Christina Francis Yancy admits she’s been blessed even during a worldwide pandemic. The 24-year-old has a personality as brilliant as her wide, slightly gap-toothed smile (a gift from her mother and father, she insists).
Yancy came to St. Louis in 2019, right after graduating from the University of Montevallo (UM), a liberal arts college in Alabama. She arrived via a paid internship with the Black Repertory Theatre Company of St. Louis.
The global pandemic crippled theatre companies around the world, but Yancy said her blessings continued throughout personal and collective challenges:
“Even though the Black Rep went virtual, we were lucky enough to have a 2020 season and had patrons who still wanted to see us do things. Being able to do theater during the pandemic, I realize that I was extremely lucky to have a job and have a creative outlet for myself.”
Yancy was bitten by the acting bug as a little girl. She fondly remembers how she and her only sister, Vivian, devoured her parents’ collection of Andrew Loyd Webber musicals, such as “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Evita” and “Cats” on VHS tapes.
“You have a broken heart because you lost your dad and it’s manifesting itself through these pains.” – Advice from Christina Francis Yancy’s aunt to help her cope with hypochondria.
She also recalled the times her mother, Tracey, who loved live theatre, took her to theaters in Mobile, Alabama starting at the tender age of three. One of the most memorable productions the family watched was the 1999 made-for-TV version of “Annie.” The musical version featured Tony-award-winning, internationally known African American actress, Audra McDonald.
“For me, at that age, seeing this gorgeous black woman singing and performing and being successful doing it, enchanted me,” Yancy recalled, adding: “Even to this day, I still enjoy watching Annie.”
Acting has served as a panacea for Yancy who has grappled with a medical condition since her teens. Her father, Milan, who suffered from acute myeloid leukemia, passed away in 2011. It was then that 14-year-old Yancy was diagnosed with extreme Hypochondria, an abnormal anxiety about one’s health and unwarranted fears of a serious disease. She remembers countless trips to emergency rooms and dozens of tests. Doctors and her mother repeatedly told her she was fine, but the pain was real in Yancy’s young mind.
“It was like a finger pressing against my heart,” she said.
Nothing gave her comfort until an aunt provided a diagnosis that made sense to her.
“You have a broken heart because you lost your dad and it’s manifesting itself through these pains,” the aunt said.
The pandemic then increased her hypochondria, she explained.
“Being stuck in a one room efficiency apartment for months on end, got to me. There was lots of crying and wondering when the situation would end? Whenever I had a runny nose, headache or a cough, I’d call my mom saying, ‘I think I have it, I think I have it!’
“Migraines run in my family,” Yancy recalled. “But in my mind, it was like, ‘Oh my God, I have glioblastoma (an aggressive brain tumor), I’m going to die in like three months.’ No one could convince me that it was just migraines.”
Acting helps but it also sometimes fuels her malady.
“In these times, artists are trying to provide a beautiful escape, so audiences can hold up a mirror to themselves in a more aggressive but gentle way to receive a message.”- Christina Francis Yancy
“I have a really bad habit of internalizing bits and pieces of my characters so I can relate to them more. If I’m playing a character who’s going through a death or is at their lowest point mentally, it takes me a minute for me to get out of it.”
As an example, she cited the 2019 stage production of “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” at UM. Yancy played Henrietta Iscariot, Judas’ mother. In preparing for the role, the director asked her to think of all the mothers who have lost children and try to embody those emotions. She hadn’t lost any children, but she had lost her dad, so she tapped into those feelings.
“This was also after Michael Brown’s death and Black Lives Matter and the resurrection of civil rights issues,” Yancy explained. “Going to that emotional place was hard but I learned from it. Acting was a welcome distraction. It allowed me to focus on one thing and not all the anxieties that were plaguing me at the time.”
Yancy was among the group of actors that Ron Himes, founder and producing director at the Black Rep, asked to audition for an ensemble role in Shakespeare in the Park’s return performance of King Lear. The play, directed by Carl Cofield, runs through June 27th. Tobe back on stage in front of a live audience has not only given Yancy the balance she’s missed within the past year, but has also reinforced her life choice:
“In these times, artists are trying to provide a beautiful escape, so audiences can hold up a mirror to themselves in a more aggressive but gentle way to receive a message. So, as an actor if you can entertain, get the laughs, the tears and hear people say, ‘Oh my God, I’ve learned so much from you as an actor or from the show in general’… well, that’s when I know, as an actor, I’ve done my job.”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is The St. Louis American’s inaugural Deaconess Fellow.
