D Woods Stars in Stuck With You


D. Woods Stars in Stuck With You
Interviewed and written by Tocarra Eldridge

D. Woods, former member of the girl group Danity Kane stars in the relationship drama Stuck With You. Several of the cast members include Timon Kyle Durrett, Tammy Townsend, AJ Johnson, Terrence Green, just to name several. The show airs on UMC and has just recently premiered a month ago. D. Woods, the triple threat, being a professional singer, dancer and actress continues to utilize her amazing talents and abilities as she advances her career.

I had the opportunity to interview this phenomenal woman. Here is what she has to share with the readers regarding her career, life and starring role on Stuck With You.

Tocarra Eldridge: Can you briefly tell us a little about your role in the new dramedy series Stuck With You?
D. Woods: Yes, my character, her name is Mora, and she is the assistant to our lead character played by Tammy Townsend. Her name is Candace. Mora really looks up to Candace. She idolizes her relationship. She has this total romantic idea of love. She has a five year plan; she has everything on paper, but she is not really good at applying it in real life. I think people will get a kick out of Mora’s naïve, bright eyed, bushy tail ways.

Tocarra: What was your experience like working with such a talented cast?
D. Woods: We had a great time! The scene that I had with Tammy, we knocked ours out in about an hour. We were like ‘yeah, the girls get it done’. It was a little bit of battle of the sexes. Of course, I had some very nice eye candy. You don’t have to go too far with stretching the imagination. (Laugh) They were all perfect gentlemen. It was good energy on the set period; it was a lot of love shown from makeup, wardrobe, the production team, and so forth.

Tocarra: UMC is the first streaming service available for Black TV and film. How does it feel to be a part of this streaming history?
D. Woods: It’s really great! It’s been a conversation lately a lot, representation, and then how do we not just get in front of the screen, but also the decision making, positions, being distributed, being the writer, being the producer – just taking the right steps in that direction. As I’ve been promoting through my social media pages, my friends and family are all like ‘support this, and just be down with this movement’. These are all of the things that we’ve all talked about or complained about during conversations, and now we have it, so we have to support it.

Tocarra: As a successful singer, when it comes to acting, it that a passion that you have always had?
D. Woods: Yes, I actually started in theater first. I started in theater at five years old. I grew up in theater in the performing arts high school in Atlanta, Georgia, Tri-Cities High School. So, I was trained in dance. I trained at Alvin Ailey School. I trained at New York University School of Art in all the different facets…voice, drama and dance, so I am well rounded, you could say like a triple threat. I’ve never separated one from the other. I’ve been doing all three facets my entire life – rather in a dance room or in a theater, or a recording studio. It’s always been something creative and just getting out my expressions in all these different ways. I know people are seeing more of my acting projects, but it’s definitely something that I’ve been doing from very very young.

Tocarra: Can we expect more acting roles from you in the future?
D. Woods: Definitely! I just finished a off Broadway run of The Revival called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf directed by Leah C. Gardiner.  It was a very wonderful piece to be a part of. I don’t know if you know the history of it, but it’s definitely like a rite of passage type of theater, and this was the first time it came back to off Broadway in 40 years at the original theater that it started at the New York Public Theater. It was life changing. You can expect us to hit the official Broadway stage sometime in 2020. We are very excited about that!

I made an example in another interview, like the things that you saw Janelle Monae do at the Oscars, that’s what we’ve been doing our whole lives. They thought we were weird and they told us we were crazy. They didn’t get it, but now it’s starting to become more mainstream and more acceptable to the general public.

Tocarra: How about music? Can your fans and listeners look out for any recent, upcoming or new music projects from you?
D. Woods: Yes, you can expect a new project from D Woods this year, 2020. My project is called My Favorite Color. It’s kind of divine timing that I was doing For Colored Girls while I was in production for My Favorite Color. I was like ‘see this is how God works’. You can look out for that, and also you can find all of the releases from D Woods on all streaming and digital platforms that I’ve been releasing independently under my label Woodgrane Entertainment. Everything is there. I was a part of a female collaborative project called Project Girls Club and you can find those releases out there, visuals as well as audio. I’ve been doing a lot of collaborations with other artists, as well as music in soundtracks. I have a piece of music in a documentary that was a part of the Tribeca Film Festival, and you can find that right now on Hulu, it’s called Ballet After Dark. It is a part of Queen Latifah’s Queen Collection. She selected two young black female directors to present their work and she did that through the Tribeca Film Festival. So, yes girl I just been working, doing my thing, putting it out where it fits and where it makes sense.

Tocarra: Would you like to share any advice or words of encouragement for young or aspiring artist and entertainers who are looking to be successful as yourself?
D. Woods: Don’t stop! The only people who are not successful are the ones who quit. As long as you don’t quit you are going to succeed. I know it sounds simple, but you just have to keep going everyday and discover what else you can do to further your talent, further your knowledge, broaden your horizon and network. You have to just keep going. Persistence and preparation leads to success. There is no shortcut about it; you just have to do the work.

Tocarra: Would you like to add anything in closing before we end the interview?
D. Woods: Go to UMC and sign up and get your subscription and tune in and watch Stuck With You!


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