“That’s my calculus: Run towards the danger,” Broadway star Audra McDonald told me in our conversation in January. It’s a formula that works for her—she’s won six Tony awards and hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down.
Since the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, Ms. McDonald and her fellow actors have risen to the challenges of the moment, turning their living rooms into performances venues. Famed playwright Terrence McNally, a close friend of Ms. McDonald’s, fell victim to the virus and died in March.
In our conversation, we spoke about how she chooses her professional roles, her youthful suicide attempt and her work with nonprofit Covenant House, a refuge for homeless young people. “The Calculus of Audra McDonald” was one of the first pieces to appear in Brunswick Review’s ongoing, online magazine, Issue X: The COVID-19 Edition.
Click on the player below to hear excerpts of that conversation, featured as part of our new podcast, “The Talk at Brunswick,” where we offer excerpts of conversations with the leaders in business, culture and political life that go into each issue of the Brunswick Review.
Carlton Wilkinson is Managing Editor of the Brunswick Review, and is based in New York.