October is black history month, a month of celebration of the great black freedom fighters, poets, scientists and artists who made or are making a mark on history; who have achieved, often from humble beginnings and against all adversity. 

Michael Sinclair interviewed Judith (Judd) Batchelor, actress and playwright, on her life and aspirations, as she prepares for her play - part of Black History Month - to open at Chat's Palace.

By Michael Sinclair

Born in London, Judd was the youngest of six girls born to a policeman from Antigua who married a Dominican. She considers herself both British and Black 'a person of colour, a person of African origin. I look to my forefathers for their struggle, their time, their everything, their education, the heritage passed down. That's my way of saying thank you, because without that there isn't me. When I went to Ghana we went to where they kept the slaves and they showed you "the gate of no return".'

'It's a gate several feet high that they would open out and it leads on to where the sea is and where the ships were. The slaves were then taken and never, ever returned and they called it the gate of no return. So I said to the guy who was the guide, I said no, they have come back because they have come back through me. So there is a return, because I am here.'

Judd gesticulates a lot. She cannot speak without using her hands. She smiles, she laughs, she 'acts' life. Asked about her first steps into the world of theatre, she replied, 'I am the youngest in my family. My first steps into theatre or acting were born out of not being heard as the youngest person in the family, so I would always overdo things to get attention and react more than I needed to. I started to just enjoy the idea of performing because I was always performing to get my bigger sisters into trouble.' Judd's first acting part was a centurion in the school nativity play. 'It was my first brush with a live audience and applause and people liking what I did and I thought I like this.'

I first met Judd when she was a receptionist at Sunstone Women's Health Club. 'Was putting on the smile when you had to sort out a problem, "play acting"?' The candid response was 'Some of the time yes, I mean, because you're acting right the way through life, aren't you. 'Judd believes acting is in her blood. 'I have always believed that I have an ancestor that I was similar to, so I would say he or she is guiding me and I'm maybe fulfilling what they didn't get to do.'

Her theatre has ranged from acting, teaching children, pantomime performances and producing a one-woman show called Sound of Silence by Jean Cocteau. 'That was my first kind of trip into adult plays. I haven't done many plays, as many as I know I could do. I've had auditions, I got the part and for some reason I back down and don't take it because I think I told myself that I wanted to do film. So I have loads of film experience. The last thing I auditioned was for Commander, with Linda La Plante. I'm friends with a very 'there is a side of me that understands men's way of thinking better than some men do. 
There's a side of me that's totally woman and there's a side of me that's a bit of a maverick' good director, so he will always contact me whenever there's a big part in a film, which I never get. I always get down to the second one.'

As well as acting, Judd has now turned to writing, with Emergency Exit. Our playwright jumps from her seat in describing her exhilaration when the play was first read at the Arcola Theatre. 'That has been the high spot in my career to date - to discover that I have the ability to tell a story.  I've always believed it. I didn't have the confidence to put it down on paper because in my father's eyes my grammar was crap. I was thinking it's all over the place, it doesn't up. It only links up in my head. And then as I have got Judd and Darwood Grace in Emergency Exit