What's New on the Rialto

McKinley Belcher III

Familiar to TV audiences for his work on several shows, most notably as a series regular on "Mercy Street," Belcher is now back on stage at the DR2 as Teddy in Ken Urban's A Guide for the Homesick, a play about two young men who learn a lot about each other in the course of what seemingly starts out as a sexual pickup at a hotel in Amsterdam. I recently spoke with him on the phone, shortly after the show's opening.

Michael Portantiere: Your show's run has been extended through February 2. How's it going?

McKinley Belcher III : It's going well. There's a lot of energy churning with rehearsals and into tech, so to be open and running always feels like a relief to me.

MP: Although it's a two-hander with a unit set, the play is quite complex, with both you and Uly Schlesinger essentially playing two roles each. If you wanted to explain the show to someone succinctly, how would you do that?

MB: It's about two strangers from different places in Boston, Teddy and Jeremy, who meet in Amsterdam, and they each remind the other of a very important person they've had in their lives. As they spend time in Teddy's room, they learn more about the people they've each failed, and through challenging each other and connecting with each other, they're better able to deal with the guilt they feel about those people.

MP: You first did this play in 2017 at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. Would you say there were many changes during that run, or after it?

MB: Yes. I know Ken went back and forth between making the characters from New York or Boston. Then, toward the end, there's a section where Jeremy makes a revelation, and there was some ruffling of the language there, so that scene has changed substantially.

MP: The person in Teddy's past is Ed, and the person in Jeremy's past is Nicholas. Jeremy knew Nicholas in Uganda, so when you switch into the role of Nicholas, there's a major change as far as accent, etc. Have you ever before played more than one character in one show?

MB: Yes. I did a play called The Invisible Man at the Huntington, and I played more than one person in that.

MP: Do you enjoy it?

MB: Yes, especially in this context, because the two characters [in A Guide for the Homesick] are very different from each other, so it's a workout as an actor. But also, I think their journeys sort of feed into each other, so playing both informs each one.

MP: I was very impressed by how, every time you morph from one character to another, you completely change your accent, the timbre of your voice, and your body language in a split second.

MB: Oh, that's good to hear. I think if your heart and your body are clear about the character you're playing, the switch actually becomes quite easy.

MP: I've had the pleasure of seeing you perform in several shows over the years, including that crazy staging of Romeo and Juliet at CSC. Thoughts on that one?

MB: It did feel crazy, but I have fond memories of it because that was the production that I moved to New York City with. I'm so grateful that it happened, and the classics are really important to me as a foundation for my work at large.

MP: I was very pleased that you won a Drama Desk Award for The Royale. Was that a surprise?

MB: It was! My experience with The Royale was one of the most collaborative experiences I've had, so it was gratifying for the show to get so much attention.

MP: One show I did not see you in, but I have to ask about, is the 2015 production of Rear Window at Hartford Stage, directed by Darko Tresnjak and starring Kevin Bacon.

MB : Darko has become a friend and someone I hope to collaborate with over and over again. He first directed me in Twelfth Night at Hartford, then I came back to do Rear Window. And it was such a joy to work with Kevin. I didn't know what to expect out of the process and working in such close proximity with him, but he was so generous with me. He was really interested in rolling up his sleeves and giving the play the best go that he could. There was talk of bringing that show to New York, but ultimately, the decision went the other way.

MP: As it turned out, you made your Broadway debut in A Soldier's Play.

MB: Kenny Leon directed that. I met Kenny a long time ago, when I wasn't even sure I wanted to be an actor. He was running the True Colors Theatre in Atlanta, and I did a production with him right before I went to grad school, as sort of a test for myself to be sure that I wanted to go to grad school for acting. So he feels very linked to the beginning of my journey as an actor. So many actors I admire got their start in the original production of A Soldier's Play, so it felt very much an honor to usher it to Broadway for the very first time.

MP: When I saw Death of a Salesman, I thought it worked beautifully with the non-traditional casting. What are you memories of that show?

MB: I remember when we were doing monologues in grad school, I picked Biff from Death of a Salesman for no other reason than because it's a great play that I thought I would never get to do. So I was thrilled when I learned they were going to be doing this. I think there's so much of the play that's so universal, about the American dream, that it could be about almost any family, but there's so much in it that sings in a different way with a Black family. For example, if you have a boss who is white and a Black employee who is older than him, but the older Black man is subservient to him, it conjures a very different dynamic than it does when they're both white. It just does, because of the history of the U.S. There were so many things like that in play that got inflated and highlighted, without changing a word of the text, and I think they really served what Arthur Miller was chasing. Because even though, in his mind, he was writing about a family who was white and potentially Jewish, he was still writing about Willy as a man in the margins, and making him a Black man only exacerbates all the things he's feeling and experiencing. Even with his sons, to have two young men who are capable but are still floundering and searching and can't quite hook into where they want to be in the world, because other people don't see them as see they themselves...

MP: Yes, and the very specific plot point that Biff maybe could have been a professional football player...

MB: Right. That would have been much more difficult, nearly impossible for him at that time. I remember talking with Rebecca Miller after the opening, and she said she wished her dad could have seen our production because it was so much the play that he wrote, yet she heard so many things in it she had never heard. She said the play was coming through in a different rhythm and from a different perspective that made it come alive in a different way. Which is a really interesting way to hear a classic.

MP: I haven't seen any of your TV work, but I'm glad you have that going for you.

MB: Me too! Theatre is my first love, but I'm always happiest when I get to bounce back and forth between the different media that are available to me as an actor, and I also feel that my theatre work informs how I approach my work on camera.

MP: What projects do you have coming up that you can talk about?

MB : There's a Netflix series called "Zero Day" that I'm in with a bunch of fancy people–Robert DeNiro, Angela Bassett, Jesse Plemons. It a sort of political thriller that's going to play out over six episodes, starting in February. I also did an independent film, a beautiful queer story that's inspired by a French film called La Piscine. And I did a couple of episodes of shows like "Found" and "Law & Order."

MP : You play a gay character in A Guide for the Homesick, and you mentioned that La Piscine is a queer story. Whenever I interview an openly gay actor, I always have mixed feelings about bringing up that subject, because on the one hand, of course it's a wonderful thing–and in your particular case, I can't offhand think of a lot of other African-American actors who are out in that sense. But on the other hand, I realize you don't want it to be the thing that defines you. So would you like to say a few words about that, or skip it?

MB: It feels relevant to the work we're doing in this play, so I don't want to skip it. I guess I would start by saying that I've been on my own journey with my queerness and how it relates to me as an artist and to my activism in the world, and I have long since landed in a place that I can't do the work in the way that I want if I'm using any of my energy to hide in any way. There's so much in what I do that's about the revelation of self and discovery of truth, so if I'm using any of my energy to obscure or hide that, I won't have all of my super powers available to me. Having the courage to be all of yourself is a more free way of walking through the world. Anytime I talk to someone who's trying to figure this out, that's the wisdom I like to try to bestow.

MP: Wonderful, thanks so much. Before I let you go, do you have any final thoughts on A Guide for the Homesick?

MB: I think Ken Urban has become a friend over this time of doing the show twice now, and I'm really proud of his courage as an artist to put this play out in the world. I don't think it was an easy play to get done, so I'm happy that we've brought it to New York to share it. I'm excited to be a queer man in a queer story written by a queer person, and I hope people come out and take the ride with us.