All-rounder Gay will pay tribute to Horne, Dandridge and Dee in her upcoming one woman show. (Photo by Tiffany Soyu Sae-Matsuura)
Story Created:
Aug 20, 2010 at 12:03 PM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 25, 2010 at 9:43 PM PST
Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Dee — three legendary Black actresses who blazed a trail on stage and on screen.
Now in particular their theater exploits are to be celebrated in “Trailblazers from the Past,” a one-woman play by Los Angeles based working actress Millena Gay.
Gay, a Washington D.C. born former modeling pageant winner who eschewed a career in law to train and study in New York before moving to L.A. in 2005, has numerous television, theater, commercial and independent film credits.
Her TV work has included roles in ‘NY Undercover,’ ‘General Hospital,’ ‘All My Children,’ ‘One Life to Live’ and BET Networks show ‘Played by Fame,’ while also treading the boards here in productions like ‘Commitment vs. Phobia,’ ‘The Power of My Will’ and ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him.’
Originally scheduled to perform ‘Trailblazers’ as part of the NAACP Theater Awards at the end of this month, Gay will play the three actresses in their younger heydays; Horne in “Stormy Weather,” Dandridge in “Carmen Jones” and Dee in “A Raisin in the Sun.”
“Except with Dee, there will be a unique twist because I’ll play her in both her younger and older days. How? You’ll just have to come and see,” said Gay.
According to Gay, with the NAACP Theater Awards postponement what was planned as a ten minute piece she is now considering expanding to half an hour.
She has submitted the piece to “An Evening with the Sistas” theater festival in October and will be updating all and any performance information on her website www.mymillena.com.
“The inspiration for me to do the production came just a few weeks ago in light of the NAACP Theater Festival,” said Gay.
“Members of the theater committee came to see ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him,’ where I played Estelle and I had gone to a friend’s play at Stella Adler where I saw some of the members there and they gave me a flyer for the awards night.”
She added: “I think there are some female legends out there that have never been fully acknowledged and recognized for their contributions to entertainment, especially Ruby Dee, who is over 80 and just got her Academy Award.
“In doing the research I had no idea how many awards and accolades she had won singularly as well as with Ossie Davis. Its things we’re just not exposed to and information I want to share and educate people with.”
Gay, who herself has written and directed off Broadway and off off Broadway shows, has assembled a top team including award-winning playwright Mildred Dumas, theater-nominated director Angela Duckett Batravil, vocalist Arthur Richardson, choreographer Efe and celebrity stylist Larry Sims.
“They are all people I’ve worked with in the past and I just called them up and they said ‘okay, let’s go,’ and they are helping me realize this dream,” said Gay.
Having formed her own production company called ‘Honey Peach Productions,’ Gay is on her own trailblazing path, developing two features, three shorts, a webisode and the one-woman show.
“If you want to work you have to create your own. I’ve written ever since I was 5 or 6 and been in the game long enough to know you’ve got to use every resource available to you,” she said.
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