After moving to New York to further her theatre career, she studied under Broadway producer and director Gene Frankel, who became her mentor and lifelong friend. She made her film debut as the leading lady appearing in "Cane River" (1981). The film was loss for over 30 years after the sudden death of its producer, writer and director Horace Jenkins in 1982. Rediscovered in 2013, Cane River was restored in 2018 and recognized as a “historical treasure” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019. The film finally premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City in January 2020.
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A New Orleans native with a notable background in both theatre and education, Ms. Myrick completed her undergraduate studies at Xavier University in New Orleans majoring in Mass Communications and Theatre. She earned a master’s in Theatre from the University of Michigan and taught full-time at Eastern Michigan University while pursuing her Ph.D.
After returning to New Orleans, Ms. Myrick founded Voices in the Dark Repertory Theatre Company. She taught at the University of New Orleans, before accepting the position of Assistant Director at the Center for African and African American Studies and Artistic Director at Southern University. In 1994, she became the first African American hired by at Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré to direct at its theatre in its 75 years history. The play, August Wilson’s “Fences” won the New Orleans’ Big Easy Award for Best Production, Best Drama, and Best Director. She again won Best Director honors for Pearl Cleage’s “Flyin’ West” at Southern Repertory Theatre in 1997. In 2020, Ms. Myrick received the Big Easy Lifetime Achievement Award in Theatre.
In October 2023, Ms. Myrick served as producer and director for "Le Code Noir," New Orleans' inaugural historical outdoor drama, which she co-authored with Mark R. Sumner. In 2025, she wrote and directed “Mary is my Name,” a theatrical production focusing on the six Marys of the Bible and additionally co-directed and conceptualized “Swimming Upstream” in collaboration with Eve Elser (The Vagina Monologues). The latter was presented at the Mahalia Jackson Center for the Performing Arts to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Most recently Ms. Myrick received the Amistad Research Center’s Legends and Legacies 2025 Award.
