This week we meet Warren Jackson. Warren is elated to be one of the newest members of the BNW family having made his company debut in last summer’s mounting of MERRY WIVES, and joining again for THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER. Some NY credits include:ROMEO AND JULIET, American Globe Theater (title role); HENRY V Classical Theater of Harlem; PECONG, TWAS Co.; THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE, Centenary Stage Company (NJ). Regional: RAILROAD BILL, Chester Theater Co.(MA); THE TEMPEST, NC Shakespeare Festival; FENCES, Clarence Brown Theater (TN); MACBETH and ROMEO AND JULIET, NEA nat’l tour, AL Shakespeare Festival and Chicago Shakespeare, respectively. A mid-west kid at heart, he grew up in Indianapolis and relatively recently moved from the 1st city of improv, Chicago. He received nominations for his work from the Black Theatre Alliance of Chicago for Best Featured Actor, in Victory Garden Theater’s world premiere of SHOES, and from the regional Emmy board for his ensemble work on Chicago children’s television show, GREEN SCREEN ADVENTURES. He completed his MFA at the University of Arizona. We had a chance to ask Warren about his past, present, and future. Here’s what he had to say.


Who are your major influences and why?
My greatest influences are lumped into a big group: my teachers (from elementary through college). Like some children growing up in a single parent household, my outlet for much of my energy revolved around extra-curricular activities at school. Whether it was athletics, show choir, plays, I had teachers who saw something in me and introduced me to activities that honed my skills as a student and would-be performer. Those early teachers set the tone, and it was a professor in college who helped me have the courage to take the leap into the life of an actor. I went to a small private school in Indianapolis where I was blessed with the opportunity to blossom in a nurturing and supportive environment. I developed the courage to spread my wings in a small undergrad program and by the time I finished that, grad school wasn’t such a daunting task to undertake. My teachers, even my mother, who is a teacher, helped me to realize the confidence I had simmering inside.


What is an ultimate goal in your career?
Ultimate? At this stage of the game, I want what God wants for me, period. I have desires like everybody else, of course. But, I understand that there are far more greater things than I could ever imagine, that God can provide. Is that an easy way to answer? Maybe. My move to NY has been a tremendous opportunity for maturation and growth and my work as an actor has only deepened because of it. I want to continue to engage stories of worth. I want to work with peers who want to tell stories, on stage or in film, in a dynamic purposeful way that can leave an audience thinking, whether in simple delight, or reflective thought.

Has Actors Inc helped you and how?
This wonderful group of warm individuals has provided a community of artists that I can carry on a stimulating and open dialogue with about my faith and the work we do. Actors Inc has provided a safe place to play and just be as much of myself as I want to be.

What was your favorite job?
My favorite job, other than performing Mercutio in a production, was working as a camp director one summer in a suburb of Chicago. In a camp of mostly girls from 6-14 we put on an original play called THE TRIAL OF LITTLE RED. I didn’t do the big choreography or anything, but I had them really flesh out the story and assigned them characters from other fairy tales that might inhabit that world. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them take the ball and run with it, coming up with great characters that truly lived. And, um, quiet as it’s kept, the summer I dipped ice cream for Baskin&Robbins rocked pretty hard. I made the best milkshakes on the east side…least I thought so.

What lesson can you share with us that you’ve learned over the years?
One of the biggest lessons, that I am still learning, is the value of keeping my mouth shut. Sometimes, my imagination will embellish a situation (more likely the Enemy is playing on the frays of any anxieties I have) and I will have the tendency to make more of a situation than it really is. And had I simply remained quiet, allowed the situation to unfold, and had the patience, courage, and confidence to remain rooted in who I was – remembering whose I was – I know the situation may not have seemed so out-of-hand to me.

What would you like people to know about you? I’m a jr…and I’m really 5’4″ and a quarter. I can browse in a bookstore for hours and not notice…. I love Junior Mints. One of my favorite colors is aquamarine. . I can be an open book…or a closed chapter.