I left in ’ 89 . After graduating from St . Augustine High School in New Orleans 1 , I went to the University of Notre Dame . I majored in political science and government . And after that , I ended up going to graduate school and acting at the University of Minnesota at their theater training program . I stayed in Minneapolis and worked after graduate school until 2000 , which is when I moved to New York . I took my first show two weeks after I moved there , and I lived in New York for five years before being asked to join the company at Trinity Repertory Company . I ’ ve been here since 2005 . 2
So , political science — that could have been a very different life for you . Can you explain where that transition occurred and why ? I always dreamed of running for office . We ’ ve always had Black mayors in New Orleans . I always saw images of myself in positions of leadership and service . I was always a very good talker and quite dramatic . So law just seemed like it would be a great thing for me .
The change happened for me in my last year of college . Towards the end of my junior year , I was part of an affinity group of students of color at Notre Dame , along with other alumni . And because I was from New Orleans , we ’ d always get together and I ’ d make everybody a pot of red beans and rice or jambalaya . But those meetings , which started off as a social event , really became a place for us to debrief as people of color living in South Bend and being a part of the learning community . Notre
1 . A private all-boys Catholic school , St . Aug was founded to serve Black New Orleans families and now admits students of all racial backgrounds .
2 . Wilson Jr ., who is fifty , lives on Federal Hill .
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my life .
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We saw each other in a way that was different from the way I had felt I was seen and it radically changed
Dame was still , at that time , a little bit of a hostile space for people of color . We ended up shutting down the Golden Dome for a day . I ’ m proud to say that ten years later , when my brother went to Notre Dame , many of the things we had on our list of demands my brother enjoys .
But that all said , after that movement I was so exhausted and so disillusioned and so tired of it all , I dropped out of my student government stuff because I ’ d already taken the LSATs and I ’ d gotten accepted to five law schools . I just wanted to bide my time in my senior year and not mess up my GPA . So I took an acting class and it changed my life . It introduced me to a whole new group of people , a whole new way of collaboration .
It also allowed me to tap into who I am . I was in the closet and , as a gay man , it gave me the opportunity to not only explore who I was and to be comfortable in my own skin , but in an environment that wasn ’ t much different from what I desired when I wanted to be a lawyer and a politician . I was amid a community of people working together to be in service of a common goal . We saw each other in a way that was different from the way I had felt I was seen or the way that I was giving myself permission to see others in my community , and it radically changed my life .
Is that when you decided to study theater formally ? All the new friends I made , they were going off to audition for graduate programs in acting . I thought , you know , “ I ’ ll go and audition with you all just to see what could happen .” I ended up getting accepted into triple the graduate programs in acting that I did law schools as a non-major . And so I took it as a sign . I called my parents when I said , “ You know what ? I don ’ t think I ’ m going to go to law school . I ’ m going to go to acting school .”
How did they take it ? They flipped . They were like , “ You ’ re destroying your life . What are you doing ?” They had no capacity to understand what it would mean to make a life in the arts . It wasn ’ t something that was a part of our family ’ s tradition . When we had a little bit of spare money , we went bowling . We went out to a nice meal — a fried oyster po ’ boy . The arts were viewed as a luxury item .
As much as my parents were afraid , so was I . I didn ’ t know what I was doing , but I knew why I was doing it because of the way it made me feel . It ’ s been a journey . Back then for me , a career was , well , hopefully I ’ ll be like Denzel . Or hopefully I ’ ll win a Tony Award . And even that has changed for me over the course of my career as I began to understand the full capacity of my life and my obligation as an artist .
Did your parents come around ? I think that over the course of my career , especially the past seventeen years in this company , their idea about what it meant to be an artist in a community — or an artist period — expanded .
I watched my parents over the course of their lives also grow . I watched my father go from working at an aluminum can company and my mother working as a bank teller to my father working for Xerox , fixing coffee machines and then becoming a manager . I watched my mother begin a career at Shell Oil . I watched them go back to school to get their college degrees . I watched my dad then decide that he wanted to be a lawyer . My father graduated from law school the same time I graduated from Notre Dame .
Ultimately , my father was called to the ministry and became a United Methodist minister . I watched my mom go back to school . She rose in the ranks of Shell Oil , becoming one of the few women of color in a position of power within the financial sector of that business . So , as I tell
60 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l FEBRUARY 2022