New Bern native featured in gospel production

Nina Gaddy Wallace was 7 years old when she decided she was going to be a star. 

From her home on Third Avenue, in one of New Bern’s poorest neighborhoods, she started studying the people around her, and soon, they became her characters. The woman who hugged everybody when she got drunk, the man who repeatedly painted his house and his car, and who swaggered down the street just so, the people who “felt the Spirit” at her church — those were her mainstays. That childhood pastime never really left her, and neither did the desire to be on stage.

It took about two decades, a heartache and  "a move on faith,” but New Bern’s girl has made good: Wallace is one of the stars of Musical Theater of Hope, a production of actor-director Robert Townsend that is airing on the Gospel Music Channel. In a 10-minute episode called “The Sparrow Reunion,” Wallace plays Birdie Sparrow, a crack addict who reunites with her gospel-singing sisters in time for their mother’s funeral.

“I’ve never done drugs in my life. But the things I saw in my neighborhood in New Bern helped me to really bring Birdie to life, to understand where she was coming from,” Wallace said in an interview this week. “God brought me to this, and I want people to know you can make it no matter where you come from.”

Humble beginnings

Nina and her sister Danelle were raised by their mother Lillie Gaddy in a home near Craven Terrace. The Gaddy girls were musical just like their mother, who still teaches piano lessons in New Bern. The sisters grew up singing in churches all over Eastern North Carolina, and Nina picked up several instruments along the way. She plays the piano and the drums, and played clarinet in the New Bern High School band before she graduated in 1998. She never was involved in the theater at school, but would land a part in a local production called “Only One Love.”

After high school, Nina got married and began to raise her children in New Bern. But after 10 years and a “heartbreaking divorce,” Nina Gaddy Wallace remembered her dream — and went after it with her three daughters in tow.

‘A move on faith’

Wallace, who is 30, moved to Atlanta in July 2008, because she thought she would have a better chance of being discovered as an actress or singer.

“I really didn’t want to move; I love New Bern,” Wallace said. “But it was something I felt in my spirit that I needed to do.  It was a move on faith. But for a while, I cried every night.” 

But her big break was just around the corner.

The memorable audition

After the move, Wallace started attending New Birth Missionary Baptist, one of Georgia’s megachurches, led by senior pastor Eddie L. Long. One day in church, she heard that a crew for Robert Townsend would be coming there to hold auditions for his musical theater. But in a church with more than 25,000 members, Wallace didn’t think she had a chance.

She went anyway, with her daughters Jasmine, Judaea and Jariah.

“I was standing in line with people who had resumes and headshots and lots of experience,” Wallace said. “I had my daughters and my purse.”

But then Nina Gaddy Wallace, a woman who weighs all of 104 pounds, opened her mouth to sing. And it was her powerful voice, a mix of soprano and alto, depending on the day, that got her the part.

Remembering her roots

“This is huge for me; I believe this is the beginning of something wonderful, and I am so thankful,” Wallace said. “My mama has always said I was fit to end up in Hollywood. And maybe I will. But I will never forget where I came from — New Bern is where my roots are, it’s where I belong, and it’s where I will return. But first, I want to be the one to put it on the map.”

Nikie Mayo can be reached at 252-635-5665 or nmayo@freedomenc.com.