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Chicago Jeff Award Winner Darryl Maximilian Robinson Recalls His Role As A Black Professor of History In The 1998 World Premiere Production of Robert Myers' Drama 'The Lynching of Leo Frank'
Arts and Entertainment
February 2, 2025
CREATING THE ROLE OF A BLACK PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE 1998 WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF PLAYWRIGHT ROBERT MYERS' "THE LYNCHING OF LEO FRANK"!:
Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project Founder, Artistic Director and Producer Darryl Maximilian Robinson, a winner of both a 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding Actor In A Principal Role In A Play and a 1997 Chicago Black Theatre Alliance / Ira Aldridge Award nomination for Best Leading Actor In A Play for his critically-praised performance as Sam Semela in the ESC revival staging of Athol Fugard's Master Harold And The Boys at The Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre of Chicago's Rogers Park, reflects on a strong character role he had the honor to create on The Chicago Stage in 1998.
"In a defining moment, a black professor of history, played with smoldering but controlled outrage by Darryl Maximilian Robinson, explains to a Jewish merchant ( Simon ) the realities of race hatred in Georgia."-- Kevin P. Murphy, "'Lynching' shows humanity at it's worst," The Times of Northwest Indiana, Friday, November 27, 1998.
"And Andy Simon and Darryl Maximilian Robinson engage in a fictional ( but possible ) dialogue between a Jewish merchant and a black professor that displays the possibilities of how the South might have evolved if its white power structure had made different choices."-- Andrew Patner, "The Lynching of Leo Frank," The Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday November 19, 1998.
One of Darryl Maximilian Robinson's best-written African-American character parts was bestowed upon him when he created the role of The Professor, a black academician of history who has a brief but telling conversation with a southern Jewish merchant ( well-played by actor Andy Simon ) in the 1998 Pegasus Players' world premiere production of Robert Myers' The Lynching of Leo Frank.
The work was powerfully staged by multiple Chicago Jeff Citation-nominated Outstanding Director Jonathan Wilson at The O'Rourke Center For The Performing Arts in The Windy City.
Playwright Myers' script would go on to capture a 1999 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for Outstanding New Work.
"The Lynching of Leo Frank takes off from a case history that, even in bare factual outline, is compelling enough... Myers uses documents of the time and his own mix of composite characters to show that this case was filled with layer after layer of deep-rooted prejudice. [It] bristles with questions that present a challenging, complex view of the crime." -- Richard Christensen, The Chicago Tribune, November 1998.
https://robert-myers.com/portfolio/the-lynching-of-leo-frank/