#american conservatory theater

[datshitrandom]

Darren Criss attends the American Conservatory Theater's 2nd Annual All Hallows' Gala: Zombie Ball | October 27, 2023 | 📸 by Drew Altizer Photography

[tortoise-n33ds-purpose]

My favorite adaptation of this controversial play.

[zodgory]

Utterly in love with the stage for Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical

[lesmurples]

So Spotify Wrapped reminded me that I saw the San Francisco production of A Strange Loop this year, and listening to the soundtrack now I’m reminded just how damn good that show was. I really hope there’s another staging of it sometime, or the release of a video recording if one exists. (Or even a decent bootleg, I’ll take anything 😭)

The staging was beautiful, just an excellent example of what you can do with minimalism and lighting. And the ensemble cast was phenomenal - they sound amazing together in every production I’ve heard, and the concept of each of the cast being “thoughts” who trade parts around would potentially be a hard sell in another production, but here it feels seamless. I’m really impressed that it was able to take such a nerdy, high-concept and pretentious story structure and make it feel so accessible. Excellent writing and acting all around. “Entertainment as undercover art” indeed. The Usher we saw (Malachi McCaskill) was also exceptional and gave an incredible performance.

I think A Strange Loop is a great example of how much you can do by increasing specificity in artistic representations of identity. Creators seem to often be pressured to make identity-focused stories as broadly appealing as possible, making it so that their (for example) queer characters are everymen who just happen to be queer. And of course that usually means your “everyman” has to be a white cis able-bodied guy who is overall readable as “straight” unless you happen to know his orientation. And if he isn’t that, he’s as close to it as we can possibly get him.

By making a “Big Black and Queer-ass American Broadway show” about a fat gay black man trying to make it on the NYC theater scene, I think you actually create so many more opportunities in which an audience can relate to the protagonist’s experience. You don’t have to be a fat gay black man to relate with feelings of inadequacy, or struggling to make it in your professional field, or feeling too ugly to have a good sex life, or having a complicated relationship with your parents. Even if you don’t fully fall into the category of “fat gay black man,” it’s likely that you might identify with at least part of that experience, and you can exercise your imagination and empathy to engage with the rest. In comparison, I think a lot of us struggle to relate to a bland, filed down “everyman” character, despite the fact that he’s meant to be more “broadly appealing.”

A Strange Loop is unapologetically about blackness, and specifically the experience of a queer black person who sometimes struggles to relate with wider black culture. I am as white as wonder bread, and I was prepared to not directly relate with aspects of this musical, but I knew I’d still probably be able to enjoy it because, yaknow, it’s not actually that hard to understand media about experiences that don’t match your own. 🤷

But I found myself relating to the story way more than I expected. The details don’t fully align, but I too have had to navigate the world as a fat queer person unable to feel true “pride” about myself. I too have a strained relationship with conservative parents who are “loving” but deeply toxic and painful to speak with. I too feel the weight of capitalism crushing down on me, wanting to find “success” in this hellhole of a world but knowing I’d have to compromise my values in order to do so. I am not very similar to Usher on the face of it, but because his story focuses so much on the multiple specific experiences he has in this world, it’s actually way easier for me to find common ground with him than if there was just nothing there.

And while I can’t relate directly with Usher’s experience of blackness, I’ve heard enough stories and listened to enough black creators that I can at least follow his story and comprehend its connotations. If I didn’t come into the show having some background knowledge, then perhaps I would be inspired to learn more based on the representation I’d been made aware of, especially because of the ways in which I could relate and was invited to empathize. I hope we see more successful productions like this, where the specificity and messiness of intersectional, marginalized identity is allowed to exist as it is, because odds are that more people will be willing to engage with it than you’d think.

Anyway, really good show. It’s super fucking funny, and poignant, and deeply sad and vulnerable. I hope anyone reading this gets a chance to see it in some form if they haven’t already.

Also MVP award to Tarra Conner Jones in the SF production, she was SO GOOD. Absolutely everyone was phenomenal - shout-out to John-Andrew Morrison too, his performance of “Periodically” makes me fucking cry. The SF and Broadway and Off-Broadway casts are all amazing. God I love this show.

Edit: OH SHIT I found a clip of the cast I saw! They really were fantastic.

[strazcenter]

Guest Service Excellence Crosses Industries, Continents

The city sounds familiar but the accent isn’t what you expect. When the Straz’s new senior director of guest services mentions he’s from Boston, you expect the steamrolled vowels endemic to the U.S. city’s natives. Anthony Winter-Brown’s accent is decidedly English, though. He’s from the other Boston, the original, actually, In Lincolnshire. In the U.S., of course, Boston means Bahstahn and…

[nymphoutofwater]

Here's a remade masterpost of free and full shakespeare adaptations! Thanks @william-shakespeare-official for this excellent post. Unfortunately, a lot of the links in it are broken, so I thought I'd make an updated version (also I just wanted to organize things a bit more)

Anthony and Cleopatra: ~ Josette Simon, Antony Byrne & Ben Allen - 2017

As You Like It: ~ At Wolfe Park - 2013 ~ Kenneth Brannagh's - 2006

Coriolanus: ~ NYET Alumni - 2016 ~ Tom Hiddleston - 2014 ~ Ralph Fiennes - 2011

Cymbelline: ~ Michael Almereyda's - 2014

Hamlet: ~ David Tennant - 2009 ~ Ethan Hawke & Diane Venora - 2000 ~ Kenneth Branagh's - 1989 ~ BCC's Part One & Two - 1990 ~ Broadway - 1964 ~ Christopher Plummer - 1964 ~ Laurence Olivier's - 1948

Henry IV: ~ BBC's Part One & Two - 1989 ~ The Brussel's Shakespeare Society's - 2017

Henry V: ~ The BBC's - 1990 ~ Laurence Olivier's - 1944

Julius Caesar: ~ Phyllida Lloyd's - 2019 ~ The BBC's - 1979 ~ John Gielgud - 1970

King Lear: ~ The RSC's - 2008 ~ Laurence Olivier - 1983 ~ The BBC's - 1975 ~ James Earl Jones - 1974 ~ Orson Wells - 1953

Love's Labour's Lost: ~ Calvin University - 2016

Macbeth: ~ Antoni Cimolino & Shelagh O'Brien's - 2017 ~ Ian McKellen & Judi Dench - 1969 ~ Sean Connery - 1961

Measure for Measure: ~ Hugo Weaving - 2019 ~ The BBC's - 1990

The Merchant of Venice: ~ Al Pacino - 2004 ~ Trevor Nunn & Chris Hunt - 2001 ~ The BBC's - 1980 ~ Lawrence Olivier - 1973

The Merry Wives of Windsor: ~ The Royal Shakespeare Company's - 1982

A Midsummer Night's Dream: ~ Oliver Chris & Gwendoline Christie - 2019 ~ City of Columbus's - 2018 ~ Julie Taymor's - 2014 ~ The Globe's - 2013 ~ The BBC's - 1988 ~ Lindsay Duncan & Alex Jennings - 1986

Much Ado About Nothing: ~ Shakespeare in the Park - 2019 ~ David Tennant & Catherine Tate - 2011 ~ Kenneth Branagh - 1993 ~ The BBC's - 1984

Othello: ~ The BBC's Part One & Two - 1990

Richard II: ~ David Tennant - 2013 ~ Deborah Warner's - 1997 ~ The BBC's - 1978

Richard III: ~ Ian McKellen - 1995 ~ Laurence Olivier - 1955

Romeo and Juliet: ~ Simon Godwin's - 2021 ~ The BBC's - 1988 ~ Laurence Harvey & Susan Shentall - 1954

The Taming of the Shrew: ~ Ontario production? ~ American Conservatory Theater - 1976 ~ Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor - 1967 ~ Mary Pickford & Samuel Taylor - 1929

The Tempest: ~ Gregory Doran's - 2017 ~ The BBC's - 1988

Timon of Athens: ~ Barry Avrich's - 2024

Troilus and Cressida: ~ Audio Production ~ This one I found on youtube? - 2016

Titus Andronicus: ~ Anthony Hopkins - 1999

Twelfth night: ~ Texas Shakespeare Festival's - 2015 ~ Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright & Ralph Richardson - 1970

Two Gentlemen of Verona: ~ Katherine Steweart's - 2018 ~ The BBC's

The Winter's Tale: ~ Antony Sher - 1999 (Warning: they don't have a bear...)

Bonuses:

Time Loop Hamlet! (A personal fav of mine)

Rock Opera Hamlet???

Shakespeare animated tales

The Complete Works Of Shakespeare Abridged comedy

Romeo and Julieta: A Día de los Muertos Love Story

There’s also many other Latine Shakespeare adaptations listed in this archive

From the original post:

A Midwinter's Tale, about a man trying to make Hamlet.

Russian Hamlet here

Here's Scotland, PA, the 2001 modern Macbeth retelling.

Rave Macbeth for anyone interested is here.

This one is the Taming of the Shrew modern retelling.

The french Romeo & Juliet musical with English subtitles is here!

Here's the 1948 one,

the Orson Wells Othello movie with Portuguese subtitles there

A Lego adaptation of Othello here.

Here's commentary on David Tennant's Richard II

[cyarsk52-20]

born Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. on December 28, 1954 he’s known for being an American actor, producer, and director and his dramatic roles on stage and screen, The New York Times named him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020. He has received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Washington has been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022.

After training at the American Conservatory Theater, Washington began his career in theater, acting in performances off-Broadway. He first came to prominence in the NBCmedical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), and in the war film A Soldier's Story(1984). He won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in the war drama Glory (1989) and for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X (1992), The Hurricane (1999), Flight (2012), Fences(2016), Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021).

A prominent Hollywood star, Washington's other credits include Mo' Better Blues (1990), Mississippi Masala (1991), Philadelphia (1993), Courage Under Fire (1996), Remember the Titans (2000), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man(2006), American Gangster (2007), The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023), The Magnificent Seven (2016), and Gladiator II(2024). Washington made his directorial film debut with Antwone Fisher (2002) followed by The Great Debaters (2007), Fences (2016), and A Journal for Jordan (2021).

What film made you a fan of Washington? Rb/❤️ your favorite movie starring him

[rhapsodynew]

#On this day

#happy birthday

On November 10, 1928, Ennio Morricone was born, an Italian composer, arranger and conductor. Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Winner of two Academy Awards: for outstanding achievements in cinematography (2007) and for best music — for the "Disgusting Eight" (2016), 9-time winner of the Italian National Film Award "David di Donatello" for best film music, three-time winner of the Golden Globe Award, 6-time winner of the award BAFTA and many others.

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of professional jazz trumpeter Mario Morricone and housewife Libera Ridolfi. Ennio was the eldest of five children. When he was 12 years old, he entered the Conservatory of St. Cecilia in Rome, where Goffredo Petrassi became his teacher. At the Conservatory, Morricone received 3 diplomas — in the class of trumpet (1946), instrumentation and composition.

When Morricone turned 16, he took the place of the second trumpet in the Alberto Flamini ensemble, in which his father had previously played. Together with the ensemble, Morricone worked part-time playing in nightclubs and hotels in Rome. A year later, he got a job at the theater, where he worked as a musician for one year, and then as a composer for three years. In 1950, he began arranging songs by popular composers for radio. He worked on processing music for radio and concerts until 1960, and in 1960 began arranging music for TV shows.

He began writing film music only in 1961, when he was 33 years old. He started with spaghetti westerns, a genre with which his name is now firmly associated. He became widely known after working on the films of his former classmate, director Sergio Leone. Later he worked with the largest Italian film directors — Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dario Argento, Salvatore Samperi and many others.

Since 1964, Morricone has worked at the RCA record company, where he arranged hundreds of songs, including for such celebrities as Gianni Morandi, Mario Lanza, Miranda Martino.

Having become famous in Europe, Morricone was invited to work in Hollywood cinema. In the USA, he wrote music for films by such famous directors as Roman Polanski, Oliver Stone, Brian De Palma, Mike Nichols, John Carpenter, Barry Levinson, Terrence Malick and others.

Ennio Morricone is one of the most famous composers of our time and one of the most famous film composers in the world. During his long career, he has composed music for more than 400 films and television series in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Russia, and the USA.

As a film composer, he was nominated for an Oscar six times, and in 2007 he received an Oscar for outstanding contribution to cinema. In addition, in 1988, he was awarded a Grammy Award for the music for the film "Untouchables". In 1996, Morricone, together with photographer Augusto De Luca, received the "Cities of Rome" award for the book "Our Rome".

Contrary to popular belief, Morricone created not only soundtracks, he also wrote chamber instrumental music, with which he toured Europe in 1985, personally conducting the orchestra at concerts.

Twice during his career, he starred in films for which he wrote music, and in 1995 a documentary was made about him.

The American band Metallica has been opening every concert since the mid-1980s with the composition "The Ecstasy Of Gold" from the classic western "The Good, the Bad, the Evil". In 1999, she was played in the S&M project for the first time in a live performance (cover version).

Ennio Morricone was married and has four children:

Andrea — conductor, composer;

Marko works for the Copyright Society;

Alessandra is a surgeon;

Giovanni works for Universal.

He was seriously interested in chess, and repeatedly played with world champions.

Ennio Morricone died on July 6, 2020 at the age of 92 in a hospital in Rome, where he had been hospitalized a few days earlier with a fractured femur sustained as a result of a fall.

"It always hurts me when talented people die, because the world needs them more than heaven."

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

[brightlotusmoon]

Rachael MacFarlane: Oh my God. So I was a huge musical theater fan. You know, shocker. A lot of us are. I mean, certainly in our cast, a ton of us are big musical theater dorks. So I always thought that was the direction I was going to go in. I went to the Boston Conservatory and majored in musical theater. So my big inspirations growing up were incredible and successful musical theater women of that time, like Patti LuPone.

She was my biggest inspiration, I was obsessed with Patti LuPone. I thought she was amazing and I was so excited to go see her in Anything Goes when I was like 10 years old. This summer, I was in New York with my nine-year-old. We were going to see Wicked and we were at this restaurant called Sardi’s which is sort of like the definitive Broadway… it’s where you go to eat before you go to a show.

There are all these caricatures of all these famous Broadway actors all over the walls. We’re there really early because Wicked started at like 7 or 7:30. So we were there for dinner at like 5 and there’s nobody else in the restaurant, and all of a sudden somebody comes in and gets seated. And it’s this woman and she’s just a stone’s throw from us at like the next table over and then I hear her start talking.

I’m like, ‘Oh my God! That’s Patti LuPone. She’s here.’ She’s just sitting next to me in this restaurant where her picture is up on the wall, right? And I lean over to my nine-year-old, who of course says, ‘No, I don’t know who Patti LuPone is.’ I’m like, ‘That woman right there would be like if you came in and Taylor Swift was sitting at the table.’ She was like, ‘Oh my God, mom! That’s so cool’. It was really exciting. It was sort of the highlight of my summer. That’s a really long answer to say… you know, Patty LuPone.

[shakespearenews]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/cal-shakes-funding-19623822.php

Still, they said, when they’re offered further roles in the future, they intend to first ask, “Hey, is this show funded?”

If the GoFundMe and the one-week deadline felt extreme, Worsley said, “​​We feel like we've been as transparent as we can be.” In the midst of the campaign, he published a blog post breaking down a show budget (with more than half going to show-specific payroll) as well as a monthly budget of $212,500 for the part of the year when the theater isn’t producing; Cal Shakes has 20 full-time employees, and half of them work in the scene shop, which builds sets for shows at Center Repertory Company, Berkeley Playhouse, Shotgun Players and American Conservatory Theater.

[sillyname30]

I went back in time to the year 2021 and listened to the first episode of That Thing I Do (the podcast of Darren Criss and Este Haim) again.

Darren talked about how he became an actor (I shortened it a little):

I remember watching and loving obviously Aladdin. I remember sitting in the theater and seeing everybody having this positive reaction to this character. It wasn't concious. All the these strangers having a collective cathartic experience with this person, this thing on screen with strangers they never met, they will never talk to. And I was like this is amazing. One of my biggest mo's is like shortening the distance between people. I'm a connector. People think it's performing but to me I love building communities. Try to make people feel related to each other. This is happening in a flash of a second and watching people to my right and my left laughing at this genie and I'm like fuck this. I want to be a genie when I grow up. I want to to be a genie in a movie. But then I'm notified that the voice of the genie is Mr. Robin Williams. Whatever he does I want to do. And then I set myself on a path of being an actor.

There is an actor by the name Peter Coyote. He was a dad at the school that I went to and I knew that Mr. Coyote was an actor. And so I was six years old, and I looked in the school roster for Peter Coyote. I was so nervous, and I called him and he picked up the phone, I said „Hello Mr. Coyote, my name is Darren Criss. I would like to be an actor. What do I do?” And he was so enchanted by this, I’m sure as anyone would be if a child has managed to find your home phone number. And him and my parents spoke about enrolling me into an acting program. The american Conservatory Theater had a Young Conservatory, and he was the one that suggested that I start taking classes there. Which is where I would start going, when I was like seven or eight until I was 18, and that was like my after school life.

Okay, so a week ago, I’m sitting in a restaurant in New York, and I haven’t spoken to this man in many, many years, and then somebody comes up and he’s like, „Hey, I’m Nick, I’m Peter’s son,” I’m like, „Nick, holy shit!” and he’s like, „My dad’s here!” and like, oh my god, I just gave him the biggest hug and I almost burst into tears and I was like “man, my life is so wildly different because of what you did for me.”

God bless, Mr. Coyote for helping my parents out. So I studied and I went to school for it, so when you ask me, baby Darren, how did this all happen? That was it. Because of some kind adults that really helped lay the tracks down for me to go.

[datshitrandom]

Darren Criss performs onstage during the American Conservatory Theater's 2nd Annual All Hallows' Gala: Zombie Ball | October 27, 2023 | 📸 by Drew Altizer Photography

[lboogie1906]

Geraldine Jerrie Lawhorn (December 31, 1916 – July 3, 2016) was a figure of the deafblind community, a performer, actress, pianist, and instructor at the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired. At 67 years old, she became the first deafblind African American to earn a college degree in the US.

She was born in Dayton to Pearl Walker and William Bert Lawhorn. Her parents were musicians, and at the time, the managers of a movie theater in Dayton. She had two older brothers.

She spent her childhood between Dayton and Chicago. During the Great Depression, the Lawhorns went through financial hardships. Pearl Walker opened a beauty shop in their apartment.

She graduated with honors from high school. However, she did not have plans to further her education. She received a scholarship from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and decided to take a correspondence course in short-story writing offered by Columbia University.

At 19 years old, she completely lost her hearing. She discovered drama performance and started writing plays for the fellowship programs. She performed her first full-length dramatic recital at Poro College.

She received a grant from the scholarship committee in Springfield to take private lessons in theater arts. She attended three days a week the dramatic department of the Chicago Piano College.

She was admitted to the American Conservatory of Music, where she studied for four years. She performed monologues at the United Service Organizations programs. She volunteered in the Red Cross sewing division and received a medal for her dedication. She appeared on television programs like Someone You Should Know, The Phil Donahue Show, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

She married Hap (1944) she stopped her artistic activities to take care of her household. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss to Headline A.C.T.'s 2nd Annual ALL HALLOWS GALA

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) and gala co-chairs Heather Stallings Little & John Little and David Jones & Joe D'Alessandro have announced Zombie Ball, the second annual All Hallows' Gala being held on Friday, October 27 at San Francisco's August Hall (420 Mason St.). Hailed as San Francisco's best costume party fundraiser, the All Hallows' Gala Zombie Ball will present guests with a frightfully elegant and theatrical night full of fun and friendship. The evening is the sole annual fundraising event for A.C.T., providing essential funds for the theater's artistic, actor training, and education and community programs. Guests at this year's Zombie Ball are encouraged to dress in costume or cocktail attire.

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“A.C.T.'s All Hallows' Gala is the theater's sole fundraising event, providing essential funds for our artistic, actor training, and education and community programs,” said Heather Stallings Little, Gala Co-Chair and A.C.T. Trustee. “John and I hope you will come out—either in zombie or zombie-fighting costume, or whatever you're comfortable in—and join us, our co-chairs, and special guest artist Darren Criss for what is going to be a fabulously fun evening.”

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The wonderfully frightening evening begins at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail reception where guests will enjoy live music and conversation on the mezzanine, or escape to the “scream-easy” for a luxe respite. Welcome bites and thirst-quenching brews will be offered. At 7:30 p.m., guests will be ushered to the historic music hall and treated to a lavish autumnal-inspired menu created by Gold Leaf Catering. At 8:30 p.m., A.C.T. Young Conservatory alum and award-winning stage, screen, and music recording artist Darren Criss (American Buffalo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Glee) will regale with some thrilling, Halloween-themed programming! Cap off the festive evening with the After-Life Party, featuring ultimate dance band Vinyl Project and the opportunity to play retro-games in the cool underground haunt, which includes bowling, hoops, skee-ball, and late-night bites, tricks, and treats! Be sure to capture your picture in one of the photoBOOths—humans only, no zombies allowed.

[broadwaydivastournament]

Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer? Send in Desiree from A Little Night Music (8*)

Bernadette Peters (Broadway revival, 2010 - 64) Carolee Carmello (Symphony Space concert, 2022 - 59) Kate Baldwin (New Jersey, 2024 - 48) Patti LuPone (Ravinia Festival, 2002 - 52) Emily Skinner (Barrington Stage, 2022 - 52) Karen Ziemba (American Conservatory Theater, 2015 - 58) (with Paolo Montalban)

Not pictured: Mary Beth Peil (Opera Ensemble of New York, 1988 - 48) review Betty Buckley (BBC Radio Production, 1995 - 48)

Fun facts: The Charlotte-to-Desiree pipeline is alive and well. Emily Skinner was the Charlotte to Karen Ziemba's Desiree. Kate Baldwin was the Charlotte to Carolee Carmello's Desiree. Kate Baldwin was also the Charlotte to Carolee's ex-husband Gregg Edelman's Fredrik (different production, but can you imagine?). Mary Beth Peil would eventually age into the Madame Armfeldt to Emily Skinner's Desiree.

[madamlaydebug]

An Actor with a Cause

Daniel Lebern “Danny” Glover is an African American actor, film director and political activist. Glover is well known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series and Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple. A versatile actor on screen, stage and television, Danny Glover has also become known for his community activism and philanthropic work. In March 1998 he was appointed a United Nations goodwill ambassador. For more than 30 years, Glover has been trying to make a biopic about Toussaint Louverture, who led a successful rebellion in the 18th century.

Glover was born on July 22, 1946 in San Francisco, California, to Carrie (Hunley) and James Glover. His parents were postal workers, active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He attended George Washington High School in San Francisco, and the San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the late 1960s, without graduating. SFSU later awarded him an honorary degree. While attending SFSU, Glover was a member of the Black Students Union, which, along with the Third World Liberation Front and the American Federation of Teachers, collaborated in a five-month student-led strike to establish a Department of Black Studies. The strike was the longest student walkout in U.S. history. It helped create not only the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the United States.

Glover trained at the Black Actors’ Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater. He made his Broadway debut in Athol Fugard’s production Master Harold…and the Boys, which led to his first leading role in the 1984 film Places in the Heart, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The following year, Glover starred in two more Best Picture nominees: Peter Weir’s Witnessand Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. In 1987, Glover partnered with Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weaponfilm and went on to star in three hugely successfulLethal Weapon sequels.

In 1994 he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override. Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about Black people. During his career, he has made several cameos, appearing, for example, in the Michael Jackson video “Liberian Girl” of 1987. Glover earned top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the sci-fi action film Predator. That same year he starred in Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, for which which he executive produced and for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor. On the small screen, Glover won an Image Award and a Cable ACE Award and earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the HBO movie Mandela. He has also received Emmy nominations for his work in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove and the telefilm Freedom Song. As a director, he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Showtime’s Just a Dream.

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles, but as also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa. For these efforts, Glover received a 2006 DGA Honor. Internationally, Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004, focusing on issues of poverty, disease, and economic development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and serves as UNICEF Ambassador.

In 2005, Glover co-founded Louverture Films dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity. For more than 30 years, Glover has been trying to make a film biography of Toussaint Louverture for his directorial debut. According to Glover, the film lacked ‘whyte heroes’, and hence whyte producers refuse to financially support the project unless the lead is surrounded by fictionalized historically inaccurate whyte heroes. In May 2006, the film had included cast members Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Roger Guenveur Smith, Mos Def, Isaach de Bankolé, and Richard Bohringer. Production, estimated to cost $30 million, was planned to begin in Poland, filming from late 2006 into early 2007. In May 2007, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez contributed $18 million to fund the production of Toussaint for Glover, who is a prominent U.S. supporter of Chávez. The contribution annoyed some Venezuelan filmmakers, who said the money could have funded other homegrown films and that Glover’s film was not even about Venezuela. In April 2008, the Venezuelan National Assembly authorized an additional $9,840,505 for Glover’s film, which is still in planning.

On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a chieftaincy title in Imo State, Nigeria. Glover was given the title Enyioma of Nkwerre, which means A Good Friend in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.