GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE MAY 1, 1998

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EVENINGS OUT

Returning home rekindles his passion for acting

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Columbus-Steve Black, one of Columbus's most distinguished theatrical professionals, has a favorite memory that most actors can only dream of.

Black had a small part as a restaurant maitre d' in the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune, which starred Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons and Ron Silver. To be in such distinguished company was in itself exciting, but Black was even more thrilled when a scene he appeared in was broadcast to a global audience of over a billion during that year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Some of his most treasured and best work has been done in front of Central Ohio audiences in such works as the Contemporary American Theater Company's acclaimed Love! Valour! Compassion! and Metro Mu-

Steve Black

sic Theater's equally well received Jacques Brel.

Born in Columbus, Black moved in the seventh grade from Mifflin, near Mansfield, to Arlington, just west of Dayton. It wasn't until the ninth grade that he was bitten by the acting bug, when he successfully performed a scene from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

"You did a dramatic scene and no one laughed," his drama teacher congratulated him backstage, which made Black think that if he could captivate his high school peers, then certainly, he could captivate the world.

Black's professional journey began at Otterbein College after which he went to Wayne State University in Detroit on a full scholarship. He was hired by the Cincinnati

Shakespeare and the Beef and Boards Theater Companies, and in 1979 he made the inevitable move to New York City.

Ironically, most of Black's theatrical tenure in New York took him away from the city, as he toured for 81⁄2 years. Two-and-ahalf of these were spent touring with Pepsi in a one-man show that crossed 38 states. He then traveled across Europe and Australia in a tour of Barefoot in the Park.

But when he was back in the Big Apple, Black worked on daytime dramas As the World Turns and Guiding Light. He also tried his hand at several ill-fated musicals like The Wright Brothers.

While Black's career seemed to be soaring along rather smoothly, several events in 1994 made him want to "come home to family, to my mom."

His ten year relationship ended, he turned forty, and perhaps most significantly, he said that he "lost [his] passion for the theater."

Today at 43, Black seems to have lost little ground and his passion for his art and life is again blossoming.

"My decision to come back [to Columbus] has made me very happy," Black said, "because here once again I can be constantly creative whether I am directing or acting and whether I am in dramas, comedies or musicals." Black is currently working on the role of Mashkan in John Marans's Old Wicked Songs, the Pulitzer Prizenominated drama about a relationship between an Austrian music teacher and an American musical prodigy.

"I think that Mashkan is my Hamlet," Black said. "I would like to re-do the role every five years because so much of me is in there."

Black is ecstatic about the way Columbus has become “such an openly gay city."

"Today, one has the freedom to be gay-in some ways it's even perceived that it might be chic to be gay in Columbus in the '90s," Black commented.

Black is currently busy with rehearsals for Old Wicked Songs. There is no doubt now that the passion he lost in New York several years ago is back with a vengeance.

Old Wicked Songs is being produced by Red Herring Theater and is being directed by another Columbus theatrical veteran, Lynn Roth. The show runs April 23 through May 17. Show times are April 23 at 7:30 p.m., and April 24 May 17 at 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with 2:00 p.m. Sunday matinees. All performances will be at the Vern Riffe Center's Studio 2 space in downtown Columbus. For more show information and tickets call 614-291-8252.

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