“It’s one of the world’s best-known, intensive, international acting courses,” McNair tells Madison365, speaking of the program designed for committed actors that focuses on classical theatre craft with an emphasis on Shakespeare. “The professors there and the people that come and do master classes are some of the leading practitioners in the art form in London.”
BADA will be one month long and hosted at the University of Oxford at the Magdalene College, which was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England and named after St Mary Magdalene.
“Basically, it comprises acting courses, voice work, and master classes,” McNair says. “At the end of the course, there’s a culminating final performance where they choose one of Shakespeare’s plays or one of the plays of his contemporaries, and then we put it on for people in the area and family and friends are also welcome to come see it. It’s very exciting.”
Many notable performers and well-known actors are alumni of this prestigious program, including the late Chadwick Boseman, Julie Bowen and Paul Rudd.
McNair, who made her professional debut with Olney Theatre Center and Roundhouse Theatre Company’s production of Fela! – nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble, has started a GoFundMe to help with the many costs associated with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She leaves on July 6.
“The tuition with the housing is $7,450 and that’s after a scholarship that I received,” she says. “Flights that I have been looking at are about $2,000. There’s food and miscellaneous costs. All in all, it will be pretty expensive for a college student.
“The costs have been the biggest hurdle for me. I’ve also applied for a scholarship from Howard that I haven’t heard back yet from,” she adds.
“While I was at La Follette, I was very active. I was president of the BSU (Black Student Union) and student body president. I was in, of course, all the theater shows,” she remembers.
While at Howard University, McNair starred in the production of Rhyme Deferred and The House That Will Not Stand. She has also been the secretary and co-historian of the fine arts organization called D.I.V.A. Inc. Last year, McNair was chosen as the 2023 recipient of the Andrew A. Isen Young Artist Gift for Overtures which is awarded to a participant for demonstrating excellence in their work.
“Madison is this tiny bubble, relatively speaking, and so coming to Washington D.C. it was so much bigger and I felt like the world opened up,” McNair says. “And now I have the opportunity to go abroad. It’s just really incredible. For someone who spent her entire youth in Madison, I’m just very excited to be able to see and participate in the way that other people live and the way that other people think. That’s really the most exciting thing for me.”
(Photo by Dr. Benita Gladney)
McNair will be plenty busy during the internship taking classes held during the week that tackle topics like Shakespeare, modern, voice, movement and audition technique. On the weekends, she hopes to be able to take advantage of being in England and Europe to see things she has never seen before. “One of the things that I really want to do is go and see some shows there. I see a lot of theater out here in the D.C., but most of it is contemporary theatre,” she says. “So I am excited to see what the differences are overseas and just see the way that the art form takes various shapes and forms as someone who wants to be a well-rounded artist and who wants to be able to participate in different types of theatre and not be pigeon-holed.
“I also, of course, want to try to travel a little. I would love to go to France. I would definitely love to explore some of the surrounding cities,” she says.
McNair says that she is eager to explore other approaches to the craft of storytelling and believes wholeheartedly that the BADA program will offer her the tools to do so in a special way.
“My absolute passion in life is storytelling. I absolutely love storytelling. I specifically believe I am of the philosophy that art should serve a liberating function,” McNair says. “And so for me, my art is in service of BIPOC people or Black people in America outside of America, and bringing those stories to life on stage to serve a more or less revolutionary function.”
Her specific future goals are still to be determined but she will have plenty of options.
“Ultimately, I want to perform right after college. I’m not sure where I’ll go or if I’ll stay in [Washington] D.C. because I do have a network here that I’m building, but I would love to do straight plays as well as musical theater,” McNair says. “And then, eventually, I want to branch out … whether it’s starting my own theatre company or if it’s writing, directing … there are quite a few things that I’d like to try in what I like to call ‘artivism.'”
