A Swashbuckling Jeffrey Wright Preps to Star in A Free Man of Color

After a five-year absence from the New York stage, Tony and Emmy Award winner Jeffrey Wright has chosen what sounds like the perfect role for his return: Jacques Cornet, the charismatic title character in Lincoln Center Theater’s production of A Free Man of Color. Set in New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, John Guare’s play presents a colorful world in transition, as the Louisiana Purchase threatens the multiracial pleasure world of Jacques and others like him. Broadway.com photographer Jenny Anderson was recently invited to the rehearsal studio below the Vivian Beaumont Theater, where Wright and Reg Rogers (as Jacques’ colorfully named half-brother Zeus-Marie Pincepousse) were prepping for a dueling scene under the tutelage of fight director Tom Schall. Click on to get excited about A Free Man of Color, which begins previews at the Beaumont on October 21.