Interview: Raymond O. Chandler of SKELETON CREW at Studio 2 in the Riffe Center

For Raymond O. Caldwell, the path back from Los Angeles to Ohio took a sharp left turn into Detroit. Caldwell, who graduated from the Ohio State University, is making a return visit to the Capital City to direct The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s production of SKELETON CREW, which is set in the Motor City.

The Dominique Morisseau play illustrates the stories of families of an automobile plant as the auto industry teeters on collapse. SKELETON CREW, which runs Feb. 29-March 17 at the Studio 2 in the Riffe Center (77 S. High Street in downtown Columbus), marks the first time Caldwell has spent an extended period of time back in the Buckeye state since he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in New Play Development from Ohio State in 2006.

“I love Ohio. I'm thrilled to be back in Columbus and to reconnect with old friends at Ohio State,” Chandler said. “My husband Eric Swartz, a Washingtonian, and I went on a tour of the Rust Belt including a stopover in Columbus.

“When I was choosing graduate programs, Ohio State was the only graduate program in the country that focused on developing new work. I'm glad I went there because that's what my entire career ended up becoming -- developing new work for communities.”

SKELTON CREW, which stars Alan Tyson (Reggie), Clarissa Rai (Shanita), Rico Parker (Dez) and Wilma Hatton (Faye), is the third play in Morisseau’s Detroit trilogy. It follows PARADISE BLUE and DETROIT ’67.

SKELETON CREW deals with the aftershocks of the implosion of the car industry. In 1979, Chrysler, one of The Big Three auto producers, teetered on the verge of bankruptcy before a government bailout and Ford and Chevrolet were taking substantial hits financially as German and Japanese automakers began producing more economical cars. ‘

“I'm fascinated by the industries of the Midwest, particularly the automotive industry,” Caldwell said. “The automotive industry really defined the subset of a culture of the United States.

“The first time I read SKELETON CREW, I was enamored with it. It’s one of the first times that I got to see a play specifically about the Black working class. I think (SKELETON CREW) examines what happens to the people when industries collapse. I'm really excited to tell this story.”

While it takes a hard look at many issues, Morisseau’s writing is not “trauma for entertainment.”

 “The plays about racism, slavery, and lynchings were the only ways we depicted African Americans on stage for a long time,” he said. “That doesn't show who we are as a people (now). In this play, you meet such diverse kinds of Black people.”

Caldwell is no stranger to directing the works of Morisseau, producing BLOOD AT THE ROOT at the Alliance Theatre in Washington D.C. He is currently gearing up for PARADISE BLUE.

“She makes the characters’ stories really hyper specific,” Caldwell said. “These are the stories and the people I grew up with. I grew up understanding the value of a dollar and how to stretch that dollar as far as you could.”

Caldwell was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and lived in Stuttgart. When his family moved to the United States, he said theater became his way to “escape the suckiness of reality.”

“Because I grew up on the outside of American culture, I always felt like an oddball,” he said. “Theater became a place of acceptance for me.”

The turning point for Caldwell came when he told a choir teacher, he wanted to write his own nativity play.

 “She said, ‘Oh, you should definitely do that,’” he said with a chuckle.

When he returned with a script for THE NATIVITY PLAY, the choir director seemed surprised.

“She said ‘You wrote it? We may as well do it.’ My love of theater literally started as a producer and a writer.

“For the first time, people, including my parents, started to see who I was. It was incredibly exciting to see people moved by the thing you sat in your room making up.”

Caldwell earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater from the University of Florida and considered acting. Then the desire to write and act returned.

 “Eventually, it was not enough to be a part of someone else’s story. I wanted to make my own,” Caldwell said. “I want to influence people. I want to be involved with shows where people weren't just passively watching, but instead were inspired to do something.”

Caldwell estimates he has written seven or eight plays since graduating from Ohio State and directed or produced 35 to 40 more.

Caldwell has served as the Producing Artistic Director at Washington D.C.’s Theater Alliance since 2018. He’s directed for Signature Theatre, Round House, Imagination Stage, Mosaic Theater, The Kennedy Center, National Players/OTC, Solas Nua, CulturalDC, African Continuum, and the Hegira. Before taking over at the Theater Alliance, Caldwell taught and was the resident director in Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts for six years.

Caldwell said it’s much more difficult to direct someone else’s work than his own.

“When you are the core creator of your work, if something needs to shift or change, you just change it because you're the writer,” he said. “When you're directing someone else's work, that person has entrusted you with their words and their ideas. You must honor that while simultaneously creating a piece in a world that already exists.

“You don't have access to the playwright. You can't just straight up ask them ‘hey on page 12 you said this what does that mean?’”

Stanley Photography

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