E. Faye Butler on the Joy and the Business of Acting

           I knew from the moment I heard her coming down the hallway into the green room at CenterStage, that interviewing actress E. Faye Butler would be much like interviewing a small tornado.  She burst into the room with her dazzling smile, a hug and a shout, "Baby! It is so nice no meet you!"  (The pleasure was really mine – I've been a huge fan of hers for years.)  And like that small tornado, she was all energy, and all over the place at once – the ideas just flowed out.  Don't misunderstand.  Ms. Butler is the consummate professional, growing quite serious when talking about societal issues and her craft.  But she also understands that she is fortunate to do a "fun job!"  No curing cancer here.

 

            The play in which she currently stars, Trouble in Mind, tackles head-on the issues of racial stereotyping and the constant conflict between placating the powers that be and still getting the true message out.  On the CenterStage website, she says, "Many of the challenges that Wiletta [her character] faces are the same challenges I deal with everyday as an actor. Alice Childress wrote about subject matters most folks still don't want to talk about today. She pushed the envelope. She refused to change her scripts to please the producers on Broadway, therefore her works were never seen in larger venues—that took great courage and conviction. Some writers today would sell their souls just to be on Broadway. She knew that what she wrote about was true and powerful. The establishment is always trying to change real truth. Ms. Childress understood that truth is power.  There are still limitations on what people in the arts feel actors of color can or should do. Of course, it's a bit more PC now. It always puzzles me that some people in the business feel they understand your culture better then you do. Or you hear a director say 'Can you be Blacker?', as if all people of color feel and act the same way, that we all have the same family experiences. That's why I enjoy CenterStage; I feel that I'm respected for my artistry, not my color." 

            With the recent headline-making Grey's Anatomy scandal involving Isaiah Washington and TR Knight, the issues of bigotry of any kind that the play touches upon are clearly still relevant.  "Washington's comments have no place in a business, which acting is.  Someone with that much time in the public eye should be fighting stereotypes, never, ever adding to them!  And it's an easy dig.  Just like attacking someone over skin color.  Easy.  I always want to know straight on, 'What are your issues with ME?'  That is worth discussing, working out." 

            How Ms. Butler came to this project has some genesis.  "Last year, Irene (Lewis, CenterStage's artistic director and director of Trouble in Mind) gave me the script.  'I don't know if this is still relevant to African-Americans,' she said.  So, I read it, and said, 'Yes.'  I really can't believe it was written in the 50's!  I think the main character is extraordinary!  Actually, what really makes this play is that it is really about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.  And it is a play-within-a-play, which really brings that out."

            "As an actress, it is good that each character is different and relevant.  There are characters in this piece that we all know – or someone like them.  I am in this play.  Me.  E. Faye.  What is wonderful, too, as both artists and people, is that is about choices we make and integrity.  The play makes you ask, 'Is it more important to say what it is we have to say or to have integrity?'  Do you think those TV actors thought about that?"

            Her most recent role, Evillene in the LaJolla Playhouse production of The Wiz, represents quite a difference with what she is portraying now.  "Well, Wiletta doesn't wear yellow vinyl for one thing!" she laughs.  Although that production seems to have ended, she positively glows about the experience, especially about working with Tony-winner Des McAnuff.  "Des is a cross between a TV director and a stage director – his eye is like a camera.  He is a master at what he does.  From the first day it was overwhelming.  He has more energy… I don't know how he sleeps!  We had nine weeks of rehearsals.  With him, nothing is left to chance.  We knew that show inside and out before ever went in front of an audience.  The whole experience was really pleasant and the cast was just amazing."

            Doing Trouble in Mind represents a bit of a departure for Ms. Butler, who recently has done mostly musicals.  And the way she works on the two is completely different.  "When I'm in a play, I have to focus a lot.  I do much more research and really read all of the dramaturgy.  Then I read the play again and again, trying to find the subtext.  And I read the stage directions – the have a lot to say," she explains.  "Doing a musical is much more physical.  I do lots of vocalizing, stretching and drinking a lot of water.  In a musical the emotions are so heightened, especially when you get to a song, and you have to be there…ready, you know?  It is like being on a machine.  Once it starts, you just go – all of the elements come together.  In some ways, doing a play gives me a break.  But the concentration is so draining.  In a play, the lines are the music."

            Ms. Butler is an associate artist of CenterStage, and has appeared in their productions of Once on this Island, Ain't Misbehavin', and a critically acclaimed turn in Dinah Was.  What is the attraction  of Baltimore and CenterStage?  "I love, LOVE, Baltimore.  It is this country's hidden treasure.  I just love this city.  Other people ask me, what's there, and I say everything!  And CenterStage, well, they treat artists so well.  In most commercial theatre, you are a number.  But here, they stop and listen to you.  And it amazes me the risks they are willing to take here – they believe in theatre and realize you are not always going to have a hit.  They also understand and speak to their community.  It is wonderful and rare."

            Baltimore audiences might also remember her in Mamma Mia! The first time it played the Hippodrome.  "We were among the first to play there.  I think we were like the second show.  What an honor – a great space, a great crew.  The area was so different than the last time I was there.  Some of the people were actually afraid to come here.  But I told them, 'No!  Not my Baltimore!  You'll love it' and they did.  We all did."  Being a part of such a huge phenomenon was a lot of fun she says.  The audiences went crazy.  "But touring is very difficult, packing up every week, running the show, running to your hotel, running to the next city.  I learned that I needed to remember I need my own space.  It can be hard living and working with the same small group of people, so I'd always try to stay in a separate place from the rest of the company.  Not that I didn't like them, but I needed my time apart to be my time, you know?  Plus most of them were so young!  So much energy, so much drama!  Being a lead in a show has an unspoken responsibility, though.  The kids look to you to see how you act and react.  Like being on time to calls and things.  It is hard to give young people that age advice.  But when they came to me I'd listen and offer support.  What else can you do?"  What advice does this constantly working actress have for those of you thinking of a career in theatre?  "You first have to ask yourself, do you love this?  Is this an absolute passion?  If you want fame or fortune – do something else!  You really have to love it.  It is very hard work.  You should hope to be working and respected.  And don't over-school yourself.  They don't ask where your master's degree is from when you audition.  Go to school, yes.  Learn the basics, but don't forget, and trust this: experience really is the best teacher."

            Being one of the first and, to date, one of very few African-American actresses in the role of Rosie in Mamma Mia! brought about its own set of issues.  "They (the producers) were trying to hit a certain market.  And they succeeded in that end.  More folks like me came out to see the show.  But, honestly, they didn't realize that Rosie would/could be different [with me in the role]!  They just wanted her to be butch – short hair, pants and big shirts – one of the guys.  I had a lot of trouble with that – I mean the script doesn't support it.  She is chasing a man around the stage begging him to "Take a Chance" on her!  So I played her sassy and smart – a real woman."  Not all that different from her star turn in Trouble in Mind…

            So why should people see Trouble in Mind?  "Because they will be surprised!  This piece is a lost treasure written in 55, and this is the first professional production of it since then.  If she had re-written it, it would have been the first black play on Broadway.  And that she didn't is so true to the piece!  It is controversial even now – extremely contemporary.  Alice Childress was a thinker, and this was almost lost history."

Trouble in Mind continues at CenterStage through March 4^th.  Go to www.centerstage.org for more information.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of CenterStage.  Top to Bottom: E. Faye Butler in Trouble in Mind, Ain't Misbehavin', Once on this Island and Dinah Was.

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