Dr. Errol Hill, 82, professor of theater with Caribbean flair

By Tom Long, Globe Staff, 9/18/2003

Dr. Errol Gaston Hill, 82, an expert on Caribbean theater who has been described as a traveling salesman for drama, died of cancer Monday in his home in Hanover, N.H.

"Nobody has done more to further the serious study of African-American theater and drama," Don Wilmeth, the retired professor at Brown University who edited "A History of African American Theater," said yesterday.

The first tenured African-American professor at Dartmouth College, Dr. Hill produced and directed more than 120 plays and pageants in Africa, England, the United States, and the West Indies. The productions ranged from classics such as Shakespeare's drama "King Lear" and Moliere's farce "The Misanthrope," to more contemporary works such as Derek Walcott's "Ti Jean and His Brothers" and Theodore Ward's "Our Lan'."

He was the author of several books, including "Shakespeare in Sable: a History of Black Shakespearean Actors," and "A History of African American Theater," which he co-wrote with James V. Hatch. He also wrote 83 entries in the "Cambridge Guide to American Theater."

Wilmeth described Dr. Hill as a tall, dignified man with a lilting Jamaican accent, who seemed reserved except when discussing the theater. He was known to break into dance to make a point when working with actors on a production.

Dr. Hill also wrote several plays, including the calypso musical "Man Better Man" and "Strictly Matrimony," about a Jamaican woman who attempts to trick her common-law husband into marriage.

"At different stages of my life, certain things were more important to me," Dr. Hill said in a story published in The Caribbean Writer in 2001. "I enjoyed directing a lot because I chose plays that I wanted to do, from every conceivable period of the theater, and I had the freedom to do them with the best available students."

He said that whenever he saw a need, he tried to fill it. "Acting and direction -- I loved that," he said, "but nobody was doing the history right; nobody was interested in what went before. So I started. It had to be done. "

Dr. Hill took a broad view of the definition of theater: "If you're looking for a Caribbean theater, you don't have to look farther than Carnival," he said in 2001 in a story published on the Global Newswire.

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Dr. Hill first considered singing as a career, but he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England, where he became captivated by the theater.

After graduating in 1951, he returned to Jamaica, where he worked with a theater group in Kingston called The Caribbean Thespians, which performed one-act plays in the Tropical Cinema before movies.

"The audiences were enthralled," he said in 2001. "They couldn't stop applauding."

Money wasn't his motivation.

"If you're only producing theater to make money," he said, "you'll only put on drama for mass audiences. You don't go into theater for the money. You do it because you can't do anything else -- nothing else will satisfy."

Dr. Hill graduated from Yale University in 1962 before earning a master's degree and doctorate in theater history at Yale's School of Drama.

He was a professor of drama and oratory at Dartmouth from 1968 until his retirement in 1989. Among his students were Meryl Streep and Barry Grove, executive producer of the Manhattan Theater Club.

"He was intelligent, articulate, and passionate about world theater," Grove said yesterday. "He was committed to exacting high standards, as well as loving in the way he looked after his students at Dartmouth. He was a role model for a lot of people."

He leaves his wife, Grace (Hope); four children, Da'aga Hill Bowman of Arlington, Va., Melina Hill Walker of Hanover, N.H., and Claudia and Aaron, both of New York City; a brother, Randolphm of Brooklyn, N.Y.; two sisters, Lydia of Brooklyn and Jean Sue-Wing of Santa Cruz, Trinidad; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service is being planned.