Twenty-four years ago Eric Underwood went to an acting audition at a performing arts school in Washington DC. He panicked, froze and forgot his monologue. It seemed like his career was over before it began. But now 38, Underwood has finally got his first role in a play, Bruce Norris’s Pulitzer prize-winning Clybourne Park, tackling knotty conversations about race and gentrification.
Underwood, however, has had plenty of stage time in between. On the way out of that first audition, he saw some girls getting ready for a dance tryout and, desperate not to let down his mum, asked to have a go. The school recognised his raw talent and a ballet career followed, culminating in 11 years at the Royal Ballet in London, for this charismatic, shapeshifting dancer.
