When New Orleans-based film, stage and television actor Lance Nichols was presented with the script for August Wilson’s autobiographical one-man play, his reaction was swift.
“I had two reactions, and they were both ‘holy (expletive),’” Nichols said. “First, it was in terms of the scope of the story, and secondly, it was my reaction to all of the damned dialogue. I found this to be both terrifying and challenging, but if something scares me, I want to do it, because that’s the only way I grow as an artist.”
The 80-minute stage play, directed by Jade King Carroll and currently at Le Petit Theatre, is about the complex life of August Wilson, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
The play begins when Nichols saunters across the stage to a clothes rack, where he removes his jacket to reveal a T-shirt that says ‘I am an accident, this did not turn out right’ on one side, and ‘I was supposed to be white’ on the other. Then, Nichols remarks that this play could be about Clarence Thomas.
The audience begins laughing uproariously, because of the recent revelations about Thomas in the news, but Nichols says, ironically, that was not a revision to the original text, but rather a reference to the Anita Hill testimony against the confirmation of Thomas as a Supreme Court justice, for alleged sexual harassment.
The immediate audience reaction stunned Nichols on opening night, who said he felt like he was delivering lines at The Comedy Store and had to wait for the chuckling to die down before he could continue.
A wild ride
The show, punctuated with typewriter keystrokes on the back wall to separate scenes, was co-produced with Portland Stage in Maine. Nichols as Wilson takes us on a wild ride through the perils of living in the Jim Crow era of Pittsburgh, with both dignity and defiance.
Never one to accept the lunacy of racism, Wilson often stood on principle rather than yield to those who denigrated him because of the color of his skin.
Wilson's father was a White German man, Nichols said. He was an alcoholic and not deeply involved in his interracial marriage.
"That had to be conflicting for August in terms of identity," Nichols said. "He dropped out of school at the age of 15, after turning in a report to one of his teachers and being accused of plagiarism. So, he spent the rest of his time in the library, and combined with his street knowledge, he persevered and became the man that the world now admires.”
Lance Nichols knows a thing or two about perseverance. He’s been in 228 film and television productions, not to mention stage plays, and currently has 12 screen projects in post-production, awaiting release.
When asked to name his TV favorite, he said he really loved his four seasons on HBO’s "Tremé," but had to go with his performance as the River King in AMC’s “Into the Badlands” about a ruthless post-apocalyptic America controlled by feudal barons. The three seasons were shot primarily in Dublin, Ireland.
'Oh, THAT guy!'
When it comes to film roles, Nichols didn’t hesitate about his favorite.
“Without question, it would be 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,'" Nichols said. “It was a small but memorable part as the preacher, but that two minutes and 47 seconds on screen changed the trajectory of my career. It took me from ‘What has he done?’ to ‘Oh, THAT guy!'”
The film won Best Picture. And with multiple Academy Award-nominee David Fincher directing and Academy Award winners Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett starring, it was seen by everyone.
On the horizon, Nichols' film “The Burial” with Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones, in which he plays the judge in a riveting court case, will be hitting screens in the fall.
Nichols considers “How I Learned What I Learned” his seminal stage role. The line he delivers at the play’s end, Nichols believes, is the essence of the entire play.
That line: “I do not stand here and say that we African Americans are victims, but rather we, both Black and White are victims of our history, and our victimization leaves us staring at each other across a great divide of economics, privilege, and the unmitigated pursuit of happiness.”
“How I Learned What I Learned” runs through May 7.