Teisha Duncan prowls in 'The Lion King'

Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Jamaican actress/singer/dancer Teisha Duncan will celebrate a couple special anniversaries next Wednesday.

For one, April 30 is her birthday. It is also the date on which, two years ago, she received a life-changing, career-advancing voicemail. It came from the president of Disney Theatricals, inviting Duncan to join the cast of the company's mega musical, The Lion King.

Duncan is now a star of that show and one of several Jamaicans performers in it who she says are "flying the Jamaican flag high". With her usual effervescence, Duncan explained in an email she sent to me a few weeks ago how she got into the cast.

"I have been doing The Lion King now for almost two years. Shortly after returning to Jamaica from New York [where she had been studying and working], Michael Holgate [of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies, Mona, and Ashe] contacted me and asked me to be a reader at The Lion King audition, so I went in and I was reading all the roles with the auditionees.

"At some point during the process, the artistic director asked me if I could sing. I said yes. Then the musical supervisor kind of chuckled and said, "Okay, then sing this," and he started to play a song from the musical Aida.

"He asked if I knew it. I said yes and he started playing and I started singing. He then made me sing some scales, and after that he said, "Okay, Teisha, at the end of the day, can you just step into the dance call with the rest of the singers?"

"I did the dance call and then two years later, on my birthday, April 30, 2012, I got a voicemail message from the president of Disney Theatricals inviting me to join the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland tour of The Lion King. Needless to say, I was beside myself with joy and just an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that is still very present today.

"When I went to my first rehearsal, the artistic director said, 'Teisha, you thought we forgot you, didn't you? But we didn't'.

"I pinch myself each day knowing that I am a part of the largest touring theatrical show in the world. Each day, my discipline is challenged to keep my body healthy to execute eight shows a week, to keep my mind fit to deal with day-to-day challenges - the sheer excitement and discovery in living in so many different countries and meeting so many people who are so culturally different.

"It is a one-of-a-kind experience. This year, I was granted the opportunity to understudy the role of Rafiki, usually played by a South African. That, in itself, was an honour and a challenge I gladly accepted. I was just really happy they trusted a Jamaican with the role, despite the cultural specifics demanded to execute the role well and the fact that they trust my artistry to complete that task. I was just humbled.

"I relish it each day because I recognise that this is a uniquely special experience that will probably never duplicate in my life and so with that, each moment I treat as a spectacle (lol). I have worked, studied, prayed, cried, dreamed, wished for these moments and here I am living them. I can't and won't complain.

"There are more than 100 people working on the show each night, with more than 10 languages spoken among the cast of 10 different nationalities. It is just such a colossal experience through and through. I am so grateful to God for choosing me to live this life.

"We are now in Plymouth, UK, and heading to Bradford, UK. There are three other Jamaicans in my cast and four Jamaicans in the London-based cast - eight of us in total. We are flying the Jamaican flag high."

The Jamaicans with Duncan in the cast touring the UK are Lovonne Richards, Tovah Marie Bembridge and Cleveland Cathnott. And the Jamaicans in the London-based cast based are Candice Morris, David Blake, Shelley Ann Maxwell and Joanna Francis.

On the press night of the official launch of The Lion King's UK/Ireland tour in Bristol, UK, Duncan said she wore a black, gold and green peacock dress in homage to the land of her birth, "sweet, sweet Jamaica". And she declared herself to be "a proud Yaadie".

The show, overall, and Duncan, personally, have been getting great reviews. Here is a sample of the former: "A roar of approval for Disney's The Lion King" (Ben Woolbridge). "Spectacular" (Karen Bussells).

About Duncan in her regular role as Sarabi, the Queen and Simba's mother, Kyle Pedley wrote: "Teisha Duncan gets little more stage time with her character, Sarabi, mother of Simba, than her film counterpart, but she tackles the role and what she gets with a fitting grace and nobility."

Duncan reported that the show has been sold out in all the cities they had so far visited - Bristol, Manchester, Dublin, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Plymouth. Her cast recently celebrated its 600th performance and Duncan herself will reach that number shortly.

"I have enjoyed every moment of working on this tour," she told me, "and I just feel blessed. I get to live my dreams on a large scale, just how I dreamed it."

Many in Jamaica will remember Duncan in the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company's (JMTC) award-winning productions Purlie, Sarafina, Bubbling Brown Sugar and Mama I Want to Sing. She was also in Basil Dawkins' Who God Bless, the University Players' Tartuffe and Jambiz International's Cindy-Relisha and the D.J. Prince, Christopher Cum-Buck-Us, Midnight at Puss Creek, Charlie's Angels and Breadfruit Kingdom.

Duncan is a graduate of the School of Drama, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, with a diploma in drama in education, and Howard University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre. She also studied musical theatre composition at the Musical Theatre Institute in Lugano, Switzerland.

Before joining The Lion King cast, she appeared in several productions internationally.

Film and theatre buffs probably know of other Jamaican links to The Lion King. Sarabi was voiced in the Disney film version by the late Jamaican actress Madge Sinclair and Jamaican choreographer Garth Fagan won several awards for his choreography of the musical, which opened in New York in 1997. It is Broadway's fourth longest-running and, having pulled in more than US$1 billion, its highest-grossing production.

The last of the many emails I received from Duncan read: "The tour continues. As I write, I am on a train, off to another city. I certainly love my life and am truly grateful to God for each blessing."