Actress Terry D. Henry in the play "Home."

These days, it’s not uncommon to hear black actors lament the lack of roles for them in Hollywood. But turn your gaze a little closer to home, and you’ll find Charlotte’s contingent of African American actors saying that they, too, strive to find work — particularly when it comes to the local theater scene.

With only one African American-owned theater company in the area, On Q Productions, the number of roles written for black actors is limited. Many have turned to auditioning for non-traditional roles — those that are written for a member of one race but cast with another — in addition to seeking roles written specifically for them.

Terry D. Henry (formerly Terry Henry-Norman), a Charlotte-based, award-winning actress and singer, says she has landed a number of non-traditional roles because she refuses to let her race define her as an actress or limit her opportunities. On numerous occasions, she’s played roles written for women of various ethnicities — from white to Asian and beyond.

“I am an African American woman by birth,” she says. “But, personally, I consider myself an actress. So, I go after any and every role that I like, regardless of color … I just go after the work.”

It’s a mentality that Henry says was learned from an old friend — the late actress Nell Carter. Henry does not believe her race has hindered her career, but only enhanced it. She says pushing beyond her comfort zone allows her to grow artistically.

“You have to be versatile,“ she says. “You can’t confine yourself to one genre of the arts … Go after the things that are different … It stretches you as an artist. That’s a rule of life. You want to keep learning, and you want to keep growing in your artistry or whatever other career you choose. You have to reach higher. It strengthens you.”

Earlier this year, Henry was cast by the Queen City Theatre Company to play the role of Svetlana, a Russian woman, in the musical “Chess.” She said it was a deliberate decision by the director, who wanted to add a new dynamic to the play.

“On the chessboard, Svetlana is the black queen,” explains Henry. “So, he said let’s make Svetlana a black woman.”

Henry recalls hearing the audible gasps from the audience when she stepped out onto the stage.

“It was pretty much a surprise,” she says. Henry stayed focused on her delivery and won the audience over with her talent. By the end of her performance, those audible gasps had turned to shouts of “bravo,” and it wasn’t even the final curtain call.

Another issue facing local actors — regardless of race — is the scarce number of theatrical roles that pay. Often times, actors are not so much as compensated for their gas.

“You can’t make a living acting here [in Charlotte],” says Henry. “You still have to work a day job.”

A brother's perspective

Sultan Omar El-Amin, who is also a Charlotte-based actor, agrees. Until being laid off recently, the single father was working two jobs to support his daughter.

“It’s an ongoing challenge,” he says of his quest to find paying work as an actor. “I jump on anything I can get my hands on in Charlotte.”

Although he has auditioned for several non-traditional roles with numerous local theater companies, El-Amin hasn’t had the same success at landing them as Henry, who estimates that she lands about 95 percent of everything she auditions for. The discrepancy between the two actors can be partly attributed, at least anecdotally, to the fact that it is more common for a black woman to play the role of a white woman than it is for a black man to play the role of a white man — or any other race for that matter; however, it does occur.

Earlier this year when Theatre Charlotte decided to do a non-traditional production of the Tennessee Williams’ play “The Glass Menagerie,” with an all-black cast, El-Amin was selected to portray one of the characters.

He said it was an experience that he “wouldn’t trade for the world,” but, for him, constantly going the non-traditional route is not ideal.

“I prefer to do African American plays written by African Americans about having the African American experience, instead of doing other shows that cater to different audiences,” he says. “But I don’t mind doing those shows either."

In recent years, most of the work El-Amin has done has been with On Q Productions. Next month he will be playing Henry’s son when the company puts on the play “The Amen Corner” written by James Baldwin.

El-Amin says the audience for black theater has increased immensely over the past few years. “There is definitely an appetite for more,” he says, adding that the majority of the recent shows he’s done have sold out.

Changing times

At the same time, opportunities for black actors have also grown. It was once unheard of for a black actor to be cast by an all-white theatre company, but that is no longer the case.

Henry remembers being part of the cast for “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in 1992, which she says was the first play ever to be produced by Theatre Charlotte with an all-black cast.

“All the years prior to that, they had never done a black show,” she says. “Now, they have really opened up the playing field. And your talking about a theater company that was all-white and is now opening doors for African Americans, even children, to come in there and audition and work on that stage.”

She says the opportunities are not limited only to black actors, but are expanding for black directors and musicians as well. “All of it has really opened up,” she says.

Henry adds that she hopes to see more diversity in the audience as well.

“I think if more of us got out of that one dimensional thinking of let me just support black theater, and just go see good theatre,” she says. “Perhaps, that will prompt the white theater companies to employ more of us, to cast more of us and to do more shows geared towards us … If we start showing up, it will start changing and creating more diversity on stage.”
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Editor's Note: This article was created as part of the Charlotte Arts Journalism Alliance, a consortium of local media dedicated to writing about the arts scene.

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