L. Peter Callender

L. Peter Callender is an American actor, director, and playwright born in Trinidad, West Indies who grew up in England and New York. He trained at The Juilliard School, the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in England, and the Tadashi Suzuki Company of Toga in Japan. Since 2009, he has served as Artistic Director of the African-American Shakespeare Company. In 2018, American Theatre magazine named him among its "Theatre Workers You Should Know."

Callender's Broadway credit is Prelude to a Kiss, performed at the Helen Hayes Theater in 1990. His off-Broadway work includes playing Curio in a Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night directed by Harold Guskin, appearing in The Caucasian Chalk Circle at The Public Theater under the direction of George C. Wolfe, and originating the role of Roscoe in Leslie Lee's Black Eagles at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1991.

His regional stage career spans decades and numerous institutions. He served as Associate Artist at California Shakespeare Theater for more than twenty years, performing in many Shakespearean productions and receiving awards for his portrayals of Polixenes, Orsino, Laertes, and Caesar. At American Conservatory Theater, he played Cleante in Tartuffe, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright. His work at Berkeley Repertory Theater included both The Oresteia and Major Barbara, where he collaborated with directors Tony Taccone and George C. Wolfe. At Marin Theatre Company, his credits included Walter in Swimmers and James in Circle Mirror Transformation.

Among his other regional credits, Callender appeared at Arena Stage, where he received Helen Hayes Award nominations for his performances in Oak and Ivy and Playboy of the West Indies. In 1998, he played Agamemnon opposite Olympia Dukakis in Hecuba at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, directed by Carey Perloff. In 1986, he played Caliban in The Tempest at Classic Stage Company in a production directed by Julie Taymor, and in 2022 he played Prospero in The Tempest at Elm Shakespeare Company in New Haven. In 2023, he played all three roles in Satchmo at the Waldorf, including Louis Armstrong, at San Jose Stage Company in a production directed by Terry Teachout. Additional regional credits include work at San Jose Stage Company, Aurora Theater, Thick Description, and Portland Stage.

As a director, Callender has worked extensively at American Stage Company in St. Petersburg, Florida, where his productions included August Wilson's Jitney in 2016, Joe Turner's Come and Gone in 2017, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in 2018, Dominique Morisseau's Pipeline in 2019, and Skeleton Crew in 2020. In 2021, he directed Romeo and Juliet in America for that company. He also directed Word for Word's French tour of The Gilded Six Bits, a stage adaptation of a Zora Neale Hurston short story, and has directed productions at San Jose Stage Company and Aurora Theater Company in Berkeley.

At the African-American Shakespeare Company, Callender has directed a wide range of productions. His Shakespeare stagings there include Twelfth Night in 2011, Much Ado About Nothing in 2014, The Winter's Tale in 2017, a modern-verse adaptation of Macbeth translated by Migdalia Cruz in 2019, and Richard II in 2022. He has also directed contemporary works at AASC, among them A Raisin in the Sun in 2012, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2013, Jitney in 2017, A Streetcar Named Desire in 2018, and Black Eagles in 2019, as well as the company's annual production of Cinderella in 2013. In addition to directing, Callender has performed at AASC, taking on the title role in a modern-dress production of Othello in 2019, as well as Richard III, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, and Becker in Jitney. In 2023, he was scheduled to play Willy Loman in a predominantly Black production of Death of a Salesman directed by Ted Lange; the production was canceled on the day of its first performance following the death of actor Richard D. May, who had been playing Uncle Ben. Prior to the cancellation, the production had faced additional difficulties, including Ted Lange's departure, after which Callender assumed the dual role of Willy Loman and director.

Callender made his playwriting debut in 2020 when Strange Courtesies received a reading at the New Play Festival at American Stage in Florida. The play received its first full production in 2023 at San Jose Stage, directed by Greg Homann.

His teaching work includes a position as Visiting Instructor at Stanford University, where he teaches Acting Shakespeare and Fundamentals of Directing, as well as a master class at Emory University. At San Francisco School of the Arts, he directed productions of Dinner at Eight and Glengarry Glen Ross.

Callender's awards include three Theatre Tampa Bay Awards for Outstanding Director for Jitney in 2016, Joe Turner's Come and Gone in 2017, and Skeleton Crew in 2020. He received Dean Goodman Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor for his work in The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, and Julius Caesar, and a San Francisco Bay Guardian GOLDIE Award for Best Actor for Joe Louis Blues in 2000. The Bay Area Critics Circle named him Best Actor for Driving Miss Daisy in 2011, and he received Theatre Bay Area Awards for Outstanding Principal Actor in Master Harold and the Boys and Outstanding Featured Actor in Swimmers, both in 2016.