Colman Domingo is an award winning, multi-talented actor, dancer, director and playwright. Domingo has played Billy Flynn in Chicago, starred in the Scottsboro Boys and in 2011 he was nominated for the Fred Astaire Award for Best Principal Dancer on Broadway. His film career has paired him with the greats such as Spike Lee who he calls a “big brother”. Despite writing infrequently, his work has attracted great acclaim. His play A Boy and His Soul, which made its debut Off-Broadway in 2010, premieres at the Tricycle Theatre in September. Domingo took time out of his busy schedule to tell Joy Francis how the play winged its way from New York to north-west London
What inspired you to write as you are renowned as an actor and director?
The acting career came first and through my acting I started to direct. In 1997, an artistic director I knew asked me if I wrote. I said I didn’t. He said he believed I had something to say and encouraged me to think about writing. At the time I was inspired by this book of short stories called Brother to Brother, which I used as a launch pad to start writing my first play, which was short stories of African American gay men. The artistic director gave me a basement theatre for the summer to use for free. I produced the play with $500 of my own money. I got the word out and recruited two actors and acted in it myself. It was successful and moved to the main stage at Theatre Rhinoceros. It has been their biggest success. It would take me another eight years to write a play
What is your latest show, A Boy and His Soul, about?
It’s a growing of age story set in the late 70s and early 80s in Philadelphia and is inspired by the Philly Sound. I feature other music, including some Motown and Stax Records’ legends. I would describe it as a solo play with music; a one man love story and tribute to his family’s conflicts and tenacity through difficult circumstances. It is also my tribute to a section of Philly called West Philly and all its colourful characters.
How did you find the time to write the show?
I originally started writing the play in 2005 when I was still making my way and was working as a part time bartender at night. When it wasn’t busy I would use the time between 1am to 4am to create something I was interested in. I started jotting down a lot of ideas and stories that were inspired by the music I was playing in the bar at that time, such as The O’Jays, Donna Summer and Gladys Knight & The Pips. I wasn’t doing it with the intention of it being produced. I wanted to create a piece of theatre that was powerful, passionate and reflected my voice but I wasn’t thinking about the end result.
Explain to me how A Boy and His Soul moved from Off-Broadway, New York, to the Tricycle Theatre in north-west London?
It started when I met Indhu Rubasingham [Tricycle Theatre’s artistic director] at the Sundance Theatre Lab in Canada two and a half years ago. She was directing a piece and I was developing my new play Wild With Happy. We were in the Canadian Rockies for three weeks. We would have drink at the pub and we became fast friends. This is the value of these development workshops where you make new friends from across the world. We were interested in each other’s work and voices and we stayed in touch. She heard about my solo show, got in touch and we discussed about introducing me as an artist in the UK, which I’m very excited about.
The UK premiere of A Boy and His Soul runs at the Tricycle Theatre from 4-21 September 2013.