An Actress of Many Passions, Now Making History in ‘Wicked’

The last time Lecia Kebede lived in New York, in 2015, was a 21-year-old internal university at the United Nations, taking and translating notes for the Guatemala ambassador, who worked in an anti-fuga initiative.

What a difference can make a decade. Instead of following a career as a human rights lawyer, Kebede is now a job in New York defying gravity eight times as the first black acre to play Elphaba full time in “Wicked” on Broadway.

It is a dream role that also allows you to attend to your two passions. “The place where Elphaba and I meet,” he said, “is empathy and defense of justice.”

After his internship, he returned to university and graduated from Western with a degree in diplomacy and world issues. But he knew he had to follow his ambitions of musical theater instead of going to the Law Faculty.

In “Wicked”, a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz”, Elphaba, born with green skin and supernatural witchcraft, the young adult version of the evil witch of the West. But the story reveals that she is Neith Malvada or envy, and instead is a stranger of consumption that uses her powers to protect herself and others of the authoritarian rule in Oz.

Kebede, whose parents emigrated to the United States in the early 1970s to escape a military coup in Ethiopia, said that her own back history is helping her to contribute a new global and political perspective to Elphaba’s heroism.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kebede, now 31, was attracted to the stage, not of the film industry in his backyard, and began his musical training in the church choir. He also made community theater programs and accredits the “teachers who invested time in me on the way.” In 2018, he achieved his first main role as Deloris in a regional production of “Sister Law.” Later that year he joined the cast of a 20th anniversary tour of “Rent”, playing Joanne.

He was soon auditioning for the production of “Hamilton”. Initially hired for the set, it was high, in 2023, to one of the main papers, Angelica Schuyler, who played for two years before reaching “Wicked” this spring. Among those programs, he had a plum concert as a backup singer in the essays for the Beyoncé 2018 2018 concert. “To see his work ethics,” said Kebede. “She is everything.”

Shortly after his Broadway debut, Kebede and I with Awash, an Ethiopian restaurant in the Upper West Side in Manhattan, where we had dinner and talk about cultural education, his commitment to social change and what attached to the first young man elpaba black of young time. These are extracerts edited from our conversation.

When did you see “Wicked” for the first time?

I have been obsessed since I was 12 years old, and I saw the show in New York in 2007. I identified with Elphaba, but mainly identified with music. The lyrics made me feel empowered. Have this that I have idolized all my life is part of what I am, it brings me wipes.

What was your answer when you learned that you would play Elphaba?

I didn’t cry, I began to break. I was lost by words. I have always imagined that I could do something special and shocking in the world. Now I have this opportunity to do that. It was a lot of wealth, and made me laugh.

This is his first Broadway role. How did you prepare for it?

I talked to Elpabas previous, and the most important thing they taught me was just to give me grace because the paper is very intense. Many of them said, don’t be a hero. Rest when you need it, and you can’t be a perfectionist on this role, eight shows per week. It is simply too technical and requires too much. They reminded me that no matter what I felt through this process, one of my green sisters had felt it before, which made me feel much less crazy and alone. They told me to support me in your sisters. It is a special secret club. And Cynthia [Erivo] I just sent me flowers in my debut.

Speaking of Ento’s success in the movie “Wicked”, did you feel any additional pressure being the first full -time black triumph to play Elphaba on Broadway?

It seems that I am part of a larger conversation, an international conversation, about what it means to be a member of a marginalized community. And find a way of autoesterve in a system that does not reflect it, that represents it or makes it feel safe. That is what Elphaba represents for me. Then it goes beyond the race.

But I also wanted to be a positive inspiration, especially for young black and brown children who have not seen themselves in positions like this. Now that younger and children are exposed to “evil”, I want to get to the occasion.

How do you think that the history of Elphaba’s supervision resonates with the public at this time?

Humans are obsessed with the categorization of things because the unknown is scary. The fact that Elphaba is different does not mean that she is afraid. If we all hug our differentials a little more, only the little ones, the world would be more peaceful. The difference does not mean that it is a threat.

You spent an internal semester in the United Nations. Where does your interest in human rights come from?

I worked on Guatemala’s mission at the UN, and would go to meetings of the General Assembly and take and translate notes for the ambassador. They focused on the maintenance of peace, poverty, equality and speaking for those who could not speak. He felt as an important duty to represent the country and his needs.

But my mother’s father, my grandfather, was a diplomat in Ethiopia to England, so she worked hard with Queen Elizabeth. Only people’s work. He was the only political member involved in the family. It is not that I have not known it, but it is just this energy in my family. If you believe in something, you can achieve it. Before joining them, my maternal grandmother sent her children to live with friends and family close to Los Angeles from Addis Abeba in Ethiopia. So, my family is just a group of warrior women who pursue their dreams.

How did those experiences shape their vision or Elphaba?

We express ourselves very differently. She is more explosive. I am much more as a pacifist conversationalist. But I feel very attached to his passion, empathy, a deep belief in itself and the will to fight for what he knows is correct, even when each one does not agree.

What do you expect the public to take away your performance?

The fact that they do not see the subject themselves in a position they want does not make it less possible or true for them. History occurs when people risk what they believe. I did not see a black woman in this role. I did not imagine it as a child. As it grew, that changed. So I want people to see me and tell me: “She did it, so I can.” I tell myself: “I’m going to sit here. I’m going to let myself sit here forever.”