Harry Lennix
Stage, film and television actor Harry Lennix grew up Catholic and wanted to be a priest.
He feels he is fulfilling that mission through theater and performance, which he sees as a means of healing communities and providing alternatives to violence.
“This is my way of praising the divine, creative spirit,” says Lennix, who attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary South before studying theater at Northwestern University. “There’s a term I like to use called theological aesthetics, or aesthetic theology. I think the church has fallen short in terms of directly addressing these ills. The government has not answered the call. Theater, culture and art can bridge that gap.”
Lennix, known for his work on television’s “The Blacklist” and “Dollhouse” and movies like “The Five Heartbeats” and “Ray,” is a busy man around Chicago these days. He’s going back onstage for the first time in sixteen years in not just one, but two major shows—“Purpose” at the Steppenwolf Theatre, which began in late March, and then starting April 20, he’ll be in “How I Learned What I Learned,” a one-man show based on the memoir of playwright August Wilson. The show is produced by Congo Square Theatre in association with Goodman Theatre, and will play at Broadway in Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.
Lennix is also helping to create a new theater space on the South Side—the Lillian Marcie Center for the Performing Arts at 4343 South Cottage Grove—which will provide two theater spaces, a restaurant and a jazz club in the heart of Bronzeville.
Lennix first experienced an August Wilson play in the late 1980s, when he saw “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” on Broadway. He was so “staggered” by the production he couldn’t leave his seat when it was over.
“I hadn’t seen anything like that before,” Lennix says. “The language was the first thing that grabbed me, the poetry of it, and I think just the nature of the subject was extraordinary. It seemed supernatural. There was an element of ritual in it that I thought was very captivating, very spooky… Certainly spiritual.”
Lennix met Wilson several times—first when Lennix was performing in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in Pittsburgh. He later worked with Wilson while doing “King Hedley II”—“an extraordinary experience.”
“How I Learned What I Learned” workshop session with Harry Lennix and Congo Square Theatre/Photo: Courtesy Congo Square Theatre
While Lennix knew Wilson and his mannerisms, he’s not sure if he will try an impersonation of him, beyond wearing a hat and a beard.
“In a way it would be akin to someone playing Shakespeare while Shakespeare is writing about being Shakespeare. Because I’m not Shakespeare and because I’m not August Wilson, who will I be fooling if I do an impersonation?” Lennix asks. “What is important is the narrative of his own life, the biographical nature of it.” Lennix says he expects the show to be “quite a challenge,” and he’s excited about it.
Since he started doing theater in the 1980s, Lennix says he has seen great progress in Black playwrights getting their shows produced.
“I think we owe a great debt to August Wilson for that,” Lennix says, citing “Purpose” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins as an example. “You can see the influence. It’s not like August Wilson invented playwriting, but he’s the equivalent of Michael Jordan, the influence he has had on the craft of writing has been undeniable. Because he’s proven himself to be commercially viable, people are willing to take that chance.”
“I think we’re in a really good place in terms of Black writers being featured in every aspect of the American theater right now, perhaps even on the global stage,” Lennix says.
That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t welcome more. He hopes that the Lillian Marcie Center will create a theater environment on the South Side, where it is lacking. Most theaters featuring Black playwrights currently play on the North Side.
“We need access on the South Side for these writers so that more people know about them,” Lennix says.
Lennix hopes the center will be up and running by the end of 2025—right now it is waiting on money to come through from a previously announced state grant, which will in turn attract more funding. Congo Square plans to use the space as a permanent home, but the center will also host traveling productions.
“I really think that will be a magnet for a lot of good things. I think it’s an answer to prayer,” Lennix says. “We need access to culture, arts and expression that can replace and answer and cure many of the more destructive and dysfunctional forms of expression. That’s what all of this violence is—it’s an expression of an external condition. If we can amend that, if we can provide a substitute for that—which is more creative, and healing, and curative—I think we can really change the temperature on the South Side of Chicago and beyond.”
Lennix expresses pessimism, however, about Hollywood.
“I think it’s becoming increasingly debased. The codes that used to be there, some of which used to be almost too stringent, are now completely gone,” says Lennix. “I see a celebration of extremely godless things.”
Lennix has been trying to provide a counterbalance to the godlessness of Hollywood. He produced a movie called “Revival” based on the Gospel of John. He also played a bishop in the movie “Godless,” written and directed by his friend Michael Ricigliano.
In his Oscar acceptance speech for best adapted screenplay for “American Fiction,” Black writer and director Cord Jefferson questioned Hollywood’s resistance to low- and middle-budget movies. “Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making twenty $10 million movies,” Jefferson said.
Lennix says he’s glad there are blockbuster movies—he has done several, including DC Extended Universe and “Matrix” movies. But he agrees with Jefferson’s statement.
“It would be more economically feasible to have some more middle-class, middle-budget movies,” Lennix says. “That would be great.”
“How I Learned What I Learned” at Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 175 East Chestnut, congosquaretheatre.org. April 20-May 5.
