The Shreveport Times

Director brings years of experience back home

November 5, 2004

By Jennifer Flowers

jflowers@gannett.com

Robert Alford II was only one semester in at LSU before he scrapped his plans to become a lawyer and signed up to be a theater major.

Twenty-seven productive years later, Alford is back in the Shreveport-Bossier City area sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience as a professor and a director.

The 45-year-old [Shreveport-Bosier] native graduated from LSU [and] continued his education at the Yale School of Drama, earning a master of fine arts. He lived in Los Angeles for nine years as a freelance director before moving back to Shreveport.

Alford directed his first short film last summer in collaboration with playwright Sheri Bailey and Nancy-Cheryll Davis-Bellamy, a director at the high-profile black theater company in Los Angeles called the Towne Street Theatre. The film, [which] premiered in October in Norfolk, [Virginia], is part of a six-cycle series Bailey wrote called Summers in Suffolk.

Alford, who teaches film, acting and public speaking classes at LSUS, just finished directing The First Breeze of Summer at LSUS, which was the first play he ever directed in 1979.

QUESTION: Why did you decide to pursue a career in theater?

ANSWER: When I was little I put on talent shows and did things like that. It's something I've always been interested in. And I just loved to watch TV and that's how I fell in love with this idea of telling stories. And I guess in high school I figured I wanted to major in TV or film or theater, but there was something about theater that was appealing to me. It seemed to me the foundation of acting and how to tell stories is most important. The technical stuff you can learn later.

QUESTION: How is the LSUS theater department growing?

ANSWER: In the past we've done one or two plays, but this year we will do four. We always had planned to grow over time, and now that I've been there full time, this is my third year as a full-time professor, that's part of it. Also, we wrote and got a grant from the board of regents that would allow us to do more productions too. [Weve received] at least one grant from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council for [each of] the past six years.

QUESTION: What do you think is one of the main purposes of theater?

ANSWER: I think art ultimately is going to be a reflection of the way life is or a challenge to see things in a different way that you haven't thought about before or see things in a different perspective.

QUESTION: Do you have any favorite playwrights or directors?

ANSWER: Sheri Bailey would be my favorite playwright. I've done Summers in Suffolk several times: twice here in Shreveport, I directed it once in Virginia [with Nancy-Cheryll Davis-Bellamy] and more than once in Los Angeles. And I've done a couple of her other plays as well. August Wilson, he's another favorite. I got a chance to meet him. He's very shy but very sweet, very approachable. Lloyd Richards was a big influence. He was the dean of the Yale School of Drama while I was there so I got a chance to work with him.

QUESTION: What are some of the key lessons you try to teach your students?

ANSWER: Ultimately, when I think you're doing art, especially as actors, it really is a combination between intuition and intelligence and craft. And I think all three of those are important. I think one of the lessons I learned as a young artist is just how important craft is. It's important to be natural and spontaneous, but I also learned you have to have the ability to focus [your energy] that so the audience actually can appreciate what you're doing. If you're doing something wonderful and the audience can't hear you, it doesn't do any good.

QUESTION: What is your style, or approach, as a director?

ANSWER: I guess I'm a less-is-more kind of person. When everything's said and done I think it's really all about the play and the actors. While I think set and costumes can enhance what they're doing, ultimately I think doing a great performance with just the actors and a great play, it's really all you need.

© The Shreveport Times

November 5, 2004