Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, March 29, the Alley Theatre announced it was canceling its production of The Odyssey. Ticket holders will be issued refunds.
Original story:
Most of us who’ve made it through high school English have read The Odyssey, the epic poem about Odysseus who didn’t get home for 10 years as he bounced from adventure to adventure while his patient wife Penelope remained in Ithaca rejecting one suitor after another.
The Odyssey unfolding at Alley Theatre this week and continuing into April tells the story in a different way as the late playwright Derek Walcott (winner for the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature for his body of work which included the Homeric epic poem Omeros) relays the tale through the eyes of blind singer Billy Blue (Shawn Hamilton).
Walcott called upon his upbringing in the West Indies, to set the story with a Caribbean lilt and Gabriel Lawrence plays Odysseus with an accent he went in and out of during our interview. Lawrence (TV: FBI, Evil, White House Plumbers) is based in New York City and said performing for this role gave him a chance to return to Houston, his hometown.
Why would people come to see this two-act retelling of The Odyssey?
“It’s a hero story and we all can identify with the hero’s journey,” Lawrence said. “Many stories that have been told change and what remains the same is: love wins. You fight for love; you sacrifice for love and even though you fall you get back up again.”
Lawrence found some common ground with his character.
“I think I know what it’s like to find your way in the world and just when you feel like you’ve got things figured out, you get knocked down again. I know what it’s like to have people that you care for stab you in the back, intentional or unintentional. I think it speaks to me something different every day because every day different vantage points find themselves available to me.”
The importance of an attentive, you-can-hear-a-pin-drop audience is crucial to the success of this play, Lawrence said.
“If we remove the fourth wall — there are no walls — it’s a middle ground and the audience are as much a part of the story as we the actors, as our wonderful captain [Director] Christopher Windom. The story is organic that it serves them something that they are challenged by and find that they are grateful for being a part of.”
Lawrence developed his stage presence at an early age, when his minister father would pull him on stage and have him act out certain stories. “That kind of stayed with me.”
At Nimitz High school he was Prom King and Homecoming King and Most Likely to Succeed. He took up weightlifting in addition to competing on the speech and debate team where he won several trophies.
He went to West Texas A&M University on a speech and debate scholarship and majored in communications. This was the perfect cross section for getting into acting, he said. He joined a group that toured the country going to youth camps with Christian-themed shows. “I got to do the drama there.” He also did some commercial work before getting roles on television series.
He likes theater because he gets to see new things. “Theater allows me to practice something over and over but affords me the opportunity to have a new angle or perspective at it.”
Performances are scheduled through April 23 (opening night March 29) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $51-$74.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
