Renaissance Man

Professor's roles don't end at theatre door

By MELISSA DUGAN
Collegian Arts Writer

Pieces of Charles Dumas are scattered all over his office.

These pieces of the University associate professor of theatre arts are in the photographs, posters and books that fill the room. A selection of black and white photographs from plays done for the diversity department, such as Fires in the Mirror, are carefully taped to the door. They feature actors from the productions caught in motion while performing. Sometimes Dumas himself is pictured along with his students and colleagues.

Dumas speaks passionately about the work in University theatre that the photographs illustrate.

"I have this belief that theatre can really help transform people's lives by showing them life from a different perspective," he said, "bringing them closer to each other."

Dumas, a tall man with a graying beard, a deep, warm voice and attentive, brown eyes, sits in the middle of the room. His musical speaking voice naturally draws attention, but Dumas is equally skilled at listening to others. He curves his fingers around his chin when listening or thinking and focuses his eyes firmly on whoever is before him.

He does this as he pauses before speaking, hesitating to define himself. He squints with concentration, trying to put his busy and varied lifestyle into words. He is not only a teacher but also an actor, a director and a playwright.

Dumas the film actor is noticeably portrayed in an eye-catching photograph on his wall. In the picture, he embraces a grinning Téa Leoni, the star of the sitcom "The Naked Truth." He acted with Leoni in a new Steven Spielberg-produced film, Deep Impact

But, Leoni was not the first popular actor that Dumas has encountered in his career.

Stars who Dumas can count as friends include Sidney Poitier, Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman. He has come across many well-known performers while acting in major motion pictures such as Die Hard with a Vengeance, Cop Land and The Peacemaker.

As an actor, Dumas is strikingly nonchalant about his work with famous people.

"I think that people are too obsessed with stars," Dumas said. "We put them on pedestals and then try to knock them down."

But Dumas' acting experience does not only help him meet famous people. The actor is also a teacher, using his professional acting experience in University classes.

The class is small, consisting of only six students who deeply commit themselves to theatre. They perform scenes from plays and openly critique each other and themselves. The actors enjoy the freedom to comment that Dumas endorses.

"I love the open atmosphere of this class," said Nicki Parsons (junior-theatre).

One day last semester, two students in the class, work on a tense scene between a man and a woman who are strongly attracted to each other. They begin their lines, but Dumas stops them after a minute.

He turns his attentive gaze on the female student and asks her in his powerful voice, "How are you feeling right now?"

Dumas doesn't speak frequently in this class. He observes with fierce concentration and asks probing questions. The young actors are forced to analyze every move they make and every expression that crosses their features.

"He makes us delve into and consider things we've never heard of before," said Eric Feldman (junior-musical theatre).

Gradually, Dumas' interruptions cease as the actors' performance grows more solid. By the end, the sexual tension between the performers threatens to ignite the stage, while before it only gave off a few intermittent sparks.

The students applaud each other at the finish and everyone, including Dumas, is smiling.

After the class, the students can't help but express their admiration.

"I think he's the best thing that's happened to the department," said Ephraim Lopez (senior-theatre).

This respect for Dumas is felt by faculty in the theatre department as well.

"He has an energy and a commitment that I admire and envy," said Annie Mcgregor, associate professor of theatre arts.

Dumas' work in theatre at the University also includes an effort to incorporate minorities into the curriculum. Dumas has created new sections of dramatic study that focus on diversity. One of these classes is Theatre 208, a study of diverse cultures. The photos of theatrical productions on his door are mainly from the work of this class.

"The goal of this course is to help students learn about other cultures as well as themselves," Dumas said.

The class gives nontheatre and theatre majors alike the opportunity to put on shows aimed specifically at opening the minds of others. The class puts on five productions a semester, with only about three to four weeks of rehearsal before each performance.

Dumas also teaches sections of playwriting and African-American film and theatre.

Dumas' support of diversity goes beyond his teaching. He has directed and written numerous productions that promote diversity. He supports programs that help people of all races and sexual preferences by speaking at events such as National Coming Out Day and the Black Caucus Homecoming.

Dumas received the Faculty/Staff Diversity Recognition Award in 1997 for his work in diversity at the University.

However, his theatrical experience extends beyond films and his work at the University. He has also performed on television and in soap operas.

For Dumas, soap acting is an enjoyable experience, even though it may occasionally anger his mother.

Dumas acted on one of his mother's favorite soaps as a judge in court case. After the episode in which he delivered the verdict aired, his mother telephoned him and yelled at him for making an unfair decision.

"It's like these characters on soap operas are a part of people's lives," he said.

Although Dumas' soap opera experience and other television and film parts are enjoyable and financially beneficial to him, his true love lies with the theatre.

Dumas came from a working-class background. He describes himself as a "young hoodlum" in adolescence. But in high school, he found performing and fell in love with it.

"It gave me a way to be someone," he said.

He dreamt of becoming an actor, but at the time, challenging roles for black actors that did not include stereotypes were not usually offered. Unwilling to compromise his talents and his integrity, Dumas temporarily abandoned the idea of a dramatic career and studied law.

In the early 1980s, Dumas returned to performance. He was discovered by an agent and has been actively pursuing his passion in life ever since.

The posters on his walls tell of many of his performances. They number in the dozens, and it is hardly surprising that Dumas has difficulty remembering them all. His eyes search the room as he struggles to recall the name of a production.

"Some people put these up for decoration; for me, it's a necessity," he says with a deep, rich laugh.

Dumas' theatre performances include a one-man production of Up from Slavery, a piece about the life of Booker T. Washington. Dumas both wrote and acted in the play.

In addition, Dumas has directed several other plays both in and out of the University, including an off-Broadway production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Dumas was the first African-American to direct the piece.

In Dumas' busy lifestyle, he somehow also finds time for his other passions in life: writing and directing.

Many volumes are neatly crammed into Dumas' bookshelf. Arthur Miller and Toni Morrison are two favorites of the actor. Dumas finds great pleasure not only in reading, but also in writing some drama of his own.

"Writing is a chance to explore life in all of its nuances and all of its wonders," he said.

It took Dumas five years to write his play Brother's Keeper, a poster of which hangs by his door. This piece concentrates on a black lawyer who defends the United States against a lawsuit. The suit is brought by a black mother who believes the country is responsible for her son's death. Dumas said he experienced a lot of difficulty selecting an ending for the piece and decided to enlist the help of others.

At the African American Traditions conference in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center last year, Dumas had his unfinished work dramatically read aloud by actors to an audience. He then invited the audience members to comment on how they thought the piece should end.

"In playwriting, sometimes it's difficult to discern what works until you actually see it performed," he explained.

The finished product, which Dumas both wrote and directed, evidently worked well because Brother's Keeper made it all the way to New York City.

Dumas said he takes extreme pride in this and the fact that University actors were used in the production.

"It gave them the opportunity to experience acting in a real New York show," he said.

With all of his activities, it is a wonder that Dumas has also made time for a family.

Dumas and his wife Josephine, who is an engineer, have been married for 27 years, and they have four children.

Dumas and his wife participate in many activities together, including being actively involved in missionary work in Haiti and making an independent feature film. The plot of the film concerns young people of the present and of the 1970s. The production will involve University students and auditions will probably be held in April, he said.

Dumas smiles when he speaks of his wife and beams with pride when he talks of his children.

All of the Dumas children are now grown and finding their own roads in life.

One is an artist, another is at Cornell studying law, another is a medical technician and the fourth is pursuing an acting career. Their pictures hang closest to his desk.

He tightly embraces his daughter Alexandria, the actress, in one of the photos on his office wall. He grins widely when he looks at the picture.

"She's starting off on her very difficult career, despite my protests," he said, shaking his head with mild disapproval.

It seems more likely that Dumas would want his daughter to be an actress, yet he views the profession with a stark realism.

"To go into theatre, you have to be willing to sacrifice everything but your integrity and your personal spirit," he said.

Dumas' wife also acknowledges the disadvantages of an acting career. But she believes that the good outweighs the bad.

"Being married to an artist can be difficult because of the periods of separation," she said. "But it is also very gratifying because I know that he's doing something that he loves."

Dumas' love of theatre can be seen just by taking a look around his office: every book is carefully placed, every poster is proudly displayed and in every photograph, the smiles of Dumas and those around him appear very genuine.

It also can be witnessed in the words of the man himself. Dumas views his life in theatre with affection as well as a recognition of its faults and fortes.

"Life is about trying to get it right. Sometimes you fall down, but you have to get up and move on." He paused and smiled. Then added, "I'm still trying."