This was a concern of mine and i knew it what that the props wouldn’t be ready and here we have the xerox paper but it’s good because they don’t work till tomorrow so we’ll be all right but i’m glad i’m seeing this now because this also is the tray
She’s going to keep on moving yes i think we need a bigger tray and and they need you know plates and things so i knew this was remember too bad you don’t have me on camera when i was saying prop master prop master flatmaster but you have the wonder twins here yes
Yes yes and the wonder twins here are going to help help solve this and then when you see the final product and you see that that bell that dinner bell you’re going to feel pride if you knew that you ran all over brooklyn finding a dinner belt
My background is also that i am a graduate of howard university in fact my father is currently the one of the vice presidents there and he’s been there for 30 some years and all my siblings went to howard and and they were involved in greek organizations although i wasn’t and
My connection to howard is very very powerful howard for me is the mecca of black education and to know that this story for these deltas started at howard university we were able to my husband and i went back to the library at howard we sat there with
The old papers and the old photographs of what howard was like at that time and that really gave us so much energy and so much passion for the project that when i went on the set and i was able to direct the ladies i was able to i
Hopefully bring to them a sort of realistic passion from just you know using my acting background from just staring at the at the photos and reading the research about what these women were about and what they what their likes and their dislikes were what their passions
Were what they did with their life after this moment in time who they went on to marry what who became teachers and and what jobs they took on that i was able to imagine and put myself in the shoes of those people and to live to imagine living that life
And wearing those clothes and having my hair in that style and the passion of what was going on in the times in terms of the women’s suffrage movement and imagine what it was like to be a woman at that time so then i put my i
Put that into my my life my experience my imagination and i walk around like that and then i try to bring that to the actors i try to make those suggestions to them what would you be like if if you had grown up and um and you were basically the star of your
Town because these women in a lot of cases they really were the superstars of their town um they it wasn’t like it is nowadays where where every single person has the opportunity for education this would be the one person from that town who was uh given support from
From the local church or the local women organization to travel to washington dc to howard university the mecca of black education and to have an opportunity to get educated there so that was an incredible opportunity and when i look at my own education my own background and i read what these
Women did i was like i could have never hung with these women they were so smart and they were the absolute top of their class they were the creme de la creme and um i tried to bring that to the actresses so that they could carry themselves
With that sort of passion when they’re walking down the street when they’re talking to each other with that sort of dignity and that sort of humanity that these women brought
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