This book confronts and analyzes the systemic racism that confronts actors of color in the USA through interviews with leading performers in the nation’s theatrical epicentre of Chicago.
Each chapter deals with a different central question, from how these actors approach roles and the obstacles that they face, to the ways in which the industry can change to better enable actors of color. By bringing together these actors and sharing the ways in which they have functioned within the white theatre world, we can appreciate how theatre needs to embrace their identities so that all voices are heard, understood, and valued. The stories of these actors will reflect the systemic racism of the past and present with the hope of remaking the future.
This is an important book for students, teachers, and professionals who engage in theatre work, helping them to understand the lived experiences of actors of color through those actors’ own words.
Table of Contents:
1. How has your being/identity affected your career? 2. What obstacles have you encountered because of your being/identity? 3. Does your identity/being impact how you approach a role? A role traditionally played by a white actor? 4. Have you had any positive experience with a director who understood identity consciousness? 5. Have you had any negative experience with a director who did not understand identity consciousness? 6. Has anyone ever asked you to modify or neutralize your identity to gain a role or play a role? 7. Do you think there have been changes made in the performance industry since the time you started? 8. What changes need to be made to ensure an equitable workplace? 9. What advice would you give to a beginning identity actor?
About the Author :
Shanésia Davis is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Acting at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, USA. Ms. Davis is also an award-winning stage, television, and film actor based in Chicago.
Review :
“Shanésia Davis has provided an essential and vital tool for ALL actors and, in so doing, proves the axiom that questions can provide more insight than answers. Her professional/personal experiences and probing mind make her the ideal curator for the subject. One gets the sense that her courage in confronting the insoluble puzzle of bringing one’s inescapable identity to this mysterious work of ours will save minds, and maybe even souls. My biggest takeaway from this book is that it is a relief to know that I am not alone.”
Harry J. Lennix, Producer and Director, USA
"Shanésia asks relevant questions that require a degree of courage from both the one asking and those answering. The theatrical community abroad will gain an understanding, by reading this book, that may serve as a unifying tool for us all. It offers a truthful glimpse into a world, of which the depths aren't known by many, through voices that are usually silenced and ignored. Shanesia, through this project, empowers those that need it most."
Melody Betts, Actress and Director, USA
“The unique challenges and resilience strategies of global majority actors working on Chicago and U.S. stages are specific, and far too often have gone unrecognized or under appreciated. Shanésia Davis’s own holistic, honest, and experienced approach to character building and artistic collaboration opens the doorway to the lessons gleaned and journeys revealed by the artists whose artistry is given full voice in 9 Questions. More than simply a resource, it’s a whole testimony that gives strength, guidance, and reassurance to performers of color looking to unlock their own excellence and strength.”
Darren Canady, Professor of English, Honors Faculty Fellow, University of Kansas City, USA
“This collection of interviews asks the reader to enter a world that lies beneath the shiny, oft-sanitized façade of; first rehearsals, media interviews, and opening nights, that most actors experience as a part of their work. Davis asks us not to cynically give over that world as false, but to bravely witness actors of color revealing the stories behind the stories—a version of reality that almost every Black actor can viscerally recognize even before the final sentence has been spoken. And the fact that it focuses specifically on experiences in the vibrant Theatre community of the city of Chicago brings a fresh, down-to-earth perspective that will appeal to many theatre practitioners of all ages.”
Lisa Gaye Dixon, Chair of Acting and Producer of Illinois Theatre at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, USA
