Leslie Odom Jr. is back in the classroom, but this time, he’s doing the teaching.
For the past 10 weeks, The Tony award-winning Hamilton star, who’ll reprise his role as Aaron Burr this fall, has been leading a class of 12 select students at SCAD Savannah, helping shape the next wave of theater talent with co-professor and fellow Broadway actor Tiffany Evariste. During Memorial Day weekend, their instruction concluded with a cabaret performance by the undergraduates entitled “Getting Your Act Together: The Art of the Small Room.”
The success of the cabaret, held in the Gryphon Tea Room inside SCAD’s historic Scottish Rite building on May 25 and 26 came as no surprise to Odom Jr.
“My experience of these young people is that every single prompt that I give them, every challenge that I give them, they run through the tape; they eat these challenges for breakfast, it’s nothing,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter, beaming with pride over Zoom. “They are such a formidable bunch. They impress me and humble me every week with their talent and with their preparation.”
The students, who range from freshmen to seniors, chose two numbers each to perform in front of family, friends and the local community, the composition of which they perfected throughout the semester.
“They’re telling these personal stories from their lives, and they’re being more vulnerable than they’ve ever been,” says Odom Jr. “They’re taking risks and they’re taking charge, and my favorite thing is when this thing we do has an Ecclesiastical element to it. When it feels like we’re tending to our spirits in some way, but we are just really acknowledging the fact that we have souls, the fact that we have spirits, the fact that we’re more than just flesh and bone when we come into these theaters and these small rooms and we lay our burdens down, or we have our burdens tended to. That’s what I think is the great service of what we do.”
SCAD Savannah Student Cabaret
Courtesy of SCAD
Though the cabaret marks the conclusion of two-and-a-half months of work for Odom Jr. and his students, he adds, “It’s not the end of something. It’s the beginning of something. It’s the beginning of, I think, a really fruitful and, I hope, long-lasting relationship with me and SCAD. And I hope that a seed is planted with these young people and that they get out and they make work that is more daring or bold than before.”
Below, Odom Jr. talks about his love of SCAD, how he approached teaching — and auditions — and his return to Hamilton for a select Broadway run Sept. 9-Nov. 23.
How did you first connect with SCAD?
So, in the past, maybe seven or eight years, I’ve had four different friends tell me that they were going to start working at this little college in Savannah called SCAD, and these are New York and L.A. people so I’m like, “OK. That’s great. Congratulations!” Then, I kept expecting these people to come back to New York or L.A., but none of them have come back. So, I came down here to make sure they were not being held hostage. (Laughs) I had another gig down here that brought me to Savannah, and it was the first time that I came down here for an extended period of time. My friends were here, so I got to see the city through their eyes and I took a tour of the campus and I got it. I had dinner with President [Paula] Wallace that night and I was like, “we have to figure out how I can join my people.” If you haven’t been, it’s hard to describe, but trust me, it’s a very impressive place.
So, it was your idea to start teaching a class essentially?
It was, yeah. I was feeling something like an existential clock ticking in that there was something nagging me and gnawing at me in this season of my life that was really about, it’s time for you to start investing in the next generation. You cannot leave here with all the information that you have and with all the people that poured into you, you can’t just take it all with you. And time is not promised, so there was something very urgent that was starting to bother me. Of course, I have young people that I mentor throughout the business, but I wanted to start a relationship with some sort of institution where I was teaching and imparting the information in a way that was scheduled and consistent.
Tell me about the audition process. The notes I received said it was rigorous.
Oh, please. Are you kidding me? That is so funny. I tried to be the most welcoming and generous presence that I could possibly be because while I hope that I’m offering them something, I also recognize every day that I’m here, they offer me something. They offer me their trust. These young people offer me their time and their hearts on some level. It’s a very vulnerable thing. I remember what it was like to sit where they sat. So, I’m very mindful of that. I didn’t want anybody stressing out over my audition. I told them they could sing a cappella and they could sing anything they wanted. I just wanted to hear them sing, and I wanted to hear them tell a story. So, I gave them three prompts. You can either tell me the story of your birth — I got that prompt from the great Anna DeaVere Smith; they could tell me the sort of family legend that has everybody on the floor rolling in laughter at the end of that story; or they could tell me the best piece of advice they’ve ever received. I wanted to get to know their storytelling instrument and how comfortable they were not playing a character. We’re not looking for you to put on a funny nose or do a funny walk, we just want you to be yourselves. And then I wanted to, of course, see the singing instrument.
Did the prompts continue throughout class each week? How did you structure those sessions?
The prompts were all to get them to hopefully expand their repertoire — so they were singing songs they hadn’t sung before — and also to coach them along the way in getting them to take risks and be vulnerable and practice for this small room format. In my experience as an actor and as a singer, the thing that has been most useful for me on Broadway, on film sets, and certainly in my concert career is my experience in the small room. That’s what I bring. The intimacy that I have in these small rooms is what makes a concert at Carnegie Hall feel like your living room. It was something I thought a lot about when I was building Burr. He, in many ways, was the host for that night. It’s his job to make sure that everybody feels welcome, to introduce my castmates, to roll out the red carpet for them and to keep Burr as the one that consistently breaks that fourth wall that brings the audience along. So I wanted to kind of take all this training that I have and put these kids, in 10 weeks, through the paces, give them a bunch of exercises, a bunch of tiny experiences that hopefully mimic somewhat what these 20 years have been like for me and get them starting to think about the small room and how they could make that their own.
What have you learned about yourself teaching for the first time?
My mentors have changed my life. I think of Billy Porter, Stuart K. Robinson, my first acting teacher of my life, Maureen Booker, when I think of these people, really the only two things that they’ve offered me is their time and their honesty. They told me the truth. They opened up the pages of their lives and they read from the pages of their lives. And when they saw me, they told me what they saw. And with that, I took what they gave me and I made something of it. I used the parts that meant something to me and I left the things aside that didn’t resonate with me. So that’s all I’m giving these kids. I haven’t told one lie to these babies. I’m my most truthful, my most authentic self. I’m also my most authentic self with my kids and with my spouse and with my friends, but this is one of the spaces where I get to be totally myself and they make room for me to do that, too. They make it a safe space for me to be myself, too. So that’s another gift that they give me. But because it’s an honest space, I then have to listen to the advice that I’m giving, right? Because I’m a working professor, I gig on the weekends, too; I have performances as well. I’m getting ready for Hamilton. So the things that I say to them, I have to live that. I can’t ask them to do something that I’m not willing to do.
What has preparation been like this time around for Hamilton?
Oh, it’s just wonderful to layer this into this part of my life. The first time around, I didn’t know people were going to like the show. I didn’t know people were going to like me, I didn’t know anything. So this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to step into something where all those questions are answered. I don’t have to worry if they’ll like it. People have embraced me all over the world because of what Lin-Manuel [Miranda] and that original company of Hamilton were able to offer them at all different times of their lives. The other night, a girl came up with tears, saying her father died and Hamilton saved her life. The fact that Hamilton was on Disney+ during the thickest and most challenging part of the COVID shutdown… Hamilton means something. So to go back and revisit that and touch that — you asked me how preparation is, preparation is wonderful. I’m revisiting Ron Chernow’s masterpiece. I’m just thrilled. My kids are going to get to see this show. I didn’t even have kids before. It’s very exciting.