Danitra Vance

Danitra Vance (July 13, 1954 – August 21, 1994) was an American actress and comedian, who was a cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL) during its eleventh season and appeared in feature films like Sticky Fingers (1988), Limit Up (1990) and Jumpin' at the Boneyard (1992). She performed for The Second City, was an "Off-Broadway favorite",[1] and was the first black woman of the primary SNL cast and, along with Terry Sweeney, the first openly LGBT member, though she was not openly out. Her comedy and theater work featured themes of social issues, including that of being consistently stereotyped during casting. During her career, she received an Obie Award and an NAACP Image Award.

Danitra Vance
Born(1954-07-13)July 13, 1954
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedAugust 21, 1994(1994-08-21) (aged 40)
Markham, Illinois, U.S.
Other namesDan Vance
EducationRoosevelt University, Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (MFA)
OccupationActress, comedian
Years active1972–1994
Partner(s)Jones Miller
AwardsObie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress

In 1989, Vance was diagnosed with breast cancer. She performed several works through remission and recurrence until her death in 1994. Before her death, she requested her family host her services at an amusement park.

Early life and early career

Raised in the South Side, Chicago, Vance grew up with her mother, younger sister, and maternal grandparents in a household where telling stories was the main form of entertainment, and graduated from nearby Thornton Township High School in 1972.[2] In high school she was active in theater and was a member of the debate team. She later attended National College of Education[3] before transferring to Roosevelt University in 1975, where she studied playwriting and acting,[1] and graduated with honors.[3] She then moved to London to study at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was classically trained in Shakespeare and earned a MFA.[1]

Vance started her career performing with The Second City improv group before moving to New York City in 1981[4] with goals of performing only to face direct discrimination and return to the midwest to teach high school in Gary, Indiana, where her students helped inspire characters in her next show. She initially performed the characters in Old Town, Chicago.[4]

From November 30 – December 11, 1984, Vance mounted the show, "Danitra Vance and the Mell-o White Boys," at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.[5] In a review of the piece that ran in the Village Voice, theater critic Alisa Solomon wrote that Vance's comedy "stabs while it entertains, actually causing a physical catch in your laughter, as she undercuts every pose she takes... Beginning with and then undermining stereotypes, Vance creates an unsettling tension among stereotypes, reality, and the conditions that create stereotypes."[6] Among the characters she performed in the show were several that she later developed on Saturday Night Live – including teenaged mother Cabrini Green Jackson and Flotilla Williams (who performs a version of Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene from her fire escape), described as a "ghetto Shakespearean actress".[2][3][7]

Saturday Night Live

Vance was the first African American woman to become an SNL repertory player in 1985[3], the only SNL cast member to have a learning disability, and was the second lesbian cast member hired after Denny Dillon (though her sexual orientation never became public knowledge until her death). Her casting alongside Terry Sweeney was also the first time that Saturday Night Live had two LGBTQ+ cast members (as Sweeney was the show's first openly gay male cast member).[8]

Vance joined the SNL cast during a time of great transition and turbulence for the show, and she became frustrated over repeatedly having characters stereotypical of young, black women written for her.[1]

Vance ultimately was let go SNL at the end of the 1986 season along with many other cast members from that season who were dismissed, including Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall, and Terry Sweeney.

Recurring characters on SNL
  • That Black Girl, a black actress looking to hit the big time, despite being passed up because of her race (parody of Marlo Thomas's That Girl)
  • Cabrini Green Jackson, a professional teenage mother and motivational speaker who gives advice on teen pregnancy

Celebrity impersonations

Late career

She was awarded an NAACP Image Award in 1986 and later won an Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress for her performance in the theatrical adaptation of Spunk, a collection of short stories written by Zora Neale Hurston.[9] That same year, Vance was also in the original cast of George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum; she would go on to reprise some of her performances therein for a 1991 Great Performances restaging of the play.

Vance was the second female lead opposite Nancy Allen in Limit Up, where she played a guardian angel on assignment for God being played by Ray Charles. She had small roles in The War of the Roses and Little Man Tate and a more significant role in Jumpin' at the Boneyard, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

Death

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990, Vance underwent a single mastectomy and incorporated the experience into a solo skit, "The Radical Girl's Guide to Radical Mastectomy". She expanded on her experiences in a second, autobiographical show, titled "Pre-Shrunk" which was to be performed at The Public Theater. However, she was unable to perform as her cancer recurred in 1993. She died of the disease the following year in Markham, Illinois.[3] She requested her funeral be held at an amusement park, and her family threw her a "going-away party" with apple bobbing and bean bag tossing to respect her wishes.[1] She was survived by her partner, Jones Miller.[1]

Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1988 Sticky Fingers Evanston
1989 Limit Up Nike
The War of the Roses Manicurist Trainee
1991 Hangin' with the Homeboys Pool hall couple
Little Man Tate Clinic doctor
1992 Jumpin' at the Boneyard Jeanette
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1985–1986 Saturday Night Live Various 18 episodes
1987 Miami Vice Annette McAllister 1 episode
1989 The Cover Girl and the Cop Television movie
Trying Times Emma St. John 1 episode
1990 Sisters Brenda Television movie
1991 Great Performances: The Colored Museum Miss Pat/The Woman/Normal Jean Reynolds 1 episode

References
  1. Wright, Megh (January 15, 2013). "Saturday Night's Children: Danitra Vance (1985-1986)". Vulture. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  2. Schmich, Mary (August 24, 1994). "The Short Struggle of Damitra Vance". Chicago Tribune – South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  3. Brantley, Ben (August 23, 1994). "Danitra Vance, 35, an Actress; Worked at Shakespeare Festival". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
  4. Schmich, Mary (August 24, 1994). "The Short Struggle of Damitra Vance". Chicago Tribune – South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  5. "Production Page: Danitra Vance And The Mell-O White Boys (1984)". La MaMa's Digital Collections Website. 1984.
  6. Solomon, Alisa (December 18, 1984). ""Danitra Vance and the Mell-o White Boys"". Village Voice.
  7. Watch Shakespeare in the Slums from Saturday Night Live on NBC.com, retrieved March 3, 2018
  8. Pierce, Robbie X (August 22, 2016). "A Brief LGBT History of 'Saturday Night Live'". Advocate. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  9. "1990s". Obie Awards. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
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