Adolphus Ward is a 2008/2009 Ovation Nominee for Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Solly Two Kings in GEM OF THE OCEAN at the Fountain Theatre.   He was previously nominated for an Ovation for Lead Actor in a Play in 2006 for his work in JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE.

If you’d like to add a congratulatory message for Adolphus (or any other Nominee or Nominated Company), to the Ovation Awards commemorative poster (distributed to all nominees and all attendees at the Ceremony), click here!

As an Ovation Award Nominee, LA Stage asked Adolphus the following questions:

Adolphus Ward (left) as Solly Two Kings in GEM OF THE OCEAN

What was the moment that first inspired you to pursue working in the theatre?

There were moments before the first.  I held a management position in the auto industry at the time and was serving as an advisor to a community development board of directors.  I left a board meeting to make a phone call and was introduced to a theatre director, Gerald Wallace of the People’s Theatre, by the receptionist who knew me and my family’s reputation for performing.  The director asked if I would read for a role in a play.  I said yes and a couple hours later I was cast.  I was given a copy of the script “The Amen Corner,” by James Baldwin.  I was to play Luke.  I would be with the late Claudia McNeil in the role of Margaret: a star of stage and film.  I was scared to death.  I pulled Stanislavski, Strasberg, Adler, Meisner and others from the public library shelf and gave myself a crash course in acting.  When the play opened to a standing ovation I was inspired.

What do you feel made the production you were nominated for particularly successful, either overall or for you specifically?

First it is an August Wilson play, “Gem of the Ocean.”  When the director, Ben Bradley, asked me to be a part of it in the role of Solly Two Kings I screamed YES!  Then the director gave the cast and designers his vision of the story; and again I screamed YES!  All through rehearsals and previews my YES kept coming.  The Fountain Theatre’s production of “Gem of the Ocean” was truly an ensemble work of art.

What project or projects are you currently working on?

I’m not in a play presently-devoting more time to my second novel of the trilogy.

What do you love most about theatre in Los Angeles?

There’s lots of it-more opportunity for me to work.

What’s your dream project?

For me it’s always the one I’m working in.  Now, it’s the one I’ll be next in.

Biography: Adolphus is fundamentally a story teller.  He does it on stage, on camera, and on paper.  He is a father and grandfather.  He credits his Mother and Father for his early development as a spiritual being and artist.  After retirement he moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Reseda, California in 2001 to continue his artistic work.  “Daddy was a Baptist preacher and mother a former school teacher, both played the piano.  I grew up in a home with a healthy respect for and involvement in the arts.  The United States Marine Corp. forged the discipline I still carry and my life experiences and study continue to add the polish that makes me who I am now and will be in the future.”  He’s lived the lives of characters on stage at the Fountain Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Town Street Theatre, Penumbra theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Arizona Theatres, Kansas City Repertory Theatre and others.  He has both TV and Film credits.  He is a published writer of Family Fiction: A Novel, 2007.  He was first exposed to the secular stage in the early 1970s.  More study in the acting craft, more roles, more awards and now an Ovation Nominee.

For a full list of Ovation nominees, or for information about the Ovation Awards Ceremony on January 11th, click here!