Actress Ruby Dee had connections to Wright State University

Along with actor Martin Sheen, Dee and her husband Ossie Davis recorded the narration for the school’s theatrical production of “1913: The Great Dayton Flood.” The drama, originally produced in 1996, was re-staged in 2013 with the voices of the famous couple used once again.

W. Stuart McDowell, chairman and artistic director of the Department of Theater, Dance and Motion pictures at the university, worked with Davis and Dee on their narration.

“They broke the mold when she was created on this earth,” said McDowell, who struck up a friendship with Davis when the two worked together on a Broadway production of “A Christmas Carol.” “The best word to describe her is vivacious.”

When McDowell asked the couple to participate in his Dayton flood production, they agreed. He flew to their home in New York for the recording session.

“First we had lunch and then went to a recording studio not far from their home,” he remembers.

McDowell also introduced Miss Dee when she entertained a Wright State University audience with dramatic readings on Jan. 11, 2006, during the kick-off for the WSU Bolinga Black Cultural Resource Center’s 35th anniversary and celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

McDowell said he wasn’t sure how Dee’s stage appearance would go given her age at the time, but was extremely pleased.

“I had no idea how she would hold up on stage but she spoke for over an hour to a packed house in the Student Union Apollo Room,” he said. “She read poetry and answered questions and looked like a 25-year-old actress. She was lovely and charming, energetic and articulate.”

In “An Afternoon with Ruby Dee,” the actress also spoke about Dr. King: “He would want us to remember the laughter, and the camaraderie and the seriousness and the determination that accompanied those days,” she said.

Yvonne Seon, founding director of the Bolinga Center, said she and her staff were thrilled when Miss Dee accepted the invitation to speak at the anniversary celebration.

“It wasn’t long after she had lost her husband and she was still grieving,” said Seon, who labeled Dee and Davis ‘trailblazers.’ “She came with her granddaughter and came a day early because she was visiting family in the area. She was very gracious.”

Wright State will mark another anniversary in the fall, and Ruby Dee will be part of that as well.

“Our theater department will be celebrating its 40th year, and we’ll open the season in the fall with the play ‘Fences” by August Wilson,” said McDowell. “We will dedicate the production to Ruby Dee.”