Charles S. Dutton is set to star in "From Jail to Yale ... Serving Time on Stage," a one-man play to benefit the Actors Hall of Fame Foundation's new dramatic arts education program for at-risk students.

HBO is the presenting sponsor of the event, which takes place at 8 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Freud Playhouse at UCLA.

"Serving Time" is based on Dutton's real-life story. While incarcerated as a youth, he found a book of plays that ignited his passion for theater. Within seven years, he had graduated from college, was accepted on scholarship to the Yale School of Drama and was then on to Broadway, where he received his first Tony nomination.

Dutton's story is the inspiration for the new dramatic arts education curriculum, which is targeting 1 million at-risk students in elementary and secondary schools across the country during the next four years. The free program includes teaching activities, lesson plans, acting and writing workshops exercises and interactive online video.

"We know that students will be inspired by (his) experience and that this new education program will give these students a pathway to success," foundation president Rusty Citron said.

Honorary co-chairs for the event are HBO's Richard Plepler, Kristin Chenoweth and Michael Lombardo, Colin Callender and Sue Naegle.

Dutton has also revealed that he is developing a six-hour HBO miniseries about the life of Louis Armstrong.

Dutton told Collider that he will work on the project with writer John Sayles and music mogul Quincy Jones, in addition to taking on the role of Armstrong in his later years.

The 57-year-old noted that he has been trying to produce a film about the iconic jazz trumpeter for 15 years but struggled to compress his life into a feature length running time.

"The mistake we were making was that we were trying to do it as a two-hour film," he explained. "Louis's life is just so huge you just can't... you know, because the problem was what do we leave out? What do we keep in? We could never really grasp the story on a two-hour movie. It took us 15 years to decide to do it as a big miniseries."

In 1984, Dutton made his Broadway debut in August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, winning a Theatre World Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1988 Dutton played a killer in the television miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan opposite Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey. 1990 brought him a second Best Actor Tony nomination for his role in another Wilson play, The Piano Lesson. Dutton also starred in Alien³, the debut film of director David Fincher, then costarred in 1993's Rudy. Other films he has appeared in include A Time to Kill; Cookie's Fortune; Cry, the Beloved Country; and Secret Window.

Dutton won Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy awards in 2002 and 2003 for his roles in The Practice and Without a Trace. He was previously nominated In 1999 for his guest-starring role as Alvah Case in the HBO prison drama Oz in its 2nd season premiere episode. For this role he was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Also in 1999, he starred in an ensemble cast in Aftershock: Earthquake in New York in which he played the Mayor of New York City. He co-starred with Tom Skerritt. Dutton gained acclaim for his comedy show Roc shown on FOX television (but produced by HBO) from 1991 to 1994, especially mid-run when the show was broadcast live. His work in this role won him an NAACP Image Award. He co-starred in the popular but short-lived 2005 CBS science fiction series, Threshold.

In 2000, Dutton directed the critically acclaimed HBO mini series “The Corner.” The miniseries was close to his heart for Dutton grew up on the streets of East Baltimore. It was adapted from The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (Broadway Books, 1997) by David Simon (a reporter for the Baltimore Sun) and Ed Burns (a retired Baltimore homicide detective). The Corner won several Emmys in 2000, including that for best miniseries. Dutton won for his direction of the miniseries.

He starred as Montgomery County, Maryland Police Chief Charles Moose in the 2003 made-for-TV movie D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear, and appears in Season 2 of The L Word. Dutton also appeared in "Another Toothpick," an episode of The Sopranos. He most recently guest starred on House as the father of Doctor Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) and on Sleeper Cell: American Terror as the father of undercover FBI agent Darwyn Al-Sayeed. He also directed two episodes of Sleeper Cell.

On 9 October 2007, HBO announced that it has arranged a deal with Dutton where he will develop, direct and star in series and movies for the network. He also appears in the upcoming film “Honeydripper.”