Attending a screening for the trailer of "Whirlwind," the prospective documentary about the "Worcester Whirlwind" 1899 World Bicycle Champion Marshall W. “Major” Taylor, Mike Daniel might have thought once again that anything is indeed possible.
The documentary will include reenactments with a cast in period costume. Daniel is the actor portraying Major Taylor. The trailer was shown in July at the Major Taylor Museum in Worcester to attract interest as well as potential backers for a full-length film. Scenes for the trailer were shot over a whirlwind two days in May.
"The trailer it's so fantastically done. For me seeing the trailer with me being the star in it, that was pretty cool," Daniel said, laughing.
He added about Taylor, "I absolutely feel so grateful and seriously honoring him the best way I can. If it gets out there, it's a fascinating story." Daniel noted that Taylor was the second Black athlete to win a world championship in any sport, following Canadian boxer George Dixon in 1890.
Taylor (1878-1932) knew that racing and life could be both a sprint and a marathon. He came to Worcester from Indianapolis in 1895when bicycle manufacturer and racer Louis "Birdie" Munger, who mentored Taylor as his racing protégé,moved his operations from Indianapolis to Worcester in part to find a more tolerant racial atmosphere. Taylor was quick to make his mark here, but would later die in obscurity in Chicago. Now there is a statue and museum in his honor in Worcester, and Major Taylor cycling clubs across the country.
Daniel has seen life from a couple of sides now as well.
When the Worcester actor went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland with fellow Fitchburg State University students in 2015, it was "a life-changing experience for me," he said.
Daniel had a role in "Fausted" by FSU graduate Samantha deManbey, a modern take on the story of Faust. "I played one of the Deadly Sins - Pride."
In Edinburgh he saw "all kinds of arts and theater from one-man shows, one-woman shows, any kind of theater stage performance it was there," he said.
"Growing up, none of that seemed fathomable for me, even going to college. We knew it was possible but was never like it was legitimately possible."
Daniel was born in Boston and moved to Worcester at an early age. Worcester has always been the sort of touchstone although Daniel has moved around with his family and on his own and lived in Holden, Southbridge, Shrewsbury, Auburn, Fitchburg, Charleston, South Carolina, and now back in Worcester again. His mother and a brother and sister live in Worcester, and another brother lives in Lowell. His father died when he was 2.
"My mom was amazing but there were things that weren't really there to help with our overall situation," he said. He spent time in foster care. His aunts died. "My mother is the last of her siblings. A lot of things now I've learned on my own through experience."
Daniel graduated from Southbridge High School, where he also played football. "Before acting, theater was the thing I wanted to do."
Living in Worcester again, he graduated from Quinsigamond State College but "I was in and out," he said of his time there. "I was young and immature.'
In 2013 he applied to study film and video production in the communications media department at Fitchburg State University "but I didn't get into the program." However, the department also offered other majors. Daniel joked that he wanted one where he didn't have to write essays. He opted for a concentration in theater.
"Theater stuck out for me. I've always been an animated guy. I was voted class clown in high school. I'm an outgoing guy. I can meet people very easily," Daniel said. "I decided to do theater. I'm so happy I did. It allowed me to do things I never though I would do."
Pre-pandemic, FSU had been going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every three years. "At a meeting they talked about Scotland. My thought was, I've got to make sure I'm on that trip." The next FSU visit would be in 2015.
"I was a part of that trip."
A graduation requirement was doing an internship. For his final semester, Daniel was able to be an intern at PURE Theatre in Charleston.
PURE Theatre is a professional theater company with the stated goal of "using drama as a catalyst for inclusion, awareness, acceptance, action and change."
"It was absolutely wonderful to be part of it," Daniel said.
As an intern "I did everything from cleaning the bathrooms to performing in shows. Promotional work, concession sales, data entry, call subscribers — anything you can think of in the life of a professional theater I did that." The staff at PURE Theatre were "very patient" with him, he said.
Daniel had a role as "one of the ensemble slaves" in "Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3" by Suzan-Lori Parks,about the fortunes of a slave who troops off to fight in the Civil War — on the Confederate side.
"That was really a great experience to be part of and it was a professional show, so I did 16, 17 shows," Daniel said.
The only problem was that Daniel's character was shown sleeping on some plywood as people entered the theater before the show and for several minutes after the performance had begun. "I don't do anything. There were times I did fall asleep. The thing that woke me up was the director doing the curtain speech (before the performance). I thought, 'Oh, I've got to get ready to act.' "
The internship ran from January to June 2017. Now an FSU graduate, Daniel stayed on for a bit Charleston working as a bellman at a hotel. "Probably one of the worst jobs I ever had," he said.
"I remember feeling not down but wondering what I was going to do with my life. I came back to Massachusetts."
Daniel has been back in Worcester just over five years.
"I'm still trying to break out and find things in the world and see what my major goal is gonna be," he said.
"I'm working a lot. Trying to survive."
He is a manager at Uno Pizzeria & Grill in Worcester and has also been busy acting, including productions with Worcester County Light Opera Company and 4th Wall Stage Company. He took part in a play festival at the JMAC, and recently joined a murder-mystery-troupe. He's also done film extra work, including the film "Spirited," which shot scenes in Mechanics Hall. Meanwhile, he's been writing, including an unfinished play, a comedy titled "Apron."
Daniel said about three years ago Barbara Guertin of 4th Wall approached him about a Major Taylor project with the Worcester Historical Museum that would involve writing a play and appearing in it.
"I didn't feel I could be the right one to write something about Major Taylor. That kind of fell through."
Then this past spring, Guertin told Daniel that a film documentary on Major Taylor was in the works.
Cyrille Vincent, whose other film projects include thedocumentary“Woodstock: The Guide,” is director and executive producer for "Whirlwind" and he has been joined by Jed Burdick of Votary Films of Worcester, who is co-directing and also executive producer.
Guertin is the costume designer for "Whirlwind" and told Vincent about Daniel as he was looking to cast the part of Major Taylor.
"At the time we heard about Mike Daniel, we were already talking to a few people we thought could fit the role of Major Taylor in our film documentary 'Whirlwind.' We had a favorite but we could not get him to join us because of schedule conflicts," Vincent said.
"We decided to give him (Daniel) a try and reach out to Mike to schedule a meet and he was very receptive and interestedto work with us."
Daniel is "a local actor and performer and already knew about Major Taylor and had great respect for what Major Taylor accomplished ... Anyways after meeting Mike, we realized that not only did he have that Major Taylor intense look and skin tone, but also his athleticbody was perfect for the role ... plus he already knew the story and was a local artist. Naturally, we fell for all these qualitiesand picked him as our definitive choice," Vincent said.
There were two days of shooting in May. "It was very cool," Daniel said.
"Mike Daniel revealed himself to us on and off the film set, as the perfect person to have this role," Vincent said. "We still have a long way to go with the filming but so far we are very glad we did pick Mike in the role of Major Taylor. We are impressed by his performances and plan on keeping him in that role."
As for a time frame for "Whirlwind" being completed, Vincent said, "At the moment, we do not want to get anyone's hopes up by giving a specific date , beyond amazing performance on film set and a great crew, we also need to raise $1 million to make the high-end film documentary Major Taylor deserves ... The good news is, we are releasing publicly the trailer concept of the documentary and kickstarting officially the first phase of our fundraising campaignon November 26 (Major Taylor's birthday),all on our websitewww.worcesterwhirlwind.com."
Daniel said, "I'm just hanging out. Whenever they're ready to, I'll be ready."
The play he's been working on, "Apron," is "loosely based off myself. Pretty much about taking opportunities when they appear. When you think things may never happen to you."
Living in Worcester, "things are definitely different. Things are opening up which are great things. A lot of people are proud to say they're from Worcester. I'm one of these people. I've never had any real horrible experiences in Worcester," Daniel said.
By the same token, "there are definitely moments I feel I could have done more. I'm just trying to survive and figure out what I'm going to do next."
Daniel said he's thinking about graduate school, possibly Emerson College. Also, The College of Charleston. "Moving back to Charleston has been an idea."
He was just about to turn 34 when he was being interviewed. But this was far from a down prospect for him.
"Writing a play, achieving goals and achieving things you never thought was possible. Traveling the world. I thought that would never happen to me," Daniel said.
