It's a given that Rodney Scott Hudson knows the value of a solid acting training program. After all, Hudson is not only a seasoned performer, but also a dramatics teacher himself (at Syracuse University).
But when it comes to training, Hudson also knows that, at some point, enough is enough. He learned this lesson from--of all people--Arthur Miller.
After four years of study at Southeast Missouri State, followed by an M.A. program in theatre at the University of South Dakota, Hudson began Ph.D. studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
"Arthur Miller came there, because he's an alumnus," Hudson recalls. "And he was doing this symposium. And in the middle of the last meeting, I asked him, 'You've been here for a couple of weeks--what have you learned about the students?' He said, 'You don't know why you're here. You think theatre is a hobby. You should be out doing it.' And he pointed straight to me and said, 'You, young man. What are you doing here? Don't you think it's time that you leave the cocoon of school to find out what you can do in the real world?'
"And I said, 'I guess so, Mr. Miller.' And I quit school the next day."
Actually, Hudson had been "learning by doing" even before his momentous encounter with Miller. In South Dakota, he rehearsed and performed almost continuously, even while taking classes. In the summer, he acted in stock at the Black Hills Playhouse. One year, he remembers, he appeared in 17 productions.
The curriculum at South Dakota emphasized a wide array of acting approaches. "They told me, 'It's your responsibility to have a knowledge of all the different disciplines: Stanislavski, Meisner, Boleslavsky--even Grotowski." As an undergraduate, Hudson had originally been a music major, and voice classes proved especially helpful to him in dealing with rhythmic elements in Shakespeare and other classics.
Hudson credits his eclectic background with giving him the flexibility to work with a wide variety of directors over the years: Andrei Serban, JoAnne Akalaitis, Julie Taymor, and Robert Wilson, among many others. "I had to adapt to their vision and their concept--and a lot of actors don't like to do that. They want their concept and their process to matter to everybody, and that's not possible."
His teaching "feeds" his acting--and vice versa. This summer he took a break from his work at Syracuse to appear as Cominius in "Coriolanus" for Shakespeare Santa Cruz in California.
When it comes to defining what a "classical" role is, Hudson refuses to limit the term to pre-20th century plays. He believes that--in matters of language and rhythms--August Wilson is, in his own way, as complex as Shakespeare. Samuel Beckett and Tennessee Williams would also qualify as classical playwrights under Hudson's broad definition. At Theatre Virginia, Hudson played Big Daddy in an all-black production of Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"; he found it to be one of his most satisfying, if strenuous, roles ever.
"Doing Big Daddy--to me, that's just like doing King Lear," he says. "It's not the same, of course, but it's that intense and that exhausting."
