Cleveland, Ohio has brought us some our favorite leading ladies in the acting industry over the years. From: Dorothy Dandridge, Halle Berry, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Monica Potter, and not to add to the list Dominique Paramore. Not only has Cleveland’s own Dominique been a professional stage and film actor but she is also a writer, director, producer, teaching artist, motivational speaker, and community activist.
Dominique will tell you she was born an actress and had no choice in the matter. To Dominique performing is just something that’s in her. The key to her growth is that she constantly wants to learn more and stay hungry to develop her my craft. She started performing publicly at the young age of 7.
She noticed over time the more active she became in the arts, the more she saw how influential entertainment and popular culture can be. Popular culture definitely had a hand in raising her, and she knew popular culture has a role is building all the stars that she sees every day.
When asking her advice to young aspiring actors, she said, “If you are deciding that you want to make performance a large part of your life understand your power. If all you wanted to do is sing, act, perform, and see our name in lights and never even thought
about the message and images you want to be reflected in the world. Then you are missing out on a measure of wonderful responsibility that is looking you in the face waiting for you to embrace it. As an artist who is active in popular culture, you have to understand how powerful you are. If not, you won’t feel any responsibility to manage that power and direct that energy towards something that ultimately you would want to see reflected in the world. You don’t have to be famous to have power. The moment you realize God has put an artistic gift in you, and you want to expose that gift to any audience you have influence over that audience. Start thinking about how you want to use that power. Ask yourself what do you want to be the end result of your art? An artist who doesn't think about the impact that they want from their art has a tendency to be used to fulfill another person’s vision. So we get an artist who becomes used as a tool to promote a message by directors, or producers, or companies who are looking to popularize messages that may not be the most advantages for the community the artist comes from or their audience. It’s cool if it’s your message and this is what you line up with and what you want to tell people.”
So she uses that advice for herself as well to motivate her to do her part and go as far beyond her craft of acting as she needed to ensure that the right images and messages are promoted. This way our future as people would become brighter. Thus making it her mission to showcase people of color in an empowering light to help children of color understand who they are, what they as a people have overcome, and what their current struggles are so they can grow up and do something about it.
One of her current shows she just finished working on now was stage play “A Good Man is Easy to Find” presented by Sam Sylk (Cleveland Radio Personality) that was at the Playhouse Square Ohio Theater in Cleveland, Ohio on May 21st at 7 pm.
Another upcoming event she will be speaking at on June 17th at 2 pm at the Art and Soul Park on 118th a Buckeye Road in Cleveland along with Choreographer Nate Summer where they will be presenting an original dramatic dance production. This will be the second year in a row Dominique will be doing this event by the Buckeye Shaker Develop Corporation. One of the elements that brought her back to this project is she appreciates their vision to bring fine arts to the inner city. At a time in history where beauties like Misty Copeland are breaking down enormous barriers making it easier for young women of color to succeed professionally in the arts it a perfect time to expose young women and men of color to the fine arts. On her latest project in the final stages of pre-production is television drama "The Land: FAU." Ms. Parramore is the created, lead writer, director, and female lead in this upcoming series. It’s a police drama set in Cleveland, OH about a fugitive apprehension unit. The Land is a short name for Cleveland and FAU stands for Fugitive Apprehension Unit. She says this project has been therapeutic for her in the sense that she has seen so much negativism run rampant through her city from issues with education, sex trafficking, drugs, murder, bad policing. The Land: FAU doesn’t just hold a mirror up to the mess, but we want to connect the community with resources to overcome the negative and maximize the potential of helping all the communities all over the country. She says the show does this in a very sexy and entertaining way.
To learn more about Dominque and her upcoming career events feel free to follow her social media
Facebook: Dominique Paramore
IG/Twitter: @madampresident7
