SAMANTHA WALKES: from Hamilton to Halifax, The Wiz to Cinderella
Hamilton actor is helping change perceptions of traditional roles
“When I walked into the audition for ‘Cinderella’ I looked around the room. There they were, all these blond, white-faced girls, fairy tale princesses every one.
“‘What am I doing here?’ I thought. Then I thought again. ‘There ought to be black princesses too, shouldn’t there? What’s wrong with that?’”
Hamilton’s Samantha Walkes was used to feeling she might be in the wrong place. When she was still in high school she auditioned for Theatre Ancaster’s “The Sound of Music.” The role was Maria von Trapp.
“I remember thinking Maria was a real person and she was white. I auditioned anyway. When I got the part I was shocked. I kept saying, ‘Are you sure?’
“What a risk those folks in Ancaster took. I was amazed. That’s when I decided I would just have to be the best darn Maria I could.
“As a woman of colour I knew what I was dealing with. It would be naïve not to realize I was a very different Maria. Not what people expected. In a way it was an issue. Colour-blind casting or not, people are going to look up and say, ‘What’s a black Maria doing with all those little blond kids?’”
That was 11 years ago, in 2007. So how much have things changed today? Not that much.
In Halifax, where Walkes is about to play Cinderella at the Neptune Theatre, it’s still a big surprise for many to see a black woman in the fairy tale ball gown.
“I see my face on those big billboards around the city and I know people are thinking, didn’t Cinderella have all those big blond curls?” she says, “Well, that’s just not me is it?”
Still, Walkes says “Agents and casting folks tell me it’s not cool to be white these days. Diversity is in. But that’s in Toronto, not everywhere else.”
Walkes originally thought she was auditioning for the musical “The Color Purple” which Neptune is doing later this year. It has a black cast.
She was shocked when director Jeremy Webb asked her to go for Cinderella. It wasn’t just her skin colour, it was also her Mohawk hairstyle. Walkes is up front about having initial doubts about the idea.
“I thought, I don’t want to just be part of a cool thing some white man thinks he’s doing. I needed to know what I’d be saying on that stage. After all, black children in the audience would know about being bullied by white kids, like those stepsisters in the play.
“I had to think about that. And what about my hair? When they showed me the wig I said ‘This doesn’t look like a black woman’s hair to me.’ And what about the tights, they have to match my skin tone?”
You may have gathered by now that Samantha Walkes isn’t afraid to speak her mind.
Walkes — Sam to her friends — has Hamilton history. She’s not afraid of most things.
She grew up singing gospel songs with her sister Candace at her Hamilton Mountain home. She sang in
children’s choirs, learned to play a number of instruments and fell in love with jazz.
Walkes attended Westmount Secondary School and played Dorothy in “The Wiz,” Nancy in “Oliver!” and kept auditioning for everything she could. She studied English and drama at Brock University, and still thinks she would make a good teacher someday.
She was in the top 20 candidates for the role of Maria in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria.” Walkes didn’t win, but Webber encouraged her to continue with her career.
Walkes went to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, but lost her confidence. She was troubled when she lost a role in “The Color Purple” because she couldn’t get a U.S. visa.
Returning to Hamilton in 2014, Walkes took a small step. She appeared in Hamilton Theatre Inc.’s “Little Shop of Horrors” to see if she still enjoyed performing. The answer was yes.
Walkes’ husband, Mets Kramer, an engineer, encouraged her to keep auditioning.
“He helped me feel better,” Walkes says. “He made me get well. I had just felt so depleted until then.”
With Kramer’s help, Walkes gave up a good corporate job and went back to auditioning for theatre roles. She was part of Shaw Festival’s 201617 season in “The Octoroon” and “Me and My Girl.” Now there’s “Cinderella.”
“This is so important to me,” she says. “Every child should be able to see herself, or himself, on stage. I’ll tell you I’m still very scared to have accepted this role.
“But I know this is an important journey I’m taking. And it’s not just my journey alone. I’ll remember that every moment I’m performing this princess part.”
“I see my face on those big billboards around the city and I know people are thinking, didn’t Cinderella have all those big blond curls? Well, that’s just not me is it?” SAMANTHA WALKES