Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

'PROFILES IN OZ' PART FOUR
In New York with Cast Members
by David R. Guarino
2003-01-29

This article shared 5069 times since Wed Jan 29, 2003
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


It is a universal truth that pain often precedes growth. Within the violent, uncertain and often chaotic world of OZ, there is wisdom to be found. There are life lessons to learn, fences to be mended, tears to be shed, alliances to be formed, and demons to be exorcised. Assuming that one survives, that is. In this frightening land of OZ, Tom Fontana has presented a microcosm of life replete with complex relationships seared by desires, possibilities, hope, fear, danger, tension, love and hate.

Each installment of OZ is tied to a theme, such as 'The Routine,' or 'You Bet Your Life.' Accordingly, most episodes of the series OZ begin with a soliloquy by Prisoner# 95 H 922, otherwise known as Augustus Hill. The complex nature of the subtly eloquent Hill is brilliantly showcased in an outstanding continuing performance by Brooklyn-born actor/dancer Harold Perrineau.

Ostensibly designed to emphasize the underlying life lessons to be found in each harrowing visit to Emerald City, the soliloquies are used to punctuate each episode at critical points and provide both a foundation and denouement for each episode. They comprise both the opening and closing scene of most episodes in addition to peppering the story at several points. Hill's often-colorful presentations take place in what Fontana refers to as 'The Box.' This is a 'sleight of hand' space where 'anything is possible' and adds a uniquely rational yet magical quality to Fontana's imaginative storytelling of the hellish life to be found in a maximum security prison.

Harold Perrineau attended Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Va., to study music and theater. From Shenandoah, Harold trained as a dancer with The Alvin Ailey Company. Perrineau toured with the cast of Dreamgirls and also starred in an off-Broadway revival of the acclaimed musical, Godspell. He was also featured in the critically acclaimed, Avenue X. He made his screen debut opposite William Hurt, Harvey Keitel and Forest Whitaker.

Perrineau has guest starred on numerous television series and sitcoms, including: The Cosby Mysteries, ER, Living Single, Law & Order, I'll Fly Away and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. His film credits include: both The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded, both scheduled for 2003 release, Woman On Top, from 2000, in which Perrineau played 'Monica,' 1999's The Best Man, The Edge, (1997), Blood & Wine, (1997), Romeo and Juliet, (1996), Flirt, (1996), Smoke, (1995) and 1988's Shakedown.

An ardent devotee of the martial arts, Perrineau studied Kung Fu Wu-Su for five years. It was a pleasure to interview Harold and several other OZ cast members at The Odeon in NYC this past November.

DAVID GUARINO: You once said that 'behind bars is no different than in front of bars … people still respond the way they respond based on love, hate or loyalties.' Does this summarize the ongoing theme of OZ?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: (Harold nods) I think, yeah, that's the point of OZ. You think that it's a glimpse of this other world, but it's not. It's a glimpse of humanity and the world, people's responses to things, stuff like that. So, yeah, I would say that's the ongoing theme, that's the thing that's the most interesting about OZ. To watch people do those things.

DG: I have always felt your character of Augustus Hill was never really developed as much as it could have been …

HP: Really?

DG: But then your major role on OZ seems to be delivering the soliloquies, which really comprise the lesson of each episode.

HP: (Harold nods and smiles) Right.

At this point, Lee Tergesen, a.k.a. 'Tobias Beecher,' who is seated to my right at the counter we are all sitting at in New York's Odeon Restaurant, chimes in:

LEE TERGESEN: It's funny, but I feel like you were given too much character! (Laughter)

HP: (laughing) Well thanks for your little point of view, Lee!

DG: What part of the character of Augustus Hill do you relate to the most, and why?

HP: Well there is a part of the character I relate to, and I'll answer your question in two parts. Regarding the first thing you said about it (Hill's character) not being developed that much … . I think that's the right route. I don't think that you can develop the character and get to know the character and still be able to objectively take the speeches in between. Like, if you had more and more of an opinion of him (Augustus) … if you thought he was, for instance … like Beecher, you might not believe him! ... You might think, how does that guy know that? It's easy to be objective because you don't know him that well. And so the thing I most relate to is the observer in Augustus …

DG: The observer in him …

HP: (Harold nods) Yeah. That's Hill's job, being an observer. That's the thing I really key into a lot. When something is observed, Augustus Hill will just go ahead and speak about it. That's the part that I thought was really cool about this character, that he is an observer, I like that a lot.

DG: Now I remember also reading that you had said that because of the fact that you deliver the soliloquies and have never really played that much off of another character, that sometimes it got kind of lonely playing Hill and the narrator …

HP: Yeah. These guys all get to have, like a good time and do scenes together, and they get to work with other actors. There have been times when I have been in front of the camera for a whole day when it was just me and the crew. None of the other guys were there and it got kinda like ... a little lonely. Or sometimes I'm running around, or I'm sitting in 'The Box' waiting for them to set it up. There I sit, waiting on them!

DG: How was it to wear all those cool costumes when you were delivering the soliloquies? Some of them looked really heavy …

HP: Some of them were great! Some of them, well … (Harold laughs) I used to love it when Tom would come on the set, 'cause I could always say, 'Well, this is another fine mess you got me into!' Some of those costumes were just outrageous!

DG: They were! Like I say, they looked heavy. Some of the outfits also had a hat or headdress, didn't they?

HP: (Harold nods) Yeah, and I think they made me do, like, white makeup when I had to portray a statue …

LT: Didn't they pour paint on you during the first episode or during the first season?

HP: Yeah, they did. Blood and sperm. It wasn't paint at all; it was real blood and sperm …

LT: Wow! You're the man!

HP: Yeah, they don't play around! (Harold is laughing and we all join in)

DG: (Turning to Lee Tergesen) By the way, the one scene in OZ that I can say, from my point of view, I couldn't see happening, was in the episode entitled 'Variety.' In which you and Schillinger do a duet together … (Harold begins laughing heartily) I couldn't get that, unless one of you died at the end of the scene … . That stretched me to a point of total disbelief …

LT: Wait a minute, David. Then you don't understand 'The Box.' Anything can happen in 'The Box.'

HP: (Harold nods) Anything happens in that 'Box,' right …

DG: Oh, right—it happens in 'THE BOX.'

LT: (Lee nods vigorously) All those songs were in lieu of his (Hill's) monologues …'

HP: Right.

DG: Ahhhhhh, right!

LT: (With a mock crazed look) That's because MR. HOTSHOT couldn't be there! Also, in the episode in which the Variety Show happened, the only person to sing was Michael Wright, who sang badly! (Harold laughs loudly) Everybody else was singing in 'The Box' and they were all singing well! It's a fantasy …

DG: I know you've probably been asked this a million times, Harold, but do you have a favorite soliloquy?

HP: Umm. Yes, I've been asked before, but the truth is I don't. If I see them again, there are some that are really profound, and there are some of them that are amazing to even consider. But there have been so many that I can't remember them, and I can't remember one that is my favorite.

DG: Can you remember one that you thought wasn't very effective, or that you weren't crazy about doing?

HP: Nope!

LT: (Lee raises his hand) May I interject? Do you guys remember a story called 'Works of Mercy?' (Lee turns to Harold) The show was all about mercy, and it's the same show where my son's hand was cut off. And the last thing was you looking right into the camera and saying, 'Kyrie Eleison means Lord have Mercy. Please have mercy.' UGH! Lee makes the sound which ends each episode of OZ which sounds like a deep-voiced man uttering 'UGH!' (Harold is laughing) Oh, and there's also an episode in which God is a gangster!

HP: Yeah, God is a mob boss! (Harold is shaking his head) Yes, there's such great writing (on OZ). It's really hard to choose. Some of them (the soliloquies) really affected me in an amazing way. There's the one about the animals telling the truth. People wondering about whether their dogs are going to heaven …

DG: That's one of my favorites …

HP: Right. And the morale there is that pets always tell the truth, that's all they do. And everyone's wondering if we're going to heaven, and that was really like, wow! Exactly! And what would that be like, you know? Just tell the truth. All the time. So those kinds of things really affected me in a profound way. Now I still lie a lot! (Harold laughs and Lee joins in) Now that I think about it … .

DG: Harold, you were born in Brooklyn?

HP: (I was) Born and raised in Brooklyn.

DG: Tell me about touring with Dreamgirls. What was that experience like for you?

HP: That was my first big job, David. Did I get my equity card on that job? (Harold muses) I might have gotten my acting card on that job. I was 21 and just out of dance school and I went on the tour (of Dreamgirls). And Lauren Velez and I (Lauren plays Dr. Gloria Nathan on OZ) were both in that company, and we both always wanted to be actors. So we'd be backstage watching the other people do their thing, cause we were both dancers in it ... and we'd go to the movies and we'd sit there and go, 'One day, man, one day I swear to God we're going to be doing movies!'

DG: You and Lauren would say that?

HP: (Harold nods and chuckles) We'd sit around and Lauren and I would say that … all the time! 'Look at us, man!' So we were, like, the youngest people in the show … it was great.

DG: How do you feel about the fact that OZ has never really won any major awards? Does it bother you?

HP: I don't know!

LT: I think if you give us one (award), you've got to give us all the awards …

HP: (Turning to DG) Does it bother me? No, cause at the end of the day I know we did really good work and we did really interesting stuff. That I can live with. You know, we didn't win the Emmy? Aw, well, all right!

DG: You didn't really expect to win the Emmy, did you?

HP: No. Well, I didn't expect the show to go past the first year! (Harold laughs) I thought, this is not going to get goin' on …

LT: OZ is not a safe show to be voting on … I mean, speaking as the sodomized lawyer … (we are all laughing)

HP: It's not safe …

DG: So tell us about your latest projects, Harold. I understand you're in the upcoming films, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded, right?

HP: Yeah. We're done with those. They are really long and I was in and out doing those for about seven or eight months, I don't know. The first one, The Matrix Reloaded, comes out Memorial Day, 2003, I think. The next one I'm not sure about, but it will be soon after. They're going to be amazing.

DG: Of all the television series that you've appeared on, Harold, was there a particular show that was the most fun for you?

HP: Of all of them? Well, of course OZ has probably been the most fun. I mean, you have the coolest people (working on that show), and I've made the most friends from that. Other than that, like, Livin' Single was fun. I know Queen Latifah a little, and Kim Fields has had a long, long career. She's been a star like since she was a little kid. Sitcoms are hard to do, man. I didn't realize it until I got there. These guys are pros. There's a certain way they shoot sitcoms; there's a certain way they read the lines and hold for the laughs. It's really another cloud. I was outside my element there. At least I knew people there. It was like, 'I don't know what I'm doing, but here I go, right?' (Harold laughs)

DG: Your first big role was playing opposite William Hurt, wasn't it? What was that experience like?

HP: (Harold nods) My first big role, yeah. It was scary …

DG: Were you intimidated by it?

HP: Yeah. How could I not be? These guys are like iconic. The only thing that helped me settle down is that we actually had some time to rehearse. Like a play. And the approach to the film, because it had been a book, was more like doing theater than a movie. And since I'd done so much theater, that really helped me calm down a bit. But I was completely freaked out … it was one of those things where you're auditioning and auditioning, get the job! Now I've got the job and I'm scared … (Harold laughs)

DG: Harold, what do you think is the most important life lesson that a viewer can learn from watching OZ?

HP: There but for the grace of God … go I. Because going back to what we were talking about before about OZ being a view of the world behind prison bars … We live in a time and in a society where information comes from all over the place, and you can get all kinds of crazy information and you could be the nicest, coolest citizen in the world and wind up, somehow, behind bars. And it's not so far removed as everybody thinks. We think that it's not an issue; 'Oh, prison doesn't have anything to do with us,' but it does, right? And because OZ brings a form of humanity to the prison and to prison life, it also begs the question, 'What are we doing? What do we do about it?' If you think of the justice system, and we all really need to look at it, you come to realize that what affects one person (whether behind bars or not), affects us all. At the end of the day we are all OZ.

E-mail: DavdRonald@aol.com


This article shared 5069 times since Wed Jan 29, 2003
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Lambda Legal Launches "Speak OUT" awareness campaign uplifting trans, nonbinary voices
2024-03-28
--From a press release. VIDEO BELOW - (NEW YORK, NY — March 28, 2024) In advance of Transgender Day of Visibility, Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest legal nonprofit working to achieve full equal rights for LGBTQ people and everyone living with ...


Gay News

Four Chicago Red Stars receive international call-ups
2024-03-28
CHICAGO (March 28, 2024) — Chicago Red Stars Nádia Gomes, Natalia Kuikka, Alyssa Naeher and Mallory Swanson have been tabbed to represent their countries during the April international window. Forwards Gomes and Swanson are set to ...


Gay News

2024 'Nike Basketball Camps with the Chicago Sky' announced
2024-03-28
The Chicago Sky officially announced, in a debut collaboration with Nike Sports Camps, 2024 summer basketball camps for Chicagoland youth. Two camps for boys and girls ages 7-15 will take place June 17-21 and July 8-12 ...


Gay News

Nex Benedict's autopsy report released
2024-03-27
The full autopsy report for Nex Benedict (he/they)—a 16-year-old transgender and Indigenous student from Oklahoma's Owasso High School who died in February a day after a school fight—has been released. The Oklahoma Office of the Chie ...


Gay News

Thailand parliament passes landmark marriage bill
2024-03-27
On March 27, Thailand's parliament approved a marriage-equality bill by an overwhelmingly large margin—a landmark step that moves one of Asia's most liberal countries closer to legalizing same-sex unions, media ...


Gay News

City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness
2024-03-26
City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season—which will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...


Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

An interstate trans healthcare crisis: Illinois prepares for influx of people seeking gender-affirming care
2024-03-26
With hard-won rights, such as access to hormone replacement therapy or permission to use one's chosen pronouns in school, breaking down in states across the country, trans residents of all ages are left with a choice: ...


Gay News

Be here, be queer, play polo: Gay Polo League creates safe athletic space for LGBTQ community
2024-03-26
LGBTQ+ athletic clubs aren't too hard to come by, offering a variety of sports such as softball, soccer and more in cities across the country. But LGBTQ+ athletes would be harder pressed to find someplace to ...


Gay News

Planned Parenthood of Illinois expands Orland Park health center
2024-03-26
--From a press release - ORLAND PARK, Ill. - Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announces the expansion of its existing Orland Park Health Center at 14470 S. LaGrange Rd., Suite 106. The 1,800-square-foot expansion is projected to increase sexual and reproductive ...


Gay News

The Jeff Awards announces the 50th anniversary awards for non-equity theater
2024-03-26
--From a press release - A complete list of recipients can also be found online in the Non-Equity and News and Events sections at www.jeffawards.org. (March 25, 2024 - Chicago) — Celebrating its 50th anniversary awarding recognition for Non-Equity theater, the ...


Gay News

After 30 Under 30: MAP Executive Director Naomi Goldberg
2024-03-25
NOTE: In this series, Windy City Times will profile some of its past 30 Under 30 honorees. Windy City Times started its 30 Under 30 Awards in 2001, presenting them each year through 2019. This year, ...


Gay News

United Church of Hyde Park hosts LGBTQ+ storytelling event
2024-03-25
About 20 people had gathered around four round tables in the community room of the United Church of Hyde Park, 1448 E. 53rd St., on March 23. They were listening quietly to a man tell the story of how, on a ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event
2024-03-25
Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.