Until this winter, Tazewell Thompson had made only one visit to Baltimore. In 1991, the New York-born and -based theater/opera director, not to mention playwright, was here as an audience member to attend a premiere of a play about Scott Joplin at Center Stage.
Thompson sounds delighted to be back in town, this time to work. He's at Everyman Theatre to direct the Baltimore premiere of the powerful Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Lynn Nottage, "Ruined," which opens next week.
"Where the hell have I been?" he says with a laugh. "I didn't know anything about Everyman Theatre, which is such a beautiful gem. I couldn't be happier here, and that's more important than the director's fee."
Thompson has worked with such eminent companies as New York's Manhattan Theatre Club and Public Theater, Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. And he's had a long association with Washington's Arena Stage, where he directed a couple of dozen plays.
That D.C. company is one of several that have commissioned plays from Thompson. In 2013, Arena Stage premiered "Mary T. & Lizzy K.," his intriguing exploration of the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and a freed slave, dressmaker Elizabeth "Lizzy" Keckley.
Along the way, Thompson added opera to his pursuits. He has directed acclaimed productions for the former New York City Opera (his staging of "Porgy and Bess" aired on PBS and received a couple of Emmy nominations), Virginia Opera and Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York, among others.
"Tazewell is one of the few I know who has a foot in theater and opera," says Everyman artistic director Vincent Lancisi. "And I knew that 'Ruined,' being an epic drama, could benefit from the skills of an opera director. That's how I pitched him. I told him, 'This play needs you.' He brought in an amazing design team, and the actors are flourishing with him."
Everyman is featuring a Nottage drama just a year after staging "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark," her biting comedy about Hollywood and race directed by Walter Dallas.
"He and Tazewell are the seasoned leaders of African-American directors," Lancisi says. "I wanted to expand directors of color at Everyman. I'm honored to have Tazewell here."
"Ruined" is a complete contrast to "Vera Stark." Nottage interviewed women in Africa as background for the piece, which centers on Mama Nadi, matriarchal owner of a bar and brothel in war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.
Akin to Mother Courage in Bertolt Brecht's satire of that name, Mama Nadi is determined to survive the conflict around her, whichever side is ahead.
"When I saw 'Ruined' at Arena Stage [in 2011], it moved me so much I couldn't stop talking about it," Lancisi says. "And I was embarrassed by how little I knew of what was happening [in Congo]."
Thompson, who had seen a couple of Nottage's other works, discovered "Ruined" when Lancisi asked him to direct it at Everyman.
"I was stopped by the play," Thompson says. "I thought, 'This is going to be a real tough hill to climb.' It is a very difficult, complex play and an unfortunate subject, a story about women who have been raped and mutilated. Their husbands, sons and brothers don't just go off to war, but turn on them."
Such a subject might seem unlikely for theatrical entertainment, but Thompson finds much to admire in the way the playwright treats the edgy material.
"It is not a soap box, nor is it propaganda," he says. "It is about how these women can hold onto some little light of human compassion, can hold up their heads and dream of a better future. It is a testament and a tribute to the survival of women who are able to cope with harsh realities."
Improbably, perhaps, "Ruined" offers something besides the bleak and stark.
"It's funny," Thompson says. "These women have a sense of humor and togetherness. And there's music in the play, which I love. There's singing and dancing. People should come to this play because we should always have a curiosity, a hunger and a passion to learn about cultures we don't know anything about."
A 17-member cast, filled out with five current students and graduates of the Baltimore School for the Arts, features two of the company's resident artists, Bruce Randolph Nelson and, in the role of Mama Nadi, Dawn Ursula.
Ursula's brilliant portrayal of the title character in "Vera Stark" had a lot to do with the success of that production. Judging by Thompson's enthusiasm for the actress, she may do the same with "Ruined."
"I didn't know Dawn Ursula, but now I do, and I would love to work with her again," the director says. "She reminds me of Ruby Dee, who I worked with years ago. The audience is going to get a magnificent performance from Dawn."
Thompson recruited much of the design team for the staging, which, he says, will deliver "a wonderful visual experience."
Whether working on plays or operas, Thompson relishes the process of getting a work ready for the stage.
"I am indeed fortunate to have those two worlds," he says, "and to see how they sometimes collide or align with each other. When you walk into the first rehearsal for opera, singers are 'off-book,' as one would say in theater; they know their music. It really is all about the music. And as a director, I am a servant to the composer."
By contrast, actors begin rehearsing a play "sitting around a circular table with open scripts," Thompson says. "They are learning about the play under the guidance of the director. Day by day, we all come together as an ensemble."
Thompson's interest in music and theater blossomed early on, but not in a conventional environment. After what he calls "a lot of conflict in my family," he was placed in a home for children operated by Sisters of St. Dominic in upstate New York. He was 8 years old.
"I was a frightened, isolated, lonely child, very confused about the world," says Thompson, who is now in his 60s. "I had never seen a nun before. There was very strict discipline, but the place was full with love. The nuns saved my life."
In addition to being baptized and confirmed a Catholic while he was there — "I thought I was going to be a priest and eventually canonized somehow and become a saint," he says with a laugh — Thompson started showing an affinity for the arts. He sang solos at Mass ("I helped to 'stage' Christmas and Easter Masses") and explored poetry and Shakespeare, all the while encouraged by the nuns.
"They helped me find myself," he says. "I recently gave a talk to university students in Kansas, and someone asked me what kind of family life I had. I told them I had six or seven mothers. When they asked why, I said, 'Because I was lucky.' "
He still maintains contact with the nuns who helped raise him; he recently visited one on her deathbed to express his gratitude. Not surprisingly, Thompson's favorite opera is Francis Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites," about an order of nuns during the French Revolution.
Six years after being placed in the nuns' care, Thompson returned to New York City, where he was taken in by his grandparents. He continued to pursue artistic outlets through high school and beyond. Over the years, he worked as an actor and teacher, before concentrating on directing and, eventually, adding playwriting to his resume.
"I'm very grateful for the life I have," Thompson says, "and very fortunate to have the career I have now."
If you go
"Ruined," which has a pay-what-you-can performance on Tuesday and preview performances Wednesday and Thursday, opens Friday. The production runs through March 8 at Everyman Theatre, 315 W. Fayette St. Tickets are $40 to $60 ($28.90 to $40 for previews). Call 410-752-2208, or go to everymantheatre.org.