Nia Harvey
Interview Highlights
Nia’s creative mission is to tell the untold stories of ordinary people whose legacies are erased from history. Look out for her new musical, Jane the Queen, currently in development!
Being a woman means knowing when you can take a fight alone and when to call for backup.
It’s important to portray Black characters as complex, three-dimensional people who are not solely defined by their race.
Black characters do not always have to be related to trauma and negativity. They can also be successful and happy!
Nia’s Work
Watch The Papillon Waltz, a one-act musical by Kisakye Naiga, Lillia Woodbury, and Nia Joy Harvey!
Bio
Nia Harvey (she/her) is a New York-based actress, singer, mover, lyricist, and librettist. She has performed in venues ranging from small black box theatres to a large stage in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Nia discovered her love and talent for writing after taking a playwriting class in college. She has a personal passion for telling untold stories and bringing background characters into the spotlight. She has written poems for A Broader Way and monologues for CPA Theatricals, Inc. Nia’s one-act play Gabrielle’s Book received a staged reading and talk-back at Manhattanville College. Her most recent lyricist project is her one-act musical The Papillon Waltz, along with a host of cabaret songs.
Find Nia Online:
Instagram: @niajharvey
Twitter: @NJHarvey1
“I want to tell untold stories. I love getting into the lives of ‘ordinary people,’ and I love uncovering secrets.”
Nia’s Creative Work
Hayley: We are here with the wonderful, hilarious, and fun Nia Harvey. Nia, please introduce yourself, share your pronouns, and tell us a little about what you do in the theatrical world.
Nia: Hi, I’m Nia, she/her/hers. I’m a 23-year-old African American writer, actress, lyricist, librettist, singer, songwriter. I’m currently in New York City with the Musical Theatre Writers Collective as a lyricist and librettist.
Hayley: How did you come to your creative work? What was your journey?
Nia: Well, I was always a drama queen ever since I was little. My grandma was like, “This child is going to start taking acting classes, because if she doesn’t, she will drive all of us insane.” So I was in theatre summer camp programs for as long as I can remember. I did musical theatre, dance classes, I went to the Dance Theatre of Harlem when I was 6. I was in the theatre program at Harlem School of the Arts, when I was in high school. It was always acting, singing, dancing, all of that.
Then I was a theatre major in college. My sophomore year, I took a play writing class that was required for graduation. The class was focused on playwriting structure, and I found that I really enjoyed writing. So I wrote a one-act play called Gabrielle’s Book. And the college did a staged reading of it my junior year. I was able to cast it, one of our director alums came back and directed it, and then I gave a talkback afterwards. I felt like a little professional. That was when the bug bit me, and I decided I am going to be a writer. And an actress. But mostly a writer.
And then in 2020, when Ms. COVID came, that put the acting on the side. I graduated in 2020, and there were no auditions to go to because everything was shut down. So I was able to focus on writing, and that’s how I was introduced to the Collective and Sam Carner.
Amy: Nia, can you tell us what you’re working on creatively right now? What are you excited about?
Nia: Right now, I’m in school with the Collective, so it’s mostly vignettes of musical theater-style songs for assignments. We’re preparing to do our one-act musicals soon, in March.
I also have a full-length, copywritten musical called Jane the Queen. I am the book writer and lyricist, and it tells the true story of a 16-year-old girl named Jane Grey who was the Queen of England for nine days. It’s about her journey to the throne, what happened during that nine-day period, and her inevitable fall. A lot of people are like, “Oh, I never heard about her.” And I’m like, “There is a reason for that.”
Hayley: We’re all about women who have been buried from history.
Amy: Raise them up! Let’s talk about them.
Nia: So I am telling her story because… it’s 1553 Tudor England, so it’s a different time, it’s a different mindset, everything’s different, but at the end of the day, this girl was 16 years old and everything about what happened to her was very unnecessary. So being able to tell her story and revive her from the ashes has been very fun. I also like exploring the themes of family dynamics - the show has Mary (Mary I), Elizabeth (Elizabeth I), and their brother Edward. I’m exploring their dynamic as a family, while comparing them to Jane and her sisters.
Hayley: That’s a lot of powerful women in one show.
Nia: A lot of powerful women. And I give them their due time and solos.
Amy: How did you get involved with that project?
Nia: I actually stumbled across this BBC documentary when I was supposed to be studying for a math final my junior year of college. It started out as a play, but then I realized that it had to be a musical, because I wanted to have different perspectives on the story to give it more dimension. The point is that we don’t see Jane until she is needed, even though the show is about her. So it starts off from Mary’s perspective, then we see Jane’s perspective, and then the Duke and her father, because they’re the ones who instigated the whole thing. And then we go back to Jane, and then we end with Mary. It’s a lot of different eyes, and I swear it works.
One of the most challenging parts was making Jane a three-dimensional character, because we know nothing about her. She wasn’t “important” until she was important, and then that only lasted nine days. And then her legacy was erased from history. So I knew a lot about what she didn’t want, and I said, okay, what does she want? She doesn’t want what everyone else wants her to want, but she needs to have a strong want to give her a reason to reject everything else. So that was a whole journey, trying to find something for a 16-year-old princess to want. I did it, and she now has a purpose.
Nia’s Creative Mission
Hayley: Nia, what is your creative mission?
Nia: I want to tell untold stories. I love getting lost in BBC documentaries. I love getting into the lives of the “ordinary people,” I love uncovering secrets. I’m like an archaeologist without the heat, the hat, or the dirt…or those little brushes. I am a recorder. I look, I analyze, and I jot things down. I love observing. Specifically, I really like documentaries of time periods 1830 and earlier, all the way back to ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia…
Hayley: That’s practically all of history.
Amy: That's a really big chunk of history! I want to know what happened in 1830 that turned you off the rest of history.
Nia: They got electricity and lightbulbs, and people stopped writing romantic letters… I love the romance.
Thoughts on Womanhood, Allyship, and Collaboration
Amy: Nia, can you tell us about what being a woman means to you? How does womanhood - specifically Black womanhood - fit into your identity and your creative work?
Nia: To me, being a woman means having a sense of your own self and knowing when you can take a fight alone and when you should probably call for backup. There have been many times when I have tried to take a fight alone and needed backup, and times when I called for backup when I could have done things on my own. So I have not found that balance yet. If anyone out there has the secret, hit me up.
Amy: What do you look for in allies? How do you find the people to call for backup?
Nia: People who will listen and not try to talk over you. Someone who can see when they should help speak up. Not jump in the moment a thing starts or try to take over, but stay close and listen in and give the occasional side eye when necessary.
Hayley: We’ve been discussing the limitations that being a woman can offer us in the world. How do you see your gender as benefiting you in the theatrical space and also in general?
Nia: Honestly, I don’t think I have really had a noticeable experience like that yet.
Hayley/Amy: YET.
Nia: Yet. I’ve never been asked to sensitivity-read anything. Which I’m open to do, because if I glanced at a few things before they went out there - including by people I know and love and respect - things could have been worded a lot differently. Things could have gone a lot better if I had sneaked a peek and said, “Mmmm, maybe you don’t want to use that specific word there. Maybe go on thesaurus.com and check out the other words they have available that are probably cheaper to use…” A lot of that. I haven’t played a lot of female roles where I got to feel my femininity. Even when my characters were female, I feel like I wasn’t able to fully flow with it.
Amy: Why do you think that is?
Nia: I honestly have no idea. I went to an all-girls school from 6th to 12th grade, so you’d think there would be a lot of strong female roles. There were not. Or I didn’t play them.
We did Legally Blonde one year. We were not really guided to get to know the characters. It was more of - learn the lines, learn the music, learn the choreography, learn the blocking, put it onstage. It was very one-dimensional, and we would be onstage saying sentences that we didn’t understand the full meaning of. We didn’t get it. We didn’t understand what we were saying, so nothing really made sense. Elle is so much more than this happy blonde girl who just wants a rich man. She’s smart.
Amy: Oh, Elle is my feminist she-ro.
Hayley: Elle is an icon.
Nia: She was able to buckle down and score a 175 on her LSAT.
Amy: We’ve talked about the idea of doing theatre as one person’s vision versus bringing everyone along in collaboration and letting everyone be a part of envisioning the theatrical work.
Nia: Yeah, there wasn’t any collaboration.
Thoughts on Mentorship
Amy: Nia, can you tell us about influential mentors you’ve had and some of the lessons you’ve learned from them?
Nia: Oh my gosh, so many people. My college professor, Clista Townsend. She taught voice and speech, acting, and a Shakespeare class. I just love this woman. She was always there to talk or offer advice, and she did a lot for me. She helped me break out of my high school bubble, and find audition material that suited me. She found African American female roles for me without making me feel like that’s all I could do. She gave me a wider range of things that I can do.
My main collaborations with her were in Shakespeare classes. In Shakespearean theatre, characters can gender bend and be gender-fluid, which is amazing. Women were not allowed to be on the stage in Shakespearean times, so all of the female characters were played by cross-dressing men with higher-pitched voices. And everyone was okay with that, with the men in big hoop skirts and wigs. I don’t know why that changed, because it was kind of badass and I love it. So yeah, she was my number one mentor.
Final Thoughts
Amy: Nia, you are young and just getting started in the theatre industry and finding your place, which is so cool and exciting. I’m curious, if you could make one change to the theatre industry, what would it be?
Nia: African American writers can write more than just trauma and negativity. Y’all can do more. I’m not saying don’t write your Civil War/slavery/civil rights piece. I'm saying we can have happy stuff too. Like Bridgerton. I loved Bridgerton so much, because it was African American people in positions of power and wealth, and it was treated like the norm. They were completely integrated into society, and no one was batting an eye about it or anything. It was so refreshing to see it be so normal. They weren’t trying to “meet their blackness quota.” Characters like Lady Danbury or the Duke or even Queen Charlotte (my goddess, I love her so much). Characters like that.
Why can’t we have happy characters who are happy living their lives and don't have to experience racism or police brutality? Why can’t we just be living?
I’m gonna answer my own question. Why do we all do this? Here’s why. It’s because it’s what’s expected. When you see an African American writer - male, female, nonbinary - you automatically think that they're going to write about the African American experience. And when you have Black characters, there always has to be some sort of trauma related to them. Why can’t they just be happy?
Growing up, I LOVED the Cosby show, and my grandparents loved the Cosby Show, and my mother loved the Cosby Show, because it was this African American family being “normal, regular.” Not going through any trauma related to being Black. The mother was a successful lawyer and the father was a successful doctor. The kids were normal kids who got into normal kid stuff and had normal kid problems. Blackness was important in that show, and it’s a main part of the show. But it was about a regular family. They're not stereotyped, they’re not thrown into boxes, they’re allowed to be three-dimensional, complex characters.
African American writers feel like we need to show the world the trauma that we’ve suffered in order to change it. Which is valid. However, can we take a break from watching the news? I don’t want to pay for a theatre ticket to see something that I can see happen on the news for free.
Amy: That reminds me of how you described your creative mission, about telling the untold stories of real people living their lives while “newsworthy" things are happening around them.
Nia: We can be successful people who are happy.
Hayley: I hope people take that to heart in reading this.
Final Thoughts
Amy: I have a final question for you, Nia, and it relates to Black joy and women’s joy and your joy.
Hayley: Nia’s middle name is Joy!
Amy: Oh yeah, Nia Joy Harvey! So, Nia Joy, what are you most proud of in your life?
Nia: A lot. My entire life. I am proud of my entire life. I’m not one of those people who is like, “I’ve had to struggle from day one and I had this happen to me and I still came out on top.” I don’t have a huge success story like that. But I am proud of how much my writing has developed over the years. I’ve been writing short stories since I was in 4th grade. I found my 4th grade journal of stories, and I’ve come a long way since then. Seeing how my writing has developed, seeing how my interests have grown.
At first, I didn’t know anything about lyric writing. Now, I consider myself a lyricist/book writer instead of a book writer/lyricist. Composing will soon be added to that list because of my expanding learning in the Musical Theatre Writers Collective program and beyond. And using my knowledge as a performer and singer to influence my writing. Writing to help the performer get into a character. The words look good on paper, but how are they going to sound in a performer’s mouth? Being able to have both parts of my brain turned on is a real benefit, and I’m glad that I’m able to continue developing that.
Hayley: Thank you so much for being here with us, Nia.
Nia: It’s been a JOY.
Amy: I see what you did there!
