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<\/a>Dickinson\u2019s acceptance speech went something like this: \u201cPerforming is something that found me. I\u2019ve always loved theater but I studied to be an elementary school teacher. While I was [an undergraduate] I met a wonderful professor named Deirdre Yates, who inspired me to get my MFA. The rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yates, Seton Hall professor of speech and theater, had accompanied Dickinson to the award ceremony that day and was sitting with the actress\u2019s family. \u201cI was just sobbing through the whole thing,\u201d Yates says of that moment.<\/p>\n
Uncomfortable in the limelight, Yates turned to Crystal\u2019s mother, Annie, to congratulate her on having \u201cdone a wonderful job of raising her daughter.\u201d To which Mrs. Dickinson replied: \u201c\u2019Deirdre, we did this together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCrystal\u2019s success is such an affirmation of my work as a theatre professor. I could retire a happy woman!\u201d says Yates. \u201cThat afternoon at the Belasco Theatre when she acknowledged and thanked me so publicly, it was just incredible!\u201d<\/p>\n
The performing art not only had to find Crystal Dickinson, it had to convince her. And that took Deirdre Yates, who recognized \u201ca tremendous amount of innate talent\u201d right from the start. Their original meeting came out of Yates\u2019 decision to stage The Colored Museum, a play by George C. Wolfe. The play features 11 vignettes that sharply satirize African-American culture and won the Dramatists Guild Award in 1986.<\/p>\n
Yates needed African-American actors, and that \u201cbrought a lot of people of color out to audition,\u201d she says. One was Dickinson, who quickly won several big roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first all-black production the school had done,\u201d Dickinson recalls. She adds that she\u2019ll never forget the first day of rehearsal when Yates asked the cast to share their African-American cultural backgrounds with her, saying, \u201cI\u2019m willing to learn from you guys, and I hope you\u2019re willing to learn from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play went on to sell out every night and was \u201cjust the loveliest time I ever had,\u201d Dickinson says. \u201cPeople really did work together, making the effort to be open about their feelings and to learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet Dickinson considered it a one-time experience, she admits. So when Yates decided to mount the classical Greek play Electra next, Dickinson didn\u2019t audition.<\/p>\n
Traveling to the dorms to find out why, Yates says that Dickinson\u2019s response was, \u201c\u2019Do you really think I can?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
To which Yates responded, \u201cYes!\u201d<\/p>\n
Dickinson not only went on to perform the title role brilliantly in Electra, but appeared in major roles in every show Yates put on while Dickinson was an undergraduate.<\/p>\n
Even after all these triumphs, Dickinson still planned to become a kindergarten teacher \u2014 or so she tried to inform her mentor. She vividly recalls what Yates said when she told her: \u201c\u2019Are you kidding? No you\u2019re not. You\u2019re not doing that. You\u2019re going to get your MFA and you\u2019re going to become an actress!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But to gain admission to graduate training programs in theater, Crystal \u2014 who had never taken any formal acting lessons \u2014 first had to undergo a rigorous try-out for the University\/Resident Theatre Association in New York. U\/RTA provides a variety of services to drama novices, but only to those selected after a live, on-stage trial by fire.<\/p>\n
Yates worked closely with Dickinson to hone her stage presence, style and poise, and was \u201cincredibly proud\u201d when Crystal received a slot at the University of Illinois\u2019 prestigious theater program.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe even drove me to the audition in New York and waited outside the door for me,\u201d Dickinson recalls. Even so, it turned out to be quite a transition for her in graduate school. One reason, she says, is that Seton Hall staged its plays in the round. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know what stage left was,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Dickinson has since learned to find her way around a lot of stages \u2014 including those at Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Signature Theater, Soho Rep and The Atlantic Theater \u2014 and also onto the small screen. Today, her credits include work on Tyler Perry\u2019s television show House of Payne.<\/p>\n
What makes Dickinson such an extraordinary actor? \u201cShe has the ability to share of herself on stage,\u201d Yates says. \u201cWhat she shares is a combination of honesty and emotion that just makes the character crystal clear \u2014 no pun intended. And it is mesmerizing to audiences when actors can expose themselves so thoroughly on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drama teachers can help those with raw talent hone their skills with instruction in voice, motion and physical phrasing, Yates says, \u201cbut Crystal\u2019s own passion and ability to share her humanity just draws you in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you do theater it\u2019s a way to expose and explore your inner self,\u201d Dickinson says. \u201cAs a result, people look at you in a very intimate way. Maybe part of the reason is that I am a very emotionally instinctive person.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ability to act also seems to be linked to an early shyness, both women acknowledge \u2014 yet what emerges is anything but self-conscious. Yates took drama classes to overcome shyness and Dickinson, who grew up in urban New Jersey, acted in several plays as a way to meet people when she attended Miss Porter\u2019s School in Farmington, Conn. She did the plays to be social, she says, but never wanted to be an actor.<\/p>\n
Yet Dickinson has ended up following Yates in other ways. Both attended The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the 150-year-old drama school in London\u2019s West End theater district. Dickinson also eventually found a way to scratch the teaching itch. She has nearly 10 years\u2019 teaching experience at Spelman College, the University of Illinois, Pace University and, soon, New York University.<\/p>\n
Dickinson\u2019s own students have gone on to study at the MFA programs at Yale, UCLA, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and The Actor\u2019s Studio, and she hopes she is passing on the teaching influence of Deirdre Yates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may sound hokey, but she loved me,\u201d Dickinson said. \u201cShe loved me enough to help me when she didn\u2019t have to. She had nothing to gain. But she let me know \u2018you\u2019re important enough to help.\u2019 She spent time helping and teaching me how to find the best in me. I just hope when I teach I do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bob Gilbert is a writer based in Connecticut.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you get to Broadway? For Crystal Dickinson, the route ran right through Seton Hall, where she took an unexpected detour from her original journey to become a kindergarten teacher.<\/p>\n