{"id":137817,"date":"2026-01-17T14:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/137817\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:48:07","slug":"her-parents-taught-her-to-honor-those-who-came-before-you-and-an-upcoming-performance-lets-this-actor-do-that-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/137817\/","title":{"rendered":"Her parents taught her to \u2018honor those who came before you,\u2019 and an upcoming performance lets this actor do that \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monique Gaffney<\/a>\u2019s father always told her that \u201ctheater is in your blood,\u201d and it makes sense. Her childhood home was filled with creative people and conversations, icons in the Black arts movement (like a visit from James Baldwin), and her own entry into performing through dance and, later, theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first introduction to theater was definitely my father. I remember that my father was often busy working, and I always sort of wondered, as a child, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d she says of her dad, Floyd Gaffney<\/a>, co-founder of the theater and dance department at UC San Diego and an artistic director at Common Ground Theatre<\/a>, one of the oldest Black theater organizations in the country. \u201cI didn\u2019t really ask those questions until I was, probably, about 6 or 7, so my first sort of memory of theater was my own experience that my daddy was a professor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theater bug sunk its teeth into her and she\u2019s spent her career as a professional actor and teaching artist, including artist residencies, as a lecturer and adjunct professor, leading training programs, and as an associate artist with Write Out Loud, an organization providing education and programming to promote literacy and a love of literature by reading it aloud to audiences. Gaffney is one of the featured performers, alongside Linda Libby and Veronica Murphy, in the group\u2019s next story concert, \u201cWonder Women: Hail To Our Heroines,\u201d<\/a> at 7 p.m. Monday at the Dottie Studio Theater at Liberty Station in Point Loma. These story concerts include a curated selection of short stories, poetry, or music performed by professional actors. This specific installment is focused on celebrating women and the power they possess to accomplish greatness, according to a released statement.<\/p>\n

Gaffney, 56, lives in the Banker\u2019s Hill\/Hillcrest area and took some time to talk about her contribution to this upcoming performance, one of the \u201cwonder women\u201d in her own life, and the foundation her father\u2019s work and love for the arts laid for her own career.<\/p>\n

Q: Can you talk a bit about your childhood in relationship to the theater arts? What do you recall about your experience growing up and your introduction to theater?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0My father was very active on campus at UCSD, as well as in the community. One of the things that he was very involved in was the Black arts movement, so he often invited very prominent African American leaders in the arts to the campus. At one point, I believe somewhere between \u201980 and \u201983, he invited James Baldwin to come to campus so they could discuss \u201cThe Amen Corner,\u201d which he was directing with his students. And James Baldwin showed up at our house in Poway. That\u2019s what I remember because I remember sitting down in front of him, and he was sitting on our couch in the living room, and he was just gingerly sipping on his whiskey, and I was just kind of staring at his big, bright eyes. I didn\u2019t know who this was sitting in front of me until years later, but I was sort of introduced to theater\/social activism at the same time here. He (Baldwin) was very kind. I don\u2019t remember all the words that were exchanged, I just remember watching him and then my father was sort of like, \u201cYour mother\u2019s frying chicken, go upstairs\u201d because they were going to discuss some other things. So, I think that obviously piqued my interest.<\/p>\n

I would say my first entry into the arts was dance, for me, because I begged my parents, \u201cPlease, I want to dance.\u201d They finally let me join one of the neighborhood organizations, and I became a dancer at 7. I used to be very, very shy and quiet \u2014 that has since changed \u2014 so dance was my world, I just loved it. And my parents came to all of my recitals and were very supportive. I want to say it was a musical that I first saw my dad direct, and I feel like it was \u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin\u2019\u201d because he did a lot of plays at the Educational Cultural Complex. I just remember being amazed by these Black actors who were larger than life, singing and dancing their hearts out. It just sounded so sweet and amazing, and I was like, \u2018What\u2019s this about?\u2019 When I was a senior in high school, I auditioned for \u201cSouth Pacific.\u201d I\u2019m not a singer, but I went for it anyway, and I did get cast as a chorus member and I had a ball.<\/p>\n

What I love about Banker\u2019s Hill\/Hillcrest\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only been here for about two weeks because I just recently moved, but I love that it\u2019s close to The Old Globe, which makes it easy for me to get to rehearsals right now, and I often walk in the (Balboa) park. I love being able to go walking whenever I want, which is very easy now that\u00a0I live here. And this is a very vibrant part of San Diego, in terms of activity, so it\u2019s a lovely area. I mean, I hate that we now have to pay for parking, but I\u2019m within walking distance from it now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What appealed to you about pursuing acting and performing yourself?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Since I was so shy and relatively quiet, except at home with my brothers and sisters, I initially wasn\u2019t interested at all. I think what really got me was my father had a Fulbright scholarship to go to Japan to study Eastern theater when I was around 16. He was going to write a big paper about Eastern versus Western theater, and all of the theories and methodology. At the time, I had a summer ballet scholarship to the Marin Ballet and I was thrilled. My dad was like, \u201cNo, you\u2019re actually coming to Japan with the rest of the family to spend the next six to eight weeks here while I finish up my fellowship.\u201d At first, I was angry I had to give up the scholarship, and I didn\u2019t understand, so I was hurt and frustrated, but it turned out to be one of the best things for me. We were all over Japan for four to six weeks. In particular, I remember the Togamura International Arts Festival, which I think still occurs up in the mountains of Japan, so that\u2019s primarily where we spent the majority of our time. My father was studying Tadashi Suzuki and watching Siti Company train every day. I think that\u2019s where the transformation started because my father told me, \u201cYou sat for at least three to almost four hours in silence watching the Siti Company perform \u2018Clytemnestra\u2019 in Japanese, and you didn\u2019t know what was going on, but you didn\u2019t move an inch. You just watched and you were mesmerized.\u201d He always said, \u201cTheater is in your blood,\u201d but he always gave me the opportunity to make the choice. He never forced me into it. That\u2019s the biggest memory that always sticks out for me, that I sat there and watched the company train every day. I made sure I got up, got on the bus, came down the mountain, went to the campus with all these other theater companies. Everybody performing their piece and I was in the middle of all of it, and I just really soaked it in. I traveled with my father around Japan, we stayed at Buddhist monasteries, we were everywhere; I just followed where he went and really got the bug because by the time I got back to the states, I made the decision to audition for \u201cSouth Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0You\u2019re one of the performers in Write Out Loud\u2019s upcoming story concert, \u201cWonder Women: Hail to Our Heroines,\u201d depicting the stories of powerful women. Why did you want to be a part of this production?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0When Veronica (Murphy, artistic director and co-founder of Write Out Loud) approached me to do this, usually I say yes because I think what their organization does is just it\u2019s such a necessary thing in terms of educating the community and having all of these programs. There are a lot of African American women that I do know about, but there\u2019s a whole lot more that I obviously do not know about, and I feel like every time I work with them, I learn about somebody new, or learn about a new piece that I\u2019ve never heard of. That always interests me as a storyteller. When she said, \u201cWonder Women,\u201d the first thing that came to mind was that I grew up watching the TV show, \u201cWonder Woman.\u201d That\u2019s how it spoke to me, the memories of the TV show. Then, it led me to thinking about the \u201cWonder Women\u201d in my life. I\u2019ve been brought up that you honor those who came before you. You honor those who are here, as well, but especially those who came before you. That\u2019s instilled in me from my parents, so wonderful women like my mother (Yvonne Gaffney), who has endured tremendous struggle, from when she was younger all the way up to now. She has late onset Alzheimer\u2019s and I can\u2019t imagine what my mother is going through right now. This has been going on for a little over 10 years, but the idea of losing your mind, I can\u2019t imagine. As the disease slowly progresses, she\u2019s aware of it and is like, \u2018I\u2019m going to do these crossword puzzles, I\u2019m going to do the Wordle and solitaire and all these things.\u2019 She\u2019s just a fighter and I witness that and I go, \u2018OK, there\u2019s my Wonder Woman, my number one Wonder Woman who has my heart.\u2019<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Can you tell us anything about your performance? Which woman\/women you\u2019ll portray?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0One thing we\u2019re doing, because it\u2019s going to be Martin Luther King Day, we\u2019re expanding on the women of color. So, I\u2019m going to be doing, probably \u201cStill I Rise,\u201d and also some excerpts from Lorraine Hansberry, maybe some of her writings in terms of her collaboration with James Baldwin and the group of artists who met with Robert Kennedy to discuss the Civil Rights Movement. I may read an excerpt from \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d and also some of her personal narrative.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What was the process for selecting the women whose stories you\u2019d share on stage?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0For the most part, when Veronica is doing these programs, she gets in contact with me and tells me what she has and she usually has one of the pieces in mind for me, specifically. Then she always asks me my opinion about what I think, which I love. It\u2019s very collaborative. In this case, with it being on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I asked to expand on some of these things and gave her an idea of some of the women that I\u2019m familiar with, but I she also has a niche for finding those that I don\u2019t know about. I said I was very interested in anything that Lorraine Hansberry has to say, Coretta Scott King, anything by Maya Angelou, but there\u2019s also a lot of women I don\u2019t know about. Something Veronica shared with me is that one of the difficult things for putting this together was narrowing it down because there are so many amazing women. I think this is something my father instilled in me about whose shoulders you stand on and just honoring those who went before you, and what they endured.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Can you walk us through your creative process in preparation for this performance? What kind of research was involved? The writing process? The rehearsal process? The costume\/prop selection?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0For me, I get really invested when I\u2019m doing a production, whether it\u2019s the production of a play or doing poetry or any kind of piece, I really go down a rabbit hole in terms of research because I get very fascinated by history. I always like to find that little nugget of truth that either somebody doesn\u2019t know about or that I can pull out of the story about somebody. Producing these story concerts is a combination of me rehearsing on my own, which I think every actor does, and then rehearsing one-on-one, generally with Veronica. It\u2019s a great process because then you really get very specific about the story and presenting it.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Has the process of learning about and inhabiting these women illuminated anything for you about your own lived experiences?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0Yeah, absolutely. It\u2019s so interesting because I was thinking about this in terms of a lot of the acting roles that I usually get offered, which generally are, I would say, very strong women. I don\u2019t necessarily see myself as that; I feel like I\u2019m very resilient, so I think I\u2019m a range of things. I can exist in all of that and still be the woman that I want to be. There\u2019s a wealth of knowledge that I have learned from all the women I\u2019ve encountered in my life\u2014from my mother to my grandmother to my girlfriends\u2014who have had to make certain choices in their lives based on whatever the circumstances may have been. I\u2019m just drawn to it; I don\u2019t feel like I choose it, I feel like it always chooses me, in terms of having these opportunities. And I\u2019m like, \u201cOK, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What is your hope for audiences when they leave Monday\u2019s story concert?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0I think that there are so many women. Even with that old adage that \u201cbehind every great man is a great woman,\u201d or a strong woman, I want people to walk away with thinking, \u2018Well, the woman\u2019s not behind the man, she\u2019s right beside him.\u2019 Even if she has unseen sacrifices or unseen achievements, unseen strength, she\u2019s right there beside you, and she\u2019s strong, but she\u2019s also human.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What is the best advice you\u2019ve ever received?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0What\u2019s coming to mind right now is \u201cdo it anway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0I would say that, even though I often play very strong women, that\u2019s not necessarily my nature.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.<\/p>\n

A: I love to dance. I\u2019m an avid Afro-Cuban dancer, so in my world, if I can dance, I am elated. I\u2019m a foodie, so I love a good meal. So, my ideal weekend would be to get up early enough for a very good brunch, then spending the day dancing in whatever form, a class or going out somewhere. Then, winding down later, who also likes to curl up with a good book and relax when it\u2019s raining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monique Gaffney\u2019s father always told her that \u201ctheater is in your blood,\u201d and it makes sense. Her childhood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1919,181,23,100,592,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-137817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-columns","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-people","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}