Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marc Antonio Pritchett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marc Antonio, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

I have lived on my own since I was 15 1/2. I could never afford piano lessons but since I could read music, and learned how the piano was laid out note-wise, I was able to teach myself to some degree. I would stay after school and practice in the choral room. The chorus teacher noticed and as there were no other boys that played piano she asked if I would represent our school in various region competitions. I agreed and she would pick music and even stayed afterschool on occasion to give me pointers. I would place 3rd or 4th in these competitions, always losing to kids who had piano lessons since they were 6. Sensing my frustration, my chorus teacher always encouraged me, stating that I should be very proud and that if I had received their training I would win every competition. When I was a senior she raised money to send me to a multi-week music camp at the University of Georgia. At the camp I played two of my pieces for Dr. Ivan Frasier. He paced around the room, looked at my hands, listened and then said to me. “He have never had a piano lesson in your life have you?” I was taken aback. “No, sir” I replied. Sensing my nervousness he explained that I played my two pieces quite well but my fingerings were a mess. He stated that if I straightened them out I could probably play any song in the repertoire. Then came the game changer: he offered to give me piano lessons for free until I could pass the audition to enter the UGA School of Music. I accepted and because of the actions of my high school chorus teacher and Dr. Frasier I was able to get into college where I double majored in Music and Drama. Everything in my career can be traced back to that moment in time and I will always be grateful.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My mother passed when I was 8 1/2 years old after which I became very shy and withdrawn. Music was my first love and I would spend hours finding solace in playing the recorder. My first play was one in which I was a palace guard, a page and a musician for the princess. I remember that because it was prophetic in a way. I was and actor, a stage combatant and a musician. Music was a perfect outlet for my inner trauma but it was acting that brought me out of my shell socially. Through acting I could live lives and have experiences that the real world would never let me. Later I would get into martial arts and that was the perfect outlet to turn my pain and anger into something constructive and beneficial. I would find out in college that I was very high on the ADHD spectrum so it was no surprise that I pursued all three of these disciplines as if they were the most important things in the world.

It wasn’t college that I first has doubts about my life choices. I was coming back from an international martial arts tournament and it dawned on my that there was no way that I was going to be a concert pianist, and actor and a sport fighter at the same time. The problem is that I needed all three disciplines in my life. I spoke with my teacher and counselor Carolyn Blackinton about my concerns. Without hesitation she stated that I was an actor and that no one cares if a concert pianist can throw a side kick or if a martial artist is also a musician. However an actor that can play multiple instruments and that also had legitimate fight skills would be invaluable. This was exactly what I needed to hear. Soon after, I changed my music major from performance to composition and began to train in theatrical combat. This would enhance the synergy between my different paths going forward.

My path was now clear but I had yet to realize that the real world had a litany of obstacles I never saw coming. The most obvious one was that I am a Black man. Without intent or malice the status quo bottlenecked my opportunities regardless of my objective talent and work ethic. Many casts have characters that are related and their accepted wisdom was that if they cast me they would need to find other black people to fill out the other roles. As I was 1 of 2 black students in the whole program those roles were effectively off the table. I worked so hard on my craft mastering dialects that in hindsight they were never going to let me use. When the odd Black role did come up, more often then not I wasn’t ‘urban’ enough to pull off their impression of what being Black acts and sounds like. After college I moved to Los Angeles and faced the same obstacles, only made worse by the fact that the folks preventing my upward mobility were doing so with an air of self-righteousness and the belief that they were helping me . An example was when I was told by a director that after some thought that she didn’t want to cast me as Tybalt (Romeo & Juliet at a prestigious theatre) because they didn’t want to cast a Black man as the bag guy. That was a truly devastating moment for me. I had trained for years as both a sword fighter and a Shakespearean actor that role would have been a validation of that work. Los Angeles in incredibly expensive and that paycheck would have made a huge difference in my quality of life. This was not a pimp, or a mugger in a police procedural, this was an iconic Shakespeare character that many White actors would relish the opportunity to play but I was denied the opportunity by ‘the good guys’ and their shallow attempts at doing the ‘right’ thing. This incident is but one of dozens that have occurred since I made the move to Los Angeles and their impact goes beyond the missed opportunities.. You see to get work in this business folks look at your resume, references and reviews but in effect those things are simply a record of the opportunities you have been allowed to have in an objectively unfair system. Every lost opportunity is also a credit missing on your resume, a review you didn’t get and an employer you don’t have as a reference for future work. Of course the emotional is equally disheartening. As I mentioned, I was drawn to acting because it allowed me to live lives the real world wouldn’t let me and now the real world was taking that away from me.

Navigating this minefield has nearly broken me several times but the lessons I have learned getting to where I am today are a big part of what separates me from my peers. The other is the interplay between my various disciplines. I cannot fully express how many times I have used skills learned in music composition in directing and fight choreography. The final piece is that because I couldn’t afford to buy my knowledge through traditional outlets I had to earn it piece by piece in the field. Despite the long and arduous journey it took to attain it I am endless proud way it helps me to assess things quickly and solve problems efficiently.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to carry the torch as far as I can in the years I have left. I remember how the actions of a few opened doors for me that changed the course of my entire life and I want to pay it forward. As I progress I want to prop open as many doors behind me as I can so those that follow can carry the torch even further. Artistically, now that I have a small measure of success, I want to do the things I was preventing from doing in the past before my hard earned skills begin to atrophy and get lost forever.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The first thing is to listen to the people you are trying to help. I can’t tell you how many times a young well-intentioned White person took time to set me down and teach me about my struggles:) The simple formula is: if your well-intentioned action limits the opportunities and upward mobility of the person you are trying to help find another action. Remove obstacles and let the afflicted party decide what they do and do not want to do. Look at the world around you and realize how many mixed families are all around us. Families do not need to look like each other. The entertainment industry has a unique ability to shape our culture and the more functionally diverse we make it the better. I honestly believe that years of seeing Morgan Freeman as the president made it easier for the general public to picture and ultimately elect Barack Obama. This was lifechanging without the divisive identity politics threaded into so many recent film projects. Diversity is starting to leave a bad taste in many folks mouths even if they would never admit it publicly. My 2cents is that people do not like being told what to think and despise being preached to. If Hollywood wants to stop the slide I hope they pivot to telling great stories with diverse casts and diverse points of view. If this is done right it would go along to to healing the divisions in our country and allow us to confront the systemic issues that plague the disenfranchised with a united front. I think Black Panther said it best…

“Now more than ever the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth. More connects us than separates us, but in times of crisis the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.”

Contact Info:

• Website: http://marcantoniopritchett.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistrynaction
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marc.a.pritchett
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-antonio-pritchett-1525282a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mapritchett