*Born in Washington, DC and raised in Silver Springs and Capital Heights in Prince George’s County Maryland, Hollywood’s playwright and filmmaker David E. Talbert shoulders the values and grace of his beloved great-grandmother, Annie Mae Woods. She led by example and evinced him by her words that still echoes in his ears and lives in his heart today, “That only what you do for God will last.” Talbert has applied that to everything he does. He professes, “It has heavenly value.”
Talbert authenticates the heart of a true and devoted servant. Both Talbert and his brother were raised by a single black woman. His great-grandmother had a tremendous impact and influence on his life. As he shares his biggest career achievement to date, he remembers inviting his great-grandmother to his second theatrical production of Lord Have Mercy, when it travelled to Washington, DC. He rented a limousine for her, at the time she was 80-years old, and before show time, he came on stage, introduced her and shined the spotlight on her from her box seat, as she stood up and waved. “That was everything to me,” says Talbert.
A multiple content creator with 25 years of unparalleled success in theater, films, television and book publishing, Talbert’s global appeal spans over 20 countries on four continents. From his first 1991 theater production of Tellin’ It Like It ‘Tiz to his latest production of Another Man Will, currently streamed on BET’s founder, Bob Johnson’s Urban Movie Channel, the first streaming service created for African Americans, Talbert has produced 14 sold-out national touring productions with lucrative brand expansions on DVD and digital streaming platforms. Urban Movie Channel also features seven of Talbert’s stage titles including the latest release, Another Man Will. The production stars Thomas “Nephew Tommy” Miles (The Steve Harvey Morning Show), Nadine Ellis (Let’s Stay Together, Netflix’s Greenhouse Academy), Jason Weaver (ATL, Drumline, Smart Guy), Andra Fuller (The Game, The L.A. Complex, Black Jesus), KJ Smith (Queen Sugar) and Teresa Sykes. He is the recipient of the NAACP Best Playwright of the Year Award for The Fabric of a Man and has scored an unprecedented 24 NAACP Theatre nominations. Take a look at the trailer for Another Man Will: https://bit.ly/2hJ4g7Y.
With his simultaneous progression from the stage to the big screen, Talbert led at the box office with two number one comedy successes for his directorial debut, First Sunday. The movie starred Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, and Katt Williams; and his follow-up film Baggage Claim included a stellar ensemble cast featuring Paula Patton, Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, and Jill Scott. His current studio release, Almost Christmas is a collaboration with Will Packer and stars Danny Glover, Gabrielle Union, Mo’Nique, Omar Epps, Kimberly Elise, JB Smoove and Romany Malco. Take a look at the trailer for Almost Christmas: https://aol.it/2hNCeVU.
Talbert authored two national bestsellers Love on the Dotted Line and Baggage Claim, the latter marking the first time an African American adapted and directed his novel. The subsequent successes led to a collaboration with Snoop Dogg’s Love Don’t Live Here No More novel.
Talbert’s venture to the small screen included the NBC primetime special Unpredictable: A Musical Journey with Jamie Foxx and was the network’s highest rated musical event of the year. He also created and starred in TV One’s first-ever reality competition series, Stage Black, where contestants competed for the opportunity to be featured in a Talbert production.
A man who loves God and family foremost profoundly reflects on what he wants his legacy to be. He doesn’t look at or deliberates on how many productions he written, produced and directed or how many awards he reaped. “First and foremost, I’m a husband of a woman [Lyn Talbert] and a father of a baby boy [Elias Talbert],” he affirms. “I grew up where there has been no one in my family who stayed married to the same person. I said I want to break that cycle and I want to stay with this woman and show that this can be accomplished. In my whole family, there’s been no child that grew up with their father in the house. So my legacy is I’m going to breathe my last breath, and look over at the woman and say, ‘Hey, thanks for the journey,’ and I want her to be able to say, ‘Hey, it was a fun ride. I’ll see you in the next lifetime.’ I want my son to look at me and say, ‘Thank you, Daddy.’”
In this edition of Inside Broadway, the ‘Almost Christmas’ filmmaker talks with Gwendolyn Quinn about his journey from the Nation’s Capital to Hollywood, his faith and family, and the lessons and blessings of a life and career that cultivate love, inspiration, humor, and hope.
Inside Broadway: How did you become interested in writing?
David E. Talbert: Growing up in the church and being exposed to words and how it affected people and how words changed people’s lives.
IB: Did you know at an early age you wanted to be a playwright?
DET: No. I wanted to be a radio announcer or a preacher. When I went to college and saw The Diary of a Black Man by Thomas Meloncon, that was the first stage production I’d ever gone to, and it spoke to me. I guess that was the seed that was planted for me. If I could write something that moved me like that play, then I might have something.
IB: Do you conduct workshops for playwrights and screenwriters? What advice do you have for young people interested in a career as a playwright or screenwriter?
DET: I don’t because that would require more time than I have in my schedule. For writers, I would suggest that you allow yourself to be touched by things. I think anything that is on a page has to be something that moves the individual first. Be affected by things and allow yourself permission to be touched and moved. Then whatever you’re affected by emotionally, then that’s what you should write.
IB: What is your most favorite theatrical production of all time?
DET: I have three favorites, the Odd Couple by Neil Simon, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and The Piano Lesson by August Wilson.
IB: Of your 14 stage productions, what is your all-time favorite?
DET: That’s tough. There are a few of them that stand out, but He Say, She Say, But What Does GOD Say, The Fabric of a Man, and Love in the Nick of Tyme.
IB: With all of your 14 stage plays, what is your best and most favorite line that you’ve written?
DET: I would say Love in the Nick of Tyme. The line is ‘Time is the most valuable commodity on the planet. Some people think it’s money, but hell, they print that up every day. You show me somebody printing up more time, and I’ll show you a unicorn and a three dollar bill.’
IB: Of all your stage productions, which actor have you worked with that you feel made you a better director and producer?
DET: I would say there were two, Clifton Powell and Isaiah Washington. Both challenged my point of view on their character. They brought more nuance to the character than I ever imagined when I wrote it. I found myself discovering and as I was directing, that was special for me.
IB: Of all your film projects, which actor have you worked with that you feel made you a better director and producer?
DET: I would say nearly everybody in Almost Christmas, Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, Mo’Nique and Gabrielle Union. What I learned from them is subtlety. With Danny and Mo’Nique, there is so much story without saying anything. With the transition from a playwright to a filmmaker, stage plays are how many words, how much can you say to tell the story? Film is how little can you say to tell the story? So they taught me how much story you could tell without saying anything.
IB: What was your most challenging theatrical production to date and why?
DET: It was my seventh play, Mr. Right Now, but it was the first play that I went into it and didn’t change anything in the script. I had just gotten married, and my wife challenged me to not go into the rehearsals and try to fix it, but to fix it before I got there. It was the first play that I felt like I was a playwright. The words were sacred, and it ended up being my first critically-acclaimed play, a breakout play for me. I’ve built on that for the rest of my career.
IB: What’s your favorite medium?
DET: I don’t have a favorite medium. I love theater for the live energy and the interactions. The kind of combustible nature of it all. I love film because it magnifies everything times ten thousand. The canvas is much bigger to paint on, and I think every artist aspires to paint on the biggest canvas possible, and that is film.
IB: Do you have any plans to create a production for Broadway?
DET: I’ve been circling that idea and threatening to do that for a while. Broadway requires the production streak of a five year incubation, and I don’t know if I have the attention span.
IB: For you, what is the difference between directing/producing theatrical productions versus films?
DET: I think that the biggest thing I’ve continued to learn, and the people that I mentioned helped me learn, is that silence is king in film and silence is the enemy in theater. I had to trust myself to understand that I don’t have to say something for the audience to feel something in film. In theater, we only know what they feel based on what they say.
IB: Who is someone that you would like to work with, but haven’t to date?
DET: It would be my great honor to work with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman.
IB: Who is your mentor?
DET: I have many mentors. I don’t have a creative mentor. I have life mentors. They keep me from falling off the rails. My mentors are Tim Watts, who was a huge radio announcer in Washington, DC; Donnie Simpson, who also was a huge radio announcer and a TV personality; and Gerald McBride, who is a radio announcer out of Detroit.
IB: What’s the best advice you received and by whom?
DET: The best advice I received was from my great-grandmother. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life, and I asked her why she wanted to preach. Why she chose to pastor and preach for fifty years. She said she didn’t, she ran. She said it’s not something she ever wanted to do, it’s something she had to do. She ran, but she said you can’t outrun a have to. She said it always finds you and makes you make a choice. When she told me that you can’t outrun a have to, then it sunk into me and what I have to do with my life. It’s not always that you want to wake up at five a.m. to go to a set of a film. It’s not that you want to do eighty-seven drafts of a movie, which I did for Almost Christmas, and probably a hundred and something for Baggage Claim and that much for First Sunday, and all my scripts. You don’t want to do it, but it’s something you have to do, and she cemented that for me.
IB: What’s your favorite scripture?
DET: My favorite scripture has changed over the years. Growing up it was the “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way (Psalm 37:23—KJV). Now it has become simply, “He restores my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake (Psalm 23:3—NIV). In life and in this industry we have to protect our spirit and our soul. I’m forever thankful that twenty-five years in the business, and fifty years of life, I still have the same joy, and enthusiasm to do what I do. I direct that to God restoring my soul.
IB: What advice do you have for young couples?
DET: I would say that the biggest thing is to be honest with whether or not you would be better with her or without her. I think anyone that’s in a relationship should be in a relationship because they make you better. I know for me it’s a selfish thing. My woman makes me better looking and makes me a better dresser. She makes me a better writer and makes me a better human being.
IB: You have seven titles that are currently streamed on Urban Movie Channel. I would like you to come up with one or two words to reflect each production.
IB: Another Man Will?
DET: Hilarious.
IB: What My Husband Doesn’t Know?
DET: Provocative.
IB: Love In The Nick of Tyme?
DET: Transcendent.
IB: Suddenly Single?
DET: Healing.
IB: A Fool and His Money?
DET: Warm and fuzzy.
IB: What Goes Around Comes Around?
DET: Silly.
IB: Mr. Right Now?
DET: Groundbreaking.
IB: What’s next for you?
DET: I’m working on a new play, Can a Woman Raise a Man, it’s touring in October 2017. It’s my most personal play because my brother and I were raised by a single black woman. And now I’m a father of a young man, and it’s so interesting. I have both perspectives now that I have to contend with and come up with a conclusion, which I haven’t come up with yet. I’m also writing the sequel to Almost Christmas, which probably will be released in 2018.
Gwendolyn Quinn is an award-winning media consultant with a career spanning over 25 years. She is the founder and creator of the African American Public Relations Collective (AAPRC) and the Global Communicator. Her weekly columns, “Inside Broadway,” “The Living Legends Series,” and “My Person of the Week” are published with EURWEB.com. She is also a contributor to BE.com, BE Pulse (via Medium.com) and the Huffington Post. Quinn is also a contributor to Souls Revealed and Handle Your Entertainment Business. She is the curator of The Living Legends Foundation’s “The State of Black Music and Beyond” essay series. Contact her at [email protected].
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