Steven Spielberg started off with an 8mm camera as a child. Steve Jobs conceived the technological giant Apple in his garage. Emmy-winning actor Charles Dutton started in prison. Tired of his story being told incorrectly by the press, Dutton set out on his own mission: to tell it how it was. Thus began the writing of his autobiographical one-man play “From Jail to Yale.”
The play, which will be opening at the UCLA Freud Playhouse tonight, is a dramatization of what Dutton has gone through. Dutton, who grew up in Baltimore, was sent to Maryland Penitentiary for manslaughter. In prison, he read “A Day of Absence” by Douglas Turner Ward, which piqued his interest in theater, and while incarcerated, he received his associate degree in theater. Upon his release from Maryland Penitentiary, Dutton spent two years at Towson State University in Maryland and earned his bachelor’s degree. Offered a full scholarship to Yale for theater, Dutton leapt at the opportunity.
Years later, Dutton is now known for an electric resume including starring and executive producing his HBO series “Roc,” appearing in “Without a Trace” and “The Practice,” as well as shows such as “Oz” and “The Sopranos.” However, the actor’s claim to fame is the auspicious beginning of his stage career working alongside August Wilson. Dutton created the lead for Wilson’s first few plays, including “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and “The Piano Lesson.” For his work, he has received a Tony, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and several NAACP Image Awards.
“From Jail to Yale ““ Serving Time On Stage” is a tribute to Wilson and Lloyd Richards, director of the Yale Repertory Theatre. In 2005, August Wilson died and Richards followed a year later.
“I wanted to do a show to pay homage to them,” Dutton said.
It was, according to the actor, a prime opportunity to start talking about his life. It is a narrative of Dutton’s life story interspersed with monologues from great playwrights that fit the themes of the play.
The play is a fundraiser for the Dramatic Arts Education Fund’s charity to enable 1 million underprivileged students to experience theater.
It is obvious to anyone who speaks to Dutton that he views the theater as a sacred place.
“When an actor, walks on stage, it’s your task to suspend (disbelief). It’s your task ““ you can be the catalyst to rediscover their humanity,” he said.
“From Jail to Yale” was written with this concept in mind: to make good theater, and to move the audience. To accomplish this, Dutton says that the actor must open himself up to the scrutiny of the viewers. “You have to leave an ounce of internal essence. … You have to be vulnerable, you have to be willing to open yourself up and let them see your soul,” he said.
Dutton is thrilled to be back on the stage, which he returned to in 2007 after 13 years of solely film and television work.
“It’s the only place in the craft of acting, only arena where the actor is in control,” Dutton said. “The actor controls the drama and the actor controls the comedy.”
While Dutton admits that it is difficult to make a living on the stage, the organic, real, immediate nature of theater draws him in again and again. Theater, says Dutton, enables him to change civilization, to affect the audience positively.
“You can have a great film, an emotional film, but it doesn’t have the same effect that a play can.”