Playwright Dominique Morriseau was inspired by August Wilson’s series of ten plays set in his hometown of Pittsburgh. She felt it was time for the perception of Detroit to change. So she undertook a trilogy of plays set in the Motor City. One of the plays, Skeleton Crew, is now being performed at the Geffen Playhouse. The setting is an automobile factory where rumors of its imminent closing abound. There are three workers (Amari Cheatom as Dez, Kelly McCreary as Shanita and Caroline Stefanie Clay as Faye) and their boss, Reggie. DB Woodside, currently on the series Lucifer, plays Reggie.
Beyond his work on Lucifer, fans of Suits will also recognize him as Jeff Malone, the some-time love interest of Jessica Pearson. It’s been quite some time since Woodside appeared on stage. In our recent conversation he talked about Skeleton Crew, his passion for being on stage and whether cultural change can come from theatre.
We don’t learn much about Reggie and his relationship with his three employees until well into Skeleton Crew. How important is it for you to slowly reveal, not just through language, but through your performance, the depth of Reggie’s relationships with them?
I think it is all there on the page. I like that during the first act we don’t know too much about Reggie. We don’t know what’s motivating him. We start to understand where he’s coming from in the second to last scene of the 1st act when Faye confronts him about what he’s really doing. One of my favorite lines is “I don’t have a union to protect me.” Basically as horrible as it is for these guys, they are going to wind up with some kind of severance package. If Reggie loses his job the only thing he is hoping for is based on his work ethic and reputation that hopefully will get him transferred somewhere. I love the challenge and the second act is written so beautifully. We get to zero in and focus on the distresses that Reggie has to deal with and we really get to show the tight bond that Faye and Reggie have.
In Ben Brantley’s New York Times review of Skeleton Crew, he said “there’s a chip on his shoulder, but even he doesn’t know which way it leans.” Do you agree with him?
I don’t think I agree. Reggie used to be one of them. Reggie started in the plant the same way. I don’t think he’s leaning. If there is such a chip it leans to his workers and his family. It doesn’t lean towards management at all. Reggie’s dilemma is that on one hand he wants to make sure his friends are taken care of. On the other hand he wants to make sure his family gets taken care of. I think it’s very human. One of the things as an actor I love to do is play characters that maybe on the page they can be perceived as unlikable and that could come across just reading Reggie. And it was my responsibility to give Reggie heart and help show people the turmoil that he’s going through trying to work both sides of the essential argument the play is trying to make.
Dominique Morisseau wants to change the perception of Detroit through this trilogy of plays. Did you have any misconceptions about Detroit before starting Skeleton Crew?
Not so much. One of the things I loved, I believe it was the second week of rehearsals and Dominique skyped the entire cast and one of the things she said about Reggie I found fascinating and I have also experienced. She said, “characters like Reggie have it harder than even characters like Dez. Reggie started out being poor and has worked his way up and has now just recently moved to the suburbs. Just because they have moved doesn’t mean they have been accepted. They get it from both sides. Their own think they sold out and middle class white people feel like that family doesn’t necessarily belong based on where they have come from.” I love how Dominique explained that and that really informs my interpretation of Reggie.
It would be grossly unfair to compare the lives of auto factory workers to actors, but haven’t you experienced that similar fear of not knowing if a job will come along and if it does how long it will last?
I’m not sure if the comparison is right only because I believe there was a time when you got a job at a plant like that where people were pretty sure they were going to have a job their entire lives. They saw generations do that and that’s why they went into it. The last 25 years links to what’s going on in our country. It’s been tragic and I wish and hope more Americans start paying attention to see what these workers are going through and how the middle class is being utterly destroyed.
But yes, that’s an actor’s lifestyle. As you come into that at a very young age you have ups and downs and that’s part of the business. I have a friend that used to always say, “It’s not just about loving acting, you have to embrace the actor’s lifestyle. That lifestyle is chaos and unpredictability.” If you don’t learn early on how to surf those chaotic waves you will wash up. That has very little to do with talent. There are very talented actors I know who aren’t working because they didn’t know how to surf that chaotic lifestyle.
You Tweeted on June 6th that it felt so good to be back on stage. And you’ve said you get an adrenalin rush from being in a play again. Do you think there will be less time between stage appearances going forward in your career?
Yes. That’s an easy question. I love television and film, but a lot of times you can just feel like a role player. Television, especially on the big four networks, they are not looking to be bold or courageous or push the norms. They want to be as vanilla as they possibly can because God forbid they come close to even offending a single human being. I like to be challenged and do things that are gritty and darker. And I understand why, it doesn’t fit into their business model.
By depicting Black lives in a play like Skeleton Crew, do you think you can chip away at the prejudices that lead to the necessity of a Black Lives Matter movement? Can cultural change come from the theatre?
The quick answer is yes, but only in a small way. The great thing about the medium of theatre is that dynamic that is live. But you are only getting 500 people at a time. The great thing about film and TV is it has the capacity to reach millions of people at one time. I wish more shows really focused themselves to make a difference. I wish that networks tried to do more to help things out like Black Lives Matter. I think the medium is too powerful to be aiming to do just cheap entertainment. As much as I love theatre, can it make a difference? In a small way. It’s chipping away at something really small.