#1
Posted: 11/13/05 at 4:06pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/theater/newsandfeatures/13ogun.html
As much as I love Taye, that last comment is really stupid.
Here's another thing I've noticed, this author, Lola Ogunnake has interviewed Idina, Rosario and now Taye. She is like the official RENT interviewer.
Does it not open up? It may not because you're supposed to be a member. I'll copy and paste below:
Why Is Taye Diggs Getting His Groove On?
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE
Published: November 13, 2005
THE foot traffic in Midtown Manhattan didn't come to a complete standstill as Taye Diggs strolled up Ninth Avenue, but the actor still managed to turn a few heads on a brisk weekday afternoon. "Just recently white people are starting to notice who I am," said Mr. Diggs, as he walked past a pair of middle-aged white women, both of whom did double takes. "In the black community of actors that's the gauge of how big you are, your real crossover appeal."
Since appearing in the Broadway phenomenon "Rent" nearly a decade ago, Mr. Diggs, 33, has moved easily between films ("The Best Man," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"), stage ("Carousel," "Chicago") and television ("Ally McBeal," "Kevin Hill").
Audiences will be seeing even more of the genre-hopping actor in the near future. He's currently starring in the revival of "A Soldier's Play," Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a murder at a Louisiana Army base during World War II. And he is again playing the role of Benny, the slumlord, in the film adaptation of "Rent," which opens on Nov. 23. Four more films are already in the can.
As if that weren't enough, he recently helped found a modern dance troupe called dre.dance, in which he is the principal choreographer - a fact that is sure to surprise many of his fans.
"Nobody knows that between singing, acting and dancing, I enjoy dance the most," he said, beaming, while sitting in a lounge at the Second Street Theater (where "A Soldier's Play" is running) a few hours before he was due at dance rehearsal.
Mr. Diggs said he discovered a love of dance as a teenager at the Performing Arts High School in Rochester and had continued to take classes over the years, studying with the likes of Timothy Traper and the Garth Fagen dancers.
Until his movie career took off, he was quite serious about dance, said Andrew Palermo, a choreographer and high school buddy, the other founder of the troupe, which now has seven members and is being financed by the Dance Theater Workshop.
Mr. Diggs is choreographing what he called a "modern ballet" scheduled to run at Alvin Ailey early next year. The show will deal with "suicide, murder, lust and jealousy, and it's told backwards, solely through dance," said Mr. Diggs, who spent the latter part of the afternoon at an Ailey rehearsal space, passionately shimmying and gliding barefoot across the shiny hardwood floors.
It's not only in the world of dance where Mr. Diggs continues to challenge himself. He was drawn to "A Soldier's Play" in part because he has never appeared in a straight play professionally - only in musicals. And, he added, "I think it's one of the greatest pieces of literature dealing with African-American men."
As Capt. Richard Davenport, a cocky, self-assured lawyer, he is called upon to investigate the murder of a black sergeant amid resistance from the base's white commanding officers. "Davenport has to stay one step ahead of the white people so he'll be seen as equal," Mr. Diggs explained, "and he has all this pressure from the African-American community because he's the one who broke through; he represents the race."
It is a feeling with which Mr. Diggs is all too familiar. While he was growing up in Rochester as the eldest of five, his parents often told him that he would have to work twice as hard as his white peers to be viewed as an equal. "People are going to look at you and assume you're not as good," the actor recalled his mother saying.
Nevertheless, the role of Captain Davenport has not come easily to Mr. Diggs. He spent the first week of rehearsal "petrified," he said, second-guessing himself and his decision. The challenge, said Steven Pasquale, a friend of Mr. Diggs for nearly a decade and a member of the play's ensemble, is that "he'd never tackled a piece of text this thick. It was a very intimidating process to commit all of it to memory."
The reviews have been generally positive, although "Entertainment Weekly" said he "seems to strut through most scenes as if on his own personal runway." Ben Brantley in The New York Times, however, called Mr. Diggs, "a lucid and commanding center of attention."
Mr. Diggs got his big break in 1995 when he was cast in "Rent," where he met his future wife, Idina Menzel, whom he married three years ago. At the moment, Ms. Menzel, who won a Tony Award last year for "Wicked," is starring in Michael John LaChiusa's "See What I Wanna See" at the Public Theater.
His career hasn't been one straight shot, though. Earlier this year, UPN canceled his heavily promoted series "Kevin Hill," about a playboy who finds himself saddled with raising an infant. It ran only one season. "When I agreed to do the show, I thought it was a brilliant premise," Mr. Diggs said, "but it turned out to be a fixer-upper. By the end, I was beat down. It takes a lot of energy fixing and upping.
Mr. Diggs's face lighted up when asked about the movie version of "Rent," in which all but two from the original cast again appear. "It was the best kind of reunion," he said. "It was like meeting up with all of your favorite homies from summer camp."
Initially, he wasn't sure a "Rent" film was a great idea. "It's dated," he recalled thinking at the time. "All of our fans are older and jaded and probably don't want to see the movie because they've seen the show."
But he has since changed his tune, saying he expects "Rent" to be a hit again. "Every day I pray that there won't be a terrorist attack or a flood," he said, "because I think it would take something like that for it not to be a hit."
As much as I love Taye, that last comment is really stupid.
Here's another thing I've noticed, this author, Lola Ogunnake has interviewed Idina, Rosario and now Taye. She is like the official RENT interviewer.
Does it not open up? It may not because you're supposed to be a member. I'll copy and paste below:
Why Is Taye Diggs Getting His Groove On?
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE
Published: November 13, 2005
THE foot traffic in Midtown Manhattan didn't come to a complete standstill as Taye Diggs strolled up Ninth Avenue, but the actor still managed to turn a few heads on a brisk weekday afternoon. "Just recently white people are starting to notice who I am," said Mr. Diggs, as he walked past a pair of middle-aged white women, both of whom did double takes. "In the black community of actors that's the gauge of how big you are, your real crossover appeal."
Since appearing in the Broadway phenomenon "Rent" nearly a decade ago, Mr. Diggs, 33, has moved easily between films ("The Best Man," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"), stage ("Carousel," "Chicago") and television ("Ally McBeal," "Kevin Hill").
Audiences will be seeing even more of the genre-hopping actor in the near future. He's currently starring in the revival of "A Soldier's Play," Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a murder at a Louisiana Army base during World War II. And he is again playing the role of Benny, the slumlord, in the film adaptation of "Rent," which opens on Nov. 23. Four more films are already in the can.
As if that weren't enough, he recently helped found a modern dance troupe called dre.dance, in which he is the principal choreographer - a fact that is sure to surprise many of his fans.
"Nobody knows that between singing, acting and dancing, I enjoy dance the most," he said, beaming, while sitting in a lounge at the Second Street Theater (where "A Soldier's Play" is running) a few hours before he was due at dance rehearsal.
Mr. Diggs said he discovered a love of dance as a teenager at the Performing Arts High School in Rochester and had continued to take classes over the years, studying with the likes of Timothy Traper and the Garth Fagen dancers.
Until his movie career took off, he was quite serious about dance, said Andrew Palermo, a choreographer and high school buddy, the other founder of the troupe, which now has seven members and is being financed by the Dance Theater Workshop.
Mr. Diggs is choreographing what he called a "modern ballet" scheduled to run at Alvin Ailey early next year. The show will deal with "suicide, murder, lust and jealousy, and it's told backwards, solely through dance," said Mr. Diggs, who spent the latter part of the afternoon at an Ailey rehearsal space, passionately shimmying and gliding barefoot across the shiny hardwood floors.
It's not only in the world of dance where Mr. Diggs continues to challenge himself. He was drawn to "A Soldier's Play" in part because he has never appeared in a straight play professionally - only in musicals. And, he added, "I think it's one of the greatest pieces of literature dealing with African-American men."
As Capt. Richard Davenport, a cocky, self-assured lawyer, he is called upon to investigate the murder of a black sergeant amid resistance from the base's white commanding officers. "Davenport has to stay one step ahead of the white people so he'll be seen as equal," Mr. Diggs explained, "and he has all this pressure from the African-American community because he's the one who broke through; he represents the race."
It is a feeling with which Mr. Diggs is all too familiar. While he was growing up in Rochester as the eldest of five, his parents often told him that he would have to work twice as hard as his white peers to be viewed as an equal. "People are going to look at you and assume you're not as good," the actor recalled his mother saying.
Nevertheless, the role of Captain Davenport has not come easily to Mr. Diggs. He spent the first week of rehearsal "petrified," he said, second-guessing himself and his decision. The challenge, said Steven Pasquale, a friend of Mr. Diggs for nearly a decade and a member of the play's ensemble, is that "he'd never tackled a piece of text this thick. It was a very intimidating process to commit all of it to memory."
The reviews have been generally positive, although "Entertainment Weekly" said he "seems to strut through most scenes as if on his own personal runway." Ben Brantley in The New York Times, however, called Mr. Diggs, "a lucid and commanding center of attention."
Mr. Diggs got his big break in 1995 when he was cast in "Rent," where he met his future wife, Idina Menzel, whom he married three years ago. At the moment, Ms. Menzel, who won a Tony Award last year for "Wicked," is starring in Michael John LaChiusa's "See What I Wanna See" at the Public Theater.
His career hasn't been one straight shot, though. Earlier this year, UPN canceled his heavily promoted series "Kevin Hill," about a playboy who finds himself saddled with raising an infant. It ran only one season. "When I agreed to do the show, I thought it was a brilliant premise," Mr. Diggs said, "but it turned out to be a fixer-upper. By the end, I was beat down. It takes a lot of energy fixing and upping.
Mr. Diggs's face lighted up when asked about the movie version of "Rent," in which all but two from the original cast again appear. "It was the best kind of reunion," he said. "It was like meeting up with all of your favorite homies from summer camp."
Initially, he wasn't sure a "Rent" film was a great idea. "It's dated," he recalled thinking at the time. "All of our fans are older and jaded and probably don't want to see the movie because they've seen the show."
But he has since changed his tune, saying he expects "Rent" to be a hit again. "Every day I pray that there won't be a terrorist attack or a flood," he said, "because I think it would take something like that for it not to be a hit."
Updated On: 11/13/05 at 04:06 PM
