Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nessa Amherst. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nessa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I’ve always sung every chance I’d get – church, concerts, talent shows, you name it! But I never really found that joy in singing for two reasons, all related to where I lived when I was younger. You see, I was mentally, emotionally, and physically abused by my father and older sister, and the times I got to sing were an opportunity to hide the pain and scars from the mistreatment. But the singing never brought me true joy and a flame that would drive me to a purpose.
That changed in 2001 when I had just transferred schools, struggled to make friends, and looked to singing as a way to impress others (without any joy or purpose involved). My mom found an opportunity to audition for the children’s chorus in a local high school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I decided to take a leap of faith and go for it. I got to audition – something that’s still nerve wracking to this day! – for the director, and I got cast in the chorus.
This experience was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. The music was so lively, fresh, and fun to sing! The high school students who all had roles in the shows as the characters were talented, kind, and wonderful people to work with. But it was when we opened the show before a live audience things truly became magical, and changed my life forever.
Each time we got to sing and dance onstage, I felt free, alive, and released from the inhibitions and pressures from home that plagued me when I wasn’t onstage. It was that moment when I found the joy and flame starting to come to life from within. That’s when I knew I wanted to be onstage as an actor. It’s become both a therapeutic and challenging adventure I wouldn’t trade away for anything else in the world.
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?
I’m an actor and writer based in the Washington, DC, region, where I perform in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. I’m in my sixth year as a professional actor. I’m grateful for all the performance experiences in community theatre, fringe, new works, the classics, musicals, staged readings, and even virtual theatre that shaped my acting technique and outlook as a human being.
I recently had the opportunity to make my NYC theatre debut in quite a spectacular way – I got to perform at the Lincoln Center in an original show called The Survival by Achiro P. Olwoch as part of the Criminal Queerness Festival with National Queer Theater. I never anticipated this happening so soon in my career (I thought I wouldn’t perform in NYC until year ten or year 15), but what an unforgettable experience! I lived and worked in the Big Apple for much of June, culminating in a world premiere performance at the David Rubenstein Atrium in the Lincoln Center. I cried at the end of the undertaking and got to share the stage with some incredible human beings during this fantastic adventure.
I always look for chances to play complex characters and bring a rawness to the performances. I enjoy taking on roles that showcase strength, compassion, courage, humility, and a little bit of humor thrown in for good measure. Some of my favorite parts include Grandmother in The Survival (National Queer Theater), Decius Brutus in Julia Caesar (Barefoot Shakespeare Company), Celia in Runtime Error (Transformation Theatre), Benjamin in District Merchants (Globe Openstage & Theatre CBT), and the Earl of Surrey & others in Henry VIII (Quarantine Queens Theatre Company).
I’m currently an understudy for the upcoming new play, A Calamitous Affair with the Minister of Culture and Censorship. I’m also getting ready to perform the staged reading of Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You, Too August Wilson) by Rachel Lynett, which was the 2021 Yale Drama Series Prize winner (selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel) with Voices Festival Productions in October. I hope to become a member of the Actors Equity Association (AEA) in December 2022 or January 2023.
Even though I’ve written poetry in college and was good at my term papers, I didn’t become a full-fledged writer until I put my website together during the pandemic. I decided to feature a biweekly blog that contains reflections and observations on what’s happening in the world, both related and unrelated to my acting career. I even have three rules for my posts: be kind, sincere, and transparent. Whether I succeed in bringing all three of these rules into my posts every other week is another matter!
One thing I’m proud of in my writing career is that one of my original monologues, Define “Black,” was selected to be featured in an anthology called 08:46: Fresh Perspectives, that’s now available to purchase on Amazon. It was initially written and performed in an original virtual show called Monologues of the Black Experience, which responded to the horrific murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that ramped up a hundredfold. Sharing this monologue with an audience that talks about my struggles of not being considered “black” enough due to my likes and observations differing from others were an emotional release for me, and being understood brought me much joy in knowing that I achieved my goal of showing that the black experience is not monolithic. We each have stories and lives that are different from others. But we share the same joy and pain, though not always in ways deemed “black.”
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
A big reason I became an artist was to share stories of unique individuals whose lives are far from ordinary, or if they are seemingly ordinary or even want to have an everyday life away from the marvelous adventures, and how much alike we all are in these characters.
Viola Davis once said that actors have the best jobs in the world because we get to celebrate what it means to live a life, and that’s through exhuming the stories from the bodies of individuals who got to dream big but never saw those dreams come to fruition. It’s a fascinating way of looking at my career because I get to share the stories of the individuals who may or may not have walked among us centuries before and allow the audiences to think, grasp, and understand what it means to be a human being.
Even if we’re unlike any of the characters we see on TV, on the movie screen, or onstage, we can all agree that there’s one piece of their personalities or spirit that we relate to in both a good and bad way.
I hope that my performances help audiences see what it means to be a human being – to feel, experience the ups and downs of living, succeed, feel, grieve, fight, and more – and how the stories we share bring us all together to understand and even change the world. The arts are an essential part of our lives because it teaches us empathy for all walks of life, and we sorely need to be reminded of how much compassion makes a profound difference in another’s life.
Hearing someone say how my performance moved them or made them think in a way I never anticipated makes this career worthwhile.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
This goal is a lofty one but important nonetheless. I want to perform in more classical works and literary adaptations in my career.
I enjoy reading the classics, especially books written by Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Louisa May Alcott. I often see myself in the role of the heroines going on these adventures and misadventures while growing up and thriving. (I’m probably one of the few blacks that enjoy reading in a general sense!) However, when it comes to these beloved treasures coming to the stage or film, there are not a lot of opportunities to see black performers taking on these roles due to a significant stigma that blacks should only be portrayed in a certain way to maintain the status quo.
It’s heartbreaking to see all the negative and derogatory comments against black performers taking on roles usually played by Caucasians because it feels like a personal attack on them when it’s only opening the doors for future generations of black children to see themselves in these roles that writers and directors denied to them for so long. And it’s not just Caucasians guilty of this. Some blacks, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, indigenous peoples, Indians, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and more within their respective communities are also limiting themselves to the endless possibilities of being seen for far more than what society sees us as.
I auditioned for a local production of Pride & Prejudice in early 2020, and there were two black women in the audition room at the time, myself included. We both performed our monologues well, but the director didn’t ask us to act in a British accent as the other Caucasian actresses did. We didn’t get cast for the show, let alone called back. That audition experience still haunts me because of our sad treatment, how limited the director’s vision was for the show, and the possibility of seeing a diverse cast take on Jane Austen’s classic for an audience that is more than just black and white.
It shouldn’t be too much to ask for all our minds, eyes, and hearts to be open to the limitless possibilities of what roles people can and should play or even let go of the stereotypes put upon minority races, body types, abilities/disabilities, and gender. We’re not out to rewrite history in historical fiction works (emphasis on the word “fiction”) or destroy your childhood. All we want is a chance to show children of all races and sexualities themselves in the roles to inspire them to dream big and never give in to their limitations or even the closed-mindedness of others.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to perform with the virtual theatre company JaYo Théâtre during the pandemic. I got to perform in classic plays and literary adaptations that were usually not given to me due to my race. These include Shakespeare’s plays (Much Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, etc.), Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw, Three Sisters by Anton Chekov, Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde, and Pride & Prejudice!
I hope to perform in more classics and literary adaptations in the not-too-distant future, especially if they’re in-person performances. Virtual theatre can only take you so far in this day and age!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nessaamherst.com
- Instagram: @nessaamherst
- Other: *08:46: Fresh Perspectives – https://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-New-World-Theatre-Publishing/dp/B095G5JYL3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PTK6PF8W1O5M&keywords=08%3A46+fresh+perspectives&qid=1663989435&sprefix=08+46+fresh+perspectives%2Caps%2C60&sr=8-1 *Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
*Matt Simpkins *Sachyn Mital *Ryan Maxwell