LONDON FREE PRESS Mar 12, 2021
Audio play about Black Londoner becomes 'lesson plan' for actor in lead role For Walter Borden it’s a role for which he’s been preparing his entire life. Author of the article: Joe Belanger Publishing date: Mar 12, 2021 • 17 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation Renowned Canadian actor Walter Borden will perform Londoner Jeff Culbert's new play about London native Richard B. Harrison, son of escaped slaves, who starred on Broadway in the 1930s. For Walter Borden it’s a role for which he’s been preparing his entire life. In fact, the 78-year-old award-winning actor — who’s performed on stages across Canada including Stratford Festival and who is a member of the Order of Canada — said he couldn’t believe it when he read Londoner Jeff Culbert’s script, Elocution: The Life of Richard Berry Harrison. It’s a free, two-hour, one-man audio play about the London-born actor, the son of escaped slaves who went on to star on Broadway and whose face appeared on the cover of Time magazine days before his death. The audio-only play will premiere on Culbert’s website Sunday at 7 p.m., followed by a question and answer session with Borden, Culbert and others involved in the play’s production. “I knew nothing about Richard Harrison, but the moment I read the script it hit me on so many levels. I couldn’t believe it, one of those things that stops you dead in your tracks,” said Borden, himself a descendent of slaves who settled in Nova Scotia. “It was as if I was being introduced to something that you are supposed to do in your life. For 51 years I’ve followed a very defined path in my life and it was as if I knew this person and I was supposed to do this.” Harrison’s name isn’t well known in Canada, not even here where he was born and where a park was named after him. Yet, he starred on Broadway and was featured on the cover of Time magazine and is the namesake of a library and auditorium in Raleigh, N.C., a high school in Blytheville, Ark., and a gymnasium in Selma, N.C. For most of his life — unable to get an acting job because of his skin colour — Harrison travelled the U.S. performing the plays of William Shakespeare, poems and stories on street corners and anywhere he could find an audience. It wasn’t until 1930 that Harrison found fame when he was cast as de Lawd in the Pulitzer Prize winning play, The Green Pastures. It ran on Broadway for 16 months before touring the U.S. and Canada, including a stop at London’s Grand Theatre for three performances during two days in October 1934. Among the many honours bestowed on Harrison was the NAACP’s 1931 Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievement, which has been awarded to luminaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, author Alex Haley, civil rights activists Rosa Parks and singer-civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. On March 4, 1935, Harrison was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Ten days later he died of heart failure. “He dedicated his life to achieving at least some aspect of his dream to perform on stage,” said Borden. “Most of his life he was busking. He became the ultimate busker of classical theatre. He was a hustler and had to take it on the road to make a living, not for a fee but for whatever he could get in a hat. He went on the road with Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice performing all the characters in all the works, plus classical poetry and stories he would read. It was phenomenal. It blew my mind.” Borden knows something about Harrison’s struggle, besides being the descendent of slaves. When Borden became an actor, after several years teaching and working as a social activist in the 1960s and 70s, he was the only black professional actor on the East Coast. Borden grew up among the many social activists in Nova Scotia, counting as friends people who were instrumental in supporting Viola Desmond’s battle against racism after being arrested for sitting in a whites-only section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow. Her supporters included Pearline Oliver, wife of a church minister, and Carrie Best, the founder and publisher of the only black-owned newspaper in Nova Scotia who had fought a legal battle against the same theatre a decade earlier. Both women were Borden’s mentors and friends. Among Borden’s many accolades, he has been awarded the Portia White Prize of $25,000, given annually by the Nova Scotia Arts Council for making a significant contribution to culture and the arts in Nova Scotia, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award in 2006 for his contribution to African-Canadian arts and culture. Borden, who has battled racism and, as an openly gay activist, discrimination throughout his life, said it’s important for Canadians to hear Harrison’s story. “If he was born in a different time, he would have been performing on a Stratford Festival stage, no doubt about it,” said Borden. “His story must be told, especially for all the young black actors who aspire to be classical actors.” Borden said he hopes to bring the story of Richard Harrison to the stage one day, preferably to the Grand Theatre. “In a lifetime of teaching and acting, I’ve learned that you never know what’s going to fall into your lap and become your lesson plan for the day,” said Borden. “This is mine, for the purpose of illuminating this man.” jbelanger@postmedia.com Twitter.com/JoeBatLFPress IF YOU GO What: Jeff Culbert’s audio play, Elocution: The Life of Richard Berry Harrison, starring Walter Borden. When: Sunday, 7-11 p.m. Where: Online at jeffculbert.ca |