Sometimes the pressures of adulthood, student loans and other bills get the best of our dreams. Life has a tendency of swallowing us whole and sometimes we are minimized to the office job that bores us and never stretches us to our potential. Sure, there's honor and dignity with just having a "job," one that pays your bills and provides for your family's present and future. But what about the road less traveled? What comes of that person who knew in their heart and mind what they wanted to do as a child and pursued it? Unabashedly and unashamedly. Enter Tryphena Wade.
Tryphena is currently playing the regal role of Queen Sarabi in the Broadway production of Disney's The Lion King. The stage, the theatre, singing and dancing was that desire for her as a child.
"As a kid I would watch Leontyne Price on PBS, or Cats or whatever," she said. "And I would say, 'I wanna do that."
Tryphena great up in a conservative home, and she often questioned her love for arts.
"Is that a sin?!" We laughed.
She says that no one talked about being an actor or a dancer as a serious profession. Further there weren't many creative outlets to tap into in the Columbus market. Her family moved to Pickerington early in her college career and her dream started to solidify. Pickerington boasted a healthy and active performing arts curriculum, complete with solid classes from teachers and the ability to audition and perform quality plays and musicals. This support gave her the confidence to know she could pursue theatre as a career.
Howard University was her college of choice. One, because it was out of Ohio. Two, because of the two notable female siblings who had walked the halls and continued a lifelong career in entertainment: Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad. While studying her first love at Howard, she found a new love, travel. In her sophomore year, an opportunity presented itself for Tryphena to travel to Ghana. The assignment? To study the music of Africa, it's history and meaning of yesterday, juxtaposed against its acculturation of today. Tryphena swooned over people, the music, the city and the freedom of being so far from home and still seeing new faces of beauty. The idea of traveling was always in her mind. But the reality of its vastness was becoming more real.
Tryphena finished up at Howard and immediately began going from one audition to another, mainly from D.C. to New York. Her trips to the Empire State became so frequent that the obvious choice was to relocate there. The harshness and realness of the New York grind was, she says, "different."
"I tell people all the time that if you move to New York, you have to know exactly why you're there."
Tryphena saw many people come and go from New York, opting out from their dreams, deferring them until "later," or even getting caught in something other than what their purpose was. Tryphena stayed the course. She performed in some off-Broadway shows, regional and international plays. About five years ago, she was performing on a cruise ship. She was traveling the world while getting paid and performing, what more could a girl ask for? (Her favorite destinations include Italy and Iceland). A fellow performer on the ship had a connection to The Lion Kings casting director for the tour in Germany. He knew Tryphena had an interest in being in the show and forwarded her credentials. To her surprise, they responded and she was on her way to Germany for an audition -- in German. She didn't get a part and came back to New York, still hopeful.
Shortly thereafter she auditioned again for a role as the replacement for the female hyena. Although she wasn't excited about the part itself, she was called back several times. After one of the call backs, she was asked to read for the role of Sarabi. A second call back solidified their interest and she was offered the part when it was touring in Las Vegas, while the primary actor was on medical leave. A week later, she received a call saying they decided to give the role to someone else. Still, a month or so later, they offered her the permanent role of Sarabi. The match is now four years in the making.
Traveling and performing is a life she loved, though she knows full well the drawbacks. She's comfortable and confident in her choices. She started a blog documenting her travels and experiences through words and pictures so that other people can channel that inspiration for themselves.
Another fact she is comfortable with is her single hood, something that has never been to her an affliction you can catch, then get rid of, stigmatized by the media, and just pressures of societal norms. A conversation with a gentleman while she was living in New York turned to her travels, her dreams, her goals and aspirations that didn't fit the status quo, er uh -- what he deemed as the status quo.
"He said to me, 'don't you think if you settled down and stayed in one place, you wouldn't be single?" Tryphena still laughs out loud at this moment. She went on to tell him that if he wanted a wife or girlfriend who's just sitting at home waiting for you all day, that was fine.
"But, that's not what I like to do," she replied.
She then simply added:
"We don't sit on couches!"
Although at the time, the "we" was implicit of the single woman, unafraid of her single-dom, Tryphena has learned that the "we" is all encompassing -- as long as you are living without boxes. The concept has expanded to more than a saying or hash tag to be repeated or re tweeted. It is now a brand. Or perhaps more importantly, a business. Shirts that don the saying are now available online for purchase for anyone in line with the notion that fear is just a tiny invisible and irrelevant something that holds us back from everything. In fact, another shirt available says: Fear Is Stupid. Other shirts include motivational mantras like, "Live. Love. Go. Be. Do."
The movement is picking up steam, something Tryphena never expected but openly accepts as God's way to allow her to give back what God gave her: courage.
It's the same courage and drive for more that compels Tryphena to keep moving. After our lunch date at Black Creek Bistro she was headed to Pickerington to speak to some youth in her former community. And after that more press and events to commune with those along the streets that aided in her upbringing.
Returning to your hometown after years away on the road, abroad, in hotels or in and out of suitcases can sometimes make you feel disconnected from the city you formerly knew. She admits, there are some sites and streets in Columbus that look differently. But then she sees that familiar corner or other landmark and she knows exactly where she is. And of course, her mother's lasagna and pound cake make the trip all the more familiar! But sometimes while relishing in the memories of the past, you also remember why you left. Not to dismiss what was, but to embrace what can be. To stretch yourself and breath in the world in front of us. To take the road less traveled and to literally, live your dreams.
Queen Sarabi, we salute you!
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Columbus, you still have time to check out Tryphena as she plays Queen Sarabi and the rest of the amazing cast of Broadway's, The Lion King through November 9. Get your tickets here! Get information on other cities along the tour here.
Please also visit wedontsitoncouches.com and join the movement!
Follow Tryphena on social media: Twitter: @IamSimbasMom; Instagram @youcancallmequeen