“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” ― Bertolt Brecht banished? Productions wields this hammer with a bold vision, innovative style, and a distinctive voice. As an avant-pop performance company of interdisciplinary artists, they use movement, language, sound, food, rhythm, gesture, distance, history, breath, and memory to convey, illustrate, and navigate narrative. They are concerned with your pleasure ... your full sensorial pleasure. Their work is exhilarating, unique and captivating. I am hooked! But what is Avant Pop? In essence, it's an interdisciplinary art form that picks up where post modernism left off and infuses elements of Mass Media, such as graffiti, film, internet, pop music, animation, television, advertising, and video games. For those interested in learning more about Avant Pop, check out internationally renowned digital artist and writer Mark Amerika's manifesto. For those of you fortunate to live in the D.C. area, you can experience banished? Productions first hand and see for yourself what is so extraordinary about this company. From November 8 – November 11, 2012, Arena Stage's Cradle Series will feature performances from banished? Productions along with dog & pony dc. I'll be there Friday and can hardly wait! About the Play Into the Dollhouse is an original hybrid performance that uses devised dance and collaged text to tell a story about looking back in order to walk forward. The piece takes inspiration by Meredith Monk's Education of the Girl Child, Anna Halprin's Parades & Changes and fuses song lyrics to snippets of Charles Mee's Salome, and Judy Blume's Forever. Into the Dollhouse is an exploration of nostalgia as a means of time travel as much as it is about navigating a society that dictates what constitutes femininity, asking along the way: Who did we think we would become? Will we ever get there? What rituals have left an imprint on our journey? Contains brief nudity. Here's more about banished? Productions Into the Dollhouse and my interview with collaborators Niell Duval, Otis Ramsey-Zoe, and Carmen C. Wong: NIELL DUVAL is the founding Technical Director of banished? productions who handcrafts all of banished?’s props, set and installation pieces largely with found and scavenged materials. This commitment to using ugly/beautiful objects that would otherwise end up in a landfill has helped develop banished?’s polished-edgy aesthetic. In addition Niell has been a full time props artisan at the Arena Stage in Washington DC since 2001. His meticulously crafted pieces have been commissioned over the years by institutions such as The Kennedy Center, The National Opera, The Shakespeare Theatre, National Geographic, and the National Gallery. A selection of his work was featured in the exhibit “Theatrical Artisans: Props and Crafts from DC Theatre” at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center. Before his move to DC, Niell co-founded a handcrafted boomerang company in his hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Jacqueline Lawton: If you only had three words to describe banished? Productions, what would they be? Niell DuVal: original, accessible, memorable JL: What is your role in Banished? Productions? Niell DuVal: I'm the technical director so I do all the building and fabrication plus a fair amount of the design. I have also learned to wear other hats as needed, like managing sound and video. Everything has to be done on a micro-budget, so I often scavenge for used and discarded materials. Generally for me, form follows "found." JL: What inspired you to create Into The Doll House? Niell DuVal: My role was primarily creating the set. Carmen and Levia, our resident designer, first came up with the idea of the frozen baby dresses. I started experimenting with the construction and the look, originally making them stiff and upright, then making them have their own unique poses. It was interesting how they each started developing their own personality. JL: Why should audiences come see Into the Doll House? Niell DuVal: It's original, it's memorable and it's tight. There's not a second of dead time, including the moment you walk in the door. JL: Why was it important for the production of Into The Dollhouse to be a part of Arena Stage’s Cradle Series? How has this experience benefited the growth and development of the piece? Niell Duval:There are always numerous little things that I can improve on, visually and technically, and being a part of the Cradle Series gives me an ideal chance to do so. And the Kogod Cradle is a such a terrific space, it will bring its own energy to the production. I'm looking forward to seeing that. OTIS CORTEZ RAMSEY-ZOE is a Lecturer of Theatre Arts at Howard University, Future Classics Program Coordinator at The Classical Theatre of Harlem, Series Editor for NoPassport Press’s Dreaming the Americas Series, a freelance dramaturg, and a Company Member of banished? productions. He has developed new works with such organizations as The Sundance Institute, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, and Centerstage and by such writers as Denise Hart, Colman Domingo, Tarell McCraney, Noah Haidle, Kirsten Greenidge and Tim Acito. Previously, he was Literary Manager and First Look Coordinator at Centerstage and an Allen Lee Hughes Dramaturgy and Literary Senior Fellow at Arena Stage. Mr. Ramsey-Zöe holds degrees from New York University and the University of Notre Dame. Jacqueline Lawton: If you only had three words to describe banished? Productions, what would they be? Otis Ramsey-Zoe: Avant-pop, Playful, Innovative. JL: What is your role in Banished? Productions? Otis Ramsey-Zoe: I’ve collaborated with Carmen for over twelve years now. As far as banished? goes my role has always been and continues to be to listen and to ask question. I’ve engaged in conversations around everything from the name the company to devising projects to working to clarify ideas in production. I sometimes say that whenever Carmen asks I say “yes,” but this is far from true. I offer up equal servings of “nah,” “uuuuumm,” “er” and the like to help push an idea or project along. I do a fair amount of institutional dramaturgy as well as production dramaturgy and even a little performance—need a dancing waiter? I’m your man. JL: What inspired you to create Into The Doll House? Otis Ramsey-Zoe: Carmen is really the driving force behind this idea, and because I’ve known her for so long I can both trust in and surrender to her vision while serving as this informed outsider-ly voice. In this piece nothing that is present is there “by chance,” not even chance. Not one thing. Each detail is carefully planned, and these details are what inspire me in working to create this piece. There are details that I have not fully discovered, which is a part of its alchemy and oscillation between revelation and concealment. JL: Why should audiences come see Into the Doll House? Otis Ramsey-Zoe: Audiences should see this show because it involves play and growing up, and they’ll come out of it a little wiser (yes, I do believe this) and more connected to themselves and/or to someone they’ve watched age. On the other hand, I have about a headful of other thoughts on why audiences should see this show, but it’s hard for me to describe them here without fear of giving away too much, you know? I want audiences to have those discoveries in the context of experiencing the piece. I welcome conversations with people after they’ve seen it wherein we can have an exchange and I can freely share some of those thoughts. JL: Why was it important for the production of Into The Dollhouse to be a part of Arena Stage’s Cradle Series? How has this experience benefited the growth and development of the piece? Otis Ramsey-Zoe: As a result of this opportunity we are getting the chance to further interrogate how the show works. I fear that I would be repeating Carmen here, so I direct readers to her response for more on that. But as banished?'s company philosopher (yes we just created this role!), this opportunity is a reflection of banished?’s growth over the years. banished? has always been a company that has sought only to do amazing work, to be led by a spirit of experimentation, and to never limit itself by categories. banished? projects are decidedly multidisciplinary, drawing upon dance, theatre, video, installation/object art, sound & audio, food and performance and etc. So, being invited by Arena Stage to be apart of this series is a nice encouragement for the company. Artists don’t always receive that kind of acknowledgement, and who knows what’s in the future. So, we treat this like a “moment” in the Sondheim sense of the word—“shimmering and lovely and sad. Leave the moment, just be glad for the moment that you had.”—which is to say that we’ll enjoy it, learn from it, have it, and then keep on creating excellent and provocative and powerful work. Peace and Power. CARMEN C. WONG is the founding Artistic Director and agent provocateur of banished? productions. A 2012 Mayor’s Arts Awards nominee for Outstanding Emerging Artist, and recipient of the 2010 DCCAH Young Artist Award, Carmen first got her start in interdisciplinary performance in Berlin, working on Constanza Macras/Dorky Park’s “Back to the Present” (2003). Her continuing work in Scandinavia and Europe was fueled by an artist residency in Helsinki in 2010, and furthered by a TCG Global Connections travel grant in 2011. There she continues to study other forms of live art and creates culturally-relevant versions of her ongoing Futurist-inspired hybrid gastro-performance project series, “Tactile Dinner” which has expanded to include a “Tactile Eating” workshop. Jacqueline Lawton: If you only had three words to describe banished? Productions, what would they be?
Carmen C. Wong: playfully-emotive, thought-filled, avant-pop (cheating with hyphenates!) JL: What is your role in Banished? Productions? Carmen C. Wong: I am the everything-but-tech person: collaborator-whisperer, avant-pop-art-rainmaker! AKA Founding Artistic Director. JL: What inspired you to create Into The Doll House? Carmen C. Wong: My most recent trip home to Singapore probably gelled quite a lot of the remnant thoughts on the piece, which genesis was fairly simple: tell a story about childhood, its beauty in oddity, its shape-shifting. What little seemingly-innocuous incidences and influences shaped how we saw the world, built the person we have become and continue to evolve into? I wanted to capture it as seen from the outside, (perhaps the grown-up side), and craft a memory piece filled with fragments of the past, playing with the unreliable and fragile nature of childhood memories. Sourcing recollections and stories from my collaborators helped me stretch my voice so this story became more culturally-specific for an American audience, a really crucial detail for the experience to be successful. JL: Why should audiences come see Into the Doll House? Carmen C. Wong: The show takes you on journey into nostalgia, and for about an hour, you get a chance to join your reminiscing, memories and stories to our narrative. JL: Why was it important for the production of Into The Dollhouse to be a part of Arena Stage’s Cradle Series? How has this experience benefited the growth and development of the piece? Carmen C. Wong: Staging the show at Arena with the Cradle Series gave us a way to frame the piece within a different space and reconfiguration, and was a good way to learn which elements should be non-negotiable. I'd wanted this experience to simulate a tour situation, to see how we can tighten the spatial and performative elements to make the piece more nimble yet maintain its integrity. Working the way I do, reprising a show also gives me the opportunity to edit, re-examine and strengthen the narrative, no matter which form it takes: verbal/written text, movement/dance, music. This time we worked extensively on the "script" (which looks like a "run of show") finding new ways to record the choreography and shifts in mood behind the text (which also saw some changes) in each vignette. It helped tremendously that we expanded the artistic family to include two new dancers (who were coached by their predecessors) who will perform in this production.
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Barack Obama is president. Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin is the first openly gay person elected to Senate. Maryland and Maine approve Same-Sex Marriage. Missouri's Todd Akin and Indiana's Richard E. Mourdock, both of whom made heinous comments about rape and abortion, are out! All is right with world ... well, almost. As human beings and citizens, we can't only be charitable at Christmas. We can't only be appreciative at Thanksgiving. We can't only be civic-minded on Election Day. "The role of citizens in our Democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government. That's the principle we were founded on." ~~ President Barack Obama dog and pony dc exemplifies this day-to-day call to action in their work. They're an ensemble of artists who come together to devise theatrical performances. Their work is stimulating, original, and relevant. As audience members, we're not only considered, we're encouraged to participate, to think, and to make choices. And I dare say, we're all the better for it on the other side! From November 8 – November 11, 2012, Arena Stage's Cradle Series will feature performances from dog & pony dc's A Killing Game in rep with banished? Productions' Into the Dollhouse. It's going to be a great weekend of theatre! Have you bought your tickets yet? Here's more about dog & pony dc's A Killing Game and my interview with collaborators Rachel Grossman, Jessica Lefkow, and J. Argyl Plath: About the Play In a not-so-distant time, in a city strikingly similar to this one, a deadly plague begins killing the citizenry—inexplicably, indiscriminately, and fast! What’s going on? Who will die next? Can the disease be contained? Where can you turn? Only you—your cunning and skills—can keep you alive ‘til the end of the show. Do you have what it takes to survive? We can't all die, can we? RACHEL GROSSMAN is DC-based performing artist, administrator, and producer. She is the co-founder and Ring Leader for dog & pony dc. Rachel has produced all 7 of dog & pony dc's shows, directed COURAGE and Beertown, and performed in Cymbeline, Bare Breasted Women Sword Fighting, Separated at Birth, and Beertown. Rachel spent two years at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company launching their “connectivity” innovation and serving as the first connectivity director. Prior to that she was the director of education & outreach at Round House Theatre, and managed education and community programming at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, and Centerstage. Rachel was one of fifty professionals featured in TCG’s I AM THEATRE video campaign. Jacqueline Lawton: If you only had three words to describe dog and pony dc, what would they be? Rachel Grossman: Inquisitive Mustachioed Clowns JL: What is your role in dog and pony dc? Rachel Grossman: I am one of three founders of d&pdc--with Lorraine Ressegger-Slone and Wyckham Avery--and am currently one of two Ring Leaders (with Lorraine). We refer to ourselves as an "ensemble-based" company because it has always been important that we operate as collectively as possible in both the artistic and administrative areas. Some ensemble companies work more at the consensus end of the collaboration continuum. We vacillate up and down that continuum but tend to find ourselves most often (and work best) on the consensus side of democracy. JL: What inspired you to create A Killing Game? Rachel Grossman: As with most of our shows, the inspiration was really a confluence of ideas, sources, and people over time. Director Colin K. BIlls had been interested the Ionseco play, JEU DE MASSACRE (translated: KILLING GAME) and had me read it for a whole other project about 5 years ago. It kept popping into my enough over the years that I shared it with Wyckham and Lorraine. Then one day in 2011 on my way to BEERTOWN rehearsal I was listening to the Radiolab episode "War of the Worlds" and the descriptions of the mass hysteria that resulted from Welles' broadcast entered into this fascinating conversation with Ionesco's play in my brain. At the same time, there were all these reports coming out of Egypt about people tweeting and retweeting "first hand accounts" of the riots that were anything but, making it impossible to tell fact from opinion to interpretation to fiction. These three sources, when combined with the ensemble's personal experiences living in this time of hyperbolic media and in a city of bombarded with alerts and warnings, built the foundation for A KILLING GAME. JL: Why should audiences come see A Killing Game? Rachel Grossman: To have fun? Seems like a huge reduction, but A KILLING GAME is designed to transform a night at the theatre--going to see a play--into a party game. d&pdc is becoming known for creating entertaining, unexpected shows that provide audiences new perspectives into the possibilities of life theatre. So if you're a theatre enthusiast -- you should come. If you don't tend to care for theatre as you've seen it in the past -- you should come. Either way, come open to the play. JL: Why was it important for the production of A Killing Game to be a part of Arena Stage’s Cradle Series? How has this experience benefited the growth and development of the piece? Rachel Grossman: d&pdc's work is guided by the principle of "audience integration" - the intentional focus in the development and performance of theatre on the audiences' role in the production / live experience. We believe the audience completes our ensemble, at some point making it impossible to move forward with the development of a show without bringing "audience" into the rehearsal room. With this show in particular we've host a number of "testing sessions" along the way but they tend to be with 6 - 12 people. It was integral in the final weeks of devising the show, before its premiere at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop on November 28, that we test with a larger group of people... and ones that were not necessarily hip to the inner-workings of the show. When the invitation came from Arena Stage to participate in the Cradle Series, it seemed the stars were aligned. We don't yet know how the piece will benefit specifically, but we have set up a schedule of showing material in order to maximize our learning and growth from night to night. So if someone comes to the Cradle on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night, and then returns for the only full-run we'll do there on Sunday they might see significant adjustments made to the material based on their participation and feedback from just a few days prior. We want audiences to take ownership in A KILLING GAME's development--you truly complete our ensemble. JESSICA LEFKOW is a director and performer based in DC. With dog & pony dc she has appeared in Courage, Beertown, and A Killing Game, and served as a clown director for Separated at Birth. Jessica directed the World Premiere of the Helen Hayes Award-winning Honey Brown Eyes (2009 Best New Play, Theater J). Other Washington-area directing credits: Hercules In Russia; TETHER, (Doorway Arts Ensemble); Red Herring, Mousetrap (1st Stage); Dear Sara Jane, (The Hub Theater); House of Blue Leaves, (Montgomery College, Rockville); BENCHED (independently produced). Jessica has appeared in Bootleg Shakespeare and Riot Grrrl productions with Taffety Punk Theatre Company. She appeared as Eunice in A Streetcar Named Desire, (Gulfshore Playhouse) and as Queen Margaret in Richard III, (Brave Spirits Theatre Company). Jessica is a Teaching Artist with Young Playwrights Theater and Washington Area coordinator for the Gary Austin Workshops. She’s a working mom and a proud member of AFTRA. Jacqueline Lawton: If you only had three words to describe dog and pony dc, what would they be? Jessica Lefkow: Original. Entertaining. Thought-provoking. JL: What is your role in dog and pony dc? Jessica Lefkow: Conspirator, (Company Member). In A Killing Game, I devise & perform. JL: What inspired you to create A Killing Game? Jessica Lefkow: Conspirator Colin K. Bills emerged over the course of making BEERTOWN as someone who we all thought it would be fun to have in a directing role for a piece. He'd long been intrigued by Ionesco's 'The Killing Game', and the ideas/hypothesis just sort of flowed from there. Working as an ensemble allows our discussions to have a long life, with ideas for projects floating up over time. The moment to dive into this exploration arrived, and we were off! JL: Why should audiences come see A Killing Game? Jessica Lefkow: Have you ever wondered about how you might respond during a deadly emergency? Are you interested in a theater experience that's inclusive & compelling at the same time? Are you ready to be part of a game in which everybody wins, (or loses…) with laughter along the way? Do you want to influence how d&pdc plays this game? Then this show is for you. JL: Why was it important for the production of A Killing Game to be a part of Arena Stage’s Cradle Series? How has this experience benefited the growth and development of the piece? Jessica Lefkow: Our performances have come to lean so heavily towards partnership with everyone in the room as to be impossible to fully rehearse/gauge for effectiveness without an audience. The Cradle Series offers us an opportunity to bring people in to play with us, an opportunity commensurate with the wide net cast by Arena Stage. The Series comes altogether felicitously at an ideal moment in the rehearsal/development of this new piece for our Nov-Dec 2012 run. I write before the Arena run, but I know from experience that the opportunity to workshop our pieces in performance conditions never fails to yield specific and concrete lessons for us as we work towards the *best* possible embodiment of the work. Audiences are just that smart. J. ARGYL PLATH is the Director of Interactive for a PR/Creative firm in downtown Washington, DC. With dog & pony dc he has participated in the development and performance of A Killing Game, Beertown, Separated at Birth, and Courage. In addition he is the Creator and Managing Director of an established literary magazine. He is proficient in a variety of musical instruments including voice. He is a writer and artisan needle-worker. He has been a member of a variety of creative groups that have generated everything from original printed works to plays and musicals. He has taught High School. He is teaching himself 日本語. He appreciates Bridge and other parlor games. He prefers cheese. His bio typically reads: "J. Argyl Plath grew up watching the Golden Girls and Designing Women." He is telling the truth about that. Jacqueline Lawton: If you only had three words to describe dog and pony dc, what would they be?
J. Argyl Plath: No fourth wall. JL: What is your role in dog and pony dc? J. Argyl Plath: Conspirator. That means I'm a company member. I tend to be extensively involved in the writing/shaping process and then have some smaller role in the actual productions. JL: What inspired you to create A Killing Game? J. Argyl Plath: I remember the moment it was pitched to me. It has grown/evolved a lot since then but I remember being told that we wanted to explore fear and mass hysteria and I instantly had all these ideas of how to elicit visceral reactions from the audience. Then I read the Ionesco play of an indefinite articleless same name and was further inspired by its political/social commentary through absurdism. JL: Why should audiences come see A Killing Game? J. Argyl Plath: Because are so many things I could do with their $5-40. But seriously: we've tried to create a show that is unique to each performance and that has many distinct elements that ensure it will be different each night (most of which are completely up to the audience). All the while maintaining that sense of safety and opt-in inclusiveness that I hope we are beginning to be known for. JL: Why was it important for the production of A Killing Game to be a part of Arena Stage’s Cradle Series? How has this experience benefited the growth and development of the piece? J. Argyl Plath: We need blood in the room. By that I mean: we need people to interact with. Virtually the entire show rests on our interactions with and the decisions of the audience. We've done small experiments with a handful of invited friends, but this will be our first opportunity to really get some realistic feedback on a lot of the show's elements. And then we'll use the last two weeks before we open to make adjustments. But let's be honest, we'll keep tweaking and adjusting the show throughout the run. That's just what we do. We're perfectionists who are never satisfied with the phrase "this is the best this will ever get." These shows at Arena are giving us the opportunity to start that process of endless improvements even earlier. It's Election Day in the Unites States and since I voted, I've earned the right to complain for the next four more years. Growing up in East Texas, I used to hear the old folks say that a lot. Here's the thing, anyone can complain. It's easy to do. It's much harder to take action, to push through challenges and disappointment, and to work for change to improve a situation and the circumstances of your community. So, if you don't vote, march, stand up, or stay informed then you haven't earned to right to complain. In fact, you may well be making the situation worse. Each Election Day, I think about this and I think the men and women who fought for the rights of women and people of color to vote. Many of these warriors did not live to see the change for which they fought. When I think about their efforts, I think about others who have made huge strides against all odds to accomplish something truly great and beneficial for their communities. As a theatre artist of color living in D.C., I think about the pioneering and courageous efforts of Zelda Fichandler, Tom Fichandler and Edward Mangum, who founded Arena Stage in the 1950s and made it the first D.C. area theatre to allow an integrated audience. I think about the revolutionary work of Molly Smith, David Dower, Polly Carl, Jamie Gahlon and Vijay Matthews who gave us the American Voices New Play Institute, which launched #NewPlay TV, the blog Howlround, and the New Play Map, now housed at ArtsEmerson in Boston, Massachusetts. Of course, I still hope to one day be a part of the Resident Playwrights, what an extraordinary gift and opportunity that allows playwright time and financial support to write and develop plays. Needless to say, Arena Stage holds a special place in heart, because they want to make a difference in the American Theatre and working to empower local theatre artists and organizations. They understand that change doesn't happen overnight and that they need strong leadership to carryout their vision. I was overjoyed when I learned that David Snider was named the Director of Artistic Programming! Having worked with him at Young Playwright's Theater, I knew the bold, powerful and sincere impact that his vision and efforts would make at Arena Stage and on the D.C. Theatre Community. DAVID SNIDER is an award-winning arts administrator and artist, with over 20 years of experience as a director, educator, producer, administrator and actor. He is currently the Director of Artistic Programming for Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Prior to Arena Stage, he received the Meyer Foundation’s $100,000 Exponent Award for visionary leadership of a nonprofit, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Hands On Greater DC Cares’ Essence of Leadership Award, as “a nonprofit executive who has integrated innovative and strategic leadership to make a lasting impact on their organization and the community at large.” Mr. Snider received his MFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. He is a Directing Fellow of the Drama League of New York, a past President of the League of Washington Theatres and a member of the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program, a collaborative think tank of 100 CEO’s from around the world dedicated to tackling issues of competition, finance and relevance on a global scale. True to form, David is spearheading two exciting initiatives: The Cradle Series and Playwrights' Arena. Recently, he took time out of his schedule to discuss how his passion for theatre, his belief in arts education, his vision for Arena Stage and much more, including how Zelda Fichandler inspired him to be the artist and leader he is today. I have it here for you now, please enjoy:
Jacqueline Lawton: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you? David Snider: My father is a United Methodist minister and would often draw from our family life for his sermons when I was a kid. At the same time I was an altar boy, sang in the choirs and even did short plays on stage in the church. So I grew up in some ways in the theater, with a sense of being onstage and having my personal (often embarrassing) childhood stories become story narratives for an audience. Then when I was sixteen we moved once again (Methodist ministers are typically moved every 5-6 years), I decided to stop going to church and fell into a student theater group as a replacement in some ways. We had a fantastic drama teacher and it was my first experience of theater as a company and as a community. Since then I’ve gravitated towards theater that builds and inspires community and a sense of company in some way. JL: From 2005-2012, you served as Producing Artistic Director and CEO of Young Playwrights’ Theatre (YPT). During your tenure, you led the organization through tremendous financial growth, raised the company's local and national profile and implemented extraordinary programming. What is the most valuable lesson you learned while working at YPT? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? DS: I learned so much during my time at YPT. I was so extraordinarily lucky to lead that organization and to inherit it from an amazingly supportive founder, Karen Zacarias. One very valuable lesson I learned there was that your company culture should reflect and support your mission and vision. If you’re trying to inspire and support students to clearly and creatively express themselves, you need to inspire and support your team in the same way. Also, in order to accomplish a mission, a staff needs to be involved in its articulation. Even if they inherit one that already exists, they need to have the chance to articulate for themselves in their own words, to own why they’re there, working so hard and probably sacrificing other opportunities (and more money elsewhere) to do it. They need to be inspired as a team, rather than just as a set of employees following others’ decisions. I think an artistic director of course needs a strong vision for the work of the organization. What’s its purpose in the world? Why should we care? At the same time I think really good artistic directors have a strong sense of how the artistic and financial concerns of a theater interconnect –and how the financial and artistic strength of the organization feed and rely on each other. JL: Prior to joining YPT, you ran the award-winning Text Alive! and Camp Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Theatre. With it being such a constant struggle to obtain, sustain, and grow financial support for the arts, why must artists and educators continue to advocate for arts integration? What role or impact do the arts, particularly theatre, have on childhood development? DS: I think we need to think about what kind of world we want to live in – and how students will compete in our global community if they can’t express themselves clearly and creatively. We know we’ve entered an age in which we all need to be creative, to think outside the box and drive the world with new ideas. The arts of course spark and inspire our creativity and without them I think we’d have a tough time making our way in today’s world. Look at Steve Jobs – a combination of creative genius, a love for design and a certain business savvy created a model that has changed the way we live. JL: Additionally, you were president of the League of Washington Theatres from 2007-2010, which must have given you great insight on the DC theatre community. So, tell us about this community your thoughts on:
JL: Since August of 2012, you have served as Director of Artistic Programming at Arena Stage. It must be very exciting and quite a whirlwind! Tell us:
JL: Tell us about the American Voices New Play Institute. What is your vision for its future programming? What impact do you hope it will make on the American Theatre? DS: We want the AVNPI to continue to support playwrights who are at a certain tipping point in their work, who with a bit more support can bring forth work they otherwise might not be able to achieve. We know the work of the AVNPI is reverberating throughout the American Theatre already, resulting in new plays across the country from our resident playwrights. We believe the results of these residencies will continue to unfold over the next several years, as the work being gestated right now is written and produced across the country. We also see the model being replicated, as more theaters begin to build residency programs that support playwrights over the long term with less demand for results. It’s important for the playwrights to decide what they need to do with the time. JL: Tell us about Arena Stage’s Cradle Series. What is your vision for its future programming? How will it serve DC theatre community? DS: We want the Kogod Cradle Series to support creative risk-taking, of companies, playwrights, directors, designers and actors. That’ll take many forms in the coming years and will allow us to support more local artists, as well as artists from around the country. We hope it’ll be another way of supporting and nurturing our extraordinary local talent pool as well. JL: From November 8th - 11th, Arena Stage Cradle Series will feature the work of Banished? Productions, dog and pony dc, and African Continuum Theatre Company. What drew you to these companies? What excites most about the days ahead? DS: They all had work they were ready to actively explore in this series, with specific questions they wanted to ask about their own work, like: How does this game work with an audience? How can we adapt an installation piece to tour in a different space? These are important artistic and organizational questions and I was excited to help them ask them. I’m excited to see how it all plays out – it’s an experiment and I’m sure we’ll all learn a lot. I hope a lot of people come, because it’s a real opportunity to participate in the growth of two exciting pieces. JL: You’ve had quite an exciting and diverse career as an actor, director, educator, producer, and administrator. What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists and practitioners? DS: When I was training with Zelda Fichandler back at NYU, we were encouraged to think of ourselves as having a mission as an artist. And because my parents, one a minister and the other an educator, exemplified leading lives of purpose and service, I’ve always thought of my career as serving a greater purpose beyond myself. So my advice would be: Figure out what your mission is and pursue it. Take risks, try new things and generate your own work. Create your own opportunities. Think strategically about your career and where you want to be long-term - and then take the steps to make it happen. Be ready when the door opens and step through it. This past Thursday, I early voted, which took me all of 20 minutes, and then transferred my Texas Driver's License to a D.C. Driver's License, which took an hour an half. The half hour was spent standing outside in the cold owing to a fire drill ... but I digress. Ignoring the fact that I've actually lived and worked in D.C. for six going on seven years, let's celebrate the fact that I am officially a D.C. resident! WooHoo!! Many things excite me about living in D.C., but none more than the brilliant, vibrant, diverse and enthusiastic theatre community. In addition to Theater J's Locally Grown Festival to which I owe the upcoming world premiere production of The Hampton Years, the award winning, critically acclaimed Arena Stage has launched two major programs--The Cradle Series and Playwrights' Arena--geared towards supporting the works of local artists and organizations. As a playwright and avid theatre devotee, this excites me to no end! This coming weekend, from November 8 – November 11, 2012, Arena Stage's Cradle Series will feature performances from banished? Productions and dog & pony dc. Both productions will be presented together in one evening of creative development. Additionally, on Saturday, November 10, 2012, African Continuum Theatre will present readings of two exciting new works as part of their Fresh Flavas Festival: Without Trace by Eric Lockley at 2:00pm and Kind of Blue by Ozzie Jones at 4:00pm. Click here to learn more and purchase tickets. I'll be attending the performances on Friday with a few friends and can hardly wait! Over the few days, I'm going to feature each company and share their recent interviews. For now, here's a bit of info about the work being presented. banished? ProductionsInto the Dollhouse is an original hybrid performance that uses devised dance and collaged text to tell a story about looking back in order to walk forward. The piece takes inspiration by Meredith Monk's Education of the Girl Child, Anna Halprin's Parades & Changes and fuses song lyrics to snippets of Charles Mee's Salome, and Judy Blume's Forever. Into the Dollhouse is an exploration of nostalgia as a means of time travel as much as it is about navigating a society that dictates what constitutes femininity, asking along the way: Who did we think we would become? Will we ever get there? What rituals have left an imprint on our journey? Dog & Pony DCIn a not-so-distant time, in a city strikingly similar to this one, a deadly plague begins killing the citizenry—inexplicably, indiscriminately, and fast! What’s going on? Who will die next? Can the disease be contained? Where can you turn? Only you—your cunning and skills—can keep you alive ‘til the end of the show. Do you have what it takes to survive? We can't all die, can we? African Continuum Theatre CompanyWithout Trace: The country finds itself in a race-war and the future seems bleak. A lost son's return may signal a new beginning...or the beginning of the end. Without Trace uses one family's chilling experience to explore the black male psyche and the American Dream. Eric Lockley is a performer, playwright, and producer with The Movement Theatre Company and the producing collective, Harlem 9. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Kind of Blue: An allegory about the relationship between a man and woman, inspired by the music of Miles Davis. Ozzie Jones is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Rhythm One Company, whose focus is training and artistic development of new artists. He is also the Artistic Director and Co-founder of The Well Productions and has directed or performed with Patti Labelle, Ruby Dee, Jill Scott, Guy Davis, The Roots, Wu Tang Clan, Schoolly D, and Poor Righteous Teachers. About the Cradle Series
The Cradle Series supports the exploration and development of new and emerging work in the Kogod Cradle with visiting companies, artists and ensembles. Focusing on the development of new plays and devised work by artists from throughout Greater Washington and around the country, this series of readings and workshops invites artists and audiences to explore the development process and allows artists and audiences to participate who otherwise might not be able to easily access Arena Stage. This series also supports the development of local artists and seeks to further develop our local talent pool of playwrights, actors and directors here in Greater Washington. |
My BlogI'm a playwright, dramaturg, and teaching artist. It is here where you'll find my queries and musings on life, theater and the world. My posts advocate for diversity, inclusion, and equity in the American Theatre and updates on my own work. Please enjoy!
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