Places, Everyone

Classix is a team of theatermakers and scholars who provide universities, theater companies, publishers, and readers with resources to expand their exploration of classic Black playwrights. As founder Awoye Timpo says, the intention is "creating access to the plays for the widest possible audience but really by centering Blackness." Awoye and her teammates - Dominique Rider, Arminda Thomas, Brittany Bradford, and A.J. Muhammad - bring a wide array of skills to their work, including directing, producing, dramaturgy, archiving, and acting. Learn more about their work at https://www.theclassix.org/our-vision. 

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I'm excited to share a series of conversations with actresses who starred in Jocelyn Bioh's play,  School Girls: Or the African Mean Girls Play . These interviews were recorded with students at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Maryland. This fall, I developed a program for Jewish high schools, which are majority white spaces, to explore plays by Black playwrights, to read and watch those plays, discuss the themes, expand the art they love, and perhaps most importantly, to interview Black actors and directors who have made those plays come alive in performance. This interview is with Joanna Jones who played Ericka at the MCC production of  School Girls in New York. Joanna talked to us about her similarities to Ericka, particularly the experience of being the new girl in school. The depiction of Ericka as a light-skinned young woman who gains social capital at her new boarding school in Ghana draws on themes of colorism, which Joanna calls "a prejudice within a prejudice". Joanna also answered a few questions about Hamilton , in which she played the dual role of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds on Broadway.

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I'm excited to share a series of conversations with actresses who starred in Jocelyn Bioh's play, School Girls: Or the African Mean Girls Play . These interviews were recorded with students at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Maryland. This fall, I developed a program for Jewish high schools, which are majority White spaces, to explore plays by Black playwrights, to read and watch those plays, discuss the themes, expand the art they love, and perhaps most importantly, to interview Black actors and directors who have made those plays come alive in performance. This interview is with Ciera Dawn, who played Paulina at School Girls ' Chicago production at the Goodman Theater. Ciera talked to us about finding the physicality of Paulina, a young woman who knows her power and potential, and she shared thoughts on her professional journey from Louisiana to Boston to Chicago to LA.

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I'm excited to share a series of conversations with actresses who starred in Jocelyn Bioh's play, School Girls: Or the African Mean Girls Play . These interviews were recorded with students at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Maryland. This fall, I developed a program for Jewish high schools, which are majority White spaces, to explore plays by Black playwrights, to read and watch those plays, discuss the themes, expand the art they love, and perhaps most importantly, to interview Black actors and directors who have made those plays come alive in performance. This interview is with Mirirai Sithole, who originated the role of Mercy at School Girls' NY production at MCC Theater. Mirirai's theater work includes Suzan-Lori Parks' "The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA The Negro Book of the Dead" and her TV work includes roles on "Broad City", "Russian Doll", and "Black Mirror". Mirirai won Lucille Lortel award for Outstanding Featured Actress and a Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble with her School Girls' cast mates.

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Since theaters shut down this spring, a certain type of performance has gained traction online – the compilation video, in which multiple performers, each in their own space, record their part of a musical number that is compiled into one cohesive performance. One of those compilation videos that has been widely circulated features the Broadway revival cast of “A Chorus Line” doing the famous opening dance number. I reached out to Jeffrey "Shecky" Schecter, who starred in that production and who had the idea to reunite his cast for this compilation. We discussed how artists are connecting with each other during quarantine and how they find outlets for their creativity when theater is dark. Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pALsCSZmWY

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Kelley Girod, a playwright and the founder of The Fire This Time festival, spoke with me about racism in the American Theater. We talked about the statements that many theater companies put out as protests began around the country. To Kelley and many Black artists and other artists of color, these statements in support of the Black community felt hollow. They followed years of diversity and inclusion initiatives that were deemed to lack depth, intention, and real commitment. Kelley pointed to an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion conference where a roomful of White participants stated the importance of inclusivity without seeming to recognize any disconnect. In the single week between this interview and the publishing of this episode, hundreds of theater artists who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, composed a letter titled, We See You White American Theater, stating the many ways that they have felt diminished, manipulated, and overlooked. At the time of this publishing, it had close to 70,000 signatures. Artists, companies, and audiences will need to come together to rebuild an old art form that celebrates storytelling but limits the storytellers.

https://www.weseeyouwat.com/

http://www.firethistimefestival.com/

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On Mother's Day, I spent the evening speaking with the very talented actress Karen Pittman. Every time I watch Karen perform, I notice her strength first and foremost. In this interview, we discuss three of Karen’s roles on TV and on stage that exemplify strength of character: a determined producer on “The Morning Show” (Apple TV+), a dedicated teacher in “Pipeline” (Dominique Morisseau’s play at Lincoln Center), and an ambitious lawyer in “Disgraced” (Ayad Akhtar’s play on Broadway). In each of these, Karen exudes a fierce spirit and an inner strength that is amazing to behold. Karen’s strength of character extends to her role as a mother too. She was pregnant when she auditioned for her graduate acting program and, since then, her life as a mother and her life as an artist have been entwined.

https://www.instagram.com/thekarenpittman/?hl=en

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Reed Luplau is a veteran dancer who has performed in Broadway shows and prominent dance companies including Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and the Sydney Dance Company. Trained in multiple forms of dance including classical ballet, modern dance, acrobatics, tap, and jazz, Reed is most interested in being a “good mover”, particularly when movement is a conduit to storytelling. In this conversation we discuss the language of movement and the way it shapes a narrative. Reed’s interest in dancers as unique storytellers with separate identities illuminates the question in this episode’s title, which is taken from a William Butler Yeats poem. 

 

Reed’s Broadway credits include: “Fiddler on the Roof”; “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”; and “Moulin Rouge”.

 

http://www.reedluplau.com/

Watch “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Tony Awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j661y6KwYA

 

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Financial Advisor Bailie Slevin is a great success story. When a car accident disrupted her career as a stage manager for the theater, Bailie found her way to the financial sector and has been a champion for artists’ careers ever since. Bailie transformed a set back into a prosperous career, and when she advises her clients, many of whom are stage and screen artists, she activates that same model of pragmatism, hopefulness, grit, and flexibility. Rebounding after a crisis, like, say, a pandemic, is imperative for artists. Bailie’s mission is to help them get smart about money and to help them think of their work as a business. There’s nothing romantic about starving artists, she says. When artists find good opportunities to make money, they create more opportunities to make good art.

Bailie runs her own company, Entertaining Finance. She's also an educator and financial coach at IFWA, the Institute of Financial Wellness for the Arts. You can find Bailie’s contact info on the homepage of entertainingfinance.com. You can also connect with her to become a client if you’re interested.

 

https://www.entertainingfinance.com/

https://www.theifwa.com/

Disclaimer: The included is not intended to be financial advice to be acted upon. The opinions here to not reflect those off Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS) or The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® (Guardian), New York, NY. PAS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guardian. Entertaining Finance is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian. OSJ: 52 Forest Ave., Paramus, NJ 07652, 201-843-7700. California license OJ17279

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Pirronne Yousefzadeh is a director of all sorts. She directs plays and she has a dual position at Geva Theatre Center as the Associate Artistic Director and the Director of Engagement. She’s also a co-founder of Maia Directors, a consulting and advocacy group for artists of Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian descent. In these roles, Pirronne frequently seeks to strike a balance between the work of making theater and what she calls “disrupting” the theater community. They’re potentially at odds with one another. As Pirronne said in our conversation, “Am I supposed to row the boat or rock the boat?”

Pirronne admits that as a young theater artist, she was very deferential. She was just happy to be there. Now she directs and teaches around the country. She not only advocates for stories about the Middle East and beyond, she’s made it a business. This month, she was scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at Humana Festival, which was canceled due to the Coronavirus. The speech she was going to give was a reckoning with her younger self. She wouldn’t have rocked the boat as a newcomer. Now it’s part of her job description.

https://www.pirronne.com/

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