Anthony Chisholm will assume the role of Solly Two Kings in the Huntington Theatre Company’s production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. He replaces actor Delroy Lindo, who left the production earlier this week due to creative differences.

Veteran stage and screen actor Eugene Lee, who recently appeared in a production of Wilson’s play Fences at the True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, joins the cast in the role of Eli.

Chisholm portrayed Solly Two Kings in the Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles) and Goodman Theatre (Chicago) productions of Gem of the Ocean. The Los Angeles Daily News hailed Chisholm’s performance as “the play’s live wire. You won’t want to take your eyes off the man.”

Lee’s career includes extensive stage credits and a wide range of television and film appearances. He is also a playwright.

The Huntington’s production of Gem of the Ocean runs from Sept. 24-Oct. 30, 2004 at the B.U. Theatre. The production then begins previews at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Nov. 4, with an official opening on Nov. 11. The production also stars LisaGay Hamilton as Black Mary, John Earl Jelks as Citizen Barlow, Phylicia Rashad as Aunt Ester, Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Caesar and Raynor Scheine as Rutherford Selig.

Anthony Chisholm (Solly Two Kings) was seen on Broadway as Wolf in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running and Off Broadway—in Los Angeles and London’s West End—as Fielding in Wilson’s Jitney (2000 Obie and Drama Desk Awards, 2002 Olivier Award for West End production and NAACP and Ovation Nominations for the Mark Taper production in L.A.). Regionally, he was seen in Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Denver Center and Cleveland Playhouse, Fences at Indiana Repertory, and in the role of Solly Two Kings in the Mark Taper Forum and Goodman Theatre productions of Gem of the Ocean. Other theatre credits include – Off Broadway: The Talented Tenth at Manhattan Theatre Club, Tracers, Ice Bridges, Black Visions, and King Lear at The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival; Regional: I Am a Man at the Goodman Theatre, I Just Stopped By to See the Man at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Driving Miss Daisy at Portland Stage; Overseas: Tracers at London’s Royal Court Theatre and Australia’s Seymour Center and Universal Theatre; Other: The Mighty Gents, Back in the World (Audelco Award nominations), Melvin Van Peebles’ Ain’t Supposed To Die A Natural Death (first national tour) and Charles Gordone’s No Place to Be Somebody. Film: Jules Dassin’s Uptight and Langhorne in Beloved. TV: series regular as Burr Redding in HBO’s Oz, 100 Centre Street (Emmy submission), Hack (recurring), Law and Order: SVU, Vietnam War Stories (Cable Ace nomination), Third Watch, New York Undercover.

Eugene Lee (Eli) Lee’s career includes extensive stage credits and a wide range of television and film appearances. He is also a playwright. His regional and educational theatre experience includes a command performance for Lyndon B. Johnson of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun with the Ebony Players in Texas. In New York as a member of the internationally renowned Negro Ensemble Company, he originated the role of Corporal Cobb in Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize winning A Soldier’s Play. He also toured the United States and Southeast Asia with the company in Home by Samm Art Williams. Other productions for the Negro Ensemble include Manhattan Made Me by Gus Edwards, Ray Aranah’s Sons and Fathers of Sons, Nightline and The Redeemer by Douglas Turner Ward. Lee also created roles with the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey, Baltimore’s Center Stage, and New York’s WPA Theatre. He has appeared in the Los Angeles Theatre Center production of Eyes of the American and co-starred with Denzel Washington and Alfre Woodard in the Los Angeles Mayfair Theatre production of Split Second by Dennis McIntyre. In 1990 Eugene received the NAACP Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Buddy in the Inner City Cultural Center’s production of Samm Art Williams’ Woman from the Town and in the Mark Taper Forum multi-cultural mounting of Shakespeare’s Richard II.

Compiled from the press release courtesy of the Huntington Theatre Company (website | profile | tag archive).

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