Sloan Robinson has the features of a Greek goddess, which may explain, in part, why she has been able to credibly portray such legendary beauties Dorothy Dandridge and Josephine Baker.

Defined by her extraordinarily high cheek bones, smooth bronze skin and model-tall figure — not to mention a wit sharper than Zeus’ thunderbolts — Robinson has recently found herself deeply immersed in a completely different world. Her latest role: an aging mother suffering from dementia, an illness the actress says has been ignored for far too long.

Taking on the role of Jessalyn Price in the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s moving and poetic production of “Tree,” by Julie Hebert, was no easy task for Robinson. It was a role she was called upon to audition for by the troupe’s acting producing director Isabel Storey, who told Robinson she’d be great for the role.

Robinson had been performing her one-woman show, “Bananas! A Day in the Life of Josephine Baker,” for two consecutive years. Accepting the new part would mean temporarily closing a show that had been paying some bills and doing another that was an equity waiver production — meaning bills would not be paid as easily.

But after much thought and after reading just a few pages of the script, Robinson decided “Tree” would be worth it. The play details her character’s struggle with dementia, and illustrates the degree to which aging parents come to rely on their adult children.

“After reading those pages, I knew I wanted the role, it was a role I was willing to fight for,” she said. “So I went in and I gave the best audition I could.”

Through her one-woman shows, Robinson has often relayed the struggles and the achievements of Black women in the arts. She also tells her own story in the autobiographical “It’s A Good Thing I Knew How to Dance.” The new role is nothing short of a departure, and portraying Jessalyn’s battle with dementia has been a learning experience for Robinson.

“This role has any actor’s dream written all over it because of the issues that are being dealt with,” Robinson said. “My character suffers from the beginning stages of dementia, something that is so prevalent in our society right now, and very much misunderstood because people think dementia is Alzheimer’s, but it is very different from Alzheimer’s or any other disease related dementia, it’s like, it’s a sense of being lost and uninhibited. With Alzheimer’s, a person loses all thought, with dementia it’s in and out, caused by the degeneration of brain cells so the brain function gradually deteriorates, and it results in progressive loss of memory, mental abilities and really noticeable personality changes.”

While working with an ensemble cast makes every day exciting — another aspect of this play that differentiates from working solo for so many years — it is still not easy for Robinson to get into character for each show. As it turns out, getting into Jessalyn is nothing like putting on a costume, Robinson said.

“It’s a mindset,” she said. “Jessalyn is in the beginning phases of dementia, so she suffers from short term memory, she’s aware of what’s happening, but gets confused a lot. She has great lucidity of past memories, it’s the short term memory that is really, really difficult, and it results in the breakdown of the personality so much that I switch between apathy and aggression, go through severe mood swings, and the memory of the present can just be fleeting. … I don’t think we take this disorder serious enough.”

A family’s struggle when its matriarch suffers from dementia is only one of the many powerful thematic layers studied by Hebert in “Tree.” The play also takes on race relations, interracial relationships from the days of slavery to today, and the exploration of family trees.

There is so much that one can take away from watching this play, Robinson said recently, aside from an enriched theatrical experience.

“It’s not only about dementia … there’s just so much more … that’s why I fell in love with this play … but the importance of caregiving, of children growing up and having to put their lives on hold now to care for their parents, it’s something that’s so important for us to look at and prioritize. There’s so much that I love about this play … but its overall language, it’s beautifully poetic. … I’m blessed to have received this part over so many other wonderful actresses who auditioned for it, too.”

Robinson has always believed in doing only work in which she can take pride. “Doing quality work is more important than anything else in this world,” she said. “I love doing ‘Bananas,’ because her [Josephine Baker’s] life was just so outstanding. What she did for racial relations and what she did for the entertainment business is so important, that unless something else like [“Tree”] comes along, I’m going to keep going back to sharing Josephine’s life with people.”

When the lights go out at the theater and the curtain goes down, what does she hope people take home with them?

“I want them to go home and talk about this show, about the importance of taking care of your parents when they get older, when they are sick, about how life was for people who lived in the Jim Crow era and about researching their family tree … because it’s very true what they say, you can’t know who you are until you know where you came from.”

“Tree” runs through Dec. 13 at [Inside] the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. For more information and tickets, call (323) 461-3673.