Noree Victoria, Baltimore, Maryland native, currently residing in Atlanta, GA, has been active in the creative arts her entire life. Starting out writing imaginative short stories and plays, she completed her first bound children's book at the age of 8. Loving the arts and academics, during her middle school years, she used her creative outlets to escape her often-challenging upbringing in Baltimore and opted to spend her summers in special programs on college campuses studying drama, creative writing, and painting with the help of government subsidized grants and academic scholarships. At the age of 16, once again longing for a life beyond the borders of her home city, she petitioned her school board on her own and successfully won their approval to by-pass her senior year, and go directly onto college, earning a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing and Biology, andsubsequently a Master's Degree in Information Technology. However, coming from a prominent entertainment family with modest means, kin to the late jazz musician Eubie Blake, and sister to Emmy nominated actress Penny Jerald, the lure of acting was way too overpowering for her to neglect.
After completion of her academic studies, she stepped out on faith to pursue her creative passions in the performing arts full time, gaining notable recognition by winning the Best Actress award at AMTC, a national actor's competition held in Orlando, Florida drawing over 1000 participants each year. After being discovered at AMTC, Noree was contacted by the New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts and offered a scholarship to study under the direction of some of the best instructors in the business, mastering Scene Study, Advanced Film Combat, Voice-overs, Michael Chekov technique, Shakespeare Presentation, and Commercials. She completed her certificate there in the summer of 2009.
Bio compliments of http://www.noreevictoria.com/
Preview of TMN Exclusive with Noree Victoria
Interview conducted by Abigail Lynne (Freelance writer) & facilitated by: TMN
Abigail Lynne: You’ve worked in theatre, films, commercials, and television, specifically “Locked Up Abroad” on National Geographic, which is personally one of my favorite shows. Can you tell me a little bit about that experience?
Noree: “Locked Up Abroad” was shot in the Philippians. That was the most physically, emotionally, and spiritually intense experience of my film career. It was…intense! It was really intense. Of course, “Locked Up Abroad” is not a “90210 pretty” show. It’s not a pretty show; it’s very grimy and gritty.
Abigail Lynne: Funny you chose the word ‘intense’. I know that you posted several videos while you were filming “Locked Up Abroad” in the Philippians. One in particular that caught my attention you labeled “Hell in Paradise” which is extremely intense. The viewer can see your energy in the video and that you are quite drained emotionally and physically from that one particular day of filming. You didn’t go into any specific details as to why it was so difficult. Would you be willing to shed some light on it?
Noree: Well, without giving away too much of the plot out of respect for the producers, it was very location-related. We filmed it in an institution, and of course with “Locked Up Abroad”, you are always going to be in some type of institution because you’re locked up. We were in a women’s institution, and it was a real institution, they weren’t actors. It was just…I’ve never experienced…every single one of my five senses, I would say, was challenged and tested that day; the smell of the place, the heat of the place, the emotion of the place, hearing the screams and the wails and the ramblings of the institutionalized women, and their conditions with sores all over their bodies. Most of them were naked and just living in—their needs just weren’t even met. We have certain hygienic standards in certain places of the world, and that was…that was hell, it was hell. Seeing them with sores, and covered in their own waste, and eating in their own waste; sleeping and screaming. It was, um…it was difficult. It was difficult to see women that way, and it was difficult just to see humans kept that way. It was worse than—it was bad, it was just really bad.
Abigail Lynne: Probably nothing you could ever imagine.
Noree: I can’t even put it into words—you see I struggle with it. It’s funny, like I said in the video, we are all aware of the human conditions in the different parts of the world, and that we are very blessed, and very unusually placed, to have certain things that we have, because most people don’t have them. But when you see it and you smell it, and you lose your appetite, you just—there’s nothing like it. That wasn’t the only place like that. The shoot in itself was overall very emotionally intense. We were shooting in a marketplace one day, and there were babies walking around without diapers and just laying on the street in 110 degrees looking like they had just been born, really. It’s hard when you are confronted with extreme poverty. We all have been in places in our lives when we didn’t have everything we wanted, and sometimes we didn’t have everything we needed, but when you’re in such a place where you are treated and feel less than human, spiritually that just doesn’t set right with me. I had to make a decision when I was filming in the Philippians. On the second day, I decided that I was going to disconnect from my physical body and not acknowledge nausea, not acknowledge the smells, not acknowledge the heat- or else I don’t think I would have made it through that shoot. It’s something that the average person will never, ever experience in their lives. It just stays with you, it stays with you. Even things like, in the streets—they don’t have emissions standards there, so sometimes you’re filming in the midst of black smoke. We think about the Philippians, and the mountains, and the palm trees, and the water, and we think of paradise, but that’s surface. You have to dig deep and see where and how the people are living, and “Locked Up Abroad” is the show. I commend them for showing the trenches of life, and not the resorts of life, and the hotels of life. It takes you to the trenches, and we were in the trenches the entire time. There was nothing comfortable about that shoot, but it was amazing, and it was the best experience—human experience—I could have ever had, because although I had an appreciation that I carry with me period, that takes you to a level that you really had to be there to experience.
Abigail Lynne: If you took one thing away from that experience, what would it be?
Noree: I would say a heightened sense of humanity. One of my philosophies is to just “leave humanity unharmed, help with what you can.” I don’t judge people too much, and I hope people will learn not to judge each other, but I know that’s asking a lot. Humanity is something I always try to remain connected to, but after that trip, I just have this hyper- awareness of humanity and how people are living. I never drive by a homeless person without taking notice, or when people ask for something I give it to them. Being in this position, yeah, you might get taken advantage of sometimes. However, if someone brings themselves to asking for something, obviously they need it more than you do in most situations. It just makes you more giving, more human, and less caught up in the trappings of pop culture.
To catch more of this interview, be on the look out for the 1st issue of TMN Illustrated coming soon.