Cherrelle Skeete Talks Diversity and New Projects!
You know Cherrelle Skeete as Rose Granger Weasley in the London production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a role she originated in 2016. She left the play in May and has since taken on two new roles at the Lyric Hammersmith Theater!
Beginning October 3, Cherrelle will star in the theater’s production of Chekhov’s The Seagull, in which she plays Marcia. She’s thrilled to be a part of this particular reimagining of the iconic play, as she told Broadway World in an interview:
It’s modern but also traditional at the same time…Everything we’re experiencing today has been experienced in the 1800s. Whether it’s heartbreak or the need to be loved, it’s just what [it] means to be human. It can be played in any time period, in any part of the world. They are universal themes, and what we are looking at is merely human behavior.
Cherrelle also stressed the importance of diversity in theater and the need for people of color to be represented in all aspects of show business, not just on-stage:
It’s the people who are at the top who are making the decisions. I don’t want to see representation limited to the stage; I want to see variety in directors and people who are working behind the scenes. It’s also getting access to the industry….I don’t think people realize there is space that they could take up; they think they’re not entitled to it. We wait for a permission we don’t need. It means that the people who are in possession of power have to put the work in and reflect what our society looks like in the artistic space, so it needs to start from the gatekeepers.
Once The Seagull closes, Cherrelle will appear in the Lyric Hammersmith’s newest pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk. She starts as the Fairy Godmother on November 18 and finishes her run in January.
Looks like Cherrelle will certainly be busy! It doesn’t look like she’ll be rejoining her old cast members on Broadway in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but we hope to see her in tons of roles like these in the future! Learn more and book your tickets for The Seagull and Jack and the Beanstalk here.
