Ricardo Pitts-Wiley (RWP) and Jonathan T.M. Pitts-Wiley (JPW)
RPW: I got bussed to a high school, in my sophomore year, from a school where there was a large African-American, black population to a school where we were two percent of the population. And it was awful, just awful, getting bussed. Even though I always thought I had intelligence. I never felt like I wanted to even use it there, so I did just enough to get by.
In my junior year, a teacher there, Breyer Price, put me in a play, Romeo and Juliet. And I was the only black kid in the play and I caught hell. I caught hell from the white kids at this school and I caught hell from the black kids and in some ways it forced me, it caused me to distance myself from both of them. Neither one of them was willing to support what I wanted. So I became kind of single minded in that respect.
And opening night I came out on stage with this kind of fake beard, this big floppy mushroom hat made out of upholstery fabric that the director’s wife had made. And everyone burst into laughter. And what could have been a crushing moment in my life really was just something different. I just said, ‘No, I’m not going to give in.’ and I had this little squeaky voice. And I just kind of dug in and I just begged for this voice, the spirit of Brock Peters, who was very much alive at the time but I just loved his voice. Brock Peters, all those muscles and everything. He was like a black man with big voice and muscles and bad. Y’know Porgie and Bess and all that stuff. And I said, ‘I need that voice Brock,’ and he sent it to me. And the voice came out and I was the prince, not a big part but I was the prince. And after that opening scene when I walked off that stage I said, ‘That’s it, this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.’
