Chuck Holleman plays Willie Stark in Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the King’s Men.
Chuck Holleman is a Boston area voice talent, part-time home renovator, and part-time actor who has appeared on stages throughout Central Northeastern Massachusetts – and once in Boston itself! (that was in 1776 – the musical, not the year).
From Chuck: “Worried that today’s hyper politicized public discourse means the country is coming apart? Well I take heart in reading Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize winning “All the King’s Men.” There always have been, and probably always will be demagogues across the entire political spectrum. Truly “Everything old is new again.” That is what drew me to wanting to explore the play’s character of Willie Stark, based upon the real life Governor Huey “The Kingfish” Long of Louisiana. To try to imitate the way folks behaved in news reels of the 1930’s, or to play Willie as the cartoon of a corrupt southern politician doesn’t get you anywhere near the essence of what he was all about. Of why half the electorate thought he could do no wrong, while the other half wished he would be assassinated. What could it be that drives this man, what is his “will to power,” that has him overcome enormous political odds, and his own tragic human flaws to achieve absolute control of his state? Wren’s guidance and coaching was instrumental in having me think about the man in ways that had never occurred to me. It had me see that Willie’s story is an all to human one that we have seen before, and will undoubtedly see again, and I think helped me give a performance that I thought rang true to what the character was about.”