PHYLICIA RASHAD NEWS, INTERVIEWS & UPDATES



News for 7/16/2006


The following article appeared in the April 2006 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine





News for 1/16/2005


The following article appeared in the December 31, 2004 - January 7, 2005 issue of Entertainment Weekly Magazine





News for 8/9/2004


The following article appeared in the August 2004 issue of Ebony Magazine





News for 7/13/2004


The following interview appeared in the June 28, 2004 issue of Time Magazine





News for 6/7/2004


Phylicia Rashad Wins Historic Tony Award

By Michael Kuchwara
The Associated Press


NEW YORK - By winning the Tony for best actress in a play, Phylicia Rashad completed a journey started by Claudia McNeil more than four decades ago in the first production of "A Raisin in the Sun."

On Sunday, Rashad became the first black actress to win a Tony for a dramatic leading role.

She took home Broadway's highest honor for her portrayal of Lena Younger, the tough-minded matriarch of Lorraine Hansberry's landmark drama.

"Often I've wondered what does it take for this to happen. And now I know. It takes effort and grace, tremendous self-effort and amazing grace," said Rashad.

"And in my life that grace has taken numerous forms. The first was the family into which I was born, parents who loved and wanted me, and a mother who fought fearlessly, courageously, consistently so that her children above all else could realize their full potential as human beings."

Rashad appears in a revival of the play that also stars hip-hop mogul Sean Combs in his Broadway debut, and Sanaa Lathan and Audra McDonald - who won her fourth Tony in 10 years Sunday for her featured performance as the hardworking wife of Combs' character.

In 1960, McNeil, who originated the role of Lena, was the first black woman nominated for a Tony in a dramatic leading role. She lost to Anne Bancroft in "The Miracle Worker." Three years later, McNeil received her second nomination, this time for "Tiger Tiger Burning Bright," but Uta Hagen took the prize for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Over the years, such actresses as Bea Richards, Diana Sands, Anna Deavere Smith, Mary Alice and Leslie Uggams were nominated in the leading actress-in-a-play category.

None won, although Uggams did triumph in 1968 for her role in the musical "Hallelujah, Baby!" (a tie with Patricia Routledge for "Darling of the Day") and Mary Alice won the featured-actress play prize in 1987 for "Fences."

Numerous black actresses have won in the lead and featured musical categories, including Virginia Capers, who portrayed Lena in "Raisin," a musical version of "A Raisin in the Sun."

Three black actors have received the top acting prize. James Earl Jones has taken the Tony twice - in 1969 for "The Great White Hope" and again in 1987 for August Wilson's "Fences."

South African actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona jointly won in 1975 for their work in "Sizwe Banzi is Dead" and "The Island."

A composed Rashad concluded her acceptance speech by saying: "I thank God for everything, every single thing ... and for this."



News for 10/27/2003


Phylicia Rashad, Erika Alexander Cast in Public Theater's The Story

By Robert Simonson
and Kenneth Jones


Phylicia Rashad and Erika Alexander will star in the world premiere of Tracey Scott Wilson's play, The Story, starting Nov. 18 at the Public's Anspacher Theater.

A co-production with the Long Wharf Theatre, The Story concerns an African-American reporter who searches for the truth behind the brutal murder of a white man. Loretta Greco will direct the production.

Rashad, the former "The Cosby Show" matriarch, has been a more and more common sight Off-Broadway. In summer 2001, she starred in Charles Randolph Wright's Blue, a sleeper hit for the Roundabout Theatre Company. Two years earlier, she played Harlem Renaissance luminary Zora Neale Hurston in Thulani Davis' Everybody's Ruby, at the Public Theater. Regionally, she's acted Pearl Cleage's Blues For an Alabama Sky, Medea in Atlanta and Here's to Life in Syracuse.

Oddly enough, Alexander also starred on "The Cosby Show," from 1990 to 1992 as Pamela Tucker. Her films include "54" and "Full Frontal."

The cast of The Story also includes Kalimi Baxter, Tammi Clayton, Damon Gupton, Michelle Hurst, Stephen Kunken (Broadway's Proof) Susan Kelechi Watson and Sarah Grace Wilson.