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Roderick Spencer Moves Beyond Acting
After
10 years of acting in Hollywood, Roderick
Spencer ’81, in true liberal-arts
fashion, expanded his repertoire to writing for
stage, TV, and film. Directing and producing followed,
including a feature film, “The Dog Walker,”
and a PBS documentary series for at-risk youth,
“You Got That Right.”
A decade later, Spencer returned
to pass along his hard-won knowledge by teaching
Writing for Performance as a visiting lecturer at
CC.
He admits that it is hard for drama students to
appreciate the challenges awaiting them. “I
don’t think anything prepares you for the
business I’m in. The currency is stories —
actors are a dime a dozen.”
Spencer dealt with the imperative — that entertainers
keep working — by stretching himself. “At
the same time (as writing for theater and film),
I became a stand-up comic,” he says. “That’s
what my career teaches. It behooves you to be able
to do a lot of stuff — you’ll be a better
whatever.”
Spencer fondly recalls his theater days at CC, and
two plays in particular. “I was in ‘Romeo
and Juliet,’ directed by James Malcolm, and
I played Orestes in a rarely produced play called
‘The Orphan,’ by David Rabe. Really
exciting.”
Professor
Emeritus James Malcolm, who still teaches and
leads CC trips to Greece and Turkey, recalls
his first encounter with Roderick Spencer.
“A young woman came to my office and said,
‘There’s a guy in Slocum who thinks
he could play Romeo.’ I said, ‘Well,
send him over…nothing to be afraid of.’
He came to audition, looked like a Romeo, and
better yet, sounded like one. And that was the
beginning.
“The best thing that can happen to an
acting teacher (or any teacher) is for a really
gifted student to walk into your class. Roderick
was one of those. He had ‘it’ before
anyone started mentoring him. And then to have
the student-teacher relationship turn into a
friendship made things more wonderful indeed.” |
As
Spencer’s director and coach, drama Professor
James Malcolm mentored him all four years. Spencer
says, “Jim taught me acting, directed me in
plays, and even introduced me to my wife.”
Spencer has been married for 21 years to acclaimed
actress Alfre Woodard, and they have two children.
Despite his WASP roots, Spencer has internalized
an African-American perspective. “America
views my children as black, so I am a black father.
I view the world very differently now as a member
of a large black family — I’m not a
guest in that world.”
Concern for children fuels his projects. Besides
the PBS series, he is on the board of The Unusual
Suspects, a theatrical writing and acting group
for youths from group homes, foster care, juvenile
hall, and gang intervention programs.
On the international side, with Woodard and C.C.H.
Pounder, he developed an evening of poetry as a
fundraiser for Artists for a New South Africa, an
advocacy group he and Woodard helped to found.
“I grew up with the sense that there were
things that one could do” about social issues,
he concludes. Spencer is the opposite of the self-involved
actor of stereotypes; he invests his energy and
creativity in rectifying the wrongs of the larger
world.
– Mary Ellen Davis ’73
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