Becoming Josephine

There's a running joke in the Bates family. Tori, 11, has been doing theater for two years. Any time she lands a new role, her parents add the character's name to her full name — Tori Pauline "Annie" Bates; Tori Pauline "Lilly" Bates, and so on.

In December, Tori's mom, Jenifer, surprised her at Sarasota Suncoast Academy, where she goes to school — flowers and balloon in hand.

"What are these for?" asked Tori. "My teacher's birthday was yesterday."

"These are for Tori," her mother said. "Tori Pauline 'Josephine' Baaker."

Tori dropped to the floor in excitement. She'd earned her biggest role yet: the young Josephine Baker in Asolo Repertory Theatre's world-premiere Broadway-bound musical, "Josephine." 

We sat down in Tori's dressing room to talk tap-dancing, late-night rehearsals and sharing the stage with Deborah Cox.

"I'VE BEEN acting for two years. My first time was playing a baby kangaroo in 'Seussical Jr.' at the Players Theatre. The makeup was really fun; the costumes were cool. When you're onstage, you get to be a different person for a little while."

"I DID tap dacing and gymnastics before, but I decided I wanted to try theater, and I really love it. It's exciting. My heart starts to beat before I go on stage, but once I get through my first big line, it goes away, and I'm not nervous anymore."

"I WAS in the ensemble for 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,' at The Players, and I heard that someone in the audience saw me. We got a call asking me to audition. It was my first audition, but all the other little girls were there for callbacks. I was a little nervous, but they loved me. I said my lines, and I sang a song.  I was making jokes, and everybody was laughing."

"WHEN I found out I got the part, it was a week after the audition. I dropped down on the ground at school. I was so surprised. All the other kids were coming up to me, asking what happened. I told them I got the part, and they all said 'Yay!"

"MY CHARACTER appears whenever Josephine is having a difficult time. She's a reminder of her childhood, and how she was treated when she was growing up. There was a lot of racism, and people were treating black people differently. That's scary, and she doesn't want to think about it, so a lot of times, she pushes me away."

"WHEN I started learning the dance steps, I thought I would never be able to accomplish it. It seemed so hard to me. Some of the steps were so complicated, and we do them so fast. After the first day, my feet were horrible! I had to come home and put them in ice water. But now, the steps are my favorite part."

"I HAVE to balance a lot, with school and rehearsals. It's hard, but I don't get stressed I love doing this."

"WORKING WITH Deborah Cox is fun. She's so nice. Right from the start, she was very down to earth."

"I'VE LEARNED a lot about Josephine Baker. The story is really about true love, and it's also about her overcoming racism and prejudice. I like that part of the story."