From Chicago’s Cabrini Green public housing projects, out to Hollywood and back, actress, producer, director and founder of the Black Ensemble Theater, Jackie Taylor has always been a principled thespian and preserver of the African American image.
From Chicago’s Cabrini Green public housing projects, out to Hollywood and back, actress, producer, director and founder of the Black Ensemble Theater, Jackie Taylor has always been a principled thespian and preserver of the African American image. She recently opened up to the Defender about her career and her entrepreneurial quest. Taylor discussed how she got her start in acting, and how owning her own theater wasn’t always her childhood dream, but something she felt she had to do, after her experience in Hollywood. As a young girl Taylor always knew she wanted to be an actress. But when she told her friends of her aspirations they’d ask her, “Are you crazy? We from the projects, ain’t nobody gone give us no jobs,” she said. Taylor would always reply, “Maybe that’s how you feel, if that’s how you feel it’s going to stop you, but that’s not how I feel and I’m going to dream my biggest dream and pursue it.” To date Taylor is an award-winning actress who has starred in movies with Sidney Poitier, Ice Cube, Vanessa Williams and Laurence Fishburne, and she has written and produced more than 100 plays and musical biographies. Growing up in Cabrini Green, she said, was a dangerous place that made her strong. “It exposed me to a lot of people, a lot of different personalities and a lot of violence but at the same time a lot of wonderful experiences,” Taylor told the Defender. In fact, some of her first scripts were about things she saw in her neighborhood. “When I saw abuse in our community I would write a play about it %uFFFD– which would be a lot of the times – and it would always have a positive outcome. Everyone would learn their lesson and live happily ever after,” said Taylor. It was in kindergarten that Taylor caught the acting bug, a moment she recalls vividly. “My first play was in kindergarten. We had a Tom-Thumb wedding and the nun made me a bridesmaid. I didn’t want to be a bridesmaid ‘cause they didn’t have nothing to say. She said ‘you’re not the bride and you don’t have any lines, only the bride has lines’ and she got to say I do. I was really upset about it ‘cause I wanted to say something. The nun was very strict and said ‘no,’” Taylor recalled, laughing and gesturing. Then when the youngsters went on stage to perform the play, “The bride said ‘I do’ and I said ‘I do too’ … And the audience just died! They just cracked up,” said Taylor. “So I was like ‘ohhh this is great, just great.’ I just loved it, it was the greatest feeling in the world, they applauded and they laughed; of course my teacher wasn’t happywith what I did. But it was the greatest satisfaction for me I could ever have and I sought it ever since.” Taylor’s first film was “Cooley High” which was her first Hollywood contract, something she relates to as a cattle call contract – a term she said was used for reading scripts in the 70s during the Black exploitation movement. “I just knew I was getting ready to bust out because the producers were talking about me. I had just started acting and already had done one major motion picture and now I’m taking pictures, oh my God I thought I was the [expletive] until I started experiencing what that really meant: If you wanted to be in the business you had to lie about who we are as African American people and exploit the sickness of society,” said Taylor. She didn’t want any part in that. “Hollywood wanted to perpetuate that because it made money, and they wanted to glorify the pimps and the ho’s … I wasn’t going to participate in that stupidity and madness.” Where Taylor’s agent saw acting roles as a job, she saw some of them as negative images that could impact children. “I didn’t want to participate and decided the only way to really make a difference was to own and operate your own, not be dependent on somebody else creating the image for you,” Taylor said. Through theater Taylor sought to eradicate racism and to educate others about the history of African American people. Her Black Ensemble Theater was born in 1976. “Every nuance of the organization is targeted to bringing people together of all colors and kinds celebrating the uniqueness of being human and educating African American youth as it relates to their strengths, power, greatness and recognizing that, embracing that and how to go beyond your environment and choices,” she said. The theater, located at 4520 N. Beacon St., has put on some notable productions including The Other Cinderella, I Am Who I Am (the story of Teddy Pendergrass), Memphis Soul, Those Sensational Seductive 60’s, Precious Lord Take My Hand, The Jackie Wilson Story and several others. It is set to open a new million dollar cultural center September 2011. Taylor has personal laurels, too, including having a city street named in her honor. Jackie Taylor Street is located on the same block as the theater. She received a lifetime achievement award from the League of Chicago theaters, and has been featured in Jet, Variety, the New York Times and Essence, and is recent recipient of the Actor’s Equity Association Rosetta LeNoire Award, which recognizes artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in American theater. Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender.
Photo: Defender/Worsom Robinson