Former Bollywood 'Baddie' Graces Marin Stage

Even on the telephone, Keith Stevenson has a strong "presence," to use a theatrical term. He is eloquent and affable, rich-voiced and courteous. He possesses that mythic old-school charm that one might imagine a man with his theatrical resume would have. Stevenson has performed on the Indian stage and in Bollywood and American films alongside some of the greatest and most popular actors of our time.  

"I play the baddie," says Stevenson, who has worked with some of whom he calls "the big daddies of Bollywood," actors Amitabh Bachchan and Sharukh Khan and director Shyam Benegal, among them. His American film credits include appearances with Roger Moore, Peter O'Toole, Gregory Peck and, more recently, Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness.

Stevenson has returned to his Shakespearean roots as King Duncan in Marin Shakespeare Company's Macbeth, the first of three plays that Marin's own long-running professional theater company is producing this year.  

Stevenson hasn't tackled the Bard's work since his college days in 1955 when he was selected to appear with some of Bombay's greatest actors in a stage production of Hamlet. He played Horatio under the direction of Alyque Padamsee, an advertising filmmaker, better known to westerners for playing Muhammed Ali Jinna in the film Gandhi.

"I think it's good for an actor to wet one's feet with Shakespeare," Stevenson says. "It brings you back to the more formal part of theater."  

Stevenson has spent most of his career producing advertising films, performing in self-penned comedies for Indian TV and stage, and performing in musicals and plays such as Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Equus to name a few.

Marin Shakespeare founder and director Lesley Currier, whose work Stevenson has admired from the audience for years, knew Stevenson as a business contact but had never seen him act. Currier, who sees 300-500 actors at auditions per year, said she was concerned she may not be able to offer Stevenson one of the 25 or so jobs that typically fill their seasonal roster.

"The competition is fierce," she says. "Thankfully, Keith was not only a wonderful performer with a huge amount of stage experience but also had an excellent command of Shakespearean text. … Keith has a nobility and a wealth of life experience that adds gravitas and intrigue to the role of King Duncan."

Stevenson came to the Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1996 to be nearer to his daughter who was attending Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.  Stevenson, who worked by day as a producer of advertising and corporate films, was employed by United Brewery Group. A few years later, work with the Mendocino Brewing Co. brought him for several stays in the North Bay.

On one trip, he traveled from his Corte Madera hotel to Novato "for what seemed like forever" to investigate a rental property he found in an ad. "Where on Earth is Novato?" he thought. "I was from Bombay, a city of 17 million, and heading to a place called Novato." He pauses to laugh. "Then my family came and we started laying our roots."

Stevenson now lives in Novato with his wife, a teacher, and two sons.  He has two grown children, a daughter who lives with her filmmaker husband in Southern California and a son who works in the South Bay.  Stevenson recently became a grandfather.

In 1998, hungry for his "fix" of theater, he auditioned for the . He did a few plays with them and another at Congregation Rodef Shalom in San Rafael. He has made it to Los Angeles a few times to pursue film roles, including the part he won in Smith's 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness, but he says that L.A. is far and to land more roles he needs to "be there and be in their face."  He says he's content to play in smaller venues, however. He recently did a few shows with the Fairfax Players and plans to do more.

When you suggest that local theater companies are lucky to have someone of his experience and "presence," he rejects the idea immediately saying that he is just as lucky to have them.

"An actor needs to perform," he says. "I love performing. … I sort of believe that payment is not necessarily cash. You get paid in the joy and pleasure of doing something." 

And this is where the interview becomes much less of a biographical account of a career and more of a master class for actors, directors and others trying to carve out a life in the dramatic arts.  

"An actor can never claim that he's arrived. It's a journey not a destination. You're never never going to be perfect."  

As far as training goes, Stevenson says, there was no school for acting at his college in India. There were no formal classes that taught technique. There was what he calls "the school of doing it," which was the production of many plays. He also learned from watching the greats. "How do they move? How do they talk?" he asks rhetorically.

Stevenson speaks in awe of the top talents he's worked with or seen in performance. "We look at them and say, 'My god,'" he says. "To see them on stage, it's sheer magic, an effortless glide."  

On the subject of greats, he goes back to Shakespeare.

"I wonder if Shakespeare knew he was writing stuff that would last forever," he says. "He was making a living. I wonder if any person of that sort of caliber is thinking, "Man, William, in 300 years when they play me, they're going to think, 'You're the guy.'"

Stevenson then goes on to describe what heaven might be like, and it's little surprise that a man who expresses such a love and passion for his craft thinks heaven should include the chance to meet the great artists of the last millennium.

"I want to meet William ... Frank Sinatra," he says. "One can only hope that they're holding court somewhere."

MARIN SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

Marin Shakespeare's Macbeth plays in repertory with The Complete History of America (abridged) through Aug. 14. The Tempest opens Aug.  27 and continues in repertory with The Complete History of America (abridged) through Sept. 25. Performances presented at  Forest Meadows Amphitheatre on the campus of Dominican University of California in San Rafael. Showtimes 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 and 8 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets: $20-$35 / Also offered is the "Pay Your Age" ticket rate for those between ages 21 and 34.

To order: 499-4488 or www.marinshakespeare.org 

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