Acting Resume
As an actor, Summers made his Broadway debut in the original production of Dreamgirls. His one-person show Winds of Change would garner him the 2010 “Best Entertainer” Bistro Award. In 2018 he was nominated for an Audelco Award for ‘Best Featured Actor in a Musical,’ for “On Kentucky Avenue.” Summers has appeared in numerous Regional and Off Broadway shows. TV/Film roles, include projects such as Core FOI (Fruit of Islam) in Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington, a neurosurgeon on Law & Order; a turn-of-the-century cook on Boardwalk Empire, and as a Police Sergeant, opposite Tom Selleck on Blue Bloods.
An opportunity to tour singing the role of “Porgy” in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess prompted Summers to leave his alma mater, HBCU Tennessee State University, during his senior year. After the tour, Summers moved to New York (1980) where, on his first night in Manhattan, he’d meet choreographer Michael Peters (Dreamgirls, Beat It), which would lead to his is Broadway debut. Years later, Summers reprised the role he played in the Original Dreamgirls for the Dreamgirls 20th Anniversary Benefit Concert[5] with Lillias White, Billy Porter, Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis and Heather Headley. Later, at the invitation of Broadway vocal arranger Chapman Roberts (Five Guys Named Moe), Summers performed at Carnegie Hall.
Summers would return to academia to complete his BA from SUNY, ESC and his MFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.
