We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tyrone Stanley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tyrone below.

Alright, Tyrone thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

For many years, I have performed in and directed or choreographed shows that were popular and, if I am honest, paid well. While money is not the driving force, I am happy to be paid to do what I love. Loving performing does not always mean I am playing a role or telling a story that resonates with me personally. I have plaid Sportin’ Life, a drug dealer in the Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess. I played a drug user in the role of Andre the Viper in Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’. It wasn’t until I began to write and compose for some of my own stories based on occurrences from my life that I understood the importance of connecting to a character, a story, a song. Not that the other shows I have been a part of were not meaningful, but nothing was more meaningful than telling my own – and Soul on Fire was my first and still most meaningful project. Soul On Fire is a musical that tells a story of a young woman that has been assaulted by an influential man in society. When justice refuses to serve her, she goes on a journey to take matters into her own hands. This project was my answer to some of my own past trauma, giving me voice, empowerment, and breaking the silence after many years of misplaced hurt, anger, and disappointment. I went a journey like that of the heroine of the musical, but I chose to use creativity as my action piece. This musical was my way of “Breaking the Silence” – and while it is fictional, there are many true stories woven into this musical that should spark conversations, heal broken spirits, and embolden survivors. That is what makes Soul on Fire the Musical meaningful to me.

Tyrone, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am from Goldsboro, NC originally. I really started training in voice, piano, and dance when I attended North Carolina A&T State University, where I was active in music, theatre, and dance. My first professional contract came right out of college when I was offered a role in a show that toured the Netherlands for a year. This first opportunity led to my career of over twenty years. Within those years, I remained determined to further my education, but in wiring for theatre, film, and television. I earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in English with a Creative Writing focus. In that time, I continued performing and even teaching high school and college. never realizing that the combined experiences would lead me to where I am today. I am a playwright and composer whose works have been featured in multiple national and international festivals and concerts. I am currently the coordinator and Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at Morgan State where I earned my Ph.D., making history as the first Creative Dissertation in the English department, and the first ever musical included in a dissertation. Written as a part of my master’s thesis, Soul on Fire the Musical made a Kennedy Center debut in 2014. Soul On Fire the Musical made its Off-Broadway debut in New York’s June Havoc Theatre, as a main stage feature for the Midtown International Theatre Festival in 2013. While I am extremely proud of my first musical, two other full-length musicals came after that because of my position at Morgan State with the new BFA Musical Theatre program, one of only two BFA programs at an HBCU. This is what I am most proud of. Being able to use my gifts to train and prepare and make art with musical theatre artists that have an opportunity I did not – to study this craft specifically and attain a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In this capacity, I teach voice, dance, and acting in the classes required to complete the degree. Additionally, I direct and choreograph full productions. In recent years, I produced DREAMGIRLS and THE COLOR PURPLE, as well as Musical Theatre Showcases and recitals throughout the year. I continue to write and develop new work. I am preparing to shoot my first tv script that I developed at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where I studied in the Profession Writing for Television program. In 2020, I was commissioned by Long Beach Opera Company to write the libretto to two of their new operatic works for the 2020-21 season. In 2022, I was commissioned to adapt Soul on Fire with an African influence to include the Swahili and Igbo languages. This revision took me to Kenya for research to support the revisions. My work has also been seen in the National Black Theatre Festival, Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, and the Midtown International Theatre Festival and Awards, where I won Best New Musical and Best Lead Actor in a Musical. I am currently preparing to produce Elton John and Time Rice’s AIDA at Morgan State University Musical Theatre, and preparing to choreograph Scott Joplin’s opera, TREEMONISHA with Opera Morgan under the direction of famous soprano Marquita Lister. I take pride in the versatility of my training in musical theatre and classical genres. I made my New York City Opera debut as a featured tenor in Toni Morrison’s Margaret Garner, the opera, based on the acclaimed novel BELOVED, only to finish that opera and take the role of Andre the Viper in the national tour of Ain’t Misbehavin. I have also played Sportin’ Life in the Australia/New Zealand tour of George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess; a feature role in an open run of NJ Performing Arts production of Your Arms Too Short to Box With God, which starred Tony Award winner Melba Moore and Cissy Houston; and the lead role in the regional premiere of Passing Strange (Guthrie, OK). I am aspiring to do more television work in the coming years. My background in TV started with an appearance on CBS’ As the World Turns; then ABC’s All My Children; HBO’s Sex & the City; and Whoopi Goldberg’s Whoopi. My goal is to be the master of all my trades and to share my gifts with the world and hopefully, make it a better place. It is not just a career; it is my calling. I am an Artist – a singer, dancer, composer, pianist, writer, professor, choreographer, director – and still just a plain ole country boy from Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For many years, I could not fit in to any one box. So many people will try to tell you to pick a team and play on it – rather than expression that is vast and duplicitous and wide and full of range. I could not figure out how to quiet the call in one area, like writing – and only focus on being on the stage. I needed the outlet to play freely in all the gifts God gave to me. I had to let go of everyone else’s expectations and allow my creativity to guide me, to grow inside me, and then to be birthed. No matter what came out, I had to nurture it and see what it would grow up to be. The church, professors, family, friends – everyone thought they knew what I should be doing – and I finally had to get it out of my head that other people knew better what I should be doing than I did. You do NOT have to focus on one thing at a time if that is not the box for you. You can express yourself in all ways at one point of life, and then one way at other points. There is no rule that says you cannot master more than one craft. And if it is, break it!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

While it is a part of the business, I had a few years of a whole lot of rejection in the industry. It was so disheartening. At one point, I was riding up and down the train in New York with nowhere to lay my head. I refused to go back home to North Carolina having failed at the thing I love the most – because I believed that I was supposed to be in this career. This happened two more times in my life. I was crashing at friends’ houses trying to stay in the business no matter the cost. I even slept in my car before. I did not want to give up. Each time, just when I was about to throw in the towel, a contract landed in my lap. Every round gets higher and higher – if you keep climbing UPWARDS. This does not mean you won’t fall sometimes, but you must get back up. Even after finally getting stable in the business, life can bring other hardships that the resilience learned from the past experiences is not equipped for. In 2015, I was diagnosed with Renal Carcinoma – cancer of the kidney. This was nothing like not having gigs, or money, or riding up and down on trains to make it to the next day. Even still, it felt like rejection. I had never smoked, very health conscious, never even having alcohol. How could this be happening? At the time, I had closed a musical and was preparing for the next contract. I was even working on my dissertation. I could not stop just because I had to have this surgery and beat this disease. I kept going. I made each appointment and never missed any rehearsals. I even finished my dissertation. The creativity fueled my determination. I didn’t tell anyone outside of my amazing, supportive family because I did not want anyone to encourage me to quit or take a break. If for any reason things did not go like I wanted them to, I at least knew I would exit the stage of life doing what I loved and completing the tasks before me. Thank God, it did not go that way. I finished my shows. I finished my Ph.D. I beat cancer. Most of all, I made my Mom, Dad, Son, and wonderful siblings proud.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.morgan.edu/fine-and-performing-arts/music/faculty-and-staff/tyrone-stanley
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tyronne1914/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyrone-stanley-ph-d-5552591/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tyronestanley1608?app=desktop

Image Credits

CraigCapture Photography, Damien Taylor Photography