Duane Boutte

Duane Boutté (born March 5, 1966) is an American actor, director, and composer known in film for his portrayal of "Bostonia" in Nigel Finch's Stonewall (1995), and as young "Bruce Nugent" in Rodney Evans' Brother to Brother (2004).[1] Boutté was in the original Broadway company of Parade,[2] and played "Enoch Snow, Jr." in the 1994 TONY Award-winning revival of Carousel.[3] His television acting credits date from the 1980s and include episodes of What's Happening Now,[4] A Year in the Life, Sex and the City, and the made-for-television movie The Drug Knot, directed by Happy Days star, Anson Williams.[1]

Early life

Duane Boutté was born and raised in Fresno, California where his mother (Velda Neal Boutte) taught piano. Boutté's father, Alfred Boutte, is an Air Force veteran and was regional administrator for California's Employment Development Department.[5][6] Boutté's parents were active in community programs, particularly those advancing opportunities for Fresno's black citizens,[7] and are honored in Fresno's African American History Museum.[6][8] Duane Boutté is the youngest of the couple's seven children.[9] Though coming to California from east Texas, Boutté's paternal family has its Creole roots in Louisiana.[10] Boutté began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was a toddler, and started composing music at age 4 that his mother would then transcribe.[11][12][13]

In 1979, Boutté's parents took him to Roger Rocka's Music Hall in Fresno to see Anything Goes performed by Good Company Players (GCP).[14] The musical was preceded by a 15-minute pre-show of song and dance by the troupe's "Junior Company." Boutté auditioned and was accepted into Junior Company later that year. Boutté, then 13, would perform six shows each week for the next three years, taking just two weeks off each year for family vacation. He calls GCP the place where he learned "important...life lessons [like] commitment, responsibility, showing up on time ready, really ready, to work."[15] In GCP's Junior Company, Boutté worked alongside youngsters who would later become his Broadway colleagues (Audra McDonald, Heidi Blickenstaff, Sharon Leal, Andrea Chamberlain, and Sarah Uriarte Berry).[16][17] Boutté also performed in plays and musicals with the senior company, mostly under the direction of company founder, Dan Pessano, and gained his first television experience in Junior Company's local Saturday morning variety shows, and holiday specials.[14]

Career

Duane Boutté's early career was managed by Summer of '42 actress Jennifer O'Neill.[12] In these years ('86-'88), Boutté filmed episodes of What's Happening Now, A Year in the Life and a made-for-TV movie directed by Anson Williams, and starring Dermot Mulroney.[1] Boutte completed his B.A. in theatre at UCLA, and earned an M.F.A. in acting under Tony Church at the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver before moving to New York in 1991.[13] That year, Boutté toured the U.S. with Jeffrey Wright (actor), Rainn Wilson and other young actors in The Acting Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream.[18] In 1994, he played "Enoch Snow, Jr." in Lincoln Center's TONY Award-winning revival of Carousel, and was one of Michael Hayden's "Billy Bigelow" understudies. Boutté returned to Broadway in 1999 in Parade.[3] He has performed numerous roles in classical and contemporary plays Off-Broadway and at leading regional theatres throughout the country.[14] In 2001, Boutté played "Orestes" in the Oresteia trilogy directed by Tony Taccone and Stephen Wadsworth, inaugurating Berkeley Repertory Theatre's new RODA Theatre.[19] Among his favorite roles performed, Boutté names "Mercutio" at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and opportunities to premiere works by playwrights like Terrence McNally, Eric Overmyer, Charles Randolph-Wright, and Robert O'Hara.[20] Of note among his premieres are Kirsten Childs' Off-Broadway musical The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Playwrights Horizons),[21] and Brian Freeman's play Civil Sex in which Boutté played civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Berkeley Repertory Theatre).[22] In New York, Boutté has been listed among Vineyard Theatre's esteemed "Community of Artists."[23]

Boutté stars in two films that have become landmarks in gay cinema.[24][25] The first of these, Stonewall (1995), was directed by Nigel Finch (The Lost Language of Cranes).[26] In the film, Boutté plays "Bostonia," a fictional 'mother' of the Stonewall Inn, whose imagined, first punch incites this film's version of the 1969 Stonewall riots. Interview magazine profiled Boutté for his performance in the role, stating "a Stonewall star is born."[27] He was the first of the film's actors to come out as gay in an interview with 4-Front magazine that year.[28] Boutté later played "Bruce Nugent, young" in Rodney Evans' 2004 film Brother to Brother. The film, also starring Anthony Mackie and Roger Robinson, presents circa 1920's Bruce Nugent as an unapologetic homosexual accepted, and embraced by celebrated Harlem Renaissance figures like Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston.[29]

Boutté has directed plays and musicals in regional theatres and universities, and has collaborated as composer on new musicals including Lyin' Up a Breeze (presented by Good Company Players in 2002), and Caravaggio Chiaroscuro (performed at LaMama Etc. in 2007).[14][30] He has taught acting at Illinois State University),[10] National Theatre Institute, Ramapo College, and directed work at Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York.[11]

Feature Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Stonewall	Bostonia	dir. Nigel Finch
2002	Checkout	Almo	Example
2004	Brother to Brother	Bruce Nugent, young	dir. Rodney Evans
2007	You Belong to Me	Robert	dir. Sam Zalutsky
2013	All is Bright	Man 1	dir. Phil Morrison

Television

Year	Title	Role	Episode	Notes
1986	What's Happening Now	Howard	Season 2: "Picture Perfect," syndication	dir. Gary Brown
1986	What's Happening Now	Howard	Season 2: "Shirley's Little Sister," syndication	dir. Neema Barnette
1986	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Leon	"The Drug Knot"	dir. Anson Williams
1986	The Drug Knot	Leon	CBS television movie	dir. Anson Williams
1987	A Year in the Life	Co-Star "student"	"While Someone Else is Eating or Opening a Window," NBC Series	dir. Rob Cohen
1998	Sex and the City	Allanne	"Oh Come All Ye Faithful", HBO Series	dir. Matthew Harrison
2018	Unbrealable Kimmy Schmidt	Principal Webb	"kimmy disrupts a papadigm", netflix

Web Series

Year	Title	Role	Episode/Notes
2012-13	Child of the '70s	Weezy	Four episodes: Happy Birthday Darling, Kiki Lawrence, The Wedding, The Wedding Part 2

Broadway

Year	Show	Credit	Notes
1994	Carousel (Broadway Revival)	Enoch Snow, Jr., and understudy Billy Bigelow	Broadway: Lincoln Center, dir. Nicholas Hytner
1998	Parade	Ensemble, and principle understudy	Broadway: Lincoln Center, dir. Hal Prince

Off-Broadway

Year	Show	Credit	Notes
1992	A Midsummer Night's Dream national tour	Francis Flute, Thisby	The Acting Company, dir. Joe Dowling
1993	The Heliotrope Bouquet by Scott Joplin and Louis Chauvin	Louis Chauvin	Playwrights Horizons, dir. Joe Morton
1993	Motherlode	Revolutionary	Mabou Mines, workshop dir. John McGrath
1993	Christina Alberta's Father	Teddy	Vineyard Theatre (workshop), dir. Andre Ernotte
1999	Civil Sex	Bayard Rustin	Public Theatre "First Stages" production
2000	The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin	Larry Grimble, and Keith	Playwrights Horizons, dir. Wilfredo Medina, world premiere

Regional Stage

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1990	Twelfth Night	Fabian	Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, dir. Richard E. T. Wright
1990	Cymbeline	Philharmonus	Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, dir. Laird Williamson
1990	The Merry Wives of Windsor	Fenton	Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, dir. Julian Lopez-Morillas
1990	Othello	Clown	Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, dir. Michael Addison
1990	The American Clock	Rudy	Denver Center Theatre Company, dir. Randal Myler
1991	Joe Turner's Come and Gone	Jeremy	Denver Center Theatre Company, dir. Israel Hicks
1991-92	A Midsummer Night's Dream national tour	Francis Flute, Thisby	The Acting Company, dir. Joe Dowling
1992	Riverview	Robert	Goodman Theatre, dir. Robert Falls
1993	Six Degrees of Separation	Paul	Dallas Theatre Center, dir. Stephen Wadsworth
1995	Insurrection	Ron	world Premiere - Columbia University, dir. Robert O'Hara
1995	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Demetrius	La Jolla Playhouse, dir. Marion McClinton
1997	Civil Sex	Bayard Rustin	Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, D.C.
1998	Les Blancs	Eric	Center Stage, Baltimore, dir. Marion McClinton
1998	Afterplay	Raziel	Coconut Grove Playhouse, dir. Arthur Storch
1999	Blues for an Alabama Sky	Guy	Virginia Stage, dir. Aaron Cabell
2000	Civil Sex	Bayard Rustin	Berkeley Repertory Theatre, dir. Brian Freeman
2000	The Odyssey	Neoman	McCarter Theatre, dir. Mary Zimmerman
2000	The Odyssey	Neoman	Seattle Repertory Theatre, dir. Mary Zimmerman
2001	Oresteia	Orestes	Berkeley Repertory Theatre, dir. Tony Taccone and Stephen Wadsworth
2002	Hamlet	Laertes	Alabama Shakespeare Festival, dir. Ray Chambers
2002	Much Ado About Nothing	Claudio	Alabama Shakespeare Festival, dir. Kent Thompson
2003	Romeo and Juliet	Mercutio	Oregon Shakespeare Festival, dir. Loretta Greco
2003	Antony and Cleopatra	Pompey, and Eros	Oregon Shakespeare Festival, dir. Penny Metropulos
2004	The Story	Neil	Long Wharf Theatre, dir. Loretta Greco
2005	The Tempest	Ferdinand	Shakespeare Theatre (DC), dir. Kate Whoriskey
2005	Cuttin' Up	Various	Arena Stage, dir. Charles Randolph-Wright, world premiere
2006	Some Men	Angel Eyes	Philadelphia Theatre Company, dir. Philip Himberg, world premiere
2007	Cuttin' Up	Various	Alliance Theatre, dir. Kent Gash
2007	Caravaggio Chiaroscuro	Caravaggio	LaMama, Etc., dir. George Drance, premiere
2008	Macbeth	Macduff	Roust Theatre Company, dir. James Phillip Gates
2009	The Whipping Man	John	Penumbra Theatre, dir. Lou Bellamy
2010	On the Verge	Grover, et al.	Rep Stage (MD), dir. Jackson Phippin
2012	Shadows	Ben	Hoi Polloi, dir. Alec Duffy
2012	Fierce Love	Various	PomoAfroHomo anniversary tour (New Conservatory Theatre)
2012	All Hands	Various	Hoi Polloi, dir. Alec Duffy
2013	Wild With Happy	Mo	TheatreWorks, dir. Danny Scheie

Stage Direction

Year	Show	Notes
2008	LOL	Algonquin Productions (NY)
2011	Stalag 17	Good Company Players (CA)
2012	Othello	Stella Adler Studio (NY)
2013	Home	Rep Stage (MD)
2014	The Merry Wives of Windsor	Worcester Shakespeare Festival
2015	Cabaret	Illinois State University
2015	Fences	Illinois State University

Musical Compositions and Librettos

Year	Show	Credit	Notes
1987	Bottom's Up: A Musicommedia	Music - Duane Boutté, book - Ron Morasco, lyrics - Ron Mohasco, Dwight Smith, Paul Svendson, Luck Hari	Produced at UCLA; winner ACTF and ASCAP awards 1988[31]
2002	Lyin' Up a Breeze	Book and lyrics - Terry Miller, music - Duane Boutté	Produced by Good Company Players, Second Space Theatre
2007	Caravaggio Chiaroscuro	Book - Gian Marco Lo Forte, Music - Duane Boutté	Produced by LaMama Etc. (2007)[32]
2011	Thanks to the Lighthouse	Music and Libretto by Duane Boutté	Presented 2011 and 2012 by NYC Parks and Recreation, and Historic House Trust

References

1. "IMDB Actor Profile". IMDB.
2. Willis, John (July 2002). Theatre world 1998-1999, Vol. 55. p. 31. ISBN 1557834334.
3. "Playbill Person Profile". Playbill.com.
4. "TV actor profiles". tv.com.
5. Savage, Sam (July 27, 2008). "Boutte Touched a Chord in Many". The Fresno Bee.
6. Jenkins, Kyra (January 11–18, 2013). "Paving the Way, Leaving a Legacy: Honoring African-American Trailblazers" (pages A1, A7). The California Advocate.
7. "Fresno Music Teacher Honored By Former Students" (page 5). The California Advocate. March 16, 1994.
8. "Fresno African American Museum". Your Central Valley.
9. "Mr. & Mrs. Boutte Celebrate their 50th Anniversary" (page 2). The California Advocate. June 20, 2003.
10. Jome, Eric (March 25, 2015). "Boutte play to explore questions of race and identity". Illinois State University News.
11. Dawkins, Sydney-Chanele (February 25, 2013). "Part 2, An Interview with Duane Boutte - the Director of Rep Stage's 'Home'". DC Metro.
12. Hale, David (July 16, 1989). "All jazzed up, Boutte returns to GCP stage, this time with his own songs" (Spotlight section page F15). The Fresno Bee.
13. Duckett, Richard (July 17, 2014). "Worcester Shakespeare Festival Promises to be a Merry Time". Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
14. "GCP Actor Profile - Duane Boutte". GCPlayers. 2010-07-10.
15. Tehee, Joshua (June 2008). "Take a Bow: Good Company Players celebrates 35 years of community theater" (pages 40–41). Imagine Fresno.
16. Gans, Andrew (July 11, 2008). "DIVA TALK: Chatting with [title of show]'s Heidi Blickenstaff Plus Heights and Pacific on CD". Playbill.
17. Fox, Jena Tesse. "[interview] With Pressgrove, Blackwell, Bell, and Blickenstaff". Broadway World. Retrieved September 26, 2008.
18. Holden, Stephen (April 8, 1992). "Theater in Review". New York Times.
19. Grant, John Angell (March 23, 2001). "The Oresteia Trilogy Makes Strong Showing". Berkeley Daily Planet.
20. "You Belong To Me cast biographies" (PDF). Mongrel Media - You Belong to Me.
21. Childs, Kirsten (2003). The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. Dramatists Play Service. p. 5. ISBN 0822218798.
22. Harvey, Dennis (January 30, 2000). "Review 'Civil Sex'". Variety.
23. "Our Artists". VineyardTheatre.org.
24. "Double identity: Actor speaks about accurately performing conflicted characters" (page 7). The Battalion, Texas A&M University. October 9, 2009.
25. Duralde, Alonso. 101 Must See Movies for Gay Men. ISBN 0739464574.
26. Ebert, Roger. "Stonewall Movie Review". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
27. Moverman, Oren (July 1996). "Boutte Camp". Sandra J. Brant. Andy Warhol's Interview magazine.
28. White, Skip (June 12, 1996). "Stonewall: The Movie Actor Duane Boutte Takes Us Behind the Scenes". 4-Front Magazine. 1 (21): 73.
29. Ehrenstein, David (October 26, 2004). "Props to a Gay Hero: Duane Boutte Talks about Bringing the Harlem Renaissance to Life in the Person of out Poet Bruce Nugent". The Advocate (October 26, 2004): 56.
30. "Caravaggio Chiaroscuro". Theatermania.com.
31. "Directory of Contemporary Operas & Musical Theater Works & North American Premieres 1980 - 1989" (PDF). Central Opera Service. 30 (2–4): 17.
32. "Caravaggio Chiaroscuro". Lamama.org. Retrieved 13 October 2016.