| Roscoe Orman, who plays the beloved character Gordon on Sesame Street, has lived a beautiful life. And while Sesame Street has played a dominant role in his life, he has had a life that reaches far beyond the confines of the small screen. Orman, who will be appearing at the Wisconsin Book Festival with Madison's own Leotha Stanley, has acted in movies and on stage. Madisonians might remember him from his starring as Troy in the Madison Repertory Theatre's 2002 production of August Wilson's Fences. But probably the biggest starring role in Orman's life has been as husband and father to four children. Each of the children had appeared on Sesame Street -- his son played Gordon's adopted son on Sesame Street until he was eight years old -- and that was the dominant image they had of their father. Orman wanted his children to have a broader understanding about his life and so, he started to write it down about 4-5 years ago. While Orman had been the associate editor and contributor to Black Theatre Magazine, an adjunct to the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, during the 1970s and had written poetry, he had never been published before. His writings grew into his first published book, Sesame Street Dad. "When I began to develop it, I realized there were a lot of interesting aspects to my own history that people would actually find interesting and its connection to some of the pretty seminal movements through the 1960s and 1970s in terms of civil rights and theater," Orman said during a telephone interview with The Capital City Hues. "In addition to the other major components of my early career, it evolved out of my 1960s sensibility and the social change that was occurring. I think Sesame Street was just a natural progression for me and felt so right for me to join that production, especially after I was becoming a father at the same time. I wasn't directly familiar with the show until I came on the show and became a parent that same year. It all kind of fell together for me." While Orman wanted his children to know about his life outside of television, he didn't want their lives to be ruled by his life. "My children have their own generation, their own sensibility and cultural influences that are quite different from our generation," Orman said. "They have a completely different set of opportunities and advantages that vary from my generation. I think my generation is motivated to be expressed as an individual about where we were going. There seems to be present in today's youth culture a little more sense of conformity than there was back in the 1960s when we were rebels in a way, much more so than I was." The production schedule of Sesame Street -- an entire season's episodes are shot over the course of a few months -- gives Orman the time to pursue other interests on stage and screen as well as spend time with his grandchildren. And it is probably the interactions with his grandchildren that have spurred memories of his own childhood growing up in the South Bronx. Before Sesame Street Dad was written, Orman had written a children's book, Ricky & Mobo, based on an episode out of his childhood. "I've always remembered this moment and remember it fondly as an example of the kind of reward that comes from that kind of village support of young people, giving them a sense of being worthy and then to propel them to believe in themselves and to finish what they started and be successful in whatever they do," Orman said. "It's a very simple, sweet story, but it really resonated so much for me in my life. As I have remembered it, it has taken on more resonance as I got older. It's a story that I have told a number of times. Several years ago, I began to write it down. Shortly after that, I began to do illustrations for it with the hope of eventually trying to make it into a children's book. I actually finished an early draft of it including illustrations a few years before I began working on the memoir. But in shopping it around, it kind of halted it for a while because I kept getting rejections of my illustrations, not because they weren't good, but because most publishers of children's books have their own stable of illustrators. They don't readily accept writer/illustrators. So I was told in a number of cases that they like the story, they like the book, but they wanted to use their own illustrator. So I just held out." After the success of Sesame Street Dad, Inkwater Press was open to publishing Ricky & Mobo -- complete with Orman's illustrations. He was glad that he had waited. "I think the door is open for me to produce more works," Orman said. "I've actually completed the writing portion of another children's book for a little older age group. I'll do some illustrations for that book as well." The distance Orman has from his childhood has acted as a filter, in a way, to help him discern what would be of interest to people beyond his family and friends. "Initially, whatever I'm thinking of writing about has to be something that means something special to me," Orman emphasized. "It has to be something that stands out and is significant in my life in terms of what I learned from the experience or the impact it had on me or just the fact that I remember it at this stage of life. I';m in my 60s. If it's anything that I remember that vividly from my early childhood, it must have had an impact. Then I think most of those kinds of moments in one's life, if it's truly meaningful to that individual, then there's a kind of universality to those kinds of coming-of-age stories and things that anyone, in some way, goes through and they have moments like that. Not everyone remembers them as vividly as others. And I can' speak for others, but when I focus on a story that means a lot to me, I just hope that it means something to others. So far, I think it has been pretty true that has happened." Orman is appreciative of the doors that Sesame Street has opened for him and the writing of children's books is no exception. "The fact that I'm known as Gordon on Sesame Street, which obviously has a place in the hearts and minds of so many people when it comes to children's issues and education, entertainment and so forth, people almost expect that writing goes with what you are recognized as a member of the show," Orman said. "The cast beginning to write stories for children seems like a natural thing to a lot of people including myself. Because I am a parent as well as a father of our children and I have been entertaining children for all of these years that I have something I can offer children through life stories." And Orman's acting experience hasn't hurt the entertainment value of him reading excerpts from his books as he tours the country promoting his books. Roscoe Orman and Leotha Stanley will present Singing and Acting in Children's Literature on Saturday October 13, 4-5:45 p.m. in the Promenade Hall of the Overture Center. |
| Roscoe "Gordon" Orman is featured at the Wisconsin Book Festival Teaching the children By Jonathan Gramling |
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| (Roscoe Orman (L) is greeted by Patrick Sims at a 2006 book signing party while Orman was on tour promoting Sesame Street Dad. |