Theatre, Film, Television and Music Lovers and Supporters,

This week of May 2025, we celebrate the 50th Birthday of one of the finest actors, singers and musicians this performing artist has had the great joy and experience of working with: Mr. Danny Belrose.

As two veteran, critically-praised Chicago ( now L. A.-based ) stage actors Darryl Maximilian Robinson ( your humble servant in The Theatre, who is the multiple award-winning Founder of the multiracial, non-Equity professional classical and contemporary chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project ) and Danny Belrose ( well-regarded, critically-acclaimed ensemble member and alum of The Trap Door Theatre of Chicago ) first appeared onstage together 32 years ago in the 1993 Excaliber Productions, Ltd. revival production of acclaimed American playwright Edward Albee's powerful dramatic one-act The Zoo Story at the intimate Cummel's Café in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

As a Greater St. Louis area native recently graduated from high school, Mr. Belrose, who played Jerry in Excaliber's revival of Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story," had been a highly popular student stage performer who captured the 1992 Webster Groves High School Thespian Award as Best Actor for his performance as The Witch Boy in the haunting stage drama Howard Richardson's and William Berney's "Dark of the Moon" directed by respected youth drama instructor Ron Kenny, and also had won a Presidential Scholarship which helped him to go on to earn a degree in The Performing Arts from Chicago's Columbia College.

After college, from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s, Danny Belrose would go on to score a series of rave reviews for his performance work in roles in gritty, cutting-edge dramas such as Fernando Arrabal's "The Automobile Graveyard," Patrick Meyers' "Feedlot," Naomi Iilzuka's "Polaroid Stories" Israel Horowitz's "Lebensraum" ( in which Danny Belrose was part of the Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning Best Ensemble ) and Brian Silberman's "Sugar Down, Billie Hoak" with The Trap Door Theatre in The Windy City.

https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/down-and-dirty/

https://youtu.be/Zj6lSy7KaFU?si=2H1uqftfPmP2X-6Y

Now, living and acting in Los Angeles, Mr. Belrose ( born during this week in 1975 ) has earned his SAG/AFTRA card and has successfully transitioned to television roles, including appearances on "Portlandia" ( when Belrose was a working resident actor and performing artist in Portland, Oregon ), MTV'S "Buzz Kill," "Grimm" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."

https://youtu.be/UKMn502Hs2E?si=BkFKX3q_dBmGUTUo

Back in the early 1990s, this theater artist, Darryl Maximilian Robinson, was seeking new talent to expand his St. Louis Excaliber Company of Players and Danny Belrose ( who also under this artist's direction appeared as Lord Amiens in William Shakespeare's "As You Like It" and also created the roles of Jake and Cruz in the world premieres of St. Louis playwright Robert Friedman's "A Man of Experience" and "Fire and Brimstone" ) was truly excellent as Jerry.

But careers in The Theatre go in different directions, and these two actors would ultimately never appear onstage together during the time they were both doing some of their best stage work in Chicago.

However, a completely chance meeting between the two performers occurred in Chinatown of L.A. in 2016 and briefly brought the two former Excaliber actors back together.

And, a year later, in the Fall of 2017, the two men of the stage had what could be best called "An Actors' Summit" in Hollywood, and for the first time in nearly a quarter-of-a-century, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Belrose celebrating A Zoo Story Cast Reunion, enjoyed some laughs, theatre war stories, good food and SOME FAKE OSCARS in Tinseltown.

In celebration of the multitalented Danny Belrose's 50th Birthday, provided here is a link to a video of his effective musical performance ( recalling his successful portrayal of Val in Trap Door Theatre's revival of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending" ) at the 1999 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Awards Ceremony at The Park West Theatre in The Windy City.

https://youtu.be/Mgx_oD5uNuU?si=dKI52-KhwhjI9gDV

Enjoy.

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, DANNY B!, AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY!

https://www.townplanner.com/event/797737/

 

 

https://theatreblogofdarrylmaximilianrobinson.blogspot.com/2025/05/darryl-maximilian-robinson-celebrates.html