The Rolling Stone's Ato Blankson-Wood on Playing a 'Queer African' and Being a 'Musical Theater Dork'

Ato Blankson-Wood is currently starring in the American premiere of Chris Urch's The Rolling Stone at Lincoln Center Theater as Dembe, a young man who is forced to keep his true identity a secret in Uganda where being gay is illegal. "I always wanted to work with [director] Saheem Ali," Blankson-Wood told Beth Stevens in a recent interview on Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive. "I wanted to play a queer African person, that was very important to me. That's a lot of my lived experience and I wanted to bring that to the stage. I felt like I had a lot to offer to the role. It sounds totally cliché, but I think my character walks away with the idea of love is the answer."

Before joining the cast of The Rolling Stone, Blankson-Wood was seen in the now Broadway-bound Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris. "I actually went up to the workshop that was done at Yale in Jeremy's second year," Blankson-Wood said. "Having gone through that program, I can say that you don't get play like that in your second year. I saw it and I was bowled over. I actively pursued being part of the play. I'd do anything just to be in the room." Although the official Broadway cast has not been announced, when asked if he would like to join, Blankson-Wood replied saying, "I would love to be a part of it."

Although his two most recent projects have been more serious plays, Blankson-Wood is a true musical man at heart and appeared on Broadway in Hair and Lysistrata Jones. "My first love will always be musicals," he said. "There is something that happens when the number swells and the chorus is about join and my entire body gets goosebumps. I will always be a musical theater dork. I want to be the Leading Player in Pippin, I think it's going to be a role I chase until I finally get to do it."

Blankson-Wood attended Yale School of Drama and took a wide variety of courses; he also performed in Dragaret, a drag cabaret. "It's called the Yale School of Drag," he said. "I was doing drag in a grad school context while doing an acting program at the same time so it just felt like another character to me. I have two drag names I cannot decide between: Ama Reade, heiress of the Duane Reade fortune, and the other is Grace Moans because I am deeply inspired by Grace Jones. I just feel really lucky to do what I do."

See Blankson-Wood in Lincoln Center Theater's The Rolling Stone

Watch the full #LiveAtFive interview below!