A former Albany High School student, who has performed on Broadway, is about to receive a Tony award but not for something she’s done on stage. NEWS10 talked to her about her inspiring journey in theater.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A former Albany High School student, who has performed on Broadway, is about to receive a Tony award but not for something she’s done on stage. NEWS10 talked to her about her inspiring journey in theater.
CJay Philip grew up in Albany and graduated from Albany High School in 1987. Almost 40 years after she received her diploma, she’s about to get a Tony for ‘Excellence in Theatre Education’.
Philip started dance at just 2 years old at the Eleanor School of Dance and has been performing ever since. Later on she received vocal training. But her passion shifted while she attended Albany High School, after she came across theater teacher John Velie.
“I think I was skipping class one day and wandering near his theater section and he says ‘Hey you, you got nothing to do, come learn this monologue!’ I was like ‘OK’ and next thing you know I’m entering Shakespeare contests and winning,” said Philip.
Velie had a lot of faith and belief in her ability and talent. Her interest flourished. Her mom, Nell Stokes, didn’t have the money but asked if her daughter could get a scholarship to the Empire State Institute of Performing Arts. After she auditioned she was admitted and was there for four years.
“And learned more dance training, ballet, jazz, theater, creative writing and directing actually were a part of the curriculum and work that we did at ESIPA when I was a teen,” said Philip.
She’d sing throughout her house and her brothers would yell at her to ‘shut up’. “And my dad would be like ‘No, no! Don’t you tell her to shut up! She’s going to be on Broadway someday,” said Philip. And he was right. In 1996 she made her Broadway debut in the musical “Big”.
“And we had people from Albany go down to see her. It was just amazing,” said Stokes.
Stokes rented a 48 passenger bus so their friends and family from Albany could be there.
“She’s a hard worker. She’s serious about what she does. She always does a good job and she gets complimented for that so I’m just grateful for that for her,” said Stokes.
Now Philip lives in Baltimore. She founded Dance & BMore and it was the young people she teaches there who nominated her.
“It’s like an out of body experience,” said Stokes. “I’m just really excited. I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see this.”
Philip said she might write a Broadway show in the future and never thought Broadway was off the table for her. But heading back to Broadway and winning an award from the Tony’s for her community work is bringing it all full circle for her.
“Like, WOW! That was a work around to come back to this arena and so many of my friends who I worked on Broadway with, or directors, have been sending congratulations and we can’t wait to see you in New York again,” said Philip.
Her mom is so proud of her and can’t wait to see accept the award on Sunday June 16. They shared some advice.
“You’ve gotta be consistent in the process that you put before yourself and you’ve gotta have confidence in yourself as well,” said Stokes. “Keep going even when sometimes you may get pushed down or told you can’t.”
“You can work within your community and give back and have a sense of civic duty in creative ways right now. And have an impact that is so impactful that folks can't help but acknowledge it and affirm it and say this is a good thing for the community,” said Philip.
