Meet Billie Wyatt

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Billie Wyatt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Billie below.

Billie, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

If there is one thing I can say for sure about my life it is that my resilience has been and is instilled in me from the many women in my life. My mother primarily. She is one of the most hard working, kind hearted people on this earth. She is an educator, a profession that is a major backbone to the positive evolution of society and its future, and in which resilience is mandatory. And I can always remember her saying to me, one of the reasons she works so hard is so that my sister and I have it better than she did. That sentiment I take with me every single day. We must leave any room we are in, this earth, better than we came into it. I gather my resilience in daily moments from that idea and from the many women in my life that do the same everyday. As an actor my basic function in society is to tell stories, but I believe the chief function of art and story telling is to make the world better. To educated society by showing a specific image of who we are or who we have been. We live in a world that can treat art as a secondary, a nonessential part of life. But as someone who needs art like the air, that has seen it save lives and educate in a way nothing else could, I understand how integral it is. And I garner resilience from the fact that it must be protected. For years and years, women of color were not invited into artistic spaces, but that did not stop artists like Billie Holiday (the women from who I got my name) and Dorothy Dandridge to create space for women and artist like myself. For people of color and for artists there have always been doors closed. But because of women like Hattie McDaniel, my incredibly brave mother, my sister who never gives up, my grandmother and aunts who have been the core of my family and courage, my best friend who convinced me to take the risk to study theatre and move to New York, my best friend who encourages me as an artist every day, one of my favorite directors and mentor who has inspired me more than she will ever know, I know that there is no closed door that can’t be opened. Being a black women and theater artist has taught me that our resilience comes from each other.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia. My mother is an educator and has been all of my life. When I was in elementary school, she was a high school teacher. When I was in 1st grade, the high school was doing Once on this Island as the Senior musical. They needed a little Ti Moune and my mother volunteered me. To this day is it one the best theatrical experiences of my life, because it was the very first time I truly realized someone like me could be in a play. And because it was only possible because my mother believed in me. And that continues to be why this career is possible for me. My mother and my sister believe in me. As a young women of color that has made a career thus far in classical theater, mostly Shakespeare, it is easy to fill yourself with fear that you don’t belong because maybe you were never supposed to. That fear quickly turns to resilience when after performing a student matinee of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when a young girl of color says “I want to be just like you”. So, simply put, I am an actor who was trained for theater, film and tv, who fights for art that is inclusive and educates. I fight for the understanding that art is essential. That diversity is essential. And for the little girl I met after A Midsummer Night’s Dream and for the little girl that I was, to understand that there is no part of this world that we do not belong in.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I believe the most important qualities for my life and career are understanding, empathy, and tenacity. All three of these can be applied to how to engage with your career, the art, with each other, and ourselves. We cannot educate through art or anything without understanding and empathy and tenacity. We cannot portray a real human being onstage until we have strived to understand them. We can not influence the world in a positive way if we do not have empathy for one another and for ourselves.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I’ve talked a lot about education because I truly believe it is integral to the development of society. And I do believe that part of being an artist (specifically an actor in classical theater) is the exploration of who we were and who we are. And the human race is so beautifully diverse that we must do all we can to constantly learn about each other, ourselves and our environment. Continuing to hone our strengths is essential, but we must also endeavor to learn more. Learning is essential to growth. You never know when information will be valuable, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Firstly, if it brings you joy, it is not insignificant. And secondly, you may use it to better your art/profession, not only yourself. I started to learn embroidery for fun, but soon after I was cast in a production of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, where my character was embroidering for an entire scene. Learning will always be vital to a greater understanding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.billiewyatt.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billie_wyatt_/

Image Credits

production photos from The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Sarah Haley), Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (Kylie Schultz), Quintessence Theater Group