ASBURY PARK – Actor J. Bernard Calloway currently starring in the play Jitney, at Two River Theater in Red Bank, concedes that theater found him and he did not find it. The actor, who is also on leave from the Tony Award winning musical Memphis, will address students at Asbury Park High School, on Friday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m.
About Actor J. Bernard Calloway
Calloway is a native of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. and attended Alabama State University on a football scholarship. With the stature of an NFL linebacker, Calloway was an accounting major at ASU until he discovered his true love, acting, while singing on campus and was asked to audition for a part in a play. He auditioned and got a principle role and the rest is history.
“My dad wasn’t, too, happy when I told him I was changing my major from accounting to theater,” said Calloway. His passionate decision proved to be a winning ticket. Enthralled by the hand-picked, first-rate cast of actors in Jitney, Calloway pretty much begged his agent to get him an audition with the play’s director, Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Once finding out that he got the part in Jitney, Calloway took a leave from Memphis. He plays the estranged son, Booster, whose dad, Jim Becker is the owner of the Jitney Cab station. Most recently, Calloway made a guest appearance on the television show “Person of Interest.”
Addressing Asbury Park High School
Calloway will share his own personal story from football to theater with the students. He is the founder, along with his wife, Carmen, of Creative Couple Productions, Inc.
Calloway takes tremendous pride in honoring the legacy of Jitney’s two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, August Wilson, by being a part of this acclaimed production. By popular demand, Jitney was extended at Two River Theater and closes on Feb. 25.
