Sam Prince is joined in PART 2 of the conversation with Teresa Harris! She is a poet, playwright, and director. She joins the Creativitorium to talk about her experience of writing, producing, and directing for such topics as the enslaved community, social activism, and women's rights. Her most recent project; The Quincy Armstrong Show started in 2015 and is now a regular black history month event in her area. Check out her videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEZLluToJS2JgiUGJV-81-g For acting classes from your host; Sam Prince, check out his website: www.samber.productions and follow along on Instagram: www.instagram.com/samberproductions
Sam Prince 0:05 Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a great actor on stage or television? Do you wish you had an acting coach to help you get to the next level? Or maybe you just have a great idea for a movie series are played but aren't quite sure where to start? Well, you are in the right place my friend. My name is Sam Prince and I am the director of a production company here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and have been an actor for over 30 years. I've directed and written plays, and screenplays and taught many acting classes. This podcast is your place to learn how to move forward with your career in acting, theater, film, playwriting, screenwriting, and much more. There will be inspiring conversations with special guests as well. So welcome to the creativitorium podcast and action. Sam Prince 1:22 Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the creativitorium podcast. Not easy to say. But I think I got it. And I am here again with my special special guests. Teresa Harris. Thank you for joining me again, madam. Teresa Harris 1:40 I am. My It's my pleasure. I am thrilled. Sam Prince 1:44 Appreciate it. Cool. So where we left off last time we were going to talk about creative writing. And obviously, you've written a bunch of stuff, a whole bunch of stuff. And it sounds like it's your passion. So I always like to give some advice and tips to those other creative writers that are writing plays and monologues and screenplays and everything else that you're writing. So what kind of advice could we give to them? Teresa Harris 2:11 Well, it's pretty basic, for the most part. And yes, I hopefully it is something that you are passionate about and enjoy. And I do even though I don't it's this is one of those situations where I do as I say not as I necessarily do, I encourage people to write as often as they can, even if it's just something small, or if they journal, or whatever. And I need to do that more often. I'm going to make a commitment. I'm trying to make a commitment to write something every day, even if it's something short, because that way you hone your skills. Um, I enjoy words. I think that has been always been a big part of my writing and my love for writing. As I mentioned earlier, I wrote poetry I wrote quite a bit of poetry long before I became a playwright. And words always fascinated me I am I built much I built my vocabulary by doing crossword puzzles and word games and things like that. Um, and so I just developed a love for words, and having a good have a good thesaurus nearby, or Well, I think you can probably just use Google Now. I'm old school. But yeah, I became really well acquainted with the dictionary and a thesaurus is so that you can use a variety of words I hate using the same words over and over again, I like to use colorful words. And so I love to look at synonyms and antonyms and things like that. Um, I think that is important. But be careful. Be careful and know your audience. That's probably the biggest and most important thing, have an idea of who you are trying to direct your message to, and then shape that or craft that writing to that particular audience. Because I initially when I was starting out, and I still tend to do this, my actors get on me all the time. I do use elevated speech, I guess you would call it like your $50 million words. Because I like certain words I like it's just like aspersions and there's just no words. And nobody knows what those words mean. And even though you may use the dictionary or that the sources you don't want your your audience to have to go that route because you might lose them. So depending on who your audience is, speak to that audience have an understanding of who it is you want to direct your message to write about things at least, to start out with that, you know, write about things that you know about, because that makes it a lot easier. The, I think the words will flow, the dialogue will flow. The concept will flow, if you're writing about things that you know. And also it has more of a degree of authenticity, when you're writing about things that you're familiar with. And that you, you, you know, right. And that's not to say that you can't write about things. I mean, I write about slavery, I don't I didn't know about slavery. But I did a lot of research. And that's another thing, depending on what and I do a lot of historical writing. So I do have to make sure that I'm, I'm being as as historically accurate as possible, as I talked to you earlier about the mistake I've made with the Quincy Armstrong show, which I probably shouldn't, I shouldn't downplay it, because nobody will ever notice. Me, and as long as it bothers me. And so what it was was just for your audience, I had just use someone's name I had, instead of saying, instead of using the name, William Lloyd Garrison, I'd said Andrew Lloyd Garrison app, this is an educational moment. For people who don't know, William Lloyd Garrison was the editor of The Liberator. A, this was the newsletter that God Frederick Douglass, that lit the fire within Hamburg, to be outspoken abolitionist that he became and is known for. So um, I felt it was important to get that name, right. But every now and then you do make a mistake. And, but just be careful, because you do have people you don't know, again, you don't know who your audiences. And so you want to share that. And you will always want to maintain your credibility with whatever you're writing, and then you know, the talk, there's so many different types of writing, you can do creative nonfiction, you can do fiction, there's so many different directions that you can go. And also another thing Teresa Harris 7:09 about art in general, is that, um, I think when I write I want sometimes and I've learned I've had this as an evolution for me, mentally I've, when I write, I want people to get a certain message from what I'm writing, especially when it's poetry. But I've realized, I've come to realize that people come from a different place, they have different experiences. And so what I write may mean something to me, but it may mean something totally different to them. The point is, is that they get something from it, it may not necessarily be what you intended, but if they get something from it, then I think you accomplished your goal in reaching pure, so you know, people may not necessarily pull from it, what you intend for them to Sam Prince 8:01 write. Right? Those are great tips. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Have you published any poetry, um, Teresa Harris 8:09 depends on your definition of published the local where I work in two institutions of higher learning, let's say, and both of them have literary magazines that they publish, that is mainly geared toward, including the the writings of students, but whenever I've had two poems published in those literary magazines, and it is competitive, they don't just publish it in any and everybody and the reason I was able to do that, is I'm always learning that's another thing that's just a tip for life. Never stopped learning. Um, and I'm not gonna say my age, but I'm not a spring chicken. And, but I, but I still continue to expand my mind. I never feel like I know, everything, there's always and I think that's what excites me about life is knowing that there's always something new to to learn. So, I I'm always taking writing for I'm always that's another tip, always continue to fine tune your craft. Always, always be, you know, always find to always try to improve on what you do. And I'm so I'm taking writing courses here at the institution. I'm blessed that I work at colleges and university, a college and a university where you can take classes at no cost. And that's been a blessing for me. So, but so as a student, I qualified to have my work submitted. So that's how I got so I'm excited to say yes, I am a published author. I do plan to publish, I have enough poetry, to write and to publish poetry book. Someone told me I don't know if there's any standard for how long or how whatever. But a friend told me if you can, if you can pull out about 100 pages, um, I don't know your experience. Yeah. But um, well, go ahead. Sam Prince 10:13 I'm sorry. I was just saying with poetry. I think you can almost get away with less, you know? Yeah, depending on, you know, I mean, but, uh, shoot, I mean, even Amazon, you know, get together, throw it on there. You know, I mean, I would love to see, I love portrait myself. A lot. I mean, that's really starting to Oh, yeah. I know. Like, like you said, you know, life gets crazy. So you don't know, right? As much as I used to, but like back in college and high school, and I was, I have, I have 20 journals full of poetry. Teresa Harris 10:51 Now I have a question for you. Oh, my goodness. That did you write? We did you write when you were going through? Did you write more when you were going through something? Or did you just write all the time? Sam Prince 11:03 That's a great question. I wrote all the time. I was like you I love the words. I mean, I read the dictionary that mean, that was how nerdy I was. So I just love to write. So yeah, of course, I definitely wrote some stuff when I was going through stuff. But sometimes I wrote some funny stuff. You know, my buddy told me some funny. Write some, you know, in there, it was all it was a whole gamut of stuff. Teresa Harris 11:29 Yeah, well, you publish some of that. Sam Prince 11:31 No, no, I just told you first. Oh, Teresa Harris 11:37 this is gonna be a race to see who gets published first. Competitive now. Okay. If you want to put that bet out there, or that way out there. It's out there. All right. I'm gonna beat you to the punch. Sam Prince 11:53 All right, we got to think about a prize. We'll figure it out. Yeah, Teresa Harris 11:56 Nothing extravagant. Just an incentive. But yeah, but we should, we should both definitely get our work out there. And I was reading a I do poetry reading sometimes, like open mic. And I had written and this is a whole nother this whole, this is a whole nother show, I have written something about domestic violence, because I had been a victim of domestic violence. So again, I was writing from a place from which I knew, and, um, I read, I read the poem out during an open mic night, and a lady came up to me and she was just so moved by the poem. And she said that it just touched her and just made her realize, most importantly, that she wasn't the only one going through things. And I think that's such a critical thing. We think that we're the only one going through stuff. But we're not, we're not people, other people are going through things too. And when you make that connection, somehow, it opens up. Something for you that helps you deal with your situation, come to terms with maybe even make some decisions that will help you move beyond what was going through, but just knowing that other people are going through it. And I think that's the wonderful thing about writing, whether it's playwriting, or poetry or whatever, you never know who you are impacting. And making a difference in that in their lives just by something you say or something that they see on stage or experience or whatever. So I think it's important that that we get Sam Prince 13:39 I am looking for two types of creative cats looking for people who want to learn how to act or want to improve their acting skills. I provide acting and audition coaching for every level. But I'm also looking for all those creative cats out there who have a play or screenplay idea, or maybe you're just stuck and need help writing your masterpiece. I can help you with that too. Just go to Sambre dot productions. That's sa b r dot production productions and click coaching. All your options are right there. And we will achieve your goals together. It's never too late. Alright, let's go. Absolutely, absolutely. Now you you mentioned that you are an introvert. But introverts don't go up and do a poetry reading okay, they don't do poetry slams Teresa Harris 14:41 you know I you know I you know what I call it I have I haven't I haven't figured out it's the Michael Jack. Okay. No, you know how Michael was just kind of with very shy and withdrawn and very quiet spoken and whatever until he got on stage. Then he came along, man. Yeah. So that's kind of it. That's the only way I guess. I think it's a compartmentalization. And it depends on what it is like if I'm in a party situation, or whatever, you know, where you're having to mingle. I can't mean but I don't mean go. I would rather I would rather go over to you, Sam and and and say, Hey, let's talk one on one rather than mingling in a large group of people. So I think it just depends on the situation. And, and how you navigate it. Sam Prince 15:35 That's right. That's right. Yeah. All right. All good stuff. Great stuff. All right. So let's play a game real fast. Okay. So I asked you to give me your eight favorite actors and actresses, and we're going to put them against each other. And we're going to figure out your favorite right now. Okay, I know. I know. It's gonna be hard because you pick some amazing, amazing people. Teresa Harris 16:03 You're gonna remind me of who I picked are. Do you want me to? Well, Sam Prince 16:05 yeah, no, no, I'm around you. We're gonna already get my brackets. Okay. Okay, all right. Okay. All right. So here's the first bracket. Which is probably the toughest bracket. Yeah, we got Angela Bassett versus Cicely Tyson. Teresa Harris 16:25 Oh my gosh, I was supposed to determine which one I liked best. Sam Prince 16:31 Yes, you know, Teresa Harris 16:35 wow. I it's you know, it's funny with regard to Cicely Tyson. When I think I first saw her in the.is it the diary of missing Pitman or the autobiography. It was something that I'm missing. Yeah, I don't know the whole please forgive me. I miss Mrs. Lee has passed away though, I believe. Anyway, um, I for some reason, I thought she was that old. And I just thought she was that old. And then I kept seeing her and I'm like to wait a minute. Maybe she should be reincarnated away. But she was a phenomenal actress, but I like I think I would have to choose Angela Bassett. And all I can think of when I think of Angela Bassett is her performance as Tina Turner. And she saw that performance. She really did. I mean, from the muscular arms to the dancing. I mean, she saw that performance. So I think, um, it would have to be in and of course, I've seen her and other other productions. I just admire her so much. I think I would have to sign Miss Miss Tyson. Sam Prince 17:41 Sorry, I missed it. win Best Actress for that. Teresa Harris 17:46 She may have been nominated. I don't know if she I don't know she won. Google that. Sam Prince 17:52 Yeah, right. Yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah, I think. I think she was nominated. Teresa Harris 17:58 I believe she was. I don't think she won. But I could be wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Which one Sam Prince 18:04 should I want? That's the point. That was the best. Yeah. All right. So this one is another tough one. And they both have passed away very recently. City party a and Chadwick Boseman. Teresa Harris 18:21 Oh, no. Both of them, um, amazing actors. And, you know, I can always pick out a scene or a movie that solve them for me as far as their ability and their skill. Um, I think Sidney Poitier was an amazing actor. And it was, you know, that scene, that scene where he slapped that white man, um, it was just something. It was something about that scene. Um, and I think I don't I don't know, everybody just felt it was the slap belt around the world. That was so groundbreaking. And I don't want to make light of it. But it was it was groundbreaking. It was empowering. It was amazing. Um, how Sam Prince 19:11 he so classily Did those two, you know, like, yes. You know, we could, yeah, Teresa Harris 19:17 yeah. He was. I mean, he was just commanding person personality. You know, I can only imagine when he walked into a room that rose up. And he spoke with such dignity and class. Like you said, he's such a classy guy from head to toe. But my heart goes out to Chadwick. Sam Prince 19:40 Really? Yeah, he's really taking the win there. Teresa Harris 19:44 He's gonna take the win. Yeah. There's a pattern I was going to where the younger actors I think I think you know what, um, I think it was his role as the Black Panther again, empowering. Um, and I found out so much I didn't even realize that there was a black panther that the Black Panther character or had been in existence, apparently, quite some time. Is that part of the Marvel Universe? Sam Prince 20:17 Yes, yes. Yes. So yeah. Like the just like the 6070s. Teresa Harris 20:24 Yes. And I'm like, wow, but but we really didn't we, unless you were a comic book fan, you really didn't know, right? Oh, yeah. You Sam Prince 20:32 didn't know. Yeah. So Teresa Harris 20:33 when I saw that, I'm like, wow, this is amazing. I just loved that character. It was it was just, it was he was strong. He was just everything. And I think and maybe I'm thinking not just about the characters he played, but the person he was just like, sitting here, but I after I found out that he did a lot of his roles while fighting, um, was a pink rat. Sam Prince 20:58 Right? Teresa Harris 20:59 I believe, some type of cancer. And, um, when I and everything I read, he was, you know, he just he hung in there. He didn't even tell people. He was all about getting the work done. That work ethic is man. I think that's what took him over the top for me, just his work ethic. And the way he embraced all the roles that he he took on the one that probably was the one that was the funniest for me, though, was his portrayal of James Brown. Sam Prince 21:32 Oh, my goodness. Teresa Harris 21:34 I think that inspired me because we found this part of the country. We did want to the Quincy Armstrong show, I have to send you out, or did I send you that? I don't know. I don't think I saw that bit that. I have to send you that clip. It took James in a whole different direction. But, but I was inspired by a chat with the postman's portrayal of, of James Brown. It was. It was interesting the way he he put that out there. But yeah, wait. Sam Prince 22:05 All right. All right. I hear you. I hear you. Alright, so next we got Viola Davis. Against, um, I always mess up her first name, my or shall I? Oh, okay. Oh, my Maya Shaolin. See, I always mess up her name doesn't matter. Shall I leave? Marsala? Teresa Harris 22:29 Isn't a hotshot Ursula. Sam Prince 22:33 Ursula. Teresa Harris 22:37 Okay, um, um, Viola. Because, um, I think she's been around longer, maybe, um, when she's been more well known, you know, the thing I like about her. And forgive me if I'm getting being too direct, but it's, it's how I how I am. Speak. Yes, she, um, she represents the the dark skinned females who kind of get underrepresented, under appreciated, undervalued not just in the arts, theaters, movies, TV, whatever, but just in general, so she's representing she's, and I'm a dark skinned girl. So she's representing us and what I like about her is she does not mind getting this is proverbially proverbially naked, and to some degree visibly, because she will spit it out. I've seen her no makeup at all. I mean, in all her, you know, just her organic miss. But, but she doesn't mind doing whatever she needs to do for her craft. And she doesn't always have to, you know, she lost time. She's just not look glamorous at all, but I admire her and I think she just I don't know if she's, uh, I don't know what type of acting she does. I don't know if it's method or whatever you call it, but how I didn't hear you Sam Prince 24:27 know, yeah, I don't know either. Teresa Harris 24:28 Yeah. But whatever it is, she makes her characters her own and she makes them so believable. And like I said, if she does whatever she has to do if she if she's looking not so glamorous, she doesn't care from hair and you know how we black women love our hair to always look a certain way and we won't go out in public. We won't even get water. Um, we have to find out because yeah, this is me. This is who I am. This is reality. And so I like the way she is not afraid to do it. she needs to do to represent the character that she's playing. So it would be Miss Viola. Sam Prince 25:06 Viola. All right. Okay, so then the last bracket is a mess of his last name now. Daniel Baluja. Oh, I Teresa Harris 25:16 never been able to pronounce that one. Sam Prince 25:18 That was a tough one. I Teresa Harris 25:19 do want to try. Sam Prince 25:21 Right? Yeah. And it Joseph Sikora. Oh, Teresa Harris 25:26 okay. Um, I don't know if everybody knows who Joseph Secure Score is they know they know him. But I don't know if they know his name. But he's Tommy and power. It's gonna have to be that's a close win. But because I love love, love Dan. Daniel. I love Daniel. I'm in. Sam Prince 25:50 Oh, yeah, right, love. Teresa Harris 25:52 I loved him in that. I love that movie. Oh my gosh, I love that movie. But Joseph Sikora. I really like him. Because, again, he he goes with it to whatever length he does to make you feel what his character is feeling. And I think he has gotten the short end of the stick. And he's a he's a white man. He has not been acknowledged for the amazing actor that he is. And he is something about when he you can tell he's because his character. Most people watch power, I'm sure but his character. There's when he gets in that mode where he's getting ready to do something dastardly. You can see it on his face. He didn't have to say anything. And just that ability I mean, his eyes glaze over is this amazing? That he can do that and I love the way his character in power, because the character is so across the spectrum, the character can be loving and kind and and beautiful and passionate. And he can be just as despicable as the most despicable person on earth. So to be able to play that and play it believably um, yeah, that is what does it for me, I think I think Yeah, amazing actor and should definitely get more recognition than he Sam Prince 27:18 does. Right. Teresa Harris 27:19 So Joseph Zucker, Joseph Sikora, yes. Sam Prince 27:23 All right. All right. Now the Final Four was definitely gonna make you know. So now that is where it gets tough. Angela Bassett, versus Viola Davis. Unknown Speaker 27:42 Oh, okay. Viola. Sam Prince 27:46 Okay, well, Viola. Oh, I was so easy. Teresa Harris 27:53 Again, because Viola just she just takes you she doesn't mind being wrong. As she says. She says who she she just will do whatever she needs to do. I've never seen Angela be. She might have been but I've never seen Angela not look glamorous, in some way. shape or form. Yeah. By Allah has looked the extreme opposite of glamorous on many occasions. Yeah. I admire that. Sam Prince 28:18 Yeah. Did you see? Was it my rainy? Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a perfect example. Teresa Harris 28:30 I'm like, What am I doing? My raining? I don't know. Anyway, I think they just kind of went over. But she she played that role. And she played it amazing. That's a perfect example. And there was a scene in um, how to commit how to commit murder. That doesn't sound like Oh, Sam Prince 28:55 yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. How to? How to write something how to murder you How to Get Away with Murder. Teresa Harris 29:01 Yeah, that's it. Yeah, there was a scene in that there that she she I think she literally took off her makeup and her hair and everything. And there you had my hola at her core. And that that just did it for me as far as her as an actor. I'm like, that takes courage to do that. Sam Prince 29:21 Yeah, I think I remember that scene, actually. Teresa Harris 29:25 Yes, yeah. eyelashes and the hair, right? Yeah. Right there. Yes. Yes. Sam Prince 29:34 Alright, so the next one is Chadwick Boseman. And Joseph sucker Oh, you're Teresa Harris 29:48 you're a hard man. Sam Prince 29:52 Um, Teresa Harris 29:54 I'm gonna have to go with Joseph support. Sam Prince 29:57 What Yes. Teresa Harris 30:00 Yeah, to go with Justice at least Chadwick got the recognition. I feel like for your point, yeah, they recognized him so I don't have to do it. The world has done it for him. Or for me. But Joseph sucker. I, you know, I want this products. Sam Prince 30:19 Alright, right. So much so that in the finals, you gotta give him you're gonna have a beat Viola Davis? Teresa Harris 30:27 Gracious oh my god, Sam Prince 30:32 the wire your favorite right now? No, I'm Teresa Harris 30:36 gonna have to give that to violence. Yeah, yeah Sam Prince 30:41 yeah, yeah. Teresa Harris 30:42 Wow, that was so cool because it got me to thinking about why I like these people and you know, makes them the the amazing actors that they are. Sam Prince 30:52 Right right that's what I love to do it plus I love to hear your perspective, you know, I mean, and and he's, you know, like, honestly, Joseph Sikora. I mean, I knew Tommy, but I didn't put the name to the face. Teresa Harris 31:09 Yeah, nobody does. That's why That's why I explained to your audience who he was because nobody knows his his name is Joe's a CT. And he's in a lot of other things, too. But I think he's his most memorable role is Tommy and of course, he's he's, he's taking that role to the spin off. Sam Prince 31:26 Right, right. Yeah, right. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, last question is, what is Teresa's plans to creatively do things in the near future? Teresa Harris 31:40 I plan to win an Emmy and Oscar nominee doesn't matter what order, but I, I plan. In fact, I'm playing it now. I will win those in the not too distant future. And in order to get there, I plan to I do want to continue writing plays, but I want to expand on that I I have some ideas for TV series that I would like to I have a couple of friends who have no people who know people. And so I'm I may not may I will be hopefully submitting some ideas for some TV series or a couple of TV series. And also, oh, I forgot to mention, I have written two screenplays Well, COVID co written two screenplays that I'm currently being marketed out and someone will pick up pick them up. Sam Prince 32:36 Oh, that's great. That's great. All right. Wow, you got a lot of stuff in the works. Teresa Harris 32:42 I do. I do. I do. And that's another thing. Writing for me is therapeutic. Sam Prince 32:48 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Writing is therapeutic. Definitely. I might. I might title this episode that. Right. Okay. Beautiful. Well, thank you so much, Teresa. This was a joy. I really, really was. I wish we had more time. We could do like four more episodes. Teresa Harris 33:10 I know. This has been great. Sam Prince 33:11 Yeah. Yeah. But I would love to have I got to have you come back after you win the Emmy. Or get your screenplay done? Or it was so you? Yeah, you gotta Teresa Harris 33:21 win that me or that Oscar that Tony. You will be the first person that I talked to. Sam Prince 33:26 And it's so awesome. Thank you, Teresa. Alright, so we this end of this episode, and I'm so glad you joined us. And again, my name is Sam Prince. Thank you, Teresa Harris for joining me. And we will see. Yes, yes, we will see you next time. Thank you. Sam Prince 34:03 Hey, thank you for listening to the creativity Korean podcast. Again, my name is Sam Prince. And it is my honor to be your host and thank you so much for listening. I would also be honored if you could leave a review on Apple podcasts and say some nice things about what you just heard. And definitely please listen every week. We come out every Tuesday. Also, for more information about coaching classes, workshops and upcoming productions, please check out our website Sambre dot productions, that's sh m b e r dot productions. And you can also subscribe to our newsletter. And remember all the worlds of stage