From Hilsman’s playground to Broadway: the incomparable life of Calvin Orlando Smith
From belting his heart out on the Hilsman playground, to singing on Broadway — Calvin Orlando Smith, who graduated from Cedar Shoals in May of 1980, has had a journey like no other.
“Going to Cedar Shoals, it was a utopian dream because we integrated Clarke County,” Smith said. “My brother and I integrated Gaines School (Elementary) in second grade and I remember it like it was yesterday. Our parents said, ‘Now don’t hit anybody, but if somebody hits you, you need to defend yourself and stand up. You don’t start anything but still respect yourself.’”
Gaines wouldn’t be the only school Smith would make history at either.
“I was the first Black person ever accepted into Cambridge University’s Department of History of Art,” Smith said. “I’m an art historian who works in musical theater because I understand what a tableau looks like, meaning the landscape of a visual opening. People come and see me on stage and go, ‘Calvin Smith is great on stage,’ because I know what that looks like if it was a painting.”
Smith credits his mother for his deep ambition and ability to push past all odds.
“My mother knew how important education was. She’s a big reason why myself and my siblings are all very successful. She had a deep understanding of how our education can be a tool not only to help you grow as a person, but to help your community and help the world,” Smith said.
Yet long before Smith walked through Cambridge’s doors, he was somewhere familiar to many East side Athenians — Hilsman Middle School.
“I grew up listening to gospel music and found it beautiful, but it wasn’t in me. Then one day I heard Jim Nabors sing the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ on the ‘Gomer Pyle Show,’” Smith said. “I’m in the seventh grade at Hilsman, and the next day I marched myself out onto the middle of the dirt yard behind Hilsman where we played kickball. I planted myself and started singing, ‘My eyes have seen glory…’”
Smith’s unapologetic presence and clear love for music caught his teachers’ attention quickly.
“Afterwards, the teachers got me and were like ‘There’s a kid out there in the back parking lot singing!’ They got together to create a plan to help me out,” Smith said.
As it turns out, one of those teachers had a very specific idea of how to push Smith forward: putting on a Christmas theatrical production with Smith as the star.
“This teacher was like, ‘I’ll direct the play and we’ll see if he can hold an audience,’” Smith said. “So I’m out there playing the Grinch in the gym and everyone’s going crazy. I’m making comedy, everybody is laughing, so I had the capacity to captivate a crowd.”
Little did Smith know just how far his newfound spotlight would lead him. Soon after Smith’s big break in “The Grinch” at Hilsman, Cedar Shoals’ choral director Ernie Mason was told about Smith’s singing capabilities. Mason decided to pay Smith a visit with the intent of putting together a chorus at Hilsman, but Smith would soon come to know the fear of an audition and the repercussions of singing with a cold.
“Of course I was so nervous when he got there, I couldn’t sing. I was terrified. He didn’t pass me. He said, ‘Come back later,’” Smith said.
Undeterred, Smith accepted Mason’s offer of vocal lessons and the chance to re-audition. With Mason’s coaching, Smith had his eyes on performing. In what was becoming a common theme in Smith’s life — his name found its way to a new set of ears. It wouldn’t be long before a Cedar Shoals drama student named Alan Allinger would be making his way over to Hilsman.
“He (Allinger) came over to the school and worked to develop a drama club for me. So, I’m over at Hilsman getting my own choir, my own drama club and my own vocal coach,” Smith said. “Alan taught us how to act in a play called ‘Wings’ in the library with other kids. It was just as good as A.C.T. (Athens Creative Theater).”
Soon enough, Smith was transitioning from a Hilsman Panther to a Cedar Shoals Jaguar, but he knew his theater years had only just begun.
“At Cedar Shoals, the first play I’m in is ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ the first musical that Cedar Shoals ever gets. It was directed by Betsy Lubs. She is the person who nurtured Tituss Burgess, me and others that have done well theatrically,” Smith said.
Smith would star in four plays while a part of Cedar Shoals’ drama program — “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Li’l Abner,” “Mame” and “Sugar.” In ninth grade, Smith also performed at Town and Gown in a production of “The Member of the Wedding.” Years later, Smith would run into award-winning Julie Harris, who starred in the play’s film, on an elevator at the 480 Broadway building.
“I said I was fortunate enough to perform in ‘The Member of the Wedding’ in high school and she (Harris) grabbed me and asked, ‘Who were you?’ and so I said ‘I played the role of Honey Camden Brown,’ and she said, ‘Ooh, what a wonderful role,’” Smith said.
No matter how far Smith’s singing would take him, his supportive team at Cedar would always stick close.
“When I opened “Peter Pan” on Broadway in 1990, ten years later (after graduating), all those teachers were in the audience, including the teachers from Cedar Shoals,” Smith said.
Despite Smith’s rocketing trajectory, not all would stay perfect as he was introduced to more of the theatrical world.
“Right now I am celebrating my 40th anniversary as a member of (the Actors) Equity (Association) by doing a production of ‘The Fantasticks’ this June in Alabama. I’m signing an equity contract, and that’s amazing in a business where I should have been dead from cocaine, alcohol or AIDS,” Smith said. “In the 80s, when I was doing all my stuff, people were dying all around me. I became a monk because I wanted to stay alive, having to create art with the capacity of contracting something that could kill you was real.”
Smith’s latest show at The Jazz Station was titled “The Closer I Get To You,” where Smith sang that song and others from Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. The performance was dedicated to Smith’s four year anniversary of sobriety, something Smith regularly talks about and celebrates.
“I keep it real. I’ve had 22 people including their relatives say ‘My brother stopped drinking because of you going on Facebook showing all your glorious life and traveling Europe everything and that you’re so open about it and funny about it,’” Smith said.
In the upcoming months, Smith will be heading to Kampala, Uganda to sing as well as Cambridge to perform for King Charles. Throughout Smith’s years gaining extensive theatrical experience, he has found himself performing on numerous stages and for countless people, including the late Prince Phillip and Queen Sonja of Norway. Yet through all of Smith’s achievements, he never forgets where he started.
“While at Cedar Shoals in drama class, my dream was to perform on Broadway,” Smith said. “I’m blessed to say that God gave it to me and it happened.”