1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award Winner Darryl Maximilian Robinson, Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of both The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project shares some stage memories of his first appearance in a work by the late, great Stephen Sondheim.

For The 10th Anniversary Of His Professional Debut In A Work By Stephen Sondheim, 2019 Broadwayworld Chicago Award Nominee for Best Performer In A Musical Or Revue for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," 2022 Making The World Happening Award Winner for His Numerous Online Theatre Related Endeavors At Allevents.in and 2024 Broadwayworld Los Angeles Award Nominee for Best Supporting Performer In A Play for "The Front Page," Darryl Maximilian Robinson Opens His 2014 "Into The Woods" Photo Scrapbook!

Darryl Maximilian Robinson Is Pleased To Share His Photo Scrapbook & Notes On The 2014 Burbank Community Theatre Revival of Stephen Sondheim's & James Lapine's "Into The Woods" Presented At The Forest Lawn Cemetery In The Hollywood Hills!

Believe It Or Not - A Ride Through And From The Woods of One of The World's Most Famous Final Resting Places Helped To Create The Mood Of The Burbank Community Theatre's Final And Most Memorable Production: A Revival of Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's wonderful Into The Woods!

Most people think (and to be fair the majority of The American Population ignores or has no knowledge of The Stage due to a complete disregard for funding the arts in our public school systems) that the best most enjoyable and memorable theatre in this country can only be found on Broadway. This is a great misconception.

And for those individuals around the country who have spent their lives as actors, actresses, playwrights directors, choreographers, composers, lyricists designers, teachers and producers creating magic on stage in local and regional theatre productions throughout the rest of this fine democracy a great lie!

Broadway is merely the place where the most expensively produced shamelessly commercialized and highly over-publicized stage productions are mounted.

Performing artists, theatre educators, experienced audience members and TRUE LOVERS OF THE ART OF THEATRE know the TRUTH!

The greatest stage art and the finest stage performances and productions have occurred where those with the skill and talent (not the budget and paycheck) have chosen TO MAKE THE ART HAPPEN!

Broadway is a symbol of the best The Theatre has to offer but it is merely the tip of the iceberg. There is great theatre, quality theatre, professional-level theatre (sans union cards), being performed on stages throughout this country seven days and nights per week. Sometimes not in what one would recognize as a conventional sort of public performance venue at all.

But The Theatre is more than 2500 years old and as an art form continues to defy convention. It did after all begin as a religious spiritual presentation by The Ancient Greeks and continues to have spiritual resonances to this day.

Without question Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Into The Woods is a Broadway Tony Award-winning musical theatre masterpiece that turns our perceptions of established heroic figures from famed fairy tales upside down. And as opposed to giving us anything that resembles "Happily Ever After" shows us the darkness despair loneliness and DEATH lurking deep within the human condition.

Without question one of the most beautiful lush green tranquil and well-known final resting places IN THE WORLD is The Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles California (directly across the road from Warner Brothers Burbank Studios where such musical film classics as James Cagney's Yankee Doodle Dandy and Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady were shot).

In December of 2014, a group of unpaid volunteer performers - actors, singers, musicians, technicians, designers (many with paid professional stage television film and concert touring credits), donated their time, energy and talent to create a small miracle that intrigued audiences had to travel to-and-fro past hundreds of gravestones and tombs to see (which incidentally contributed mightily to the ultimate mood of the work).

Musical Theatre Pros Robert Laurita and Mary Zastrow truly impressed and touched theatergoers as The Baker and The Baker's Wife.

Opera Pros Jessica Mamey as The Witch and Jay Stephenson as The Wolf delivered strong renditions of their solos in the score.

And skilled Performing Disney Cruise Lines Princess Courtney Daniels delighted and charmed with her singing and acting as Cinderella.

And...ONCE UPON A TIME...Making his first appearance in a Sondheim work in his more than four-decade-long performance career Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project Founder, 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning stage actor for The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival of Athol Fugard's "Master Harold And The Boys," 2019 Broadwayworld Chicago Award Nominee for Best Performer In A Musical or Revue for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," 2022 Making The World Happening Award Winner for his numerous online theatre-related offerings at Allevents.in and 2024 Broadwayworld Los Angeles Award Nominee for Best Supporting Performer In A Play for his performance as Chicago Tribune Newspaper Reporter Roy V. Bensinger in The Culver City Public Theatre revival production of Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's "The Front Page,"Darryl Maximilian Robinson delivered to audiences both the humor and sadness found in his dual roles of The Narrator & The Mysterious Man.

Under the strong leadership of dilligent and hardworking Founder and Producer Julia Swanwick and the truly gifted and inspired Director and Designer Josh Shaw a short-lived but well-remembered and received non-Equity theatre company known as The Burbank Community Theatre (with charming and highly-effective choreography by Broadway Performer Heather Pond and dazzling 22-piece orchestra under the baton of skilled musical director Ryan Luevano ) presented it's final and most memorable production Into The Woods on the stage of The 1200-Seat Historic Hall Of Liberty at Forest Lawn Cemetery in LA!

https://www.abouttheartists.com/productions/100360-into-the-woods-at-the-hall-of-liberty-at-forest-lawn-2014

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Darryl Maximilian Robinson has become noted as the very first black actor in American Theatre History to portray on stage a trio of classic dramatic roles including: Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" ( in a 1984 revival presented by The University Players of The University of Missouri-St. Louis and directed by AEA Member John Grassilli at The Benton Hall Theater ); King Henry II in a 1992 multiracial cast revival of James Goldman's "The Lion In Winter" ( directed by Mr. Robinson for his chamber theatre Excaliber Productions, Ltd in St. Louis and staged at The Wabash Triangle Cafe ); and Andrew Wyke ( opposite the talented actor Sean Nix as Milo Tindle ) in a 2000, 30th Anniversary, all-black cast revival of Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" presented under Mr. Robinson's direction by his chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago at The Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre of Oak Park, Illinois.