'RAGTIME' ACTOR GETS OVATION FOR A REAL-LIFE PERFORMANCE

New York - It is rare for a star in a hit Broadway
show to receive an ovation from his fellow cast members. But Alton
Fitzgerald White got one Wednesday, five days after he was mistakenly
arrested on drug charges and strip-searched, then released after the
police acknowledged their error.

The applause came Wednesday at a curtain call after the matinee
performance of the musical "Ragtime." The cast joined the audience in
applauding White, who plays Coalhouse Walker, the talented musician
whose life is changed forever when he is harassed by white firemen
simply because he is black. It was White's first performance since his
arrest, and he said his real-life ordeal had added a stark resonance
to his onstage role.

After his performance, White, who has also appeared on Broadway in
"Smokey Joe's Cafe" and in the original cast of "Miss Saigon,"
admitted that he had been nervous at first. "But as I got into the
show," he said, "I realized how much stronger I am."

The police have said that White's arrest was simply a case of mistaken
identity by officers responding to a report of drug dealing, and have
apologized to him. But White claims he was arrested and humiliated for
no reason other than his race. The incident comes amid heightened
concern over the practice known as racial profiling, in which officers
stop people solely because of their race.

White's co-star, LaChanze, who plays the woman Coalhouse loves, said
that she expected his performance would change after his experience.
But she added: "Alton is a professional. He went on with business as
usual." His arrest hit the black members of the cast particularly
hard, she said. Earlier, White met with the members of the production
to thank them for their support.

White offered new details Wednesday on his arrest. He said he was in
the vestibule of his apartment building at 935 St. Nicholas Ave. in
Washington Heights -- where Duke Ellington had lived, he noted --
preparing to go to the bank and then his gym, when he spotted a group
of police officers, led by a policewoman, outside the front door.
White, 35, who was raised in Cincinnati and attended the Cincinnati
College Conservatory of Music, said his parents had taught him to be a
gentleman, so he "stepped forward and opened the door." He said he
thought the police had come because an elderly person in his building
had taken ill.

Instead, White said, the officers said they were searching for four
Hispanic men in white T-shirts who were believed to have weapons and
to be dealing drugs. White saw two Hispanic men in the lobby, one in a
white T-shirt, whom he did not recognize. The police say the officers
discovered a kilogram of cocaine in the lobby and arrested White, who
was wearing a white T-shirt, along with three other black men and the
two Hispanic men.

"The neighbors were vouching for us," White said. He said the
neighbors told the police, "He's starring on Broadway."

But he was taken with the others to the 33rd Precinct station
house.

White said that as he waited in a cell, he became increasingly
distraught about missing his performance, and found himself weeping
from humiliation. "I said, 'Do you have any idea how hard I've worked
as a black man to be the star of a show?' The officer says, 'This is
standard procedure."'

The two Hispanic men were charged with criminal drug possession. White
and the other men were not charged. But even after the police realized
that he was not involved, he said, he was kept in custody. When he was
finally released, White said, one officer apologized and said, "You
were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I said, 'That's where I live -- that's my home,"' White
recalled.

Until Wednesday, White said, he had remained in his apartment, except
for a trip to buy a newspaper, because he was afraid to go outside.

He said that he was "very seriously considering" a lawsuit against the
police. "I'm dealing with that issue in my job," he said. "And now
it's in my personal life. It's overwhelming."

In "Ragtime," after Coalhouse is humiliated and the woman he loves,
the mother of his child, is killed, he becomes a revolutionary and a
bomber. Although he said he was still angry about his arrest, he
added, "I can let my anger fester and make me feel worse, or change it
into confidence and fearlessness."

He noted that the last song in "Ragtime" is called "Make Them Hear
You."

"I'm going to make them hear me," he said.