'No Limits': Michigan's Chuckie Benson Charts His Own Path in Historic Theater Tour
Actor brings first August Wilson tour to his old haunting grounds with 'Two Trains Running' performance
When Chuckie Benson returns to Michigan this month, it will be a homecoming where both his hometown and college community can see how he’s grown — both as a serious actor and as a Black, queer artist deep into his professional career.
The Acting Company’s touring troupe brings August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running” to the Miller Auditorium in Kalamazoo on March 21 and the Wharton Center in East Lansing on March 22. Benson grew up in Lansing, attending Waverly High School and then earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music theater performance from Western Michigan University.
Since then, he’s gone on to capture Jeff Awards nominations for his work in Chicago, toured with the national company of “Spamilton” and performed with the Oregon Shakespeare Company, among others.
He recently made the move to New York where he was cast in “The Color Purple” at the Geva Theatre and then landed the job with The Acting Company, an iconic theater founded in 1972 that has launched the careers of more than 400 actors including Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone.
“Being in the company of these brilliant artists does blow my mind,” Benson said. “It’s like, dang, Chuckie, what a way to start your first year out in New York — you joined The Acting Company.”
This tour marks the first time the Wilson estate has ever given permission for an August Wilson play to go on tour.
“Straight shows don’t tour at all,” Benson said. “It’s a blessing to get ‘Two Trains’ out to people who don’t really get a chance to see his work. The importance and gravitas of what we’re doing…to be able to be the first to bring his work around the country in this manner is pretty cool.”
While only “Two Trains Running” will be performed in Michigan, the company is also touring Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors.” Benson plays Hambone in “Two Trains Running” and Dromio of Ephesus in “Comedy of Errors.”
Hambone, a character suffering from mental impairment, says only one line in the play, though he says it many times and in many ways, repeating the line, “He is gonna give me my ham.”
“That line holds so much and has so many meanings,” Benson said. “I explored his language because the script says he says this idiotically over and over again. Instead of jumping to the word ‘idiotically’ I really wanted to explore why he is saying this over and over again. What happened to this man to get him the way he is? … I believe Hambone was an artist.”
The play is set in 1968, a time, Benson points out, when few children with learning disabilities, especially Black children, received appropriate diagnoses or care.
“It was a really brutal and harsh part of our American history with what they would do with people such as this,” Benson said. “Some kids were just dropped off at mental institutions. Some of the characters [in “Two Trains Running”] talk about Hambone — they say Hambone understands better than us, and he does.”
Benson learned myriad ways to say his one line to infuse it with multiple meanings. He described the character as being heavy and weighted, a person who forms the heart of the piece. It was important, he said, to approach the character respectfully and not play him like a stereotype.
“I thank Lili-Anne Brown for entrusting me to do the work that I know I could do,” Benson said. “She trusted that I would bring out a side that nobody would have seen before. That’s the brilliance of August Wilson’s work, because he gives you what he gives you and then you have to go figure it out. All these characters are based on real life and pertain to the Black community.” Brown’s support for Benson dates back to when he was 19 and she cast him in “Hairspray” at Timberlake Playhouse in Illinois.
That early support proved crucial as Benson expanded his repertoire beyond musical theater. While he embraced complex dramatic roles like Hambone, there was one theatrical tradition he initially resisted. In high school, playing multiple roles in plays and musicals — from Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" to Grandpa Joe in "Willy Wonka" and the lead in "Arsenic and Old Lace" — Benson deliberately sat out when his school tackled Shakespeare.
"I swore up and down that I can't stand Billy Shakes and I was not going to do Shakespeare," Benson said. “I did see [the high school production of] 'Midsummer' and thought it was great — but I did not like Billy Shakes.”
Then he got to college and had to do a deep dive into “Measure for Measure.” His opinion started to change and he says he’s becoming a full-fledged Shakespeare nerd. While “Measure for Measure” was long his favorite show, he now says that “Comedy of Errors” has supplanted that.
“It is bananas and no one does it,” Benson said, adding that he feels a kinship to his character. “Dromio is a comedy queen, which is totally me. He’s got a smart-ass mouth…everybody tells me all their bull and I just have to deal with it. I just love the sassiness of him.”
While there was a time early in his career where he was given the message that he needed to play it straight as a Black man if he wanted to get cast, he's now in a place where he has gotten beyond that. He recalls facing pressure to conform to narrow expectations of Black masculinity in theater.
"There's no limits to what we [as LGBTQ+ actors] can do," Benson said. "I can be my authentic self and still play a character who is opposite of who I am, whether that is where I hold my masculinity, whether it is where I fit on the sexuality spectrum or with a gender. There are no rules because art is art."
This tour, he said, provides an opportunity for representation as it allows Benson and actors like him to play Wilson and Shakespeare characters and just exist as who they are. The freedom to bring his full self to classic roles traditionally bound by rigid expectations of masculinity feels particularly meaningful.
"That's the beauty of being an actor," Benson said. "You can just play and fill in the holes."
For Benson, his upcoming Michigan homecoming is more than just a return to familiar stages that played important roles in forming him as an actor. It's a testament to the years of dedication, growth and authenticity that he's poured into his craft. He looks forward to performing for audiences who knew him in his youth but have never seen him as a professional actor, especially with his portrayal of Hambone.
"They don't know the over decade of work that has been spilt into this," Benson said. "At the end of the day, I am proud to bring this piece to my home and my alma mater."
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