We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robert E. Coppage III a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Robert thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I was working as a boys home facilitator in Wyandotte County. It was a tough time for me mentally and financially back in 2018. My acting career was finally gaining momentum. I went from doing dinner theatre to actual theatre and it felt incredible. I just wanted to keep doing more. Then one of the cast members for a show I was doing at the Coterie, thanks Tommy, told me about auditions for competitive improv at a place called Comedy City. I was also getting calls from big time directors in the city who wanted to work with me. I was managing all of that while working at this group home and I would take my scripts into work with me. There were even mornings when I would get off of work, and catch a bus out to Missouri to donate plasma, all while studying my scripts. One night on shift, a mentor of mine who worked with me heard me say I wanted to act. He told me that the only way to get there is by going there. He told me I wouldn’t be able to just stay where I was an be an actor I would have to commit. I am glad he told me that. That is when I decided to really dive in and take a chance. The next year I created Tribe University and we have been teaching improv, training actors, and casting projects since April 2019.
Robert, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have always wanted to be an actor and film maker. When l was in elementary school my step dad gave me his old video camera. I would make my own movies, make my own shows, make my own skits and record them with my cousin. I loved the feeling of being creative, then I realized other people enjoyed me having fun. In the fourth grade I did a play with my school and one of the students couldn’t come the night of the performance. I knew everyone’s lines so I volunteered to run his track and mine. It was so natural and easy to me. It was fun and exciting. After that show my mom took me a little bit more seriously and got me signed up for classes at Theatre for Young America. At the time it was in Shawnee Mission Mall. I took classes there and learned to audition and to act and do improv. They offered me a role for their summer show of Cinderella and they paid me $50. I was a professional in 5th grade. By the time I graduated I didn’t think much of a future in acting. I thought it to be a bit unrealistic and decided to become a gospel rapper instead. As time went on the thoughts and hopes of acting had faded until I was hit with passion for it again. It came after I had lost everything I felt I had built. Lost my marriage, lost my religion, lost my desire for good things. I was depressed and drinking alot. Taking out my own frustrations on people I cared about. I prayed one night and God actually heard my cry. I asked him to give me passion about something. Make me excited about something again. As time went on, I would get random opportunities frequently. I realized that I wanted to use my improv abilities for life. I wanted to teach people from where I am from to use their minds to see past whatever is in front of them.
Growing up we were taught to use our imaginations. Then at a certain age we learn to stop imagining and to just live in the “real world” but what is the “real world” if its not someone else’s imagination. I saw the power that knowing improv could provide to someone who didn’t know how powerful they were. I wanted kids to not get put out of classrooms for talking too much or being over active. I wanted to create a space where people could let all of their creative energy out in a fun empowering way. So I made Tribe U. I began to teach and encourage kids who looked like me to use and practice problem solving skills, quick thinking skills, public speaking and teamwork. I use improv to get people ready for the “real world” where if they can see it in their minds, it is already real. The biggest rule in improv is to say, “Yes, and..” if people adopted this ideology in their everyday life it would change everything around them.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I love reading. My mom and grandmother encouraged reading from an early age. I remember the exact moment I realized what reading was. I was about 4 years old and I was at pre school with Mrs. Garrett. She told me to read what was on the page, so I looked at the picture and told her what I saw. She scolded me, “Tre that isn’t reading. Read the words not the pictures.” I haven’t stopped reading the words since.
One of my favorite books I’ve read so far is a book by James Allen called As A Man Thinketh. It explains how to use your mind as a garden. Only let the things grow there that you want to take root and get strong. It takes a special kind of person to be intentional with their thoughts and only let the things grow that you actually want in there. Another great few books were, The Magic of dreaming BIG, The Alchemist, The Mountain is You, Think and Grow Rich, The Power of Positive Thinking. I could go on, there are alot more. Personally these books showed me things about my own mind and helped guide me in a productive way of thinking. Those are the types of books that I enjoy, books that can inspire me and show me something new. I need you to keep my attention.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I am from Wyandotte County. That is the smallest county in the state of KS. My father was in and out of prison for most of my life. He was abusive to women, even women that I loved and cared about. My mom was a teenage mother who had church and family. She was young and trying to figure life out for herself and for the son she had (me). Mom got married to a barber. That’s my pops. At the time they had no idea about love, life, family, God. They just knew we had bills and they had to pay them. So they worked alot. I was able to take advantage of the alone time I got and get creative. I always had ideas in my head. I began making music, producing other artists, and even touring. We would sell our music on cds in schools up and down the hallways. It was not always easy living in KS. I had family and friends who were strung out, family and friends who were banging, I had family and friends who sold drugs, who broke into people’s properties and would steal. It was a very dangerous place for a young black boy. Not to mention all of the death. The death was enough to make anyone feel like they lived in a hopeless place. A friend of mine was murdered right before his senior year by a middle school girl who was trying to take his car. He would’t give it up to her and she shot him. Her family went to my church and her victim went to school with me. That was a normal thing in WyCo and I can give at least 5 more of my friends passing in such tragic ways.
I actually took it upon myself to give young black boys in WYCO a different way to see things. I wanted them to read and learn and actually try to do somethinhg. I tried to move away a few times. Ended up right back here. So instead of leaving them to show them, I decided I would show them right here where we are. Show them how to be successful in KC and show them what it looks like to not take advantage of anyone, or get over on anyone but just create, inspire and provide. That is why I began working with students in WYCO and KCMO. I used to tell them, you will see me on tv one day you will. They would say, “dont forget about me Mr. Tre”
This is why me being on tv and in film and in dozens of commercials and even live theater is a beautiful thing to me. I want my students to see a new normal and be a part of creating a new normal. One of my most inspiring students I have had the privilege of working with on any level was a student name Gary Enrique Bradley Lopez. He was put out of a program that I was an employee of because he was too outspoken as an individual. Gary now is a father, a writer, a politician and has a Masters Degree. This is why I love working with kids. You never know who you are working next to, and you never know how much you are gaining from them while you pour into them. No it was not me who kicked him out of the program. I actually get to work with him often now. I direct shows he writes and often act in them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tribeuniversity.org
- Instagram: @robertecoppageiii
- Facebook: Robert E. Coppage III
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackhookah6614