Denise is joined by Tony nominated and OB award-wining actor Stephen McKinley Henderson and up and coming star Elijah Jones. So we see an actor who we all know and an actor who we're just getting ready to know share the same space and it's extraordinary.  Most people know Stephen from the multi Oscar nominated film Dune.  Did you know that he has also appeared in five other Oscar nominated films? Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 2011, Lincoln 2012, Fences 2016, Manchester By the Sea 2016 and Ladybird 2017. He's the recipient of a Drama Desk award and Obie award and an AUDELCO award. He really is best known for his August Wilson work in the century cycle of plays. It's been said that audiences who watch August Wilson plays have grown first accustomed to, and then pendant on Stephen McKinley Henderson. He's also been deemed one of the 32 greatest character actors working today. I wonder where they came up with that number 32, but I am sure glad that Stephen McKinley Henderson made the list because he is an exceptional character actor. Stephen says, “It's not about getting it right. It's about getting it true”.  Elijah Jones was elected by the Juilliard drama division faculty to receive a prize for outstanding achievement and exceptional professional promise. He's the MFA Class of 2021.  He recently starred in  Dominique Morisseau’s  Confederates at the Signature Theater in New York.  Elijah says, “What sets me apart is me.”. Sit back and enjoy this extraordinarily exceptional interview.What You Will HearHow Stephen learned about Juilliard and what informed his decision to enrollStephen’s audition in 1968 and his first experience with the KKKElijah’s journey to JuilliardThe Juilliard experience during Martin Luther King Jr and George Floyd assassinationsKent State and Jackson State killingsCut system and policy.  James HoughtonThe inception and struggles of drama divisions early yearsPoliticsRepresentation and opportunityQuotes“The initial incarnation of the drama division, The Julliard School did not see drama as a fine art they did not see it as, as a performance art form….It began as a music school…..the drama division was hard won. It couldn’t be an american theatrical traditions say like The Actors Studio or something like that, it had to be the classical training.”“Another thing about our people, you know, we can read between the lines, we can see the look that you don't think we see.” “We had to talk about the politics. You remember, we had to discuss whether having a black man playing Richard the Second, and whether doing Shakespeare at all was really addressing this thing? Are we still lifting another culture by giving our strengths to it?” “That's where I'd like to take this conversation, just how we represent ourselves in that classical space. How do we bring our tones in richness and rhythms, vocal rhythms, and physical rhythms into the classical space and be proud of it.” MentionedJames MoodyWendell B. FranklinSteve BroadnaxStori Ayers Jim WiseActors Theater of Louisville