Vernel Bagneris

Vernel Martin Bagneris, born July 31, 1949, in New Orleans, Louisiana, is an American playwright, theater director, and entertainer whose Broadway career spanned from 1980 to 2002. The third child of Gloria Diaz Bagneris and Lawrence Bagneris, Sr. — a World War II veteran and postal clerk — Bagneris was raised in the Seventh Ward of New Orleans, a tight-knit, predominantly Creole neighborhood where his family had roots dating to 1750 as free people of color. His mother was a Catholic housewife, and Bagneris began dancing and playing music in early childhood. In the mid-1960s, the family relocated to Gentilly, New Orleans, along with many other Seventh Ward residents during a period of rapid change in the area.

Bagneris attended St. Augustine High School in the advanced placement track, graduating in 1967. He briefly entered a seminary to study for the priesthood but left after three days. He then enrolled at Xavier University of Louisiana, a predominantly Black Catholic university in New Orleans that his older siblings had also attended, initially majoring in sociology. During his second year, he auditioned for the university's theater program and was cast as Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew. That experience redirected his focus toward the stage, and by his junior year he was writing, directing, and producing his own plays. The Free Southern Theater, which toured rural and underprivileged areas of the South, performed two of his plays while he was still an undergraduate. He graduated in 1972 and had already earned two Best Actor awards in New Orleans by that year.

Following graduation, Bagneris traveled to Amsterdam to study the Bread and Love experimental theater group. Upon returning to New Orleans, he staged experimental European scripts while working day jobs, directing productions including Samuel Beckett's Endgame on a double bill with Eugène Ionesco's The Lesson in a photo gallery. He received an artist-in-residence grant from the Arts Council of New Orleans and worked with an integrated theater company in the French Quarter called Gallery Circle. During this period he also acted in independent films and produced and starred in Edward Albee plays.

In 1976, after seeing Will Holt's one-woman show Me and Bessie in New York City, Bagneris conceived a similar production centered on the city of New Orleans. He spent a year in research and development, conducting oral histories and interviewing his own grandmother. The result was One Mo' Time, a musical he wrote based on Black Vaudeville performers in New Orleans. After six months of preparation, the show debuted as a one-night-only production before moving to three performances a week at the Toulouse Theatre in the French Quarter, with pianist James Booker performing in the lobby before each show. A New York producer brought the production to the Village Gate in October 1979, where it ran for three and a half years and generated several internationally touring companies, including a royal command performance for Queen Elizabeth II in Britain. One Mo' Time earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Cast Album in 1980 and received Society of West End Theatre Award nominations in 1982 for Outstanding Achievement in a Musical, Best Musical, and Best Actress in a Musical. Through the production, Bagneris met dancers Honi Coles and Charles Cook. One Mo' Time was subsequently revived on Broadway in 2002 and again in New Orleans in 2006.

Bagneris continued building his stage career with Staggerlee in 1985 and Further Mo', the sequel to One Mo' Time, in 1990. In 1995, his two-person stage portrait of jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton, titled Jelly Roll!, earned him the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, and an Obie Award. A recording of the musical was produced and released on GHB Records. Bagneris also appeared on Broadway in the play The Life Line and starred in the play Time. In 1998, he appeared on Broadway in Cy Coleman's The Life. A 2004 revival of Bubbling Brown Sugar featured Bagneris starring alongside Diahann Carroll.

Bagneris has credited Pepsi Bethel of the Pepsi Bethel Authentic Jazz Dance Theater as his dance mentor, noting that after their first meeting, Bethel choreographed every show Bagneris directed. In 1993, Bagneris provided voices for numerous jazz figures on Public Radio International's Riverwalk Jazz program, recreating the lives of Bunk Johnson, Danny Barker, Jelly Roll Morton, and others. A program note for a special performance at the Library of Congress described him as a master of the American vernacular.

His film work includes French Quarter (1978), Pennies from Heaven (1981), Down by Law (1986), and Ray (2004), in which he served as choreographer and played the character Dancin' Al. He also appeared opposite Ossie Davis in Davis's final film, the independent feature Proud (2004). On television, Bagneris held a recurring role as Judge Bernard Williams during the first three seasons of the HBO series Treme, which aired from 2010 to 2013. In October 2005, following the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Bagneris returned to New Orleans and settled in the French Quarter.