'Fannie Lou' Musical

It is no surprise that Karen Stefano landed a role in "Scenes and Songs from Fannie Lou" for the show's 2014 Carnegie Hall performance. She stood out during auditions. 

For her callback, Karen didn't just read the script she was given. She had memorized it.

That demonstrated to producers an impressive work ethic. That, along with her talent and congenial personality, made it a no-brainer to ask Karen back to perform in subsequent incarnations of the musical. She played the title character, Fannie Lou Hamer, at Carnegie Hall, and shares the role for the upcoming production at Yale University on Oct. 1.

"I'm so blessed to be able to play this woman, who is such an inspiration," said Karen. "She's a hero."

Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the seminal leaders of the voting rights struggle in the South during the early 1960's. A Mississippi sharecropper who grew up poor and whose education ceased with sixth grade, she nevertheless relentlessly fought for the right to vote. Her voting and civil rights activities began when she was 44 years old and ended only with her death 15 years later.

Karen relayed different aspects of Mrs. Hamer’s life for past productions. In order to do that, Karen had to draw on a range of acting and singing skills. As her audition callback suggested, it is a job for which she has well prepared.

"I studied theater at Nazareth College of Rochester [New York]," recalled Karen, who received a scholarship to pursue theater studies. "After I graduated I wanted to come to New York City. So I came and started taking classes." 

That was in the early 1990's. Karen's first job was as an extra on the set of Spike Lee's acclaimed film "Malcolm X." She continued to do more extra work on various projects, including the television soap operas "All My Children" and "As the World Turns." 

Working on stage and screen has always been a career goal for Karen. "I've always been acting," says Karen, who laughs about her first "big break" as a performer.

"It was in first grade," she said about a Christmas re-creation that her class was going to present. "Another girl wanted to play the part of Mary. I said, 'I can rock Baby Jesus better than her.'" A determined Karen got the role.

"That's all I did, rock Baby Jesus. So I remember that being my first feature part."

But with that first role also came Karen's first critic -- her sister, Audrey, who was harsh with her review after Karen had the misfortune of dropping the doll she was holding.

"She said, 'You dropped Baby Jesus!'" Karen recalled. But the budding actress was undaunted. "I didn't take it to heart because I knew I did a fabulous job."

 Karen makes her home in Bloomfield, NJ. A native of Jamaica, she moved to the United States with her family at age 16.

"My parents wanted to come for a better life, so we moved to Rochester," said Karen, the middle of nine children. "I thought it was the coldest place on earth. My father had family there, so it was just easier for him to find work and live there.

Family has always been important to Karen. She has two children, a boy and a girl. She was working on an "All My Children" shoot when there was a minor emergency involving her daughter, who was in kindergarten at the time. A comment her daughter made then led Karen to change her direction -- at least temporarily.  

"She said, 'You're never home,'" remembered Karen. Although Karen was able to put the comment into perspective as the narrow observation of a child, it still made an impact. Karen decided to stop acting for a while.

Another comment, this time from her son, initiated her return.

About seven years ago "he looked at me and said, 'Mom, you can go back. We're pretty good now. You can go back to acting.'" He was 10 years old at the time.

Karen began sending out headshots and resumes, slowly getting back into the fold. 

"Progressively I started getting work. I said, I guess I can get back into acting, so I did." 

Karen said she enjoys the liberating aspects of performing.

"I get to be a freer me," she said. "There's no limit, there's no judgment. To do different characters and live in a world I would not normally live in, I think that's awesome."

She was enthused about telling the story of Fannie Lou Hamer on the stage. She listened to audio tapes of Mrs. Hamer to study her speaking tones and inflections.

“As long as I know that someone will get this message and walk away with it, that's awesome,” she said.