Donald Owens, 77, fell in love with theater as a young boy—playing outside, doing art and creating games with his friends.
“I grew up during segregation and everything; I found a lot of outlets in the segregation,” Owens says, recalling how he had discovered theater.
These outlets, Owens explains, were often in theater.
“[It] could be in church theater, could be in the building theater, quite often within what we played in the streets,” Owens says.
But like a church, theater is more than a building—it’s an action.
“Theater to me is where you’re expressing this creativity,” Owens says. “It can be done on the street corner, it can be done in church, it can be done in the community center—it can be done anywhere. Theater is not a building.”
Now, as the artistic director for Arena Players Incorporated, Owens shares his expertise and guidance with others.
Arena Players is the country’s oldest continually performing African American community theater—and it’s right here in Baltimore. The theater first opened its doors in 1953, more than a decade before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in businesses like theaters, restaurants and hotels.
Today, the theater continues to run several productions throughout the year in addition to jazz and comedy shows, which take place every other month.
“I enjoy the aspect of taking something, understanding what the playwright was after and then trying to bring that to fruition with all the other elements that come in like acting, set design, the music, thematic score—all these things and to make it all fit as one piece,” Owens says. “If you’re a director, you’re like the captain of the ship, so you’re dealing with the overall view.”
Directors like Owens have a lot on their plates. They have to consider lights and sounds, set design, props, the actors and how all those aspects of a performance will work together to create the big picture.
Owens says he learned the most about theater through life itself, rather than through college. According to Owens, theater lets you examine and see things you’ve experienced in a different way that brings you a new appreciation for your experiences—whether you’re a cast member or in the audience.
“Theater is like life,” Owens says. “It changes through decades.”
Theater changes as people change, Owens says, which means that every time someone sees a performance or acts in it, that performance will be different in some way.
“You would have seen, say, a production 30 years ago, and then see the same production today—you’re probably getting more insight into it,” Owens says.
The new perspective is owed, in part, to knowing more, but also to noticing little things audiences can miss the first time around. These little things, details and nuances, are what add depth and meaning to a performance, according to Owens.
“For example, I’m doing, right now, I’m in the midst of rehearsals for ‘Gem of the Ocean,’ and you get people together and you’re rehearsing and then suddenly I say things like … ‘You can’t lean up against that,’ and they asked why, and I said, ‘Because that is an orange stove that’s using wood and coal so it’s hot,’ because you have to realize not everybody has experienced that so these are the nuances that you become aware of [and] it becomes real and that feeds to the audience,” Owens explains.
Elements like that orange stove and treating it like it is really hot are what gives the audience a clear view of the world where the story is unfolding. Understanding the time period of the stove adds context for the audience.
Owens says his favorite production is always whatever he’s directing at the time because it takes on new life.
“This is new creativity again. If you’re not excited about being creative, then I don’t know how you can show that to your fellow actors. I don’t know how you would show that to the audience,” Owens says. “Every new project is a new life, and that’s exciting to me.”
While Owens got his start in theater early, he wants everyone to know that it’s never too late. Arena Players has a division where adults can learn acting.
“I’ve had people come who have retired, ‘I always wanted to do that,’ so that dream has always been in them—it’s just been delayed,” Owens says. “You’re never too old to create; you’re never too old to live unless you’re dead.”
