ACTOR SPOTLIGHT: A FATHERS' DAY REFLECTION w/ Neda Spears
On this particular Fathers’ Day, I am once again in rehearsal for a show. I am also once again sad to remember that my father was never able to see me perform before he passed away in 2005 - on the morning of the opening day of the show I was doing at the time. That awful morning reinforced the saying, “the show must go on” in the strongest terms in my mind since that day. I attribute my love of singing to my mother and my love of acting (a fool) to my father. He instilled in me the belief that it is okay to make fun of yourself and to laugh as often and as hearty as possible.
I wanted to be the Black Shirley Temple when I was 7. I then wanted to be the Black Barbara Streisand- singer, actor, not-quite dancer. At one point I wanted to be the first Black female astronaut (that ended as soon as my aversion to riding roller coasters was pointed out and equated to being weightless in space). I even tried my hand at singing in a rock band to be the next Tina Turner. From there I tried to be the first Black-something or even just one of the Black-somethings in any creative way possible. I was inspired early on by seeing Nichelle Nichols on “Star Trek” and thought that I, too, needed to show that Black actors should be allowed and invited in to any and all creative spaces. The constant goal was to remind all those in casting that “non-traditional” could and should be used in all situations. As the years went on, I often found myself still being the ONLY in many of the shows and spaces I inhabited-sometimes because I showed up and proved my talent- but more often than not, it was because no person of color even showed up. After a while, I just stopped forcing the issue and just enjoyed the process, but when I wasn’t the ONLY, I subtly (or in the case of when there were many POC, not-so-subtly) acknowledged the fact.
As I’ve gotten older, I have seen that there are more instances where the casting is non- specific in its ethnic makeup and I celebrate that. The irony now is that most of those roles are for characters younger than 50. And only one older character at that.
So, now my focus is on having creatives consider the stories older characters can tell. Exactly like the show I am rehearsing right now thanks to Eric Coble.
Once again, I am an ONLY Black female actor. But I acknowledge and embrace that I am still able to be one of the creative people in the room. And perhaps inspire some young face in the crowd to want to be a Black-Latin-Asian-Native-something in a creative space somewhere.
Mission accomplished.
