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The experiences of our lives affect the paths we choose and help make us who we are today. In part one of my conversation with Debra Ann Byrd, she revealed the ups and downs of her own life that eventually ignited a desire to perform and pursue a life on the stage. But just as it was with her personal journey, Debra’s path toward becoming an actor was slow but steady and her first steps as a producer started from very meager beginnings. Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter.  At her very core, Debra is a storyteller and that is on full display in this episode as she talks about taking on Shakespeare’s iconic role of Othello as well as the early years of forming her own company…Take Wing and Soar Productions.  Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com Learn more about WINMI podcast - http://whyillnevermakeit.com Follow Debra - Becoming Othello / Instagram / IMDb  Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast. Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter. ---------- Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Music in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

I first found out about Debra Ann Byrd through an article in the Guardian titled “Black Shakespeare champion working to change views on color blind casting.” She was just starting a residency at Stratford upon Avon, and this article talked about one of Debra's college professors who discouraged her from getting into classical theater. That story alone piqued my interest, so I reached out to her and the conversation that we ended up with certainly had many more stories than that one instance. Sign up for the monthly WINMI Newsletter.  Most actors can talk about how they got into theater and then trained and grew from there. But for Debra it was definitely a start-and-stop journey that veered off course several times throughout her life due to personal, medical, and racial issues that she had to face and deal with. Her story has so many interesting twists and turns that I just couldn’t fit it into one single episode.  So we start off Part One with a unique story of who Debra looked up to as a child. But as we continue our conversation you’ll hear an array of hardships and challenges that would cause any of us to question ourselves and wonder what to do next. But listen carefully, and you’ll also hear an inner strength and a hope infused into each one of those struggles. It is certainly inspiring and a true testament to the strength of Debra’s character and spirit. Podcast hosted by Patrick Oliver Jones - https://www.pojones.com  Follow Debra - Website / Instagram / IMDb  Support WINMI and get access to Members-Only Episodes on Supercast. Check out Artist Resources and follow WINMI on Instagram or Twitter. ---------- Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 25 Theater Podcast on Feedspot, and is also a part of Helium Radio Network and a member of the Broadway Makers Alliance.  Music in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.