore, MD 21251.
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Charles S. Dutton explains life on the cornerby 8cho5inc01,244 views
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101pastor 1 year ago