Nancy Cheryll Davis-Bellamy, critically acclaimed producer, director, actress and co-founder of Towne Street Theatre, Los Angeles' premiere African American theatre, died at the age of 66 at her home after a battle with cancer surrounded by her husband and family.
Read her full obituary below.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Towne Street Theatre via the TST Website or by check to 4101 Budlong Ave, Suite 4, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Nancy sends her many thanks to all those who were a part of her life, especially her main man, Nathaniel, aka, Mr. B the "One Man * Crew".
Nancy Cheryll Davis-Bellamy
May 30, 1958 - November 21, 2024
Nancy's love for her family and her 'family' in theatre knew no bounds. Her generosity, compassion and concern for others was ever present and her creativity, vision, and positive energy was an inspiration to everyone around her in her personal life and in her art.
Nancy Cheryll Davis was born in 1958 in River Rouge, Michigan, a small town near Detroit, Michigan. The youngest of five children to Earl and Alberta Davis, she grew up in a loving environment rich with family gatherings and neighborhood friendships. Holidays were full of 'family' whether blood related or not and there was room for everyone in their small home in River Rouge.
Nancy's childhood experiences would inform her art in many ways. Her family, like many Black families, was mixed with Black and white family members. Her family would travel frequently north to Sarnia in Canada, across the Bluewater Bridge, to visit her mother's family, the descendants of an immigrant German woman and a Black man who was born in the United States before emancipation. Her father's heritage harkened from Ohio, Virginia and Maryland, again with plenty of mixing in earlier generations. The town of River Rouge, by contrast, was very segregated: Black people lived on one side of the tracks and White people on the other side. Life was truly Black and White and race remained at the forefront of daily life. But it was complicated as well. Everyone went to a segregated elementary school but all attended high school together. And it was the many friendships of the Class of '76, the bicentennial year, that would help influence how she formed her artistic and leadership styles later in life. As her awareness of the history and experience of African-Americans in this country evolved from her early life, so did her awareness and disappointment of not seeing herself or anyone like her and her life experience in the movies or television. She knew in her heart that there were so many people and stories that had never been given their moment. Her life's purpose and passion would be to create an avenue to bring those stories to life.
Nancy began her career as an actress. In fact, she was cast for her first play in kindergarten. The title of the play was "How To Brush Your Teeth Right," opposite Bunny Williams. She would also put together plays performed in the family garage for the neighborhood. Nancy was the highlight of the children's play circle, and known as 'a spirited child', in today's language. When she would show up, she'd announce to her pals, "Here I am everybody." Her destiny was to become an actress, a producer and director! She knew all the jobs from her early days!
To support an acting career, Nancy knew she had to have a day job. What started as a temp job with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was a perfect match, and would last more than 30 years. Her employer respected Nancy’s passion for her art and supported her with flexibility of time to pursue her dream. Even so, she delivered 100% to her job and she received frequent expressions of appreciation by her employer for her skills, her dedication and commitment to service.
During 1993, after the LA Riots when the city was working to heal, she co-founded the Towne Street Theatre with her husband, Nathaniel Bellamy, and her dear friend, Nancy Renee Rowe. As the Founding Artistic/Producing Director, she executive-produced all shows in its 30 plus-year history and conceived four of the theatre's most popular and impactful plays, including In Response, Passing, Langston & Nicolás, and Millennium in Black.
As an African-American woman determined to make a difference through her art, Nancy's varied background and challenges in her own career contributed largely to the positive can-do spirit and the life of Towne Street. Throughout her career, first as actress, then producer and director, she knew what it felt to be 'othered' and the injustice one experiences being an artist of color and female. She also knew first hand the healing qualities that theatre provides and that by creating one's own opportunities, one has the power to shape one's life. One of the most enjoyable parts of theatre for Nancy was acting. She loved becoming part of an ensemble which was like family to her. It is this spirit of 'family', the inclusivity, the purpose, collaboration and creative evolution, that Nancy breathed into and continues to permeate throughout TST today.
Nancy was on a trajectory to bring us many more years of theatre that conveys the complexity, history and richness of the African American experience when she was struck by a fast growing and mysterious cancer. In spite of this untimely end, she accomplished a great deal and has been aptly recognized with many prestigious awards. One of the many legacies that she leaves behind is being a mentor to hundreds of young actors. The message she gave to every actor she worked with was to "make your own creative evolution." She was adamant that actors were actors, regardless of race or gender. Even writing a letter to Backstage West in 1997 in response to a review of an all black cast production that the reviewer kept referring to the cast as "black actors" no less than 5 times. She wrote, "One day, maybe, people of color will be thought of and reviewed as actors, not just (fill-in-the-blank) actors--2025 perhaps?"
Nancy is an alumna of the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and the Directors Lab West. Sample directing credits include In Response, Langston & Nicolás, Millennium in Black, Passing, Sister Cities, Nevis Mountain Dew, Joleta, Five on the Blackhand Side, JackLeg, 1969, Madwoman of Chaillot, Story in Harlem Slang, and two short films – Family and Summer Dreams. Her adaptation of PassingSOLO from the TST play Passing (adapted from Nella Larsen’s 1927 novella), is published in the anthology "black/woman/solo" by Northwestern University Press.
PassingSOLO was performed at the University of Duisburg in Essen, Germany in 2016, after a critically acclaimed run at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood and also at Loyola Marymount University. The play is now part of the syllabus in Performance Studies at Stanford University, University of Santa Barbara and the University of Duisberg-Essen, Germany.
Nancy was also an Adjunct Professor at USC’s School of Dramatic Art as a director, and productions include Three Sisters, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, and Counting, an original play by Aja Houston.
She is the winner of the NAACP Best Actress award for her portrayal of Clare Kendry Bellew in the 1997 Towne Street Theatre production of Passing, a Best Actress Nominee for her portrayal of Sophie in Pearl Cleage’s award winning play, Flyin’ West, at the St. Louis Black Repertory Company.
In addition to a number of theatre productions, she has also been featured in iconic films such as Robert Townsend’s, Hollywood Shuffle, Keenan Ivory Wayans’, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka!, The Hughes Brothers’, Menace to Society and The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson, which starred a young Andre Braugher & Kasi Lemons. Television credits include Dexter, 1600 Penn, Sparks (with Terrence Howard & James Avery), The Young & The Restless, and others.
Under Nancy’s leadership as Executive Producer and Artistic Director, Towne Street received numerous NAACP Theatre Awards and nominations, Valley Theatre League nominations, a DramaLogue nomination, along with honors of recognition from the City of Los Angeles, Women in Theatre and The League of Allied Arts. In 2017 it was awarded the Kashi Dotson Award from the Inner City Cultural Center. In 2020, it was included in the National Black Theatre of Harlem’s Cultural Architects. The Jubilee defines cultural architects as organizations or individuals that have been producing work of historically marginalized voices for 20-years or more.
Recently, Nancy was active in reunion planning for descendants of her father's ancestor, Nathan Williams, whose father had earned his and his family’s freedom from slavery. Nathan Williams bought and farmed Fort Frederick, a decommissioned fort near Hagerstown, Maryland, with his wife and children for 60 years. Discovering this branch of family, the Williams family, brought Nancy much joy and love from an extended family that looks so much like family!
She is preceded in death by her parents and sister, Susan. She is survived by her husband Nathaniel Bellamy, brother Ronald, sister Patricia Varner (Philip), brother Roy Davis (Raye Maestas), nieces Veronica McClelland, Maria Davis (Shawndelle Jones) and nephews, Andreas Davis (Thea Light) and Michael Varner, as well as a young great-grand niece Mazikeen Davis Jones, and her brother from another mother Mark Page (Pamela) and their children Maya and Noah.
While Nancy and Nathaniel never had children of their own, the many company members who have been a part of Towne Street over the years, especially the younger generation, have always seen them as “Mama and Papa.” And it’s through TST that their legacy will live on.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Towne Street Theatre via the TST Website or by check to 4101 Budlong Ave, Suite 4, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Nancy sends her many thanks to all those who were a part of her life, especially her main main, Nathaniel, aka, Mr. B the "One Man * Crew".