From Trinity Tripod
By Maya Sasaki-George
In August 2025, Godfrey Simmons, Lecturer in the Theater and Dance department, starred in the one-man show “Mr. Joy” put on by the Chester Theater Company. The play, written by Daniel Koa Beaty, follows nine unique characters grappling with the sudden disappearance of a kind, elderly neighbor from their community in Harlem. Among this diverse range of characters, Simmons portrayed an 11-year-old girl, a grandmother, a Chinese-American real estate agent, a trans woman, a multimillionaire and a homeless man. Described by Simmons, “Mr. Joy” was “one of the most challenging things I’ve done;” by a reviewer at The Berkshire Edge, “a tour de force performance.”
Growing up in Yorktown, Virginia, Simmons was passionate about sports and the kinds of stories he found athletics could tell. In the 1970s, during the golden age of television, show business was booming. In high school, he was encouraged to join show choir, despite none of the members having heard him sing: “I was recruited basically because I was a well-spoken black kid,” Simmons told the Tripod. Luckily, he turned out to be talented and enjoyed performing, soon going out for the school musical with the rest of the choir and getting his first taste of theatrical acting. “I had this moment where I made the audience laugh really loudly, and I figured out that I had pretty good instincts,” described Simmons. This experience drove him to pursue theater at William & Mary, where he fell in love with the art even more. “I just loved [it]. I loved the people, I loved doing live performance,” he said. “You’re in this room with each other breathing the same air… It’s a moment [the audience] will never have again, with you on the stage and telling a story, whether it was written a hundred years ago or yesterday.”
Around 100 minutes long, “Mr. Joy” is a hefty feat for a single actor to perform, especially when required to shift seamlessly between nine different characters. “[Vernice Miller, “Mr. Joy”’s director] put me through the paces,” Simmons described of his preparation process. “We worked a lot with trying to figure out, ‘How does this person talk? How do they walk? What is their little thing?’” A review published in In the Spotlight commends Simmons for his ability to “effortlessly embod[y] each distinct character” through “just small changes in gait and posture, vocal inflection, and the way he utilizes a messenger bag and black apron.” During the Tripod’s interview, Simmons demonstrated this ability several times, shifting smoothly between such characters as DeShawn and Bessie, a teen boy and an elderly grandmother. “You’ve gotta find those [traits] and then hone them so that people know immediately once you slip into them,” he continued, “[So] they can go ‘Ah, this is that guy,’ or ‘Oh, this is that woman.’” Simmons described Miller as “a very physical-based director,” but noted that his own technique for getting into a character differs case by case. “It’s all a matter of where you can find your alliance with the character,” he said. “You gotta start from the heart and the head and find your way into the body.” Either way, Simmons was undoubtedly successful in embodying this wide range of characters.
Simmons also discussed a small portion of the play which involved breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience. “I think audiences today need to be directly engaged,” he said. “I think the younger generations need that. To not acknowledge that we’re in the room together feels a little disingenuous.” Tying back into his appreciation for the transient nature of theater, Simmons values creating an authentic, meaningful experience for both parties. “Sometimes, [an audience’s] response, or lack of response, can spur you as an actor to do something,” he went on. “Maybe you simplify, or maybe you go off even more… But it can’t not affect you.” When playing to primarily white, elderly audiences, Simmons finds that his performance shifts or takes on different meanings. “It’s not about who they are, but who they are affects how they respond to the work,” he said. An example Simmons cited was a poem the character DeShawn performs, “Black Boy Speaks,” which describes the experience of being a young black man in the projects. “I was doing this poem in front of all these white folks in the audience,” Simmons said, “So that’s gonna animate me in a different way. There’s gonna be a mike drop at the end of [it]. I could use that to spur me on.”
Finally, Simmons discussed the importance of keeping theater as a “town square,” a medium where it is encouraged to openly address controversial issues at the root of society. “Every play has to answer the passover question: Why is this day more important than any other?” he said. “If you can’t answer that, it’s not a play, it’s not a piece of literature, it’s not doing anything. But if it is, quite naturally there are going to be things people need to talk about, [things that] strike at the heart of personal relationships and political relationships.” These complex themes and dynamics have repeatedly been explored in the productions Simmons has chosen to direct at the Austin Arts Center or produce with HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford. “I’m always interested in bringing theater back to the center of civic discourse,” he said. “I think it’s one of the best places to have these conversations and I also think it’s one of the only places where these conversations are happening in a way that is productive.” He went on to say that theater’s next big challenge is finding a way to operate more sustainably, with a structure that emphasizes people, particularly performers and writers, over sets or props that merely get discarded after the run is over.
After his major success this summer, Godfrey Simmons is excited for HartBeat Ensemble’s coproduction of “Where We Stand” by Donnetta Lavinia Grays, showing on Oct. 9-11 and 14-16 in Goodwin Theater in the Austin Arts Center. The solo show focuses on the ideas of accountability and forgiveness within a democracy.
