When she was 15, Liesl Tommy emigrated with her family from South Africa to Newton Massachusetts. “I came from apartheid-era South Africa and was feeling extremely isolated and very confused,” says Tommy who had lived in a township outside Cape Town. Until she moved to the United states she didn’t interact with white people.
One of her teachers at Newton North High School asked her to be in a production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuff for Black History month. Tommy immediately discovered the salve she needed -- especially a sense of community. “I instantly found purpose, a common language,” she remembers. “ I never ever did anything else. I pursued theater relentlessly.”
She eventually went on to be a sought-after theater director and was recently nominated for a Tony award for directing Eclipsed on Broadway. Danai Gurira’s heart wrenching play about women fighting to survive during the Libyan civil war is the first Broadway production to have an all female cast, director, and playwright.
Eclipsed which features Lupita Nyong’o in her Broadway debut, was nominated for six Tony awards including Best Play. “On our opening night when we took our bow, we were seven African women holding hands,” says Tommy about the play which sheds light on the lives of a rebel general's wives who are sex slaves. “The actors, myself, Danai and I looked into the audience. I could see strangers sobbing with hands in front of their mouths, clapping. I thought, "OK" they get what we're trying to do. They believe that we should be here. This is the right place and the right time for us. It was something I'll never forget.”
Not one to rely on one specific medium, Tommy's newest project is Frozen – Live at the Hyperion, a musical based on the Disney animated film. The $28 million production opened at Disney California adventure this month and features a multiracial Elsa and Anna.
Tommy, who also makes history as the first woman of color to have a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Play offered inspiring words for women and explains what drives her passion.
Jeryl Brunner: What advice would you have for young women who want to move forward in their careers?
Liesl Tommy: The thing that has been most important for me is to fight for confidence. We can self-sabotage. People will be looking for weaknesses anywhere. I believe you have to walk into a room like you own it. Because why shouldn’t you own it?
Brunner: How do you do that?
Tommy: You have to look into people’s eyes, make demands and call them on their bullshit. And because you’re a woman, never let them get away with making you feel like you are less. It is amazing how many people out there want to tell us "no" just because we’re women.
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Brunner: Did you ever think Eclipsed would come to Broadway?
Tommy: I never thought it would come to Broadway. I always believed the widest possible audience should see this play. I believed that from the very first production {at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC}. And I’ve been with Eclipsed from the first workshop. I never anticipated it would come to Broadway, but it feels like the right fit.
Brunner: Why do you love what you do?
Tommy: I truly believe that theater and storytelling has the power to change lives. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people come up to me after Eclipsed and any show that I’ve worked on over the years. You can see in their eyes that something in them has changed.
(L-R). Zainab Jah, Saycon Sengbloh, Pascale Armand, and Lupita Nyong'o in a scene from Danai... [+]
