"The Actors Wrap: J Kyle Manzay" by The Beast

Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Beast here… I writing a two – part special called The Actors Wrap: for actor, producer, writer and director J Kyle Manzay, and model and actress Vanessa Simmons.

J Kyle wrote this great production called The Actors Rap and it’s a comedy that touches on Hip-Hop and the growing number of rap stars acting and filling roles that would normally go to trained actors. For the actor’s that are slighted in the play – they revolt this madness and seek a revolution to rid of the rappers from their territory. It’s a great production and features the very pretty and popular Vanessa Simmons. Her name needs no introduction right. So read though my first meeting with J Kyle and in a few days I’ll have that piece up with Vanessa.

At the end of the J Kyle piece. There is a link to watch the trailer to The Actors Rap…

There is no question that Howard University has juice - I mean talent wise. The abundance of prosperous individuals that raine from the university each year is fluid and speaks a lot about the ambition and drive of the persons that attend the HBCU in Washington, DC.

For J Kyle Manzay his emergence from the notoriously famed university known widely for its homecomings is a creative talent that graduated from Howard in 1999 with a BFA in theater and later attended NYU for his MFA. One of his most notable roles came in last years block buster film American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. J Kyle played Dexter Lucas, one of the many brothers of Frank Lucas that helped him do his drug bidding. Before that amazing role, in 2005 he appeared in Twentieth Century Fox Action and Adventure film Little Manhattan as Master Cole. He had other appearances in CSI: NY, Law Order: Special Victims Unit and American Dreams.

More than just an actor, he’s also a producer, writer and a director that has roots that stretch from the performing arts stage. He’s a member of not-for-profit theater company The Classical Theater of Harlem and has acted in such on – stage plays as Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear and The Blacks: A Clown Show and Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. In his role for The Blacks: A Clown Show, he won an Obie Award for Outstanding Performance. Looking at his success as an actor – you would never imagine that it almost never happened. Before attending Howard, he had very big ambitions to play college basketball at another collegiate institution. But after coming to the conclusion that attending the school for ball, was for all the wrong reasons and soon submitted headshots and his background info to an agent. This move of course was a sign that he would follow his creative spirit to become an actor, but it would be the walk through tour at Howard and seeing what it had to offer that sealed the deal.

Since finishing Howard and joining the ranks of fellow Howard alums like Ozzie Davis, Debbie Allen and funny man Anthony Anderson, he’s in great company. In prompt to creating his most recent play, he has worked in association with The Cherry Lane Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Lincoln Center and the Soul Rep Theater Company. He helped to create Soul Rep Theater Company in his home city of Dallas, TX.

His play – The Actors Rap – is a look at the industry from the comedic point of view an actor and music artist. The play delves into the increasing number of rappers landing roles in films and television shows that would normally go to trained actors. “The hip-hop infused comedy, where pop culture meets satire, examines the downward spiral of an African-American actor who begins to lose roles – and a girlfriend – to a famous rapper-turned-actor. Fed up, the play’s protagonist takes matters into his own hands hatching a plan to kidnap his rival (the rapper) by calling upon his classically trained actor buddies to help him pull off the caper. What ensues next is a hilarious sequence of events sure to leave audiences in stitches.”

It took two years to develop the stage play that was originally drafted to be a screen play, but after friends had encouraged him to turn it into a play, J Kyle went to work on it and the play first showcased at the 2006 Hip-Hop Theater Festival in New York City. The names of the characters in the production are just as interesting as the name of the play. J Kyle says that the characters are “spoofs” of some of the most known names in music and acting today. For example Lil’ Tease is supposed to be a kindler rendition of the Queen Bee of rap. This character is played by model and actress Vanessa Simmons of reality show Runs House. Lil’ Tease follows alongside LJ Miles played by J Kyle. The acquisition of Vanessa was due in part to great networking in big circles. J Kyle had a friend that knew her manager. Once the link was connected, J Kyle asked if she would be interested in being apart of the cast, but at the time her busy schedule which included routine trips back in forth to LA and NY wouldn’t permit, but amazingly she was able to work something out – contacted J Kyle and said yes.

J Kyle boasts that working with Vanessa has been a great pleasure, and because he was already a big fan of Run’s House, he already knew what she was capable of bringing to the table. Her resume speaks for it’s self on the show, because we all know that she is very serious about acting and it’s great to see that they were able to make this happen because as I will deliberate in part two of my series called The Actors Wrap:, I’ll open your mind to what Vanessa Simmons is all about and why she’s good person that just so happens to be in line to being called one of the hardest working women in the biz. As for J Kyle, keep a look out, because he has other plans in the works too. He just recently finished a movie in his home borough of Brooklyn called Single Hill and he’s working on an animation comedy called Huffles… “I hope that spelled that right.”

The Actors Rap will be held at Engelman Recital Hall at The Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan, NY.

The production is scheduled to begin Thursday January 31st at 8pm and will end March 1st. Tickets are $45, but $25 for college students that present ID.

For more info on The Actors Rap and for tickets go to: www.theactorsrap.com

Watch the trailer: http://www.theactorsrap.com/trailer.html

 

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