N.C. Central University students and faculty shared laughs and enjoyment listening to actor, director, producer and writer Robert Townsend in a lyceum program yesterday at the Mclendon-McDougald Gymnasium.

After being introduced, Townsend ran off the stage to the floor of the gym, getting up close and personal with the people who came to see their favorite member of “The Five Heartbeats,” the fictional film Townsend starred in and directed about young African-American men trying to be successful in the musical industry.

Speaking to an eager audience, Townsend reflected on growing up in a single-parent home in Chicago.

“I started in a ghetto in the west side of Chicago. My mother raised four kids on her own,” he said.

Afraid that Townsend would end up in a neighborhood gang, his mother forced him to stay indoors. He described starting young at imitating characters he watched on television.

Townsend repeatedly exhorted the audience to protect their dreams.

“Be careful who you share your dreams with –— it’s only the person closest to you that can kill your dreams,” he said.

After being cast in stereotypical roles as hustlers, pimps, and slaves, Townsend got a role in an Academy-Award-nominated “A Soldier’s Story” alongside Denzel Washington and Adolf Caesar.

“Finally I get to play a human being instead of a stereotype,” he said.

The audience stared attentively at Townsend as he walked back and forth in front of the stage, sharing his journey to success. He closed his speech by telling the audience, “Some of you are sitting on great ideas that are ready to be born. You’re just not surrounded by the right people to give it birth.”

Audience members clustered around Townsend after the speech for photos, autographs, and final thoughts.

Townsend is known for his work with “The Five Heartbeats” (1991) and “Meteor Man” (1993).

With a passion for inner-city youth he continues to be a voice of the United Negro Fund.

Currently he is working on a production of “Of Boys and Men” starring Angela Bassett.