Behind the Curtain: Andrea Patterson on Portraying Helen

July 16, 2025 by
Behind the Curtain: Andrea Patterson on Portraying Helen
Helina Seyoum

Andrea Patterson as Helen and Eric Berryman as Memnon in Memnon at The Classical Theatre of Harlem. Photo by Richard Termine.


We had the joy of interviewing THENCE’s very own Creative Director, Andrea Patterson, who’s also an Obie Award winning actor, Drama Desk Award nominee and applied theatre artist. She has performed on NYC’s elite stages, regionally, and abroad with TV credits that include some of the most popular shows on NBC, CBS, and Netflix. Andrea is currently performing the role of Helen in Memnon, the untold story of the Ethiopian king and demigod who returns to Troy to fight for his hometown. She sat down with us last week to share her perspectives on the character she plays, as well as other aspects of the show. We opened the discussion by asking Andrea how she approached portraying Helen, a character often depicted solely through the male gaze in classical literature.

“I approached portraying Helen through my own gaze. The text and the given circumstances are what we always start with as actors. In  Memnon, the given circumstances are that Helen is sharing her perspective and telling a part of her story by having a lot of agency in this moment. When Memnon opens, we see Helen and King Priam mourning the loss of Hector who is a hero in many respects to the Trojan people, but also someone who believed in and supported Helen being in this place that she was not born in. She was not of the people, and yet he made her feel like family. And for that, her grief was very real and the love was very real. Even though that doesn't seem like the focal point, it is in the given circumstances and the given circumstances are my anchor in approaching any character. And so the crafting of Helen begins with the text that is in Memnon that has been thoughtfully and mindfully given to us by the playwright Will Power.” 


How does your interpretation of Helen interact with central themes of displacement and belonging that she and Memnon experience? 

 “I think a lot about the piece that I wrote about The Great Migration during Black History Month of this year. And I think about the way that sometimes when people speak about the Great Migration, they speak of it as if Black people were happily all packing up their bags, setting out for this trip, for this journey to move and to relocate. But the reality is that they felt and were unsafe. Their living conditions were growing increasingly dangerous. Not only was there imminent danger in every aspect, there was also deprivation as far as opportunities and quality of life was concerned. And so there were all of these things that played into forcing them out of the American South. I think of that as displacement; I know that is displacement. Though I was not a part of it, I am a granddaughter of The Great Migration and I know the stories of my grandmothers and my aunts and my great aunts. There are so many stories of survival that came out of the displacement from the American South to places in the North, Midwest, and West in the United States.
I bring that background to this character because Helen is not of Troy, though that is how most people refer to her. Again, that’s another example of what it looks like and sounds like to hear a story of a woman not spoken through her own lens, through her own gaze. She is from Sparta; she is Greek. And through several tragic, unfortunate moments, though quite normal in that society, we see her pulled from one location to the next, from one man to the next. We see her existing in different ways, through both her mortal existence and her existence as a god, (she is part god and very much revered as such) but she did experience displacement on her journey. The reason we call her Helen of Troy is because she, and this is our interpretation, did not feel safe and fulfilled and complete where she was from. She chose to leave, and in choosing to leave she found herself in Troy and the displacement became a choice, birthed out of her lack of safety, whether it was in her marriage or in her actual location. Though it was birthed out of a “choice”, we find that the displacement ramps up because the war that is set forth by her previous husband, Menelaus, is forcing everyone, not just Helen, out of their spaces, out of their regions, out of their homes to find Helen. And so that becomes a moment of extreme displacement. Moments, years of displacement.
But as it relates to Memnon.… I'm not sure that he experiences displacement exactly because I need to dig deeper into the actual historical account of his life. But I do know that he is from Aethiopia (modern day Sudan and Ethiopia) with Trojan blood. When he returns to Troy, it is this call to return to a place where he did not feel he belonged. He was different and felt othered because he also had Ethiopian blood. And for Memnon, it was very painful for him to feel cast out by members of his family in Troy. So when Helen and Memnon connect in Troy, there is a deep sense of relief and purpose that gets ignited both between the two of them and inside of them individually. I believe that because they're able to see each other, they feel they belong by experiencing someone else like them.”

 

Under cultural significance, how does this production centering an Ethiopian hero change the dynamics of the familiar Trojan War narrative? 

“This production centering an Ethiopian hero is really interesting and I was just having this conversation with someone actually. The question that I posed to them was, is a historical account of something (in this instance I was talking about a history book) true if it purposefully leaves out people or events that happen at the time? You can use any example of a historical account like American history or any other history as it's taught to us. If it leaves out the Indigenous peoples, Black people, women, children, does it make it a complete truth? And from my perspective the answer is no. And I suppose that’s taking a hard stance, but it’s not necessarily a fixed opinion of mine. This is how I develop each of my characters. It helps me as the actor to take a stance. A clear definitive stance. Andrea has to be on Helen‘s side. In my opinion, that’s part of what creates the stakes of a play; each character having their own strong opinions. But when you are hearing the perspective of a character, my belief as an actor is that you have to find the clearest, most distinct, adamant belief and let that affect every piece of the storytelling.
In this case, my perspective is the previous versions of the mythology were untrue because they did not include Memnon. I'm speaking as an actor, a person crafting the story. I believe it's important to talk about the process of storytelling when we are sharing the narrative of those who have been left out of history. I would argue that including Memnon now makes the story whole because he did exist and was among those we know like Achilles or Hector or so many other Greek characters that we can just call out by name. Memnon makes the story more complete and raises the cultural significance, so to place him inside of it and to center him in this version is important. Stories told from different perspectives are important for humanity so that everyone can see themselves based on the vantage point that it's presented from.”

 

What aspects of performing in Harlem do you think would bring new dimensions to the play's themes?

“The audience is always a huge part of the storytelling for me. And I feel like I need them; I want them. And I think I want them…because I need them. And I think I need them because the energy that they bring to watch clarifies something in me. We tell the same story night after night, and in doing so somebody on the outside who's not an actor might say, how do you do that? And for me, the biggest gift is the audience. They are the ones that determine the energy in the room. They put the demand on the craft, making it immediate and right in that moment. And for me, my craft and that bigger sense of spirit are one and the same. And to put a demand on the spirit is to ask for something. And I very much so believe that of the audience in Harlem, the audience in New York. That's what it is.

 

How do you think the Classical Theater of Harlem fits into the needs of Harlem?

"People come from every borough and the whole tri-state area. There are also so many people that come from out of town to see the shows. I've done several productions with The Classical Theater of Harlem and talked to the people afterwards. It's one of my favorite things to do. And you hear what brought them there. Some people come every summer. Some people came from Portland, Connecticut, Staten Island or Brooklyn. And when they come, they bring with them their own stories, their own desires. And I just think it's unmatched, I really do. I think that the New York audience is unmatched. And I see myself in them so much that that is what affects the performance; that is what has the biggest impact. Our audience in Harlem is going to really reflect the global majority. It's going to reflect people of different socio-economic backgrounds. It's going to reflect so many ages. It's going to reflect people of various degrees of involvement with theater. Some people have never seen a play, and some people watch plays more than TV. And so I know the impact that it will have. It will speak to the dimensions of the play in such a real way, in such an actual way, in a visceral way. Because even though our audiences reflect that, I feel like they've all, at some point, known what it feels like to be other, or known what it feels like to belong. So to see the characters in Memnon struggle with wanting to belong, but also celebrating the beauty of themselves and the totality of themselves, it's a very human experience. And I really believe that with the amount of people that come to The Classical Theatre of Harlem's productions, we are really fortunate to be able to have this story be impacted every single night by them."

Check out Memnon at The Classical Theatre of Harlem playing until July 27th and stay tuned for Part II of our conversation with Andrea Patterson where she dives deeper into the dynamics of the play.

Andrea Patterson

Andrea is a professional actor who has starred in many productions including Cullud Wattah, Seize the King, Confederates and is currently playing Helen in Memnon. She is also an applied theater artist who works in schools, using performance and interactive storytelling to support conflict resolution and social-emotional learning among students.  Use the form below to connect with Andrea and see if this offering might be a good fit for your school community.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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