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Washington was born and raised in eastern Texas, where football, not theater, was his main interest in high school. Playing football at his school usually meant following in an older brother’s footsteps—except that Washington’s older brother performed in school plays, not out on the gridiron. Giving up football he followed his brother into theater, eventually becoming involved in nearly every aspect of theater production. Encouraged by teachers "to change the world and make a dynamic impact," he majored in speech and drama at East Texas State University.
Deciding after graduation to study directing, Washington entered the grad-uate theater program at the University
of Michigan. There he studied theater criticism while directing such plays as Lorraine Hansberry’s "The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window" and Joseph Walker’s "The River Niger."
Washington received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1983, and came to SFSU after teaching at Washington University in St. Louis.
The move to SFSU’s large theater program with its diverse student body initially proved disorienting for Washington. "I was really excited about a place that had 400 majors, but I had a difficult time [at first] figuring out where students were coming from."
Washington says that the trust his stu-dents place in him is helping making his vision of theater a reality.
Theater is hard work, he tells them. "You have to study your craft if you want to be an actor." By staging several large productions every year, students gain the experience Washington thinks necessary for them to be-come successful artists. Moreover, Washington feels that his students’ diversity has allowed him to choose a much broader range of material for them to perform. In 1992, his students mounted acclaimed writer-director Anna Deveare Smith’s play, "Fires in the Mir-ror," and in 1997 they set to a doo-wop beat Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing."
Washington also advises the Brown Bag Theatre Series, a series of plays performed, written, and directed for lunchtime audiences by students, and from time to time takes to the stage himself. He performed in an "urban" interpretation of "King Lear" in 1994 and hopes to direct a production with his students in next year’s American College Theater Festival. Now, after years of successful and acclaimed student productions, especially last fall’s staging of Tennessee Williams’ "The Glass Menagerie," Washing ton can point with justifiable pride to the fruits of his work.
--Chris KilkesReturn to top
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