St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 59

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1990 9Q mi ft I. I "7' 1 If! I Vi 'r'" fi 8 1 p--- i-V 1. I r- I I 'i n- I I 1 1, i ilfill i-i fiV Renyold FergusonPost-Dispatch Darryl Maximilian Robinson Robinson Has 'A Bit Of The Bard' In His Speech And Manner By Cleora Hughes Of the Post-Dispatch Staff WHEN Shakespearean actor Darryl Maximil-lian Robinson was a boy, his neighbors on Chicago's West Side called him the "Madman of Jackson Boulevard." This was no idle designation on their part. Robinson, as he himself admits, was strange. "I was passionate about reading," he said, when he stopped by the Post-Dispatch offices last week to talk about "A Bit of the Bard," his one-man show opening Aug.

3 at the Utopian Loft, 3524 Washington Ave. "And I was forever romanticizing about Greek mythology, knights on horseback and Robin Hood. I'm talking about a serious Walter Mitty fantasy syndrome here. "If my friends wanted me to play with them, they first had to agree to be one of Robin's Merry Men. When we had the usual boyhood fights, I frightened them by declaring that I was prepared to duel to the death." Robinson's mother, one half of the DorothyWarren "deadly parental unit" worried that someone even crazier than her son would kill him.

But before that could happen, a music teacher, who, from a safe distance, had watched him go into a hysterical tirade after being accidently hit in the face at a kick ball game, decided to channel all of that energy into the school's Christmas play. As soon as he walked out on the stage, Robinson knew this was his true calling. There followed a "career" of sorts that found him playing various roles around the country, including stints here in St. Louis on the Goldenrod Showboat and with the Theatre Project Company. It was while he was stranded in Vail, in 1987, that he was asked to come up with a Shakespearean play that would be "entertaining" to the not-easily-impressed patrons at Ruby's Bar and Grill.

The result was "A Bit of the Bard," the story of his most revered lordship, Sir Richard Drury Kemp-Kean, a 16th-century actor who was struck by a bolt of lightening in 1 660. "He wakes up in the 20th century in Vail, up to his bum in snow," Robinson explained. "He doesn't know how he got to this place, he doesn't know why he's there, but he immediately adjusts." The reason Sir Richard adjusts so well is because he sees parallels between 20th-century things that are happening to him and the plays of Shakespeare. This premise allows him to present soliloquies from 10 of the Bard's most famous plays. Critics have hailed Robinson's performance as See BARD, Page 11 Odell Mitchell Jr.Post-Dispatch Jugglers from the Circus Flora will perform at the fair.

i More Page 3 Talk to Children About Sex." Entertainment will be by Circus Flora, the "Wizard of Oz" puppet show, storytelling, the Fantastic Gymnastics Performing Troupe, and Marilyn the Magician. In addition, there will be special appearances by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Caring Bear, Syl-VESS-ter, Blockbuster Kids, clowns, mimes, face painters, balloon sculptors, jugglers and more. THE two-day Parenting Fair at Washington University's Athletic Complex Aug. 4-5 offers a variety of activities for children and parents. There are 24 family-oriented seminars on topics ranging from "Two Career Families: How to Find Time for Your Children" to "Success in Step-Parenting" to "How to.