Darryl McKellar: Onstage in the Classroom

Darryl McKellar (Class of ’99, B.A., English literature/theatre arts; M.A., English literature; teaching credential) is an English teacher at Henry Clay Middle School in Los Angeles and an aspiring actor. In February, he was nominated as best actor for the NAACP Theatre Awards for his performance in “The Piano Lesson” at the Morgan Wickson Theater in Santa Monica, competing against Lawrence Fishburne and Ted Lange.

Although he did not win in the category, McKellar says it was gratifying to be in such illustrious company. Dateline visited him in front of probably one of his toughest audiences, an English class at HCMS, where he shares his mission to encourage inner city students to look forward to college, the similarities between teaching and acting, and how to give confidence to teach eighth-graders to laugh at themselves.

Dateline: What are some of the challenges of teaching here?

Darryl McKellar: In teaching, we’re more geared now toward goals beyond high school. When I was in school, I didn’t have instructors pushing me toward college in the eighth grade. But I can tell them from my own first-hand experience, as a black youth coming from the inner city, that college is a reality and it can happen.

There are politics, a lot of things that come from downtown that affect how you want to teach. But being here at ground level, you see what kids really need versus what the state might implement. I try to stay away from politics and instill in kids the importance of hard work, no matter what the criteria is. I have a no-nonsense way of teaching. I also get to do theatre while I’m here, and work with the kids on that bit of talent I get to pull that out of them, giving them a chance to shine onstage in front of people.

D: How is studying drama valuable for the students who are not going to go into acting?

DMcK: I tell them that if they follow my directions, prepare well and get themselves onstage, they’ll see how people treat them once they have performed. That is going to take them more places than being able to sing, dance or rap. If you can develop your voice, that is the biggest asset you have, people are going to want you hear you say things of importance. I tell them, ‘If you can handle this now, you’ll be able to handle a lot more things in life later.’ I’m selling confidence. And most of them buy into it.

When I can have a student, who is quiet but a great voice you know they can bring out with a little bit of coaxing, and I get them to come out of their shell at this age, that’s the best feeling in the world. They’ll see it later on, when their peers tell them, ‘Great job, you were great up there. How did you get up there and do that?’ Then they become anexample for other kids to get up and perform and gain confidence.

D: What drove you to succeed in college?

DMcK: I knew that if I stayed in school, something good would happen. It’s easier said than done, I can say that now that I’m finished. But I got tired of my mom giving me that look, like, ‘What are you going to do now?’ For a while, I worked three jobs, and I thought that was the key to success. I thought, ‘If I just work hard, I’ll make it.’ But one day I woke up and realized it was not for me.

When I started going to junior college at El Camino, a couple of people said, ‘You could be in a four-year university. You don’t have to stop here.’ And that opened my eyes, because no one had ever told me these things. So that’s my motivation to tell the students I work with that, ‘You can go to college too, it can happen if you do these things earlier.’

D: Who were your greatest influences?

DMcK: There were a lot. Sharroky Hollie (assistant professor of teacher education) got me into teaching. I had a lot of one-on-ones with Boice Bowman (interim president of CSUDH and former vice president of student affairs) coming up the ranks. Dr. (Agnes) Yamada (emeritus professor of English) was a big supporter. Professor (Donis) Leonard discovered me, and really influenced me to do things other than just my studies. When he took me aside and said, ‘I have a script for you, would you be interested in doing ‘The Piano Lesson,’ I didn’t think much about it. I had never acted before. But when I did it, my confidence grew, in school as well as onstage.

D: How did it feel to be up against established actors for the NAACP Theatre Awards?

DMcK: The NAACP comes out and sees a countless number of shows, and we were lucky to have them review our performances. The theater has its own award ceremony and almost every other cast member in the show was nominated for something and I wasn’t. That was a really big blow to my ego because I thought I had done well. But Professor Leonard said to wait until the NAACP nominations came out. Lo and behold, when they announced their nominations, my name was in the category for best male lead. But I was up against Lawrence Fishburne and Ted Lange. Of course, everyone was saying, ‘Be happy with the nomination.’ It took me a little while to accept that because I wanted the chance to win, but I had to understand who my competition is.

Myron Campbell (CSUDH theatre arts alum) was in the same show with me, he was nominated for best supporting actor. To get the nomination with a fellow Dominguez Hills graduate was a better feeling than not getting it. And to be at that ceremony and be among all the elite of the theatre and realize that I was qualified to be there too, was a great feeling.

D: How are teaching and acting similar?

DMcK: In acting, you’re selling a character, and you have to make the audience believe you are that character. In teaching, you’re selling education and you have to make it seem as interesting and tasteful as banana pudding. Some days, it’s easy and goes by the numbers and other days, you really have to put on a show. But I’ve been blessed with the talent for giving students a colorful depiction of how this is going to affect them later on in life, with a sense of humor. I try not to just focus on reading and writing. Since this class has been in session, they’ve improved in areas like manners, people skills, being on time, speaking in public, being neat, and learning how to laugh at themselves, which is a big deal at this age.

I’m acting everyday. Jay Leno said once that the best way to prepare yourself to be an actor is to speak in front of people everyday. For me, being able to teach led to my skills being good enough for a nomination of that magnitude. I do a good thing here and when you put out good, it comes back.

- Reported by Joanie Harmon-Whetmore