Stephen McKinley Henderson (‘Between Riverside and Crazy’) on ‘how precious family is’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Sam Eckmann
Updated ·4 min read
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“It was a family type of thing,” says Stephen McKinley Henderson of working on “Between Riverside and Crazy.” The play reunited him with a longtime collaborator and friend, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis. The actor believes that the trust built into that relationship reverberates throughout the creative process. According to Henderson, with that familial sense of trust “you can go wherever the track leads you. Just put coal in the engine and follow the track.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

Henderson portrays Pops in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play. He is a recent widower, a retired police officer, his son has just been released from prison, and the city wants to seize his rent-controlled apartment. The role offers the actor an enormous sandbox to play in, and it’s a part which Guigis wrote specifically for Henderson. “It’s quite an honor. It’s a wonderful reward for the years of being in the theater,” he says of the meaty role. But that gift was coupled with pressure to respect the real life people and memories which inspired the play. The titular Riverside Dr. apartment is a place that Henderson has spent quite some time. ”It’s quite moving…but also, it’s a burden,” he admits, “It’s a challenge.”

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Henderson had a stellar ensemble around him to help him rise to the challenge each night. The Broadway cast were all reprising the roles they originated during the 2014 Off-Broadway production, save one: Pops’ son Junior was now played by Common. Their father/son relationship is at the core of Guirgis’ story, and Henderson believes that Common “elicited and empathy” in his performance that perhaps wasn’t there before. In past productions, Pops might have been more focused on the grief of his wife’s passing. But as he worked with Common, Henderson explains that “It became clear to me with this iteration, that the father felt more of the weight of his son growing up under the problems that he had to contend with.” Common may not have the years of history with the play, but Henderson is quick to point out that new actors “quickly become family.”

This theme of “family” is also paramount in the plays of the late August Wilson, with whom Henderson shared what is perhaps his longest creative collaboration. Henderson is widely seen as one of the greatest interpreters of August Wilson’s work, having performed in eight out of ten plays in the playwright’s Pittsburgh Cycle to much acclaim. His biggest takeaway from his time working with the famed author is a sense of “how precious family is.”

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With “Gem of the Ocean” and “Radio Golf” being the only plays in the famed Cycle he has yet to tackle, Is Henderson itching to complete the set? “I’m so fortunate. I’m so blessed to have worked on eight of the plays, and to have worked with August in the room,” he admits, so he sees no need to seek them out unless a director has something in mind for him. There is a list of actors who have performed in all ten plays, but as Henderson exclaims with a wink and a laugh: “but they didn’t do them with August!”

Stephen McKinley Henderson received a Tony nomination for his performance as Bono in August Wilson’s “Fences.” He reprised this role in the film adaptation and received a SAG Award nomination for film ensemble. His performance in the Off-Broadway iteration of “Between Riverside and Crazy” earned him nominations from the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

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