Actor brings energy to 'The Glass Menagerie'
On stage, Anthony Fleming III, currently appearing in Steppenwolf's production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," has an edgy attitude, a smooth, urban swagger that says at once "don't mess with this!" and "I'm all that!" No surprise that his first professional job in Chicago was playing Chicago Black Panther Fred Hampton in a play about the urban revolutionary's troubled life and untimely death.
Funny thing is that Fleming's urban edge was born in the western suburbs. He lived in Elmhurst and Oak Brook before ending up in Downers Grove, where he went to Downers Grove South High School.
"I was on the speech team there," Fleming says. "That is where I wanted to go into theater." The Downers Grove High School speech team was a powerhouse then, winning the title the year Fleming performed with the team.
After high school, Fleming went to Columbia College for a year before he was cast in his first professional production. He withdrew from school and never looked back. Eleven years later, Fleming is one of the mainstays of Chicago's theater scene, appearing in productions at Pegasus Players, Victory Gardens, Court Theatre and Lookingglass.
His current role, that of the Gentleman Caller who comes to visit Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, seems tailor made for Fleming, an actor with such a strong personal energy his very presence seems to transform the air in the room.
"When the Gentleman Caller enters in the second act," Fleming says, "he brings a different energy into the Wingfield's household. He is oblivious to the (dysfunctional) family dynamic. He has a totally different agenda and mentality that is, for a while, contagious. Everyone feels it. That is why the ending is all the more tragic."
This kind of character, who seems at once real and a little over the top, is not unusual in Williams' plays. Think of overly feminized Blanche Deois, or the bellowing brute Stanley Kowalski.
Fleming admits to enjoying the role of Laura's caller, in part because, like many theater people, he enjoys Williams' text.
"The story is transcendent. The words are so beautiful," Fleming says. "Americans, during this period, the Depression era, spoke differently. They chose their words more carefully. "
Fleming is looking forward to seeing how much of this transcendent reality reaches the show's intended audience - Chicago-area high school students. (The play is part of Steppenwolf's Young Audience Program.)
"I love performing in front of young audiences," Fleming says. "Their focus is really amazing. They are always happy to see the show and then after the show there is a talk back. It is such a luxury to be able to ask them questions. I love that feedback, and the feeling on stage. That is why I became an actor."
And why he continues to be one.
The Glass Menagerie opens Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, Chicago. For tickets call (312) 335-1650 or see steppenwolf.org/box office/.