Our guest for this Framing the Hammer episode 201 is James Brown III, an actor, dancer, assistant choreographer, and fight captain for 12 Broadway shows.
But his performing experience isn’t why he appears on the 4A Arts podcast. James is also a writer, film director, producer, and now real estate developer. James currently is the President & co-founder of Story House Village, a sustainable planned community in Sheridan, Wyoming, where he plans to have a development of houses along with a movie soundstage catering to the multiple films and TV shows produced on the landscape of Wyoming, Montana, and throughout the Rocky Mountains. He has touched multiple elements of the creative economy and that is why he’s here today.
Throughout the episode, James references several of his artistic inspirations and experiences starting with attending Janet Jackson’s 1987 Grammy rehearsal with his elementary school class.
Also during elementary school, James had a memorable childhood costume malfunction in a stage adaptation of Stone Soup.
James performed in a dozen Broadway productions but shares his most memorable Broadway moments when “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” took over every screen in Times Square for a marketing blitz, and the moment Oprah Winfrey surprised the original cast of “The Color Purple” by walking into their rehearsal and announcing she would serve as a producer.
I think the arts change lives.
Finally, Gavin can’t help but ask for full details about James’ very first professional performing experience as a dancer for Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Tour. What a way to start a showbiz career.
Arts can mean different things to different people. You know, in times of kind of political strife and war, arts can serve to educate, art can serve to escape, right? They can be a way to escape from the realities that exist. They can be a vehicle to educate.
And sometimes I just think art is there to bring joy. Like sometimes it’s just so that we can smile. I have a tattoo of my arm that says “choose joy”. And I do believe that that is a good, a big part of what art is for.
To read a transcript of the podcast interview, please click here.
