Aubrey Simone Williams: Master Of The Arts
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- March 15, 2021
Aubrey Simone Williams serves as the senior producer for Fox Soul Tv and she is also the founder of The ACTivist Theatre Company based in Atlanta, Ga. A space that she created for local visual and performing artists to have a platform to create their work based on social, political, and economic issues that are important to them. Aubrey‘s success has grown as a professional black woman in the media and arts figures.
We Empower Magazine got an exclusive interview with Aubrey.
Aubrey Simone WilliamsTammy Reese: As Founder of The ACTivist Theatre Company, please tell us about the stage performances?
Aubrey Simone Williams: We have been really focused on is called Black Matter. It’s actually the first stage play that we’ve produced with the company. I founded my comp because any I began as a 6th-12th grade theater teacher and director. I was one of the founding acting teachers at one of the schools in Atlanta.
I noticed here in Atlanta, there wasn’t a theater that catered to African American children and their creative process. While I was teaching in grad school I put together a lot of monologues together as I was learning different things. It eventually became my thesis.
I asked the kids one day how about we do this for our black history month play, they said yes and we did it. We performed it quite a few times in Atlanta and then started touring the show. It was so great to see so many different reactions to the show.
Tammy Reese: I understand that you trained in London correct?
Aubrey Simone Williams: Yes, I trained in the Shakespearean technique while in London. It was a performance program that gave us the tools to know how to stage-manage and direct, as well as giving us a historical experience of learning how to explore Shakespeare from a historical perspective.
If you’re into drama you would know what things to look for in Shakespeare’s play. Even if you modernize it, you will know how to use the language. Shakespeare is key if you’re a playwriter, especially with the language and the way it’s written with different punctuation and different metaphors. It’s imperative that you study Shakespeare as a writer if you want your writing to stand out.
Tammy Reese: What topics are touched on in the play and book of poems and monologues “Black Matter”?
Aubrey Simone Williams: We talk about molestation in the Black home and how no one wants to acknowledge it. We talk about Black on Black crime and how we place the blame on everyone else and not ourselves. With Black on Black crime, we as a people are not looking at how we kill each other and that how there are economic and systemic things put in place to make us do the things that we do because we have to survive and feed our families.
At the same time changes have to be made. We shouldn’t shoot someone over a pair of Jordans, we can make better decisions than that. We as a community have to do better otherwise people will see us as animals just doing these nonhuman things.
The government doesn’t do a lot for African Americans. The system tries to have us not in certain places. The system also tries to keep us in this place where we feel hopeless.
Black Matter discusses so much more such as Black churches and how the Black church can be a place of power or evolution, and where we congregate for social movements. The Black church also has kept us enslaved. White people used the bible in slavery days to check us. and now we are using religion as a way to check ourselves.
A lot of Black people are very conservative and stuck to the idea of Christianity where they can’t recognize anything else as being acceptable. Such as if you worship unicorns, are pagan, or want to be an atheist it is looked down upon in the Black community. I am not religious though I went to a Christian school. My mom studied many different religions and being under her wing taught me that there is no one way to worship or do things. Whatever you believe in is your choice and life.
Another topic that is in the play, but not the book is the crabs in the barrel mentality. We are one of the only cultures that put each other down. We often only want to support Black businesses when it’s a trend. Often times we make complaints when need to give black business owners a chance because no one else is.
Just because some businesses make mistakes it doesn’t mean that all black businesses are ghetto or that we shouldn’t support them. Don’t wait until Instagram says it’s blackout Tuesday to go buy from a Black-owned business.
Black Hair is another topic. We have a monulouge for each texture of hair. For women who like perms, natural hair, and weave. That’s a whole conversation in its self.
The colorism monologues are for women of mixed race not knowing where to place themselves and feeling on the fence. I have a lot of mixed races people in my family so is my best friend. Mixed race people have white in them, but when terrible things happen in the Black community it’s hard for them if they have a white parent. They may know where they stand and what is right, but don’t want to disregard the other part of them in the process.
Tammy Reese: You are very multitalented, What are some of the most memorable moments in your career so far that made you proud of yourself?
Aubrey Simone Williams: That’s a hard question because I never feel proud of myself unless somebody else says there are proud of me. I always feel like there is something more that I can do. Though I will say that I was most proud when we went to the Rochester, NY theater festival. I drove 7 hours with a bunch of high school kids and we had a predominantly white audience. The reaction that we received from them saying that they need to see more shows like this and everyone else needs to see this too.
The audience members were stating that they never imagined that they would come away learning this information. They were informed and very grateful that we were there. They kept asking when can they see the long version of the play because we took a short version. That was a moment I did feel proud of myself.
We’ve already touched many Black audiences. It resonated with them and I knew that it would, but when you take it to an audience that doesn’t look like you, it’s a fearful feeling wondering what they might think. However, it was very interesting to see them be blown away. Also now knowing how much that they didn’t know about Black life behind closed doors.
Tammy Reese: Let’s talk Fox Soul TV! As a Senior Producer, what shows have you produced?
Aubrey Simone Williams: The reason I am at Fox Soul is that I got the attention of the Executive Producer James DuBose. My aunt invited him to come to look at some of the work that I was doing and he was very impressed. He then asked me to come out to LA to work with him there.
I started out as an Associate Producer of the Keyshia Cole show then once after working as a producer on The Mike and Donny Show I went to work on Fox Soul Deal which is like QVC, but for Fox Soul.
I’ve worked in the screening room where Black filmmakers can submit their films. We analyze the films and choose which ones will air on the network. The chosen filmmakers get to interview with Vivica Fox and be on our Clubhouse segment to speak about their filmmaking process.
Currently, taking a break so that I can focus on moving into my house and getting my play done and filmed. Which will be licensed and sent to Fox Soul. I am hoping to premiere it around Juneteenth, so I will keep my fingers crossed for that.
Tammy Reese: What else are you currently working on?
Aubrey Simone Williams: Once I get my house set up, I am looking to teach acting classes out of my home. I am also looking for commercial space for my studio and working on a project called “Hitting The Streets” where I will be visiting some Black businesses that don’t get enough air time or advertisement.
I will be interviewing the owners, doing some activities with them, and talking about their experiences as a Black business owner. I will have a co-host and we will be traveling around Atlanta to some Black hole-in-the-wall spots that no one knows about. So next time people come to Atlanta they can visit those spots, instead of the popular ones that people see on TV all the time.
Tammy Reese: When you think of women empowerment, what comes to mind?
Aubrey Simone Williams: That’s a good question! Since I was raised by women who were severely independent, my mom is by no means a dependent person I see women empowerment as independent, confident, and women who have a voice and are not scared to share it.
Also, I think about women who are voiceless but use other things to express themselves such as art. Women who have been traumatized and hurt in other ways but are learning to love and take care of themselves. Women empowerment can range from a confident woman who has it all together or are the silver spoon woman, or women who have gone through the mud or still is and trying to pick her self out of it.
Women who are empowered are a variety and range of women. So if you come from a silver spoon or not you are trying every day to be the best women that you be whether you know it or not.
Tammy Reese: Being in the industry that you are in can be extremely time-consuming, how do you balance your mental health?
Aubrey Simone Williams: I have bipolar disorder and I have a generalized anxiety disorder as well. I did not at first want to reveal that to the public but I felt if I did, it would help other people. I did reveal it at Fox when I first started working there that it may be some days that I may not feel like myself so to be patient.
I will always give my 110 percent at times though I may come across being very quiet or keeping to myself because I am trying not to explode, not anger-wise, emotionally, and it has nothing to do with anyone.
I am very conscious of when I have my down days and I communicate it to let everyone know that I am not really feeling my best this week so please bear with me. If I’m not talking as much it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to talk to yall, I just need to not talk.
Knowing how to communicate that if you are going to reveal that part of yourself is important. Especially if you’re working with a major company and doing something that you love to do and don’t want to lose your job due to your mental illness it’s very important that you communicate it entirely.
Tammy Reese: What words of empowerment would you give our readers who aspiring black woman media and arts professionals?
Aubrey Simone Williams: I would say it’s hard, trust me I know. I got the job at Fox Soul out of luck which kind of gave me imposter syndrome, but before I got the job at Fox I was applying to other major networks. I once felt like a failure because I’ve been applying for so long and hadn’t got anything.
It’s one of those industries that you have to know somebody for your application to even be looked at. I would say don’t give up and go out and network. I have this wonderful networking group that I sometimes go out and do things with, called Media Girls out here in Atlanta run by Jalisa Cook.
That’s where I meet a lot of my connections and those are some extraordinary ladies. If I am looking for something or need something I can reach out and someone will see what they can do. So networking with people from the field that you want to be in is important. When an opportunity does come across you can reach out to someone to see how you can be apart of it and also maintain great relationships.
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