Rashad direct about goals

Tribune News Service

LOS ANGELES

Poet Vivian Ayers once told her daughter Phylicia Rashad that being an actress made her one of the “magic” people.

“I said, ‘What do you mean, Mama?’” said Rashad. “She said, ‘You create so much out of nothing.’”

And for the majority of her career, the 66-year-old Rashad was content being a “magic person.” She didn’t harbor any secret desire to follow in her younger sister Debbie Allen’s footsteps and become a director. Allen directed and co-starred with Rashad in the 2001 PBS drama “The Old Settler” and directed her on Broadway in the 2008 revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

“I was having so much fun being an actress,” said Rashad, best known as favorite mom, Clair Huxtable, from the 1984-92 NBC sitcom “The Cosby Show.” She’s also appeared on the stage, including the 2004 revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” for which she received a Tony Award for lead actress.

Then she got a call from Constanza Romero, the widow of award-winning playwright August Wilson. Romero asked Rashad to direct her husband’s drama “Gem of the Ocean” in a 2007 production at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Rashad starred in the play at the Mark Taper Forum in 2003 and earned a Tony nomination for the subsequent Broadway production.

“She said, ‘I think you could do this. I know you can do this,’” Rashad said. And Rashad received further affirmation from Kenny Leon, who directed her on Broadway in “Raisin in the Sun” and “Gem.” Leon is also an experienced Wilson interpreter, having directed the Broadway productions of Wilson’s “Radio Golf” and the 2010 revival of “Fences.”

Since “Gem,” Rashad has blossomed into a well-respected theater director. She directed Wilson’s “Fences” at the Long Wharf in Connecticut,“ ”A Raisin in the Sun“ at the Ebony Repertory Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles and a revival two years ago of Wilson’s ”Joe Turner’s Come and Gone“ at the Taper.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty stated in his review of the Wilson drama that Rashad kept the staging of “Joe Turner” “simple and actor-focused. ... Rashad knows that what matters most is emotional clarity, not scenic flourish.”

Recently, Rashad was relaxing in the lounge at the Taper, where she is directing the comedy “Immediate Family,” which opened at the theater Sunday. The show allows Rashad a chance to explore comedy.