Colman Domingo explains why A24 Tearjerker’s “Sing Sing” is so personal

sing singfeaturing Oscar-nominated The sound of metal actor Paul Raci as playwright Brent Buell revolves around the transformative power of playwriting and arts education. In the film, it is a process of creation, of bringing art to life on stage that allows prisoners to not only create meaning in their lives, but also to confront the harshness of the world—to thrive, to heal, and sometimes even to prosper. sing sing it is a semi-fictional story, but it is based on an overarching truth. The film is a big success because the RTA program gave real prisoners a reason to live. We watch their emotional growth unfold before our eyes, and this remarkable evolution becomes even more poignant when you discover that the film’s cast includes real ex-convicts: Clarence “God’s Eye” McLean and John-Adrian “J.J.” The Velazquezs are alumni from Sing Sing’s RTA program who have returned to play stripped-down versions of themselves.

According to Domingo, the result is so “raw and worn out” that he only watched the entire film once. Otherwise, he explains, it would have been too “emotional” an experience to withstand the feedback and press conferences championing the film’s core values.

“I gave a little more than my soul in making this film because I felt it was necessary,” says Domingo. “I had to use my acting skills in a different way to blend in with these brothers and tell their stories in a deeply humanistic way. Finding all this tenderness and grace that these men brought out of themselves through this rehabilitation program in the arts, all the healing work that was done – it not only touches the characters that I care about in this film, but it also touches something in me.”

Indeed, by doing sing singSeveral ex-convicts involved in the production told Domingo that if they had had access to a theater class as children—whether it was Shakespeare, Ionesco or August Wilson—they might not have gone to prison in the first place. The irony is that these people did not find this opportunity until they were removed from society.

“They were only allowed to bid under a program like RTA because the system was not set up for them to win,” Domingo says. “The system is designed so that they can leave prison, come back and become part of this prison industrial complex. But this program, this little gem, helps these people find another way and another outlet to express what has been suppressed. These black and brown men probably grew up being told that they shouldn’t use their hearts, that they shouldn’t be tender, that they shouldn’t be soft, that they shouldn’t be playful, that all of these things attack our social standards of masculinity – and we know that this is a lie. We know this is a lie.”

But not all prisons are buildings with barbed wire, and people are constantly trying to break out of closed spaces – emotional, psychological, spiritual – sometimes of our own making. What makes performances sing sing so wonderful are the ways in which they collectively reveal both the depth of sadness and the boundless joy of human existence.

Domingo can understand. For him, the theater was also a lifeline.

“I didn’t discover theater until my sophomore year of college, and what it gave me is something I’m still trying to articulate, having worked in theater for 34 years,” he says. “It gave me a sense of place, identity, purpose and community. Before I discovered theater, I was a different person. I didn’t know myself. I didn’t know who I was in this world. I wasn’t that loud. I didn’t know all these complicated feelings I had.

“In the theater I have somewhere to put these feelings, to fight them where I am allowed to be soft, angry, tough, to be a villain – to go into the darkness, to go into the light. The theater is a safe place for everyone.”