Oscar Best might be heading into the “best” years of his life. The Malibu actor just received the award for Best Lead Actor in a Play at the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Theatre Awards for his work in the Malibu Playhouse’s “Blood Knot,” last year.
This follows a stint filming a major feature film overseas, and comes just before a guest role on ABC’s hit, “Grey’s Anatomy.” He’s on a roll.
When asked how it felt to have his work recognized by the NAACP, Best said, “It was totally unexpected. A big surprise. For me, this wasn’t just a play. It was a master class in acting. And the lessons I learned doing it are what have established me.”
To be sure, Best has been treading the boards in Malibu for a while now. But he came to acting later in life. Working as a fitness trainer at the Malibu Gym, one of his clients suggested a few years ago that he might be good on stage. Robert Joseph Ahola, a local playwright who was seeing one of his plays, “The Ghost and Josh Gibson,” produced at the Malibu Playhouse, proposed that Best audition for it. It worked.
Since then, Best has appeared in a number of productions at the Playhouse: “The Wild Party,” “Victor/Victoria,” “Art” and “A Soldier’s Play.” While he was appearing in “Josh Gibson,” actor Dick Van Dyke approached him and said, “I’m going to put you in one of my TV shows.” Best then showed up in a couple of episodes of Van Dyke’s “Murder 101.”
And from there, Best went on to more television and film: “America’s Most Wanted,” “The Mentalist,” “The Mindy Project,” “Dark Hearts” and the soon-to-be-released “Cardboard Boxer.”
But what excites Best the most is an upcoming possibility. He is a finalist candidate to study at the famed Actor’s Studio.
“I have my final audition scene coming up,” Best said. “For me this is the most important — the work. It’s like rehearsal. For me, rehearsal is church.”
Training as purpose is part of his early life. Born in North Carolina as an “army brat,” Best moved around as a child — Colorado, Kansas — until he ended up playing basketball for a small Kansas college. He transferred to Kansas University to study, of all things, dancing.
“I was always good at dancing,” Best said. “It’s the hardest discipline and the most rewarding. There’s nothing like a good ballet bar.”
Despite not knowing anyone, he headed to New York City with $300 in his pocket and stayed at the YMCA. He had partial scholarships to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH). But he ran through his money and could no longer afford to attend. After missing several classes, Karel Shook, co-founder of the DTH, called him to find out why he had been absent. When he heard that Best couldn’t afford any more classes, he just said, “Come on down to the studio anyway.” He ended up performing with DTH for more than a decade.
Life brought him out to the West Coast, and eventually to Malibu, and to a career that he never anticipated. But the life lessons he has acquired continue to resonate with him.
“I grew up a lot doing ‘Blood Knot’ with Lou [Gossett Jr.],” Best said. “And working with such great directors is invaluable. Lou just simplified things. He made me see how each performance should be done like it’s the first time, every time.”
“Blood Knot,” a play by Athol Fugard, was first produced in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1961. Its themes of racism and family ties were so incendiary at the time that the play closed after one premier performance, and Fugard’s passport was confiscated by the apartheid-supporting government of B.J. Vorster. Fifty-three years later, and following explosive social unrest from actions in Ferguson, Missouri, Best feels the storyline is just as relevant today.
“We’re dealing with a lot of fear, a lack of education and no acknowledgment of our own history,” Best said. “Racism is the elephant in the room and a dialogue that doesn’t feel good. That’s why theater can bring it up.”
Best just directed his first piece for the Malibu Playhouse, “How We Speak in South Boston,” and completed a long run of Shakespeare’s “Henry V” at the Pacific Resident Theatre — a production selected as a Los Angeles Times Critics’ Choice.
“My dream is to play Othello,” Best said. “I am starting to write more and, of course, I want to do more stage and film work.”
But as for more dancing, he laughed.
“I don’t dance anymore,” he said. “But I have my clients do some great ballet stretching.”
