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From NorwalkPlus.com Entertainment
“Confidence is critical,” says Rogers, “because as a performer you’re dealing with rejection all the time. So you develop self-assurance by training. Then they can tell you they don’t have a part for you. But they can’t tell you that you don’t know what you’re doing.” Why do many actors strike people as being shy? “It’s true, of course,” Rogers says, “that some performers are inhibited outside work. Count me in that category. In part that’s because performers don’t want to allow themselves to become distracted. But when they go to work you would never know that’s a facet of their personalities. The doubts disappear. They become assertive. They immerse themselves in the part and living in the moment.” Rogers and a contingent of Actors’ Equity professionals like him—supported by a cadre of young Connecticut theater aspirants—are assembling for rehearsals for the production of “Julius Caesar” June 12-28 at Rowayton’s Pinkney Park and July 4-13 at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich. Shakespeare’s epic chronicle of political intrigue and betrayal leading to Caesar’s assassination—ostensibly to save the Roman republic from tyranny—is presented with no admission charge but rather a suggested donation of $20 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. His role gives Rogers the classic line of betrayal in literature. When Caesar is surrounded by knife-wielders, he proclaims: “Et tu, Brutus?” which translates into the plaintive: “You too, Brutus?” The diverse talent of Rogers—actor, writer, director and teacher—has enabled him to earn a living in the theater for more than two decades without resorting to the time-honored offstage pursuit of waitering. Ezra Barnes, the director of the festival’s 13th annual production, considers Rogers “compelling, poised and magnetic onstage. He is a craftsman with a great respect for the language and how to use Shakespeare’s words. He’s devoted his career to bringing theater to audiences who don’t always get to see it.” As an actor, Rogers appeared in “The Mosquito Coast” (1986) with Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and the late River Phoenix, an adventure filmed in Belize where the crew uncovered a previously unknown Mayan site, and in “Weekend at Bernie’s II” (1993) featuring Barry Bostwick. Leveraging his Caribbean heritage—he was born in Trinidad and Tobago—Rogers was also a member of the Disney writing team behind “Cool Runnings” (1993) with the late John Candy, a whimsical cinematic account of the Jamaican bobsled team that captured n medal but the imagination of the sports world in the1988 Winter Olympics. For the past four years, Rogers was on his feet reciting Shakespeare and his own contemporary verse in front of a steel drum band called Utopian Pan Soul, the closing act at the Providence Sound Session in Rhode Island. In Italy and Harlem, he worked for the past three years with Compagnia de’ Colombari—and picked up a working knowledge of Italian. He has played Othello off-Broadway. And he swings into rehearsal with Shakespeare on the Sound directly from a two-role run as Alexas and The Clown in “Antony and Cleopatra,” mounted by Theatre for a New Audience at the Duke Theater on 42nd Street in New York. As Angelo in last year’s production of “The Comedy of Errors” in Rowayton and Greenwich, Rogers evoked a salutary audience reaction an inventive and appealing artistry he imparted to his characterizations of a snake charmer and a gold chain salesman. . Teaching is also a part of Rogers’ theatrical imperative. At the undergraduate and graduate levels he has lectured at institutions like Hofstra University, the Tish School for the Arts at NYU and in Towson, MD. “If you don’t give something back,” he says, “you’ve wasted your time.” His late mother Phyllis, a governess, exposed her son to Shakespeare’s mirror to the human soul. “Shakespeare was quoted all the time in my house,” Rogers recalls, “but I didn’t realize what it was.” His family emigrated to the U.S. in 1971. Gravitating to acting and ultimately schooled in the Stanislavski Method—stressing dedication, discipline and integrity—he studied for three years at the Yale School of Drama and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. His mom lived in Norwalk for three years and a brother Tyrone, a jeweler, is a part-time Norwalk resident today. Rogers and his wife Kimberly, a lawyer specializing in Chinese immigration, live on Roosevelt Island in New York. © Copyright by NorwalkPlus.com |
