JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
KATHLEEN AKERLEY: When I was something like seven or eight years old my sister Helen and my friend Valerie and I wrote and performed a play called The Pearbird, about a brother and sister living in the woods who are saved during the cruel winters from subsisting on bark by a magical bird who makes special food grow on the trees. This magical food in our version (I’m sure it would be different in the Peter Brooks version) was popcorn spread out on an old dress (so it was more of a magical shrub, I suppose), which alluring set element of course was more than the audience could resist, and the fourth wall was broken by most of our neighborhood friends. I never decided to get into theater, I just did theater (Valerie and I also, around that time, wrote and performed The Sleeping Man and The Thief, which was the role-reversing slapstick it sounds like it would be, and a year or so later collaborated with several neighborhood friends on an old, short play, that I now can’t find evidence of anywhere, called Eileen McSweeney’s Ghost). Many things have inspired me to stop doing theater, but I never had to be inspired to do theater. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? KA: Since 1998, when the company was established. I started the company to do a production of Macbeth that I couldn’t get out of my head; I stay in the position because every summer I get to take my brain out for a spin in the company of good friends who are also skilled artists. JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? KA: Valuable lesson: how to cope in a lose-lose situation and live with my choice. Skills and traits: I personally feel – this is just for me, I’m not saying everyone should share this value – that a successful artistic director will recognize the difference between the ‘health’ and ‘growth’ of a company, but that’s my soapbox about maintenance economies that no one needs me to re-mount. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? KA: Getting to take something that exists in an isolated part of my brain and express (in this context a massive verb with any number of footnotes and drop-down menus) it for and with other people. My greatest challenge by far if I ran the company the way many people have encouraged to me run it would be networking but fortunately I have Heather Haney as a company member (she is our voice of Twitter, among other skills) and anyway try to operate the company in a way that minimizes the need for fund-raising; the greatest challenge for me in running the company the way I want to run it is not feeling like I died any time a company member moves on. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? KA: I work part-time in a law office, freelance as an actor, director, playwright and teacher, and have just finished my training to be a massage therapist and hopefully will get my license later this month. Because Longacre Lea only does one show a year I and the other company members can easily balance working with the company and working with other companies. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? KA: I don’t think of gender in anything except mate selection and, where needed, in casting; I don’t think of race except when Chris Holbert makes jokes about calling the curtains ‘blacks.’ I know these are not trivial matters – I have more than an academic awareness of how discrimination plays out – but to me the best choice I can make is not to discriminate at all. JL: DC audiences are ... KA: … unlikely to have nougat centers. JL: DC actors and designers are ... KA: … kind of like the farmer and the cowman: the actors demanding water rights, the designers building fences. I can stretch this feckless analogy further if need be. JL: DC playwrights are … KA: … the sun, I am the moon, they are the words, I am the tune. JL: DC critics are ... KA: … comin’ ‘round the mountain when they come. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? KA: … Don’t be impressed by anyone, including yourself; don’t disrespect anyone, including yourself. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company? KA: I’m directing the ‘Voodoo’ Macbeth for American Century Theatre – not trying to recreate Welles’ production so much as searching for the modern equivalents of his intentions. As for my company, we'll be on hiatus this year but fully committed to the 2014 return.
0 Comments
JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
NICOLE JOST: I’ve loved theater since I was a kid. But one particular show that inspired me as a young person was Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. I had a suspicion that theater could be a force for social justice, and Kushner’s work confirmed it. I fought very hard to get Part I: Millennium Approaches to my high school stage and, with the support of some wonderful people, I was successful. During one of the performances, right at the moment when Louis and Joe kiss, a teacher who was in the audience gasped audibly. The next day, she came to talk to me. She was embarrassed. She said she had been up all night, thinking about her reaction and the reasons for it. That to me was theater at its best – a moment onstage elicited an honest, visceral reaction that threw into question this woman’s way of looking at the world. From then on, I was hooked. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? NJ: I’ve been YPT’s Artistic Director since October 2012. I originally came to YPT as an intern in 2006. I was inspired by my experience in our In-School Playwriting Program. My experience of being a teenager and seeing my words come to life in the hands of professional adult artists became a model for what I hoped to give other young people in DC. I had also seen firsthand the inequalities that pervade DC schools: the education that I and my privileged, mostly white, middle class, friends received did not match what was being offered to the majority of students across the city. Working for YPT became my way to address this injustice using my art form. Being Artistic Director of a small nonprofit with huge ambitions is not easy, but our students keep me going. It’s impossible to be discouraged when a timid student turns in a 20-page play, when a young student pens a fantastical tale of impossible characters, when a student reveals to you that she never thought she was a good writer before she tried her hand at writing a play. I’m very fortunate in the sense that even as Artistic Director I have the opportunity to teach – every Wednesday I lead our Young Playwrights’ Workshop program. The Workshop is YPT’s youth theater company. Members work together to create, develop, rehearse and perform an original play during the course of the school year. It is such a gift to see them every week. I defy you to be in a bad mood after hanging out with these amazing young people. (Come see them at the Source Festival in June!) JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? NJ: I’m a very new AD, so I’m still discovering what the position means for me and for the company. So far, the most important thing has been to develop a clear and compelling vision for our artistic programs, and to communicate that vision. For YPT that means not just performances but educational programming – education is the core of our mission. YPT is a highly collaborative workplace, so visioning never happens in isolation. But it’s important to step up as a leader, to pose challenging questions, and to listen. Listening is huge. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? NJ: I’m excited about having the big picture in mind. I like to think that way, and I did think that way about YPT even as an intern. (Which was probably very obnoxious.) My greatest challenge is defining what it means to be an Artistic Director for me, for YPT, for an arts education company. And I suppose that other ADs face this challenge as well – how to make the role your own. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? NJ: I am very fortunate that my work as an Artistic Director does in fact pay the bills. My challenge is balancing my work as a playwright with my work as Artistic Director. I pour a lot of myself into YPT, and sometimes that means at the end of the day I don’t have it in me to write. That’s hard, but it also forces me to think seriously about balance and maintaining a healthy frame of mind. Those are things I think everyone should consider, no matter what your job is, so in that way it’s actually a blessing. But YPT also sustains me as an artist. I’m engaged every day in making theater, so I work out my creative muscles regularly. I do work with other companies on my own plays (in fact, YPT only produces the work of our students, so I am not eligible to have my work produced within the company). These experiences help me relate to our students. As a teaching artist, I can get locked into the role of cheerleader, always saying “You can do this.” Doing my own writing reminds me that making theater is hard! We are challenging our students in a big way, and it’s important for me to remember that as a leader. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? NJ: YPT is committed to improving access and equity in the field of arts education. The cuts in the arts that we hear so much about have disproportionately impacted young people of color (particularly African Americans and Latinos) and working class communities. Every young person has a right to learning in the arts, and in fact I have found through working with YPT that the arts have a special power to help students who are struggling – whether it be because of racial and gender oppression, poverty, the challenges of being an English Language Learner or having a learning disability, or something else. I’ve seen it over and over again: for students who are having problems in school, YPT’s program provides a breath of fresh air. It’s a chance for students to think and work differently, which many students need. So it is very important to us to study our impact on the DC region and offer our programs to those students who may not otherwise have access to quality arts education. Our production season is directly informed by the students we serve, so the plays we produce will always reflect the diversity of our students. As far as our artists and staff are concerned, we are like many other arts education organizations across the nation: a mostly white staff serving mostly students of color. This is an important problem for us. It’s something I will be devoting a lot of energy to specifically in the next three years as we embark on a new strategic plan. JL: DC audiences are ... NJ: Of many diverse appetites – I think you could find an audience in this city for any show you could possibly dream up. JL: DC actors and designers are ... NJ: Inventive. Dedicated. JL: DC playwrights are ... NJ: A force to be reckoned with! JL: DC critics are ... NJ: Thoughtful. Open-minded. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? NJ: See everything. If you see something you like, hang out in the lobby. Meet the artists. Offer to usher, put up fliers, sweep the floor, whatever. The artists in this community are so welcoming, and the more connections you make the more opportunities you will have. The more you will grow. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company?? NJ: YPT’s biggest annual production, our New Play Festival, will go up on April 22 and 23. All performances are free and open to the public. This year, we considered over 850 plays written by elementary, middle and high school students in YPT’s In-School Program. Only 12 will be produced in April. So the selection process was our most competitive ever, and the 12 featured plays are amazing! We also have Young at Heart, which is part of our New Writers Now! staged reading series, on Monday February 11. Last year we held a very successful anti-Valentine’s Day performance, but our hearts have warmed a bit since then so we’ll be celebrating the holiday with four scripts that tackle the downs and the ups of love. To learn more, go to www.yptdc.org. JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
ALLYSON HARKEY: I’ve been in theatre in some form or fashion my whole life, minus 2 miserable years in the ‘90s. My dad took me to see Annie when I was a little girl, and I was hooked after that. I did every school play, took every acting class, acted out scenes from The King and I and Cats in my bedroom. I was that kid. The first person to ever tell me that I should be on stage, though, was a grade school teacher. Mr. DeYoung never smiled and scared the bejeezus out of everyone, but he made me take bigger parts than I auditioned for and taught me to not apologize for my talent. That might have been the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in a school. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? AH: I’ve been one of Pinky Swear’s Co-ADs, with Karen Lange, since the company’s inception in 2008. At first it was more of a “There aren’t many parts for us, why don’t put on the play we want to be in!” thing, but it didn’t take long for us to realize that one production was not going to quench our thirst. Quite frankly, there is not enough work for all of the women theatre artists in DC. Period. There are myriad reasons why that is so, but while we as a community are working on understanding the history and philosophies that have gotten us here, we should also be doing practical things to change it. Like putting on plays written by women, directed by women, designed by women, staffed by women, performed by women, and/or about things that aren’t marginalizing to women. Oh, and with companies led by women. As long as I am in a position to put on some of those plays, I’m going to. JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? AH: The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that I can do it. It sounds simple, but when we started I honestly didn’t know whether I could do this job, even sharing it with a woman as smart and driven as Karen. On top of being a woman in our society, I’m also an actor, so I’m trained to take what I can get and not make too much of a fuss. Being an artistic director means asking for more than that — of a play, of your staff and volunteers, of yourself — and making all of the fusses. To serve the work, and the organization, you have to be better than you thought you could be, smarter than you think you are when you go home. Sometimes that means getting out of your own way, hiring the people who you think can do a fantastic job and then letting them. Trusting the people around you can be difficult when the company and the work mean so much personally, but it’s absolutely vital. I’m still relatively new to this role, and I make mistakes every day. Having someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of, be it a partner like I have in Karen or other producers or artistic directors, can be a huge help in maintaining perspective and sanity. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? AH: Honestly, the most exciting thing for me is being part of the conversation around the gender disparity in theatre. I can’t do anything about most of the sexism that permeates our daily lives, but I can answer it in my own small way, in this one industry, in a way that I hope means something to our audience. I’m very proud of what Pinky Swear has accomplished in its short life, and with the addition of our new Associates, I’m over the moon with anticipation about where we’re headed. My greatest challenge is my need to learn ALL OF THE THINGS. I’m relatively new to this, remember? Half the time I don’t know what I’m doing, and the other half I know what I’m doing but I didn’t know that I knew! Every day it feels like there’s some new angle I hadn’t considered or a playwright that I cannot believe I’ve never heard of or someone who’s already built that mousetrap I was trying desperately to envision and everyone knows about it but me. And every day I remind myself that all I can do is learn what I can, listen to those who know more, and trust my instincts. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? AH: Science writing pays the bills, and I also act and do voice over work. Balance is not a strength of mine, but I’m working on it. I do act outside of Pinky Swear; everyone in Pinky Swear works outside of Pinky Swear. We believe it’s a strong defense against artistic stagnation. While we do want to be a company of artists who challenge and inspire each other — who want to work together — we also know that Pinky Swear neither can nor should be anyone’s sole artistic outlet. None of us is just one thing, so why should we work in just one place? JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? AH: While we’re not very conscious about race, we definitely take gender into consideration. It’s in our mission: We hire women (both artists and technicians) whenever possible. What that means on a practical level is that we purposely look for plays written by women, with great roles for women, and when all things are equal, we hire the woman — no matter what the job. So far, all of our productions have been written by women, directed by women, and had women in leading roles. This was the kind of company we wanted to work for, so that’s what we created. As an actor, I don’t often get that kind of say. Speaking to race: I would like to be more conscious about race. I’ve just been focused on gender, and honestly, sometimes it feels like that’s about all I can handle. But I’m sure it’s not. I’m sure there is more I could be doing. JL: DC audiences are ... AH: You know, I thought of a whole bunch of adjectives, but none of them is quite right. I’ve lived here for over 12 years, and I don’t understand DC audiences yet. They love things I hate, they ignore things I love, we never agree. But maybe that’s actually the power of this community — there are so many smart, sophisticated people here that you can do just about anything and there will be someone who’s willing to go on that ride with you. That’s exciting! We should create more crazy rides; I know there are people out there just waiting for us to really push the boundaries of what theatre can be. JL: DC actors and designers are ... AH: So talented, smart, and educated that sometimes I cannot believe my luck to be here. And nice, so nice! JL: DC playwrights are … AH: Not sending me enough scripts. I want to produce more of their work. More scripts, please! With strong women’s roles! Where people talk to each other and things happen! JL: DC critics are ... AH: A touchy subject with me. I make my living writing about subjects in which I have no training, so I know what it’s like to be second-guessed. To make up for my lack of science education, I make it my business to learn as much as I reasonably can about each new subject. (Ask me about cancer research and treatment policy in this country sometime. Or don’t.) I have huge respect for critics who have learned what goes into the art and craft of theatre and can speak thoughtfully about a performance. I love reading criticism, not only to find out whether I agree with the writer’s assessment, but to challenge my own analytical skills. But I think to truly call yourself a theatre critic, you should have a basic level of understanding of how a play works. Otherwise, how can you know what you’re looking at? Why an actor did x instead of y? How design helps or hinders the storytelling? What this director or company might be trying to say with this piece? Criticism is not just reporting on a particular performance; the truly great critics also give their readers a sense of history and context, something that cannot be done without years of study and experience. Criticism is no easy business, and to pretend that anyone can do it does an injustice to everyone involved. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? AH: Start auditioning or interviewing as soon as you can. Don’t wait until someone reaches out to you. A lot of the smaller companies are happy to hire someone who doesn’t have a lot of professional experience, as long as talent, passion, and willingness to work are there. Start seeing shows, and contact the theatres whose work excites you. Oh, and don’t be a jerk. We all have our moments, but if you’re difficult to work with, word will get out fast. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company? AH: Pinky Swear is thiiiiiis close to selecting our 2013 season opener, and we’re beginning planning/devising sessions for Fringe this month. Then we’ll do another full-length show in the fall. In the meantime, we’re integrating our awesome new Associates into the company and planning rockin’ ways to take advantage of their immense talents. As far as acting, I have no idea! I might show up in a Pinky Swear play, or I might be elsewhere. I do have some cool voice over work coming up: a gig with the National Park Service doing audio descriptions for the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
KAREN LANGE: I have been performing since I was a child. There was a program called Odyssey of the Mind that I started working with in second grade. Each year, we wrote a 7-minute play and performed it in creative competition. I learned to love performing then and really enjoyed the idea of making something from scratch. In high school, I tried out for Grease to be moral support for another friend who was auditioning. During callbacks, they went down the line to have each Rizzo candidate sing a section of a song. When they got to me, the entire cafetorium erupted in a standing ovation. That was my Cinderella moment & I knew that I wanted to act. As an adult, I established a career & didn’t act for a long time. When I turned 30, I decided to take some classes in improv. I realized what I had been missing in my life and became a performer again, first with ComedySportz, then in Washington Improv Theater. I took classes at Studio to do scripted acting. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? KL: I have served as co-Artistic Director with Allyson Harkey since 2008. I was drawn to the position because I saw a need to take action to make change in DC theatre. after several years of acting in different productions at Fringe, I went to see a production with my future co-Artistic Director, Allyson. The production opened our eyes to how little quality work was available for women in DC theatre. We decided to do a one-shot Fringe show, just to prove we could find a play with interesting roles and that a successful show could be helmed by women. That was the birth of Pinky Swear Productions. That first show led to a second, third, fourth…and now we’re a full-fledged, year-round company. What keeps me here is the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction during each production process. We get to give other, deserving women work. We get to highlight new plays by women, both local and from elsewhere. We hire women as directors and staff. We get to pick plays that resonate with us. We get to sing rock songs & be powerful. I am extremely proud of our achievements. I am also proud of the fact that we walk the walk: there is so much discussion about how underrepresented women are in theatre. The vast majority of plays produced are by men, theatres like to present plays with all male or mostly male casts. There are far more women than men in DC who want to act. There are talented women who want to design, direct, stage manage, and build sets. We give them those opportunities JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? KL: I’ve learned that we don’t have to ask anybody else’s permission to exist. If we want to do something, the most important thing is to just go ahead and do it. Passion & elbow grease are really all you need to make something happen. I’ve learned that there is a huge community of theatre professionals in the area. We can help each other and it’s ok to ask for help – we’re not in a competition. A good AD needs to have a positive, can-do attitude. She must make her best efforts to make each production a positive environment and a safe space for innovation. She must be able to take and learn from criticism. Most of all, she must approach projects collaboratively and not try to control everything. People have great ideas and a lot to contribute – keeping that in mind will make every production better. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? KL: I get to pick plays and make people happy by hiring them to do what they love. I get to present work that matters to me, rather than just wishing that other companies would produce plays I really want to audition for. People will rally around you if you are sincere, motivated, and your work is good. We recently had the pleasure of inviting 12 new people into the company for a yearlong associate program. We had an incredible number of people apply – it was both humbling and exciting to realize how many people wanted to be a part of what we do. Makes me want to live up to their image of us. The challenges: money is always a big one. Lack of space to affordably rent for rehearsals and shows is a big issue. There’s also the tough time we have snatching up certain kinds of professionals, namely stage managers. Finding plays that we love & that fit our mission of producing shows with strong roles for women is a challenge. Also, working with passionate people can make some conversations heated, but it’s all worth it. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as an actor director? Are you ever able to act direct outside of your company? KL: I am fortunate not to have a regular day job. I do teach improv workshops and classes for adults at Washington Improv Theater and for teens at Studio Theater. Pinky Swear is my main job right now. I don’t make any money at it, but I know I will someday. I do get to act outside of Pinky Swear. I usually do 4-5 runs a year with WIT as a cast member of their long running show, iMusical. I’ve been with that troupe for 6 years now. I have also performed in a number of shows with other theater companies over the past 4 years. All of the members of PS are also actors. We like to stay well rounded – and we also really need to act in shows that we’re not producing sometimes! Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and an actor director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? Our mission is to produce shows with strong roles for women. Full stop. We have, to date, only produced shows by female playwrights, directed by women. We will certainly produce plays by men, as long as they fit the criteria we set out in our mission. We also have men in the company now. Our leadership remains female, but our new men are pretty awesome. We will continue to strive for diversity in the way that we hire the people who are best for the roles, according to our directors. We don’t specify race in our casting, and won’t unless the script specifically requires it. JL: DC audiences are ... KL: … too few! The ones who are fans are enthusiastic & willing to see risky work. Those whom I have spoken with are awesome & committed to supporting live theatre. JL: DC actors and designers are ... KL: … talented, creative, professional, and a joy to work with. JL: DC playwrights are … KL: … full of creativity and talent. Their work deserves to be seen! JL: DC critics are ... KL: … far more open and interested in the community than I previously thought. Special shout out to Peter Marks for really diving in and connecting with small theatre companies on social media. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? KL: You can do it – there are so many places that will welcome you. Audition for theatres of all sizes – you can learn as much from a smaller show as you can from a big show. Don’t be impatient to make it into AEA – you have time to build your career. Don’t get discouraged – we all have to deal with rejection all the time. Most importantly: Be a doer. Don’t be a wait-er. Doing includes honing your craft, taking classes, volunteering for jobs other than your particular niche. Engage with the community via social media. Reach out to people with whom you’d like to work. If you want to produce – produce. You control your destiny as an artist. Take the reins. JL: What's next for you as an actor and your company? KL: For me, I’m performing with WIT this holiday season. For PS, we are very close to announcing our next two shows for the 2013 season! We worked with our new associates to whittle down a vast selection of plays. We’re also in the process of devising our new Fringe show for 2013. The fall show will be TBD, but we’re really excited about the upcoming year. JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
JANET STANFORD: I actually don’t think you “decide” to go into theatre. There’s nothing rational about such a choice. I felt compelled to do theatre from the age of about four and despite all my many efforts through college, grad school and my first job at Samuel French’s to be sensible and stay either out of it or on the periphery, I kept being drawn back in. Growing up as I did in England during the 60’s & 70’s, I was immersed in a culture that loves live theatre—people of all age groups and social classes love to perform as well as attend. I started going to plays in the West End with my Mother as a kid and then when I was a teen I sought out drama classes and plays that I could go to on my own. I was lucky to see Judi Dench play Cordelia, Helen Mirren in the title role of The Sea Gull, and Glenda Jackson and Suzanne Hampshire in The Maids. But even more than the amazing actors, I was drawn to the brilliant writing that was happening in the London theatre at the time—playwrights like Michael Frayn, Caryl Churchill and David Hare among my favorites. In my experience, theatre lovers either come to art with a primary fascination either for the performers or for the plays themselves. For me, the play has always been “the thing.” JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? JS: I have been with Imagination Stage for nearly two decades! When I was Internship Program Director at Virginia Stage Company, I was asked to pilot a children’s series using the apprentice actors. I was really thrilled by the total involvement of children in our performances. Their engagement stood in stark contrast to the apathy of the adult audience: sleeping husbands in business suits; ladies chatting excitedly at intermission about anything except the play. I vowed then to devote my future work to audiences that had a stake in the material on stage and who could be changed utterly by the work before them. This conviction led me next into a partnership with Washington DC based actor/activist Rebecca Rice. The piece we created about domestic violence toured for several years from Minneapolis to London. It was not great literature, perhaps, but it spoke to the concerns of the women we performed for and gave dignity and value to their struggles. When I came to Imagination Stage, Rebecca continued to work with me as a director and writer until her untimely death in 2003. I still feel, as I did at the start of my career, that I have both a profound opportunity and a profound responsibility when making work for children. Theatre has been my life-long source of spiritual education as well as inspiration for me. I want to pass that on. JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? JS: I like to think that I am always learning and coming to new discoveries. A few years ago, however, I came to the decision to be my own toughest judge and to aspire towards my own standards, not someone else’s. I like plays for young people that have serious intent and which employ sophisticated imagery and language. I like actors who are truthful, complex and daring in their approach to the work. If a story draws me in and moves me, I am happy. If it is unpredictable and yet ultimately seems inevitable, I am satisfied and proud to show it to any audience—young and old alike. I think artistic leaders can and should have a strong sense of mission. We should be opinionated, passionate, and dare to take risks. Listening to others is important but building consensus and overcoming naysayers is more so. You have to paint your flag brightly and hold it up high so that others will see your vision and want to be a part of it. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? JS: What I love best about my position is the chance I have to expand our audience’s horizons. Whether this is by mounting a play from a foreign culture, or distant time, or incorporating stylistic elements such as puppetry, acrobatics or video, we like to wow our young audience with images that surprise and amaze them. I have found travel to festivals overseas to be essential to my own development of an aesthetic for Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). I have seen plays for children in Canada, Denmark and Italy that would astound you and make you wonder --as I now do-- why we in America are so prudish and so scared of the truth when it comes to our children? It is only when you travel and observe what is normal in other cultures that you realize how rarely an American adult will depict an adult as flawed in TYA. It is also rare to see the social issues that affect so many children such as divorce, disability, poverty or abuse discussed in American plays for children. But I have seen all of these topics addressed with sensitivity and great artistry abroad. The biggest challenge I face in our market economy is persuading parents and teachers that the theatre is a place to prepare your children for life, not protect them from it. The best way to face our demons as individuals or as a culture is to face them through the symbolic and safe art of storytelling. Lately, with the repercussions of the Recession still squeezing the air out of our contributed income, the one place that we’ve been able to innovate is with Theatre for the Very Young—ages 1-4. The thematic material here is necessarily gentle and non-threatening and so a good match for expansion of our mission in tough economic times. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? JS: I used to enjoy teaching part time at several of the local universities and directing at Goucher College. The large casts and adult material offered a nice balance with what I generally do but ever since Imagination Stage moved to our new building in 2003, the responsibilities of the job have grown to a point where I pretty much breathe, eat and sleep the theatre. I have taught an MFA course at Catholic University but that feels more like an extension of my day job than an alternative to it. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? JS: Imagination Stage is a bit unusual in that the majority of staff is—and always has been—women. Still, diversity is important to us for many reasons. We crave a variety of perspectives and we want our audiences to see the full spectrum of their community on stage. We want children here to feel represented by someone on stage at all times. This is evidenced in our color and disability blind casting policies. We have also made the financial commitment to working regularly with a Deaf Scenic Designer for several years now. When it comes to plays –and we have commissioned and produced two a year since 1993, I am more interested in extreme writing talent than anything else. That said, we can brag about giving starts in TYA to local women playwrights and composers Joan Cushing, Karen Zacarias, Deborah Wicks La Puma, and Marty de Silva…We also have a long term relationship with African American Hip Hop playwright/director/actor Psalmayene 24 who is currently working on the third play in his Hip Hop trilogy for production at Imagination Stage in the 2013-14 Season, CINDERELLA THE REMIX. JL: DC audiences are ... JS: … meloobius JL: DC actors and designers are ... JS: … brillig JL: DC playwrights are … JS: … splendifferous JL: DC critics are ... JS: … manxome JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? JS: Washington is a great theatre town with opportunities to work at many different levels of the business. It is also a good place to settle down and make your living as an artist. And, of course, to have a family! JL: What's next for you as a director and your company?? JS: We had a fabulous experience partnering with The Washington Ballet last season on a risky original interpretation of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. We had to raise an extra $175K to support the cast of 15 dancers, actors and puppeteers. We flew in the brilliant Eric Van Wyk to create a larger-than-life sized lion puppet for Aslan and to design our set. The results both artistically and at the box-office far exceeded our goals. It was literally a dream come true: an ambitious piece that emanated from our aesthetic but which totally connected with our audience and utterly changed their perception of what theatre can (and should) be. We are already in conversations with TWB about another collaboration. I hope again to be at the center of the playwrighting process on the new piece. At the same time, there are plans underway for more European festivals in the New Year—Berlin and/or Edinburgh. And we have some new commissions in the pipe line with Suzan Zeder, Charles Way, and another giant puppet project with Eric Van Wyk. Our company as a whole is also focused on expanding our brand to embrace the current discussions about the importance of creativity to our country’s future as a world leader. We are retooling our curriculum with a Creativity-through-Theatre emphasis that will show parents and educators how exposure to and participation in the arts can stimulate a creative habit of mind that benefits young people in all areas of their studies and lives. We have several new offerings under the Creativity banner including Creative Parenting Classes, Torrance Testing, In-School Creativity Days and post-show Creativity Workshops. It’s all creativity all the time at Imagination Stage in 2013 and beyond! JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
JENNIFER L. NELSON: I spent a lot of time replaying and “fixing” movie plots in my head as a child---I now connect that to the impulse to be a story teller through performance. But my original inspiration in regards to live theatre was my father: he did a lot of community and university theatre in Sacramento when I was a teen. However, since I never saw any black women play anything but servants, I did not consider theatre as a career until much later. JL: How long did you serve as Artistic Director of African Continuum Theatre Company? What drew you to the position? How long were you there and what kept you there? JLN: I was with African Continuum for 11 years. There was a rather complicated path that led to it. I had a full time job elsewhere, and there was no money, no other staff, no physical space-- nothing but the will for the local black theatre community to have a vibrant presence and a professional home. This was in the mid-90’s when we were still very poorly represented on other stages. JL: What was the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? JLN: Lesson: There are many good-hearted, passionate people of all colors who care about creating an equitable community. I learned that I to carry the African Continuum mission forward I needed to work with people of all races and it did not diminish the company’s brand. A successful artistic director must be focused but also flexible and resilient. Sometimes blessings are offered in the form of challenges and one is too narrow-minded to see them for what they are. JL: What excited you most about being an Artistic Director? What were your greatest challenges? JLN: Collaborating with playwrights was probably my personal favorite thing. I still love working on new works, having the playwright in the room. The authority to choose to do that is thrilling. The greatest challenge—especially in the world of small budget theatre—is gathering the resources to make things work. Everybody is a critic, everybody wants to tell you what they think you should be doing and how to do it. You have to develop a filter that lets hear your colleagues without getting drawn off your own vision. JL: Did your work as an artistic director pay the bills? If not, what else did you do? How do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Were you ever able to direct outside of your company? JLN: I did not have a real salary until either my 4th or 5th year. I was generally able to hustle enough freelance work to make ends meet. I have been an adjunct at several local universities, I’ve worked as a grants writer, done residencies in some school---the usual things artists do. I also directed at some other theatres. I have never had to take a job outside the arts. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious were you of selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? JLN: My mission was inherent in the company’s identity. Everything I produced had some direct connection with the African Americans experience. I was also able to offer a few small opportunities for new play development through a retreat in Connecticut run by my sister. I think out of 20-some plays I produced were written by non-African Americans. However, I was very open to working with administrators and designers or other races. Gender was not an issue for me. My position was whoever can wholehearted embrace the mission of this company is welcome. JL: DC audiences are . . . JLN: Growing younger and changing the landscape of the theatre community. JL: DC actors and designers are . . . JLN: Plentiful, varied, exciting, plentiful and more likely now to stay in the area to make their careers. JL: DC playwrights are … JLN: Smart, diverse, vocal, a force to be reckoned with. JL: DC critics are . . . JLN: No comment. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? JLN: Don’t give up! JL: What is keeping you busy these days? What's next for you as a director? JLN: I have a staff position at Ford’s Theatre—something I never would have foreseen back in the days when I started out as a director. I love the marriage of theatre and history that lives there. I’m in rehearsal now at Forum Theatre with “9 Circles” by Bill Cain who was instrumental in helping me learn to believe in myself as a theatre artist. It’s a fine play about a the fate of a young Iraq veteran. It’s dark and funny, passionate and thought-provoking. Later this spring I’m doing “Top Dog/Under Dog” at Everyman Theatre in Baltimore. Vinny Lancisi believed in me as a director early on. I am very excited to work in their beautiful new home! JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
MARY RESING: The show that seduced me was called TERMINUS: THE BURNING OF ATLANTA. Directed by Dr. David Sauer, the play was produced in a wood frame shotgun chapel near the Avenue of the Oaks at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. TERMINUS envisioned the battle for Atlanta as a professional wrestling match between Generals Sherman and Hood and involved trapeezes, fire poles, palmetto bugs and a lot of sweaty actors. I had never seen anything like it. I didn’t understand it at all. I loved it. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? MR: I founded Active Cultures six years ago because I felt there was an urgent need to serve and preserve local culture. Like a locavore called to eat locally grown food, I have become a locaturg called to cr(eat)e locally grown art. JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? MR: Never underestimate your audience. In this dumbed-down world, it is tempting to create fastfood theatre—theatre that goes down like fat-free frozen yoghurt with lots of colorful and sugary toppings. There is constant pressure to avoid anything that makes people think, that challenges them to be smarter than they think they are. One of the best audience comments I ever got was from a six year old who came to see Active Cultures’ production of PETRI DISH CIRCUS. PETR DISH was a play about the history of microbiology. We went a little overboard on the four and five syllable words. After the show, I somewhat nervously asked the boy how he liked play. He said, “I liked it!” A bit puzzled, I said, “But it has a lot of really big words in it.” He looked at me in surprize and said, “Oh, people are always saying words I don’t understand. I don’t mind. But this play was funny! And some of those words were cool.” JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? MR: Collaboration. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? MR: All of this information is classifed. I can release it only to biographers who have had illicit relationships with married CIA directors. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? MR: As a producer and an artist, I am interested in power dynamics both on and off stage. I’m fascinated by the intersections of race, gender, class, education, age and political agenda. At Active Cultures, we (Jacqueline Lawton, James Hesla and myself) are always juggling priorities. For example, what is better: a play by a woman or a play with a strong role for a woman? A play by a person of color with lots of roles for young white guys or a play by a young white guy with lots of roles for people of color? A play written by a woman or a play a woman wants to direct? A space that is accessible to artists in wheelchairs or a space where we can reach neighborhood kids and seniors? We argue, we struggle, we wrestle with our consciences, we make imperfect choices. In the end, our goal is to create locally specific work for a diverse, multigenerational audience. If we keep that goal in mind, we usually create work by a diverse group of artists from multiple generations. And as we all know, whatever you put on stage will be reflected in your audience. JL: DC audiences are ... MR: Unlike audiences anywhere else in the world. JL: DC actors and designers are ... MR: Driven, scrappy, visionary and politically savvy. JL: DC playwrights are … MR: Isolated. JL: DC critics are ... MR: Worried. With all of the current rapid changes in news media, today’s influential critic is tomorrow’s unemployed writer. JL: What advice do you have for up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? MR: Come work with me. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company?? MR: On Feburary 22 & 23rd, Active Cultures will produce .govaculture as part of the Intersections Festival at the Atlas Theatre. .govaculture is an evening of 1 minute plays about working for the federal government. Tickets can be purchased at http://intersectionsdc.org Of course, since .govaculture is inspired by the federal government, we expect it to be over time and over budget. JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
JESSICA BURGESS: I fell in love with the theatre attending productions in the San Francisco Bay Area, in particular at American Conservatory Theatre and Berkeley Rep. My parents were – and continue to be – subscribers to both companies, and often took my sisters and me to see productions. I remember seeing Mary Zimmerman’s production of Journey to the West when I was a teen and being blown away by the sheer theatricality and joy of that production. In college, I studied abroad at Royal Holloway, the so-called country campus of the University of London, and saw many productions while in the UK. In particular, I attended a slew of physical theatre adaptations: Theatre du Complicite's Street of Crocodiles, Arabian Nights at the Young Vic, Handspring Puppet Company’s Ubu and the Truth Commission, to name a few. All my life, I have adored writers who reinvent language and defy the laws of physics: Dahl, Rushdie, Marquez, Murakami, Flann O'Brien. These physical theatre productions three-dimensionalized the breathtaking otherworlds of the literature that I love. I started directing in order to stage wildly theatrical, language-driven plays. I wanted to ignite the imaginations of artists and audiences by inviting them into impossible three-dimensional worlds; I longed to conduct a symphony of language and re-tune the listeners' ears to the gravity-defying potential of ordinary language. The Inkwell springs from the same impulse: to support the work of playwrights whose imaginations are bigger than what theatre currently is or does. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? JB: The inspiration for The Inkwell struck when I followed your footsteps, Jackie, into interning with the fabulous Mary Resing in dramaturgy and literary management at Woolly Mammoth. (Quick aside about my dear friend and collaborator Mary, whom I went on to co-found Active Cultures, where she does a brilliant job as the Artistic Director: she is the only person who inspires me to write musicals – but more on that some other time). Sorting through the towering stacks of submissions under Mary’s watchful eye, I had a hunch that my duel passions for literature and gravity-defying theatricality could be of service to the playwriting community here in Washington and nationwide. In the summer of 2007, I found myself in a bind: the festival I had co-founded, The Hatchery, had just folded – and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities generously awarded me the Young Emerging Artist grant of $2,500 to produce a festival of new works. And so, with the unwavering support of the Commission, thoroughly convinced that the idea of a new play development organization had legs, I asked my dear friend and former roommate Eileen Daly Vitelli if I could throw a pizza party in her front yard to start a new theatre company. She agreed, and I showed up with pizza. To my surprise and delight, people came! I’d like to say that The Inkwell sprung fully formed from a pizza box, like Athena from Zeus’ head. In fact, the company’s development has been iterative. I am deeply indebted to The Inkwell’s founding company whose input and creativity in those early meetings shape who were are today. From that founding company, four of us stepped up to steer the ship: Lee Liebeskind, Lindsay Haynes Lowder, and Anne M. McCaw. With these three amazing, inspiring, and phenomenal people, The Inkwell began its first phase of growth. Today, our leadership team has seven amazing members, including Amber Jackson and Jenn Book Haselswerdt, and a fantastic board of directors, led by Manny Strauss. I am so proud of the work that we do. To date, The Inkwell’s reader corps of trained reviewers have read and evaluated more than 850 plays in progress. We have introduced DC’s playmakers and playgoers to more than 80 inventive plays that push the boundaries of theatre. And we have recruited more than 300 playmakers — including playwrights, actors, directors, dramaturgs, designers, and stage managers — to present plays in progress, discuss the state of new play development in our nation’s capital, and explore various aspects of the play development process through master classes. It’s been an amazing journey. I don’t know if your readers are aware, but I relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area this past September. Because we have run Inkwell from our living rooms and desks since our beginnings, hosting meetings via Google Hangout and Skype (even inviting playwrights into the rehearsal room via Skype), living in my native golden state does not prevent me from participating in the company. Hooray for modern technology! I am so grateful to my collaborators for supporting my decision to move to California, and I am especially grateful to continue to work with them. JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? JB: We designed The Inkwell to be a learning organization. We’re constantly beta-testing ideas, adapting and refining our programs, and asking ourselves what we want to explore next. We see every showcase, every reading, every encounter with an artist or an audience member as an opportunity to learn and grow. Personally, from my work with Inkwell, I have learned a lifetime’s worth of lessons about the art and practice of leadership, nonprofit management, delegation, collaboration, compromise, my own limitations, and friendship – oh, on top of all of that, I have learned a great deal about new play development! An artistic director must have vision, a deep love of theatre, a lot of energy, and a natural buoyancy of spirit. But more importantly, a strong artistic director acknowledges where her talents are not, and recruits and relies on strong partners to support her in pursuing the company’s mission. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? JB: I can’t possibly narrow down what excites me to just one thing. So here are my top three:
For me, the greatest challenge of being an Artistic Director of a small theatre company is finding balance – between life and work, between administration and art, between racing ahead and moving slow and steady. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? JB: I produced the first two Inkubator Festivals from my desk at a law firm where I was a legal secretary. I left my day job in 2009 to freelance as a teaching artist and a director. I am honored to count Imagination Stage and Theatre Lab among the places that I have had the opportunity to teach. I absolutely cannot say enough good things about working with those two organizations as a teacher – teaching provided me some of my most rewarding artistic experiences. I loved working for Deb Gottesman, Buzz Mauro, David Markey, and Nikki Kaplan; I am so grateful to each one of them for more reasons than I can count. While I lived in DC, I freelanced as a director regularly, and am very grateful to have had the opportunity to direct for many small DC companies, from Adventure to Catalyst to Forum to Rorschach to Active Cultures. And now that I live in San Francisco, my work life is shifting again. It’s quite an adventure, and I am looking forward to what lies ahead! JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? JB: To date, half of the playwrights with whom we have collaborated are women, and 20% of our playwrights are artists of color. In hiring actors and directors, we recruit exclusively from our local talent pool. I am proud to say that we have demonstrated a commitment to reflecting the diversity of our city on our stages: for example, in 2011, of the 21 DC-based artists we hired for our programs, 14 (approximately 66%) are women, and 5 (approximately 25%) are artists of color. Mad props to Lee Liebeskind, our Producing Director, who does a fantastic job casting and hiring our talented artists. JL: DC audiences are ... JB: The smartest in America. JL: DC actors and designers are ... JB: Amazing collaborators. My extended family. JL: DC playwrights are .. JB: A rising tide. JL: DC critics are ... JB: Open to the conversation. Peter Marks and Nelson Pressley have always been incredibly generous; both have participated on panels at The Inkwell, sharing their thoughts about new play development. I think we’re very lucky to have smart and community-oriented critics reflecting on our work here. Of course, that doesn’t mean that my work as a director has always been well-reviewed. While I always find a less-than-favorable review disappointing, I don’t resent the feedback. Not everything one creates will resonate with every person in the audience – and if that person in the audience happens to be a critic, there’s nothing you can do but be grateful for the opportunity to tell this story to those who venture to see it. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? JB: You have everything you need to pursue your dreams. Breathe deep. Begin. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company? JB: I moved to my homeland of the San Francisco Bay Area in September. I’m a part of the Just Theatre New Play Development Lab in Berkeley, which has been an awesome opportunity for me to get to know my native theatre community better! I’m still involved with The Inkwell and continue to serve as Artistic Director from afar. We have readings and showcases through the end of the year – our next showcase is February 9th. And I’m delighted to announce that we’re opening up our submissions on February 22nd! Check out www.inkwelltheatre.org for more information. I miss DC, but I’m overjoyed to be back with my family here on the beautiful West Coast after twelve amazing, rewarding and fabulous years in our nation’s capital. Onward and upward! JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
CARLY J BALES: I suppose this is the part where I talk about seeing Sound of Music when I was five and knowing that’s what I wanted to do with the rest of my life but, truth be told, it’s a little more subversive than that for me. I have a love/hate relationship with the theatre in which I am constantly searching for that electric and personal live experience which eludes me more than it appeases me. I was drawn to theatre through acting. As a peculiar and awkward youth, the transformative power of being other people in other worlds was phenomenal. By the middle of college, however, I was bored to death with most of the traditional plays I was seeing and focused primarily on film for the next few years. While I’ve come back to the theatre, I think that sentiment has stayed with me and molded my approach to it. At EMP, our programming is highly multi-disciplinary, immersive both physically and emotionally, and defiantly strange. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? CJB: I cofounded EMP with a small group of college friends in early 2010. We started with our first devised piece, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! and it has blossomed from there. I realized early on that I enjoy creating frameworks of worlds to play within. In this particular theatre piece, we transformed a warehouse space into a post-apocalyptic, consumerist wasteland incorporating performance, live music, dance, film, and visual art. There was a palpable excitement in the work from both our team and the audience. What started as a fun experiment quickly became a full-fledged operation with our own space in Baltimore three years later. What keeps me there? Well, I have yet to work with another group of folks so eager to play and be weird and produce quality new work at the same time. Besides, a life without EMP is no life at all, friends (JOIN US). JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? CJB: Communication. God, it’s so simple and yet so vast. Working with a lot of different artists for different events (we have a full schedule of programming in addition to theatre) and coordinating with our own tiny admin team has provided a rich training ground for how to effectively and smoothly communicate with each other online and elsewhere. I feel like a successful artistic director is personable and approachable, open to new ideas from anywhere, but who provides a strong, characteristic voice for the organization and its programming. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? CJB: I do what I want! Okay, that’s only partially true. But really, I love working with developing artists on new and exciting work. I love being able to provide people with a platform to hone their talents in a real, tangible sense. I also love the ability to have a crazy idea or read a bizarre, seldom-produced piece and actually do it. The greatest challenge (other than lack of producing space in DC) facing me currently is juggling my artistic obligations with growing our organization administratively and financially. Like many start-ups, we have a lot of passion but few resources and a very small team. EMP has had fortuitous success in our first years as a non-profit and arts collective. We started our multiuse art space up in Baltimore that has opened its doors to hundreds of industrious artists and over 50 events in the past year. We’ve also received great press and support from the community. Now the challenge lies in further developing our sustainability and our board in order to take ourselves to the next level of producing (and, you know, to pay our artists and ourselves living wages for work). I want to reward hard work and artistic risk-taking not discourage it. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? CJB: Because I’m clearly trite, I am a director who works at a restaurant to pay the bills. It is quite the juggling act between these two full-time jobs and doing projects outside of EMP. However, I think it’s important not to be completely insular artistically. I’ve recently started to allot more time to work on acting and writing projects outside of our programming. It’s always refreshing to meet new artists in new venues so I embrace it when I can. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you of selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? CJB: Ah, this is pretty huge for me on all accounts, especially in terms of gender. In my position, I feel I have a responsibility to represent, bolster, and showcase dynamic voices from women in theatre. Women are the foundation of this industry but when you look at major or successful theatres, the “faces” of those theatres are overwhelmingly male and, more often than not, that is reflected in the programming that is presented to audiences. This fact weighs in heavily for me when selecting plays, directors, designers, and artists for projects. It’s simply imperative for us to lead, represent, and motivate others to lead. Anyone who says elsewise is full of it. JL: DC audiences are . . . CJB: Ready to be shaken up. JL: DC actors and designers are . . . CJB: Talented, hardworking, and professional. JL: DC playwrights are … CJB: A little bit of a mystery to me. I don’t know nearly enough of them yet. Hey DC playwrights! Holler at me! JL: DC critics are . . . CJB: What they are. (I’m clearly bad at this game.) JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? CJB: Don’t be afraid to be weird. Don’t be afraid to fail. Make a stand and be loud. DC needs more of you. Don’t wait around for someone to follow. Lead a new wave. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company? CJB: Many things! We have our One Minute Play Festival arriving next month in our Baltimore space featuring all local playwrights and artists in a whirlwind of over 50 world premieres. Our next full-length is the world premiere of Condo Condo Condoland by DC playwright Liz Maestri in May. This piece is especially exciting because it first came to fruition in our Cans n Drafts writing workshop last summer. It exemplifies many things I’m passionate about and I am ecstatic to see it come to life. After that, I’m trying to produce another piece for DC audiences this summer. In addition to theatre at EMP, we also produce visual arts exhibitions, multimedia art events, film screenings, and writing workshops. So keep up with us on Facebook, Twitter, or our email list. More importantly, get your ass out to these awesome shows! JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why did you decide to get into theatre? Was there someone or a particular show that inspired you?
DANIELLE A. DRAKES: My interest in theatre was as solely an actor growing up doing school plays and competing in speech arts competitions. JL: How long have you served as Artistic Director at your company? What drew you to the position? What keeps you there? DD: I founded the Hegira in 2008. I felt there was a great need to create an organization that would support and promote the work of women of color. JL: What is the most valuable lesson you learned during your tenure? Also, what skills and traits do you feel a successful artistic director should have to support the health and growth of an organization? DD: The most valuable lesson is learning how to ask for money to support something you believe in. Patience, communication and a love for encouraging other artists. JL: What excites you most about being an Artistic Director? What is your greatest challenge? DD: What excites me the most is seeing artists I have worked with moving on and meeting continued success. Greatest challenge thus far has been balancing creative personal and professional life with real life demands of house and family. My greatest challenge is giving 100% while balancing artistic career, family, professional affiliations. JL: If your work as an artistic director doesn’t pay the bills, what else do you do? Also, how do you balance your role leading an organization with your work as a director? Are you ever able to direct outside of your company? DD: I work fulltime time as the Education Outreach Coordinator at the Folger Shakespeare Library and continue to perform for Ford’s Theatre portraying Elizabeth Keckly for education programs and walking tours. Yes I have directed most recently for Howard University’s Department of theatre Arts. JL: Looking at your body of work as an artistic director and a director, how conscious are you and selecting plays by women or people of color when deciding your season? Also, when it comes to hiring administrators, designers and other directors do you take race and gender into consideration? DD: Very considerate. I tend to look at the world, look in the mirror, and look back at the world when deciding on what stories to tell. As far as collaborations, I am very interested in bringing a variety of personalities into the room with the goal of creating a space where the artists is free and safe to take risks. JL DC audiences are ... DD: Smarter than any of us think. JL: DC actors and designers are ... DD: Generous. JL: DC playwrights are … DD: Selfless. JL: DC critics are ... DD: Insightful. JL: What advice do you have for an up and coming theatre artists who have just moved to D.C.? DD: Commit to the practice of your craft (and not just the getting of the job), cultivate authenticity in your work, and take very good care of yourself. JL: What's next for you as a director and your company? DD: We are continuing project development and looking forward to collaborating with emerging DC artists. |
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!
Categories
All
Archives
June 2020
Reading List
|