Colman Domingo’s heart still burns for San Francisco

A rising star of Bay Area theater in the 1990s, Colman Domingo’s star has only continued to rise since he left for New York 20 years ago. After Broadway turns (and a Tony nomination) in “The Scottsboro Boys,” “Passing Strange” and “Chicago,” and memorable roles in films such as “Lincoln” and “Selma,” he’s become delightfully ubiquitous onscreen in recent years.

Viewers nowadays may know him from AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” and HBO’s “Euphoria” or films such as “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Zola” and “Candyman.” He also has his own AMC digital chat show, “Bottomless Brunch at Colman’s,” and upcoming movies include “Rustin” and the musical “The Color Purple.”

Now he’s visiting his old San Francisco stomping grounds for a Valentine’s Day benefit for Magic Theatre. Sean San José, the Magic’s new artistic director and an old friend and collaborator of Domingo’s, will interview him onstage at American Conservatory Theater’s Strand Theater.

“I first started working with Sean around 1993 or so,” Domingo recalls. “We were both in a production of ‘The Yellow Boat’ at Berkeley Rep, and it was a youth touring production. And from that moment when we met, we just knew that we were like brothers. And he’s remained that way, one of my dearest friends and collaborators, now for over 25 years. Sean is always somebody who I call for advice, and vice versa. Even when it came to him getting the Magic Theatre position, he and I wrestled with it together and really talked what’s important to him.”

Domingo is now a board member of Magic Theatre, a role San José asked him to take on as soon as he accepted the artistic director job.

Also a playwright, Domingo’s plays produced in the Bay Area include “Up Jumped Springtime” at Theatre Rhinoceros, “A Boy and His Soul” with Thick Description Theatre and “Wild with Happy” with TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.

In March New Conservatory Theatre Center will present the Bay Area premiere of his play “Dot,” a dramedy about adult siblings in a Black Philadelphia family contending with their mother’s Alzheimer’s. Domingo is also adapting “Dot” into TV show for AMC called “West Philly, Baby.”

San José helped him develop “Dot,” directing an early workshop, and is continuing to help with the adaptation. Domingo also notes that he and New Conservatory go way back.

“That’s where I cut my teeth,” Domingo says. “That’s where I did my very, very first show in 1991, when I moved to San Francisco. It was called ‘The Inner Circle,’ and it was a youth touring production about a kid who became HIV positive through a blood transfusion. And so it’s nice to come back there. It really is a homecoming.”

Originally from Philadelphia, Domingo was a journalism major at Temple University when he decided to visit San Francisco and stayed for the next 10 years.

Another formative early acting gig for Domingo was a production of “Twelfth Night” at Theatre Rhinoceros directed by Danny Scheie.

“I had zero experience with Shakespeare,” he recalls. “From then on, I would perform for countless seasons at Cal Shakes and at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. All of it was my training ground. Doug Holsclaw, who used to run Theatre Rhinoceros, he has no idea how much of an influence he was on me. He would say, ‘Hey, you have a lot of questions about this. Have you ever thought about writing something?’ And that’s why I developed my first show called ‘Up Jumped Springtime.’”

Even after 16 years in New York and five years in Los Angeles, moving from success to success, Domingo says the San Francisco Bay Area is baked into his bones as an artist.

“Everything that I’m doing now, honestly — because I have my own production company, I have a deal with AMC, all my acting work, writing, directing — it all comes from the Bay Area,” he says. “These are foundations and principles I learned in the Bay Area, of being invited into rooms and letting that be your conservatory.”

Contact Sam Hurwitt at [email protected], and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.

COLMAN DOMINGO

Presents “Valentine’s with Colman Domingo,” a fundraiser for Magic Theatre, and “Dot”

“Valentie’s”: 8 p.m. Feb. 14; Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., San Francisco; $80-$500; 415-441-8822, www.magictheatre.org

“‘Dot”: Presented by New Conservatory Theatre Center, March 4-April 3; New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco; proof of vaccination required and masks must be worn on the theater; $25-$65; www.nctcsf.org