While I was here in rehearsal , Oskar Eustis , the artistic director at the time , talked to my agent and they said , “ Would you be willing to audition for Top Dog ?” And I got it . It ’ s a play about two brothers and , because both of us were so close in age , we flip-flopped roles every other night . It was thrilling . It was also a co-production between the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and New Rep in Boston , so on the final leg of this two-hander , living out of a suitcase , looking forward to going back to New York , I got a call from my agent saying , “ Trinity wants to keep you .” And I said okay .

Was it an easy decision for you ? Like most things in my life , I ’ ve not always had a clear picture of why I make the decisions that I make . I work through my gut . I think it ’ s part of what makes me a good actor and a decent artist . And I just felt like this was another way for me to be embedded in a community . It was the best decision I ’ ve ever made in my life , coming here to Providence and being a part of this community .

What were your first impressions of the arts in Providence ? Seventeen years ago , what was happening here was exciting ; it seemed it was a city that was uplifting culture and the arts — putting arts at the center of public policy . I think there ’ s been even more of a fortification of the arts as a centerpiece of who we are as a city , who we are as a region .

The fact that people welcomed me in this community to come and help raise money for other nonprofits or to be involved with the Manton Avenue Project ³ — they saw me as an asset because of my work with Trinity Rep .

I saw actors having the opportunity to play all kinds of parts , as well . I saw people being stretched . I saw producers and directors showing a different kind of a creativity and vision around how they saw bodies in space and in relationship to story . And I found that very appealing and liberating , that I was allowed

3 . The Manton Avenue Project , where Wilson Jr . serves on the board of directors , is a playwrighting program for students in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence .

4 Members of the Brown University theater community protested casting choices in the 2016 production , including Wilson Jr .’ s casting as the sinister farmhand , Jud Fry .

to see myself in lots of different capacities .

This brings to mind , for me , the controversy surrounding Oklahoma ⁴ . Some viewers found it gut-wrenching to see you in the role of Jud Fry . Can you take me back to that time for you ? I ’ ve talked about the opportunities that have been presented by the regional theater . That notwithstanding , the regional theater has an assortment of blind spots . The idea of colorblind casting is a fallacy ; how you put bodies into space is important , and it has to be done so with intention . And I ’ ll say this about Oklahoma : I always wanted to play Jud Fry because I ’ ve always been attracted to the outside character , the character who ’ s on the fringes of society . I also know that I ’ m a baritone and there are not many great baritone roles written in the American musical theater . I also knew that we were

adding in a song in that show , which for me , really gave you a sense of the humanity of that character .

And so I was excited about playing the part . The problem with that experience was we weren ’ t as intentional as we could be about what it meant to have a Black man in that part , being sung to by a white Curly attempting to convince this Black man to hang himself — to self-lynch . There was a sense that the production wasn ’ t very intentional about the power of that image . I think that folks found the image triggering . They found the image jarring , shocking .

I think there ’ s a place for that in the theater . I don ’ t think any of us go to the theater to feel safe . We go to the theater to be challenged . We go to the theater to step outside of who we are and who we think we are . But all that said , we have to be more intentional in how we tell stories in the American theater .