Elizabeth Juliene Mikel is a famous American actress of the Dallas Theater Center and jazz singer.
Elizabeth first appeared on stage as a dancer. As Liz noted in an interview, she was already quite large since childhood: she was 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighed over 200 pounds. However, this did not stop her from starting to dance. At the age of three, her mother sent Liz to dance lessons with her work acquaintance, Anne Williams, who was the founder of the Dallas Black dance school. Since then, the girl began to discover her artistry. Her mother and dance teacher always supported her and did not make any comments about her size. Read more at dallas-trend.
THE BEGINNING OF HER THEATER CAREER
In 1990, Liz Mikel auditioned for a local theater company and met Akin Babatunde, who invited her to the Dallas Theater Center and became a mentor for the young actress.
Liz got her first role in Sojourner Truth, which was staged for teenage theater. Many black actors took part in this play because they wanted to hone their acting skills.
Liz Mikel then met Tyrees Allen, who suggested that she try out for a role in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She successfully auditioned for the play. Liz went on to be cast as the Ghost of Christmas Present in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a role she played for over 20 seasons.
PARTICIPATION IN THE BROADWAY THEATER
Liz Mikel first appeared on Broadway in 2011 in the musical comedy Lysistrata Jones, originally called Give It Up! She took on the role of the storyteller goddess of the Earth Hetaira. Liz later described this experience as the one she remembered most. The actress had been doing regional theater for many years and had performed in theaters across the states. However, appearing on the Broadway stage was special, unique and unforgettable, making the actress feel emotional as if she was entering the theater stage for the first time.
After this performance, the New York Times highlighted Elizabeth’s acting talent and praised her ability to work as a team. The musical was a success off-Broadway, but ran for only two months.
In 2022, Liz Mikel played the male lead in the musical 1776, which was created exclusively with the participation of women, transgender and non-binary people. The Founding Fathers in this show were not played by the usual heterosexual white men. Liz took on the role of John Hancock, who was president of the Second Continental Congress and fought for the draft of the Declaration of Independence. In an interview, the actress noted that she did not try to play a man on stage, the main thing was to convey the main idea of the texts and reveal the essence of the play.
Interestingly, this was not Liz’s first time playing a male role. In “Our Town,” which was staged by the Dallas Theater Center, she had the role of stage manager. The actress played King Richard in Macbeth, and in Inherit the Wind, she played the role of evangelist and former presidential candidate Matthew Harrison Brady. When the play’s director, Kevin Moriarty, was looking for someone who embodied the same passion and enthusiasm for life as Matthew Harrison Brady, he saw Elizabeth Mikel and knew she was the perfect fit. However, there were some viewers who were offended by the fact that a black woman would play this role. One of them was a local patron of the arts who decided to inform the theater about it. In response, he received a free invitation to the play. Liz played the role so artfully and convincingly that after the performance, the patron apologized and said that the actress “did not disgrace the text.”
