Tired of playing cops, Ruben Santiago-Hudson was wary when his agent called him about a role in a new series. “Hollywood had me playing cops and police officers and detectives and I just wasn’t feeling it.” Fortunately, it was good news. “He said, ‘No, it’s a band director’ and he said had called about another client he had and he had read the script and thought I should consider it.”
Ruben Santiago-Hudson plays a band leader on BET’s new drama ‘The Quad,’ set at a fictional HBCU. (Courtesy photo)
It turns out that Henderson, who had just gotten her show, then called “The Yard,” picked up by BET had another hurdle to cross before she could convince Santiago-Hudson to take on the role of band director at the fictional HBCU, Georgia A&M. He wanted to make sure that BET would be dedicating the type of resources he felt a program like that would require. “They had “The Game” and then “Being Mary Jane”. I looked at “Being Mary Jane” and saw that it was a quality show and didn’t know if they wanted to continue that. I thought maybe they had that experiment and maybe they didn’t want to continue.”
His fears were allayed after a series of discussions. “They did want to continue to do original scripted programming not just rap videos and game shows. They wanted to do quality programming on the highest level of television programming.” Santiago got on board of BET’s new nighttime drama, now called “The Quad,” which also stars Anika Noni Rose and Jasmine Guy.
The show follows Rose’s character as she first takes on the position as president of the fictional university following some mysterious tumult in her personal and professional life. The university is hurting financially and Rose’s character, Eva Fletcher, must make some tough decisions. Her approach to reshaping the school’s fortunes is at odds with the way things have always been done and she quickly butts heads with Santiago-Hudson’s character.
He is so hostile that one might take him for a villain. However, Santiago-Hudson doesn’t see his character that way. “I don’t agree that I’m an adversary. When she comes to the school I have no beef with anybody. She comes in and approaches me from an adversarial position to try to reel me in to what she wants to do to play by her rules and I want to play by the rules that I’ve been playing by. So I’m protecting my interests and she is protecting hers.
Villain or no, off-screen Santiago-Hudson and Rose have a much more harmonious relationship. He explains, “I’ve known Anika for a very long time. I knew Anika when she was out there studying in San Francisco. I was there doing “Seven Guitars” in 1995 when she was a student. We have a lot of respect for each other and I’ve always admired her work and hopefully she has respect for the work that I’ve done.”
In addition to his duties on “The Quad” and advising the arts center named for him in his hometown of Lackawanna New York, the Ruben Santiago-Hudson Fine Arts Learning Center, Santiago-Hudson is also now directing August Wilson’s “Jitney” on Broadway. Having won a Tony for Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” and an Obie for directing “The Piano Lesson” he seems the perfect person for the job.
It is also something of a labor of love. After Wilson, who died in 2005, fell ill Santiago-Hudson promised him that he would bring “Jitney” to Broadway to complete the so-called Century Cycle. That is, August Wilson had written ten plays each taking place in a different decade of the twentieth century. With the exception of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” they are all set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pa. Each one of them had had a Broadway run except “Jitney.” Santiago-Hudson promised his friend he would make sure “Jitney” also made its way to Broadway. It opened several weeks ago to great reviews.
Santiago-Hudson grew up in New York and earned his Undergraduate and Graduate degrees in New York and Michigan, respectively. For his new TV role, he made sure he did extensive research to understand the particularities of an HBCU and the history surrounding the importance of marching bands. “Research is a huge part of every role I play. I don’t do anything without inundating myself with as much information as I possibly can to know everything I possibly can about the position of the character I’m playing. Who he is what he is. I want to know everything because I want to be as authentic and truthful as possible.”
The Quad airs Wednesdays at 10P on BET.