Sam Prince is joined with Teresa Harris. Who 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 1:21 So welcome, welcome. Welcome to the creativitorium podcast. I'm your host, Sam Prince. And I am so excited to have my guest today. Because I've been meaning to talk to her for but months now I think. Yeah, It's been a while! Teresa Harris 1:41 Yeah, it has. Sam Prince 1:42 Yes, yes. Teresa Harris. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Teresa Harris 1:47 Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Sam Prince 1:51 I'm so excited to have you. So Teresa Harris 1:53 it took me a while to pronounce or to actually say creativity. torium. I had to it's like a word that you have to get a running start. Sam Prince 2:06 Isn't time is a duck Twister. Yeah. Yeah. I probably should have come up with some shorter but hey, Teresa Harris 2:13 I think it's awesome. Sam Prince 2:14 I love it. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. So we we met really through Facebook Messenger. You messaged me about the Frederick Douglass plan everything right? Teresa Harris 2:25 I did. I was doing research for the Frederick Douglass segment of the Quincy Armstrong show, which we'll talk about. And I was looking at YouTube, because YouTube is such an amazing source of everything. And I ran across I think this was divine intervention. I ran across your interview with I think maybe a local station. Social. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, wow, this is amazing. Because I wanted to I was excited to find that you were working on a project involving Frederick Douglass. So I was eager to find out more about that. Sam Prince 3:01 Yeah, yeah. Well, here we are. I'm so glad to meet you. Because you're doing amazing things. Really amazing things. I'm very impressed with what you're doing. Teresa Harris 3:13 Well, thank you. I'm trying. And I just feel it's important to educate people on history, especially aspects of history that they don't know or had not heard or didn't get in school. Because our school system doesn't do the greatest job of telling us our story. Sam Prince 3:32 Right? No, they do not know they do not. So speaking of story, perfect segue. Let's talk about your story. And tell the listeners all about Theresa, here's where she started, where she found a love acting, writing up to now. Teresa Harris 3:50 Okay, um, it's like most things that have happened to me. I've kind of fallen into it. It wasn't like I sought it out or anything like that. For a long, long time. The most I did with the arts was writing poetry. And, um, one day a friend of mine, a co worker, again, I believe that things happen for a reason that you were put into certain places and you're introduced to certain people for reasons beyond what you initially know. And I was working at a local college and I ran, I met this gentleman who was always also working there, who was a playwright. And someone had asked him to produce one of his plays, he and he had never actually directed a play or actually put on a play. He had just written them. And of course, I've never even written a play. So he asked me, he said, Okay, you're gonna help me with this. And I'm like, I don't know anything about it. He says needs to do I will be the blind leading the blind. So So we, we, we decided we wanted to do this, we actually produced it. It was fun. I was bitten by the, the theater bug. And it happened, what what his play was about it was about four generations of African American men from slavery to present day. And I think each, he skipped maybe I think every personality he did was like two generations removed from the previous person. So anyway, it was all male. So I was so taken with this, I said, you know, we were both like, why don't you do a female version of it. So that was my first play was called from the valley to the peak and still climbing, his play was called climbing the mountain top when there's nowhere left to walk. And so his was the male version, mine was the female, and so on. I had wrote that. I did, I did. And I had to send you a copy of this. Started out with the enslaved matriarch of the family. And then it skipped a couple of generations when we found ourselves, or I found myself writing about a character in I believe, like the 20s, or 30s, and talked about learning to read or being educated in the fight to pay for education and the fight to, to have to have some semblance of value beyond what we didn't have as enslaved people. So um, and then the third one was set, the third character was set in the 70s. And so we're going through that the civil rights, kind of post Civil Rights Movement, everything that was kind of going on in the late 60s, early 70s. And then finally, present day. So it was it was empowering. It was it was about it was looking at this whole black experience from the female perspective. Sam Prince 7:10 Right, right now, are they are they monologues? Yes. Teresa Harris 7:16 They sure are. Yeah, so each about 20 minute monologues, which was I admired my actresses, they took on the challenge and rose to the occasion, they did an amazing job, in fact, is I hope to do that one again. But that was my first the first play that I had actually written. From there, and I directed my first play in 2014 2014 2015, I'm sorry. And that was a play that was written by the guy that had gotten me into plays in the first place, I directed his play, because he was a he was a writer, but not a director. I didn't enjoy that part of it never directed before other than helping him direct that other play. But I'm always wanting to take on challenges, and especially if someone tells me, I can't do something that motivates me. So some of those people had said, um, you can't do this, you know, you've never directed before, you can't do it. I'm like, Okay, watch me. And it was, it was it was, it's funny, because I perhaps don't direct in the formal or traditional ways that you're supposed to direct, but I get the job done. And I've been blessed to surround myself with very competent individuals who have helped me achieve the goals that I set out to achieve. Sam Prince 8:36 Well, you okay, that is awesome. But you got to go back to what you just said, how do you direct in your fashion? Teresa Harris 8:44 Um, that's a good question. I never really analyzed it. But um, whenever I work with people who have had more experience, they'll often say, Well, in traditional theater, you don't necessarily do it this way. Um, I've had people say that perhaps I coddle my actors a little too much. And you know, if they're struggling, I really want to work with them. And I try to do whatever I can to perhaps I spend a little too much time the people that I work with are not professional actors, their community members often don't get paid for acting. And so I feel like if they need an extra bit of hand holding, or walking through, you know, I will take the time to do that. And I'll do whatever it takes to make it happen. For sure. Yeah. Probably just, you know, just taking a little bit more time with the production and then perhaps most productions take but um, but yeah, just whatever it whatever I have to do, to get it done. I get Sam Prince 10:02 Okay, all right. So now we're in like 2015. Right? Teresa Harris 10:07 Yeah. Yeah, I am directed a play called an accident waiting to marry, which was so much fun. And that's a play. It was written by my colleague, but I would love to take this play to another level. Maybe take it on the road. Maybe we were even talking about maybe putting it into film version, or I don't know, maybe figuring out how we could submit it for consideration for a TV series or whatever, because it's about four men who it reminds me of a female I'm sorry, a male version of friends. Not friends, girlfriends. Girlfriends. Okay. Okay. I don't know if you for me. What are you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That is these four guys who met in college and have they would spend these weekends wilding out. And then but they continue to do it until they got a little too old to do it. And then there was always one who wanted to continue to do it. He was kind of a womanizer, and his womanizing ended up getting one of his married friends in trouble. So the story takes it from there and the antics craziness that goes on with you wrote that today find themselves into now this was written by Dee Brown, who I write who got me who introduced me to, to theater. Talk to as well he, he writes in, he sees a great play, right. But he helped me to get started and gave me gave me the launch that I needed. But, uh, yeah, but that that's the only play that I've directed. That was not a play that I had written. I've written for, I love doing historical vignettes. So I've written for poplar forest, which is Thomas Jefferson's second home. His primary home is, um, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia. His secondary home is poplar forest here, not far from Lynchburg. And I, I was commissioned to write vignettes, they decided that, instead of just talking about Thomas Jefferson, and all the great things he did, they wanted to acknowledge that there were other people on the plantation besides Jefferson, people who live there died, they're raising their children there. So I was very happy about that, that they wanted to showcase the enslaved community that resided all the time there. And so there were some they had little tidbits of stories. Like, I guess slave owners, we keep some records of what happened or the overseer, we keep certain records of how many people were on the planet, how many births, how many deaths, illnesses, things like that. They were having issues with a enslaved person, all the stuff they, you know, they recorded and kept track of. So we, they took the bits, the tidbits of stories that they had on record. Sam Prince 13:16 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, 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 m b e r dot productions, and click coaching. All your options are right there. And we will achieve your goals together. It's never too late. All right, let's go. Teresa Harris 14:03 We they took the bits, the tidbits of stories that they had on record said here, Theresa, this is what we know about these particular people, what can you do? And so I develop stories around what information they provide me about these particular individuals. And it's been wonderful because I'm I write late at night I for some reason, the creative juices for me don't flow until 2am in the morning. So, so I used to start writing then and it's like something else takes off. And I know this sounds kind of crazy, but it's like, um, when I write at that time, it's like the people that I'm writing about the characters. It's like they they become actively involved in the writing. Because often after I'm finished with a project, and I'll read it, I'm like, wow, did I write that you No, it's just something else took over. But, um, so we've been doing that I've been doing that for about four, four or five years now, each year, we choose a new story to write about a new personality on the plantation. Right about we may do, we do usually three stories, two of which were probably previously done, and then always add a new one. So, we have a compilation of about six or seven, eight stories right now about and they're well received. And it's a diverse audience. They seem to welcome the information and it is based on took actual characters, there was one lady who came to a production, who was the great granddaughter or great great granddaughter of an overseer, who had been involved in one of my stories, and that was so moving because she received it well, because her her relative was not favorably presented in this regard. He didn't behave well. So she received, she received it as being truth. And, and I had much respect for that, because a lot of people have a hard time with that. Sam Prince 16:16 They do away with Frederick, like I had these two, they were probably 80 years old, white ladies, just crying, just crying. You know, like, why do we teach? Why do we treat human beings like that? I mean, they were just so emotional. You know, and it's just, it's great to feel that and to hear that, and know that, you know, we're doing the right thing. Teresa Harris 16:39 Yeah. When you can reach people like that you feel like, yeah, your job is is done, and you've done it work. And, and that's always my goal is to try to educate, as well as entertain, and I try, the thing I love about this is that you can deliver hard messages in kind of a safe environment, because you're not, um, people don't have to respond, you're not pointing them out specifically, you're not, you know, they have to deal with whatever's going on within them. You know, if they've got some issues, like cause guilt, that's, that's something they have to work on. But theater I think is a beautiful way to get a message across or deliver some type of of important just deliver, deliver, deliver a message to people learn and tell the story that maybe you wouldn't otherwise be able to tell if you were just having a one on one conversation with someone. Sam Prince 17:41 All right. Okay. And then Teresa Harris 17:43 I go into the quiz. Well, I also I've done for, it'll be this will be my third year, I work with a local cemetery, who also has, for several years now done, what they call candlelight tours. And that's usually in October, it kind of goes with the Halloween spirit. It's done at night, you're actually walking through a cemetery. Every now and then every so many steps, you'll meet someone who was buried in that spot, they will come alive, and we will usually their monologue, sometimes you'll have two person productions, but they tell their story. And they make sure in this particular it's also a cemetery and in this particular cemetery, you have a lot of like civil war. People buried there. That is genius. Yeah, you have a lot of African Americans buried there. And a lot of children right there. Sam Prince 18:46 Yeah. Whose idea was it? Teresa Harris 18:50 Oh, this has been going on for a while. Um, I think it's brilliant. But it's a brilliant way to to bring traffic into the cemetery. In and and get revenue from cemetery because they charge for these and they, the they always sell out, and they do it over the course of about two weeks. And like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I think they do about seven whatever you call it, they do they, they they do it seven times each story. Yeah. Each. Seven times. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, they do chapter seven, about seven showings per night. Yeah. It's a vignette is about 10 minutes. And you go around, you have a tour guide, who's also a ghost, and they'll take you around the cemetery. And you meet these people who are buried there, in many cases, very prominent people. And I've told the story of several African Americans who are buried there. And that is really moving. Very, very poignant. So it's been So cool. Yeah, I think I thought that was I don't know whose idea it was, but it's a great idea. And then I do the Quincy Armstrong show, which evolved from needing to do something for Black History Month. And Sam Prince 20:18 the this now this is back in 2015 2015, is Teresa Harris 20:23 when we did the first one, I was a member of an organization, a black data organization called Black Theatre Ensemble, who had been in existence for quite a while. They're currently not active, but they wanted to do something a little different than for Black History Month, other than the lectures and you know, the things people traditionally do. And so I came up with the idea along with another member of the theater ensemble, I mean, the theater organization, we decided to do a program called the Quincy Armstrong show, and I thought it would be cool to have a fictitious talk show host interview people throughout history. And that's how that evolved. I can't say I came up with the name. My my colleague came up with the Quincy Armstrong show, I came up with the concept though of the talk show. And so we've done it live for several years. And then of course, COVID came along and I thought, well, it let's still do it. Let's not do let's not not do it. Let's not do it. Let's do it differently. And so we did it in the virtual format, and which is really more like a talk show anyway, so we filmed it. Um, we do it pretty much we kind of follow the playbook for a talk show, we have the guest and then we have like musical entertainment, which also gave me an opportunity to showcase the local talent. Um, as with most cities, there's a lot of amazing talent that often does not get seen or heard. So I said, you can do several things, you can do the historical portrayals, but you can also give local talent an opportunity to show their, their gifts. So we've been doing that for 2015. Since 2015. We may have skipped a year or two, but for the most part, we've been doing it pretty consistently. I'm done everybody from Harriet. Oh, no, we didn't do Harriet Tubman. We did Jharna truth. We've done Fannie Lou Hamer, we've done. Malcolm X. James Brown, the list just goes on and on. Sam Prince 22:37 Okay, wow. Wow. And it's every black history month. Teresa Harris 22:42 Yes, we've done it pretty much for every year, except like I said, we missed a couple of years. But yeah, we've done for Black History Month each year. That's great. Yeah. And ultimately, I hope to expand it maybe into the school system, because I think it's a great way to teach young people about history, especially black history. Do it in a entertaining way. They can get engaged with Sam Prince 23:08 Yeah, yep. And you know, that's I'm so see, this is why God is good, because I really wanted to talk to you about that. And let's make a note to talk about that after this, because I love to get Frederick. You know, I just got the video of it. And I haven't even looked at it yet. But I'd love to get that in the schools as well. So I can get yours. The Quincy Armstrong show up here. Yeah, Teresa Harris 23:34 we love it. We love it. Um, and would you be interested in doing a live version or the virtual or Sam Prince 23:43 for the Quincy Jones Show? Let's talk. Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, let's talk. Teresa Harris 23:53 Okay, sounds good. There's so many things we can do with that. And that's what I like about it is it's not confined to any one type of thing. You can do so much with that particular project. Sam Prince 24:07 Right. Yeah. So informative and things that it shouldn't be in schools. Right. I agree. I mean, schools. Yeah. We learned about all these other folks. Teresa Harris 24:20 Yes. Yeah. So that's, that's my goal with that. I definitely hope all right. Sam Prince 24:24 Yeah. All right. That's great. Well, looking at the time, I think that we should probably stop here. Okay. And we'll do part two, you know, between you and I, in a couple minutes, but everybody else has got away. Yeah, because we got we still got a lot to talk about. Wow, Teresa Harris 24:49 the time went by really fast. Sam Prince 24:52 I know. I'm Teresa Harris 24:54 introverted person. Sam Prince 24:58 You're not introverted today. Yeah, great. Okay, so we'll end it here. Thanks everybody for listening to us. Thank you Teresa Harris for joining me. I can't wait to talk about her to Sam Prince 25:14 see 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'd also be honored if you can 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 a 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