Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77, received the inaugural Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee Living Legends Award from the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on October 19 during a ceremony that, perhaps more than any other in the celebrated actor’s career, highlighted his deep connections to Fordham University.

Presenting Washington with the award was Fordham Trustee Anthony Carter, FCRH ’76, the president of Crossroads’ board of trustees.

“Forty-six years ago on the Fordham University Bronx campus, a place we called 80 acres of paradise, our home away from home, is where I met our honoree Denzel Washington, and where our friendship began,” Carter said during the ceremony at the State Theatre New Jersey.

He praised Washington for his “stellar body of work” and for taking “acting and the industry far beyond where anyone else has.” But he also honored Washington in deeply personal terms. “I see you beyond being a great actor. I see you as a man of principle; determined, focused and disciplined. … I know you to be a great man and a great friend who just happens to be great at what you do. And we all cherish that.”

In his acceptance speech, Washington spoke to his faith, saying, “Man gives the award; God gives the reward.” He said he was “grateful, honored, and humbled” by the recognition, and “blessed to have a strong family.”

“But the reality is, I’m just beginning. The rest of my life is dedicated to glorifying God, to being a living witness of the grace of God, the mercy of God, the patience of God.”

He thanked Crossroads for recognizing Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and others “who helped to teach me to be the actor I’m trying to become,” adding, “I am hopeful and humbled by the possibilities to come, on the stage and in the world.”

Washington, whose first stage role was in a 1975 Fordham Theatre production of The Emperor Jones, said later that those possibilities might include returning to Crossroads to star in or direct a production.

David Alan Grier hosted the ceremony, and various other luminaries paid tribute to Washington through performances and speeches, including Courtney B. Vance, This Is Us star Susan Kelechi Watson, Phylicia Rashad, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Rashad and Henderson are former holders of the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre at Fordham, a professorship Washington established with a $2 million gift to the University in 2011. That same year, he also made a $250,000 gift to establish an endowed scholarship for Fordham Theatre students, 12 of whom attended the ceremony in New Brunswick.

Carter gave the Fordham students a shout-out during the ceremony and saluted Washington for his commitment not only “to the generation of actors here and around the world who stand successfully on your shoulders” but also to “the next generation of great actors.”

The Crossroads Theatre Company, which opened in New Brunswick in 1978, focuses on telling stories of the African diaspora, and in 1999, it earned the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. After two years on the road, the company, which is the only professional black theater company in New Jersey, has settled in as a resident member of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

Washington, a two-time Oscar winner, was nominated for best actor. Viola Davis, who plays Rose, was nominated for best supporting actress. And the late August Wilson, who adapted his 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning play for the screen, is nominated for best adapted screenplay.

If Washington wins his third Oscar on Feb. 26, he’ll join a select group of actors—so far, nine—who have won a best actor Tony and a best actor Oscar for playing the same role. He originally played Troy Maxson on Broadway in a 2010 revival of Fences. Producer Scott Rudin had approached him about creating a film version of the story, but Washington demurred, saying he wanted to bring the play to the stage first.

After Fences became an award-winning success on Broadway, taking home three Tonys, Rudin followed up with him again about bringing it to the screen, Washington said in an interview with Good Morning America producer and livestream host Will Ganss, FCRH ’14.

“I ran for another four years until he cornered me,” Washington joked, “or until I felt comfortable enough to give it a shot.”

Washington called Wilson a “brilliant, brilliant writer” in the interview with Ganss. “It’s a gift to be able to interpret his material, to bring it to film.” And he said he’s seen some strong emotional reactions to the story. “You just don’t know how it’s going to affect people or where it touches them.”

One of Washington’s co-stars in the film is Stephen McKinley Henderson, who taught at Fordham last fall as the University’s Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre—an endowed position Washington created with a gift to his alma mater. While Fences was written in 1987 and is set in the 1950s, its story is timeless, Henderson said last year in a Fordham News interview.

“It was clear [Wilson] saw the beauty in people, and he wanted to make sure the rest of the world saw what he saw,” Henderson said. “It’s a classic, and a classic is something that is never finished saying what it has to say.”

Together with Viola Davis, Henderson and Washington starred in the 2010 Broadway production, which won the Tony for best revival of a play, a best actor Tony for Washington, best actress for Davis, and a best supporting actor nomination for Henderson. Much of the Broadway cast has been retained for the move to the screen.

A theater professor emeritus from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Henderson knew August Wilson and has acted in his plays on and off Broadway. He sat down for an interview with Fordham News to discuss Wilson, acting, and teaching.

How did you first meet August Wilson?

I closed in a play at The Totem Pole Playhouse near Gettysburg. While driving through Pittsburgh I learned that he was speaking in a neighborhood called Homewood. I heard August speak there, and it was something so genuine and true. It was clear he saw the beauty in people, and he wanted to make sure the rest of the world saw what he saw. I felt that I was on a journey to meet this guy, and I got to work with him from 1996 until his death in 2005.

You’ve worked with director Lloyd Richards. What was his role in Wilson’s legacy?

If there were to be a Mount Rushmore of acting teachers and theater contributors, Richards would be on that mountain with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Stanislavski. He was the first African-American Broadway director, doing Raisin in the Sun in 1959. It took Lloyd Richards’ career in the theater to bring August to his highest level onstage, and it took Denzel’s journey and his brilliant career to introduce Wilson to this larger audience. Now more people can see the contribution Wilson made.

What was it like to transition Fences from the play to the film?

In the play I had the best seat in the house: It’s just Viola, Denzel, and me for much of the first scene. So to have that happen on film and to be with these incredible artists is just wonderful. With Denzel’s stature [in Hollywood]we were able to get three weeks of rehearsal before filming. For actors, film really is this intimate experience, whereas in a play the audience can see everything. In film you have to make choices as to who the focus should be on. But we were in great hands because Denzel is the director.

Is something lost in the translation to film?

When Laurence Olivier said he would do Shakespeare on film, there were purists who said the public wouldn’t go to the plays. It was the exact opposite. It enhanced their love and appreciation of Shakespeare. In Fences, we were all quite aware that actors have been doing these roles for a few decades and nobody will be able to satisfy everyone. But now more people will know what a contribution August Wilson made to American theater.

This play was set in the 1950s and written in the 1980s, is it still relevant?

It’s a classic, and a classic is something that is never finished saying what it has to say. It could be written in Sophocles’ time, or Shakespeare’s time, or in the 60s, but it still has something to say. I think August was one of those writers who wrote about human nature. He knew that a playwright, especially a poetic playwright, has a cultural gift. They come from a specific culture but they write about what it is to be human—and very specifically from their own cultural point of view. And August came to us from the Hill District of Pittsburgh, and his stories and his characters still speak to people everywhere.

The play uses the everyday language of African Americans, with liberal use of the N-word. Given current concerns about safe spaces and cultural appropriation, how do you teach texts to students from a variety of backgrounds?

It would just be impossible to work on an art form outside of the context of the social issues at the time. In terms of safe spaces, we have to make the classrooms the safe space. The students have got to be able to trust that we can say things here and we can grow. If you’re fortunate enough to get to play roles, you needn’t be limited to the ones that were written only for your culture. Especially while you are in a training program, while you are developing your craft. You can indeed have a wonderful career later doing your own culturally specific roles if you choose —and many British actors have said that they’re Shakespearean actors and they proudly do his work almost exclusively. It’s perfectly alright if an African-American actor says ‘I’m going to work only in my culture.’ But most artists have worked on characters that are simply human. African-American students must often end up playing a “white role” in order to be cast at all in some programs. There’s also a proud tradition: James Earl Jones has played Lear, Andre Braugher played Iago, and Diana Sands has played Saint Joan. It goes on and on. So, how can I turn to a white student and say you can’t play this or that role? Of course they can, and if they are going to play it with distinction someday professionally, they must be allowed to work on it while they are training.

Videos of McKinley Henderson by Miguel Gallardo. 

This past spring Henderson joined Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77, and Viola Davis in the film version of August Wilson’s Fences, set to be released this December. The three starred in the 2010 Broadway production which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play. He also starred in the Pulitzer Prize winning play Between Riverside and Crazy in 2015. He recently retired as a theater professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, a position he has held since 1987.

“As an actor you’re fortunate to have a tough schedule. That means you’re working,” said the veteran actor.

From playing opposite Washington in Fences in 2010 to a recurrent role as a judge on TV’s Law and Order to his role as a White House servant in the film Lincoln, Henderson has transcended the limitations of a single medium. He credits his experience in stage acting, however, with giving him the chops to do so.

“The theater is where acting began, so if you want to study the craft of acting you want to study the history of it,” said Henderson.

Henderson, a native of Kansas, has performed extensively both on and off Broadway. He studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Purdue University, and at the Juilliard School. He also studied with the late director and actor Lloyd Richards, the former dean of the Yale School of Drama.

When Henderson started out, he said that theater was about “consciousness raising” and about “being involved in the process of citizenship.” It’s a stance that he still holds to this day, he said.

“Theater is a great service to the public, to the community, and to society,” he said. “It allows us to commune in our humanness.”

Matthew Maguire, the theatre program’s director, introduced himself to the actor in 2006. At the time Henderson and director Israel Hicks were making the argument that it was time for the great plays of the African-American canon to be considered great American plays, said Maguire.

“It was from him that I got the idea to ask actors to play across ethnic lines in acting class,” said Maguire. “The actors of color have always played Shakespeare and Chekhov, but the white actors never play Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson. Now they do, thanks to Stephen.”

Maguire called Henderson a Sensei, a “teacher of teachers,” whose support was key in bringing the Fordham program forward when it came to racial issues in acting. Maguire said he had long ago asked his students to cross ethnic lines by playing roles of other races, which made some students uncomfortable. He said it wasn’t fully understood until Henderson told the students to prepare for the role as they would any other: through a close reading of the text.

“The larger sense of what it is to be a human being pervades his work as a teacher and an actor on the stage. He’s got this amazing balance of affirming students, but there’s no lack of rigor in his approach. As a teacher, he’s tough.”

Henderson said he is not a purist when it comes to teaching, and said he intends to pass on a variety of methods he’s learned over the years. But while he holds various methods of acting in high regard, he said good acting always refers back to the play and the audience.

“The work is text specific,” he said. “You’re examining a piece of dramatic literature, and the artist has to come up with a series of exercises on how to best to serve the play.”

“You start with the rules, but it’s not about the rules; it’s about the exceptions. What is right for you in this moment? It’s not a self-absorbed journey. It’s about the others in the room.

“It certainly isn’t just about entertainment. We may do it for the audience, but it’s always done on the art’s terms.”