Some of you know, but too many of you do not, that I have been working with Writer/Director Teresa Dowell-Vest for the past few years on bringing her story “Genesis: The World’s First Team of Black Superheroes” to life.
I met Teresa as a student in one of her on camera acting courses, and the day I met her, I noticed the desktop background on her laptop, It was a vision board of Genesis, and from that first day, I knew that this film would be made, and I knew that I wanted in. But at that point, my picture was not on her vision board, but, you can be sure that that night, Genesis went on mine. Every week in class she would talk about the work she was doing and every night I would pray, pray for a chance to be involved in what will surely be a historical project. I didn’t know who or how, I just knew that I would be a part of Genesis.
Teresa cast me in a production of Pearl Cleage’s “Flyin’ West” that she was directing, and during the rehearsal process she invited us to read the script, it was the first draft and has gone through rewrites now, but I remember going home after a huge rehearsal, exhausted, and I didn’t get to bed until 3am for reading Genesis, I could not put it down! And of course I cast myself in ALL of the female roles at that point, lol. But there were two that I absolutely connected to, the eldest of the Heroes, Taige, and the baby of the villians, Rachel.
Well, you can imagine my delight, when I received a call from Teresa asking me if I would be interested in playing Rachel in a filmed reading of Genesis. Lets be honest here, I almost peed my pants.
Since that first reading, this project has grown up so much and now we are ready to shoot. Be a part of Genesis, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/divablue/genesis-the-beginning-the-worlds-first-team, here you can read more about the project and even become a backer.
I am so excited to get home and make this movie!
Sounds like a great idea. And I know EXACTLY what she means about growing up as a Black person who read comics, but wanted to see a superhero who looked like us.