Stephen mckinley henderson nationality
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Stephen McKinley Henderson
ACTING MASTER CLASS
Henderson is a Tony-nominated, Drama Desk and Seff Award winning actor, born in Kansas City, Missouri. He also starred opposite Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the Academy-Award Winning film FENCES. Henderson attended The Juilliard Drama School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Rose Bruford College in England.
Henderson is known for his role as Arthur in the acclaimed HBO film, EVERYDAY PEOPLE. Other film credits include Lester in TOWER HEIST, Bobo in A RAISIN IN THE SUN, Cooper’s husband in the MARIE, and roles in the films KEANE and IF YOU COULD SAY IT IN WORDS. In addition to his films, Henderson played the recurring character, Omar, on the Fox series NEW AMSTERDAM, which premiered in early 2008.
Henderson is known mostly for his stage work. His portrayal of Jim Bono in the Broadway revival of August Wilson’s FENCES opposite Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, earned Henderson the Tony nomination for supporting actor and the Richard Seff Award, from Actor’s Equity. His other Broadwa
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Tony nominee Stephen McKinley Henderson on his journey to the top
Purdue alumnus says theatre “makes us look ourselves squarely in the face”
Today’s society is one of catered distraction.
Gathered together in a darkened room, theatre invites us to be still — to listen. To silence our phones, open our minds and let ourselves be transported to worlds we may never know. Or maybe to take a look at our own from a fresh perspective.
“The great thing about theatre, dance and the performing arts is that the classics speak to what it is to be human,” says two-time Tony nominee Stephen McKinley Henderson (MA theatre ’77). “You can have a production of ‘Antigone,’ a play that’s more than 2,000 years old, that — if done properly — can be as unsettling as the latest play that anyone has written.”
Henderson’s own introduction to the stage was somewhat unorthodox.
He was visiting an aunt in Oklahoma when she put him and his older brother, Ronald, on a tour of some of the local churches. Stephen would recite the Lord’s Prayer while Ronald, who
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Stephen McKinley Henderson
Professor Henderson has worked on stages throughout the United States and abroad, on and off Broadway, and in television and film. His work in the 2010 Broadway revival of August Wilson’s, FENCES with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis earned Stephen a Tony nomination in the featured actor category. That season he also received the Richard Seff Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor presented annually by Actor’s Equity. He is a Fox Foundation Fellow, member of the LAByrinth Theatre Company, Distinguished Alumnus of Purdue University College of Liberal Arts, and a former Chair of our department. His term as Chair was interrupted in 1999 by his work with Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, August Wilson.
In his eloquent obituary for Mr. Wilson in 2005, Michael Feingold of the Village Voice wrote,
“…To think of the great characters and scenes in August’s plays is to think of an epic parade of great African American actors who have seized their moment to make theater history: James Earl Jones and Mary Alice
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