Atw - Downstage Center

The multi-talented Andre De Shields describes the development of his new one-man show, "Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory: From Douglass to Deliverance", and why it may be a work-in-progress for several years to come. He also talks about growing up in a family of 11 children in Baltimore and why he was unexpectedly the one to make a career in entertainment; his undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin, including an infamous production he described as "the nude Peter Pan," directed by Stuart Gordon (who would later create the Organic Theatre in Chicago and direct the film "Re-Animator"); why he had to sleep in a public park in order to secure his first professional role in a show he'd never seen -- "Hair"; why he can lay claim to being the man who made Bette Midler's back-up singers, The Harlettes, dance; how the process of elimination ended up yielding him the title role in "The Wiz"; why it was Jackie Onassis who revealed to him and his castmates in "Ain't Misbehavin'" that they were in a hit; whether