Interview: Darryl Van Leer of THE ESCAPE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS at The Marsh Brings the Iconic Abolitionist Thrillingly to Life

In honor of Black leaders who shaped and defined American history, The Marsh is presenting Darryl Van Leer's gripping The Escape of Frederick Douglass on its digital platform, MarshStream. Van Leer wrote and stars in the acclaimed production, which recounts the early years of African American activist Frederick Douglass, from his youth as an unruly boy caught in a slave training camp to his thrilling and suspenseful train ride to freedom. Following the performance, Van Leer will be joined by The Marsh Founder/Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman for a Q&A. The Escape of Frederick Douglass will be streamed on Saturday, April 24 at 7:30pm PDT. For more information, please visit www.themarsh.org/marshstream.

I caught up with Van Leer last week from his home base in Nashville, Tennessee. An actor with some notable film & TV credits, Van Leer is perhaps best known for his stage works about political and cultural leaders, including musical performers such as Ray Charles and Little Richard. We discussed The Escape of Frederick Douglass and how he went about bringing such an iconic historical figure to life, and his thoughts on finding hope in difficult times. Van Leer has made it his mission to take inspiration from these great historical figures and pass it on to his audiences. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Frederick Douglass is famously known as a great orator, but no recordings of him exist. How did you go about finding his voice, his unique style of speaking?

Well, a couple of things helped in creating the persona of him. There are some descriptions of how he spoke, so we do have that. Of course, it's not like having a recording, but the descriptions I've read said he spoke with a powerful voice and he had this look about himself, you know he was a tall guy. But his ability to write and his word usage, I think, more than anything personified him. His word usage was just immaculate, and it's amazing that he was able to establish that without any formal education. I mean, he spoke as if he was someone who had a doctorate degree as an orator. For example, he said, "I may here recount the circumstance which is deeply impressed upon my memory." His words were like that, and I think that is what helped me truly separate him from the present day and create a characterization.

The only so-called lessons or education he had was when he was about 7 or 8 years old and went to live in Baltimore. The Slave Master's wife taught him the ABC's and how to spell words with two or three letters - cat, dog, run, etc. At that point, his education was cut off because the Slave Master found out. He came down on his wife like a ton of bricks, saying "I forbid you to do this. It will make a slave unhappy." That little bit, that is all the education he had. And that lasted maybe a couple of months.

After that, he had to develop ways to learn. Many times, he used the other children in the neighborhood because he had the opportunity to run errands as a little boy. He met with white children in the neighborhood, and he'd give them some bread and they would give him a lesson. He said, "I would give them bread, and they would give me the bread of knowledge." It's amazing that from that what he became - editor of the [abolitionist] newspaper, The North Star, foreign minister of Haiti, advisor to Abraham Lincoln, etc.

Douglass is such an iconic figure that I find it hard to imagine him as a real person. How would you describe him as a human being?

I'm a tell you this, what captured me on doing this piece. He was 17 or 18 years old when he escaped from slavery and made it to New York. Less than 10 years later, he released his first book, called The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. And this is the part that people don't know, like people know of him as a great speaker, an abolitionist, you know the guy with the big grey hair, that he fought against slavery, etc. But this book talked about his mother, his grandmother, the worst Slave Master, the beatings, his struggle to learn, and actually has some comical scenes as well. It brought him to life in ways that I cannot even describe.

This play, it's not about him being a great orator. He's telling that story from 7 years old on up to when he escaped from slavery. He's not talking politics, he's not giving his Fourth of July speech, none of that. This is the story about how he loved his mama, this is the story about his worst Slave Master when he was sent to slave-breaking camp and how he was beaten 3 times a week, this is about freezing as a slave in the northern states. In the DC area and Maryland, come January and February it gets very cold, so they had to deal with the freezing weather and still work you know 6 to 7 days a week. He talks about working til 11 or 12 at night as a slave. So I thought that created a person, you know. That's the story to tell as far as I'm concerned, and I do not believe anybody has actually brought this aspect of Douglass to the stage.

So that's how he became a person to me, just by reading his narrative. Plus, it's written in the first-person. When you read that book, you're just drawn into it.

Douglass was also a big advocate for women's suffrage, long before that was common. How did he come to be such a strong supporter of women's rights?

Well, he needed support for his success as an abolitionist, to bring an end to slavery. He needed support from somewhere. And who did he look toward? He saw the women's suffrage movement, and he worked with the so-called Mother of Women's Suffrage [Elizabeth Cady Stanton]. He figured "If I can get white women's support, maybe they can also help me in my plight." So he helped them as an orator as well. In return, it helped him because he needed support from everybody across the board to bring change.

And from what you've said, he also had so much respect for the women in his own family.

Oh, my goodness, yes! This play is divided up in four major sections. The love of his mother, memories he had of his mother, that's one episode. The second part of this piece is his grandmother, who spent so much time raising him. Those are the women that he truly, truly speaks about and are brought to life in this production. The other sections are the Slave Master, and then of course his journey to freedom, the genius that he used to escape.

You've created a number of plays about inspirational figures from history. Do you have a list of other great leaders you still hope to do shows about?

Well, I mean, history is constantly being written, you know what I'm saying, and I constantly look for inspirational pieces. And I look for inspiration not only as, you know, the freedom fighters and the civil rights leaders and the abolitionists, but I also have pieces on music contributions, I cover that as well. Right now, I haven't started writing on something [new]. But I'm really excited about getting these pieces to people. I also have one that covers great inventors - George Washington Carver and others - that is set and ready to launch.

Every morning when we turn on the news and see these horrific incidents of racial injustice that keep happening, it can be really easy to fall into despair. Given all that, who do you look to for inspiration, among the people who are alive now?

I'm a put it to you like this, cause people always ask me, "Who's the next great so-and-so? Who's gonna be the next Barack? Who's the next Dr. King? Who's the next Lincoln or John F. Kennedy? Who's the next Mother Teresa?" I tell people this all the time, I say, "You have to be, I have to be - we have to be the next great person of inspiration." Inspiration is something that all of us can harvest, can bring out. If every person decided to be an inspiration, then we would have tomorrow's great leader. I think we should find it within ourselves. So instead of like trying to find somebody to inspire me, I try to be the inspiration for somebody else. Every day, if there's nothing more than bringing a smile to somebody, I try to be great at that, in lifting people up.

So that's what I do with these pieces. I try to inspire people, in some form or fashion, educate them through entertainment, bring knowledge to them. And I constantly look to the people who I've seen in my path, in my community, in my neighborhood, in my family, and I reach back and get energy from them. I get energy from them, and then I try to be the inspiration for somebody else.