(This post assumes familiarity with PART ONE.)
Right now, up in the Northwest corner of Manhattan, a patch of grass called “Pat’s Lawn” plays host to seven school desks. They are part of an #ArtintheParks exhibition by @nycparks: specifically, a piece by Nick Kozak called Opposition Position, “inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’s conviction that propaganda through the arts creates social change.”
Recently I’ve taken to sitting in the desks, (a different one each day), outlining a proposal…
In a case of serendipitous timing, this fresh-air workspace, this…Room of Requirement-level haven, appeared magically after my return from The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Institute – which, as it happens, is also when I began a professional relationship with a Broadway-based tech-enabled startup.
I learned first about said startup through a Forbes article I found three summers ago, midway down a research rabbit hole into entrepreneurial audience outreach efforts in the theatre world. (Yup: that’s what I do for fun.)
This fall the company crossed my path again, piquing my interest with a part-time job posting – the startup was growing, now a Morgan Stanley Multicultural Lab. This made me happy. Intrigued, and available for hire, I applied. Rejected for that position, I received a request for a theatre writing sample. So, on the train home from Life Stories Institute, I cranked out something about the most recent show I’d seen — the first preview of Beetlejuice I’d caught while in DC.
Off that sample, I wound up with an offer to start writing articles for the company’s blog. (Freelancing for a female-founded tech-enabled startup that aims to expand the pool of Broadway audiences? F**K YEAH.) At the theatre for my first article, I snapped this photo: I wanted to remember the first time I went to Broadway “as a theatre writer.”
Sitting out in my fresh air office, I’ve come to see overlap in the missions of DC’s Theatre Lab and my new Broadway-based startup friend: expand access to theatre. Bring more people into the conversations. Collect more points of view. Build the witness list of audience members who discover what can happen when people with different ideas and different forms of creative expression collaborate to build something beautiful – and provide a platform for them to share their stories.
For me, sitting in those desks kept me focused on one question: how do I fit my skills to serve this cause?
Back on October 1, I posted (what I felt, prematurely) Part One of this series – some early ideas, pre- Life Stories Institute, as a “starting line” for my quest: to determine the best place for me in the professional market as an arts advocate.
I began Part One with a story about a girl I caught channeling her inner-Hermione Granger in Fort Tryon Park. As it happens, I rode the A Train home recently with another mini-Hermione: maybe six or seven, she’d just seen on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway with her mom and big brother – first Broadway experience. We shared a brief conversation – I was returning home from the theatre myself (coincidentally, a play about feminism icon Gloria Steinem); by the time we hit Harlem, clutching her new stuffed owl, my new young friend fell asleep on my shoulder.
Nothing inspires me more than young girls connecting with strong female characters, using them as fuel for their own fire. But in the wake of Life Stories Institute – and that Gloria Steinem play, I wonder if what I’m ultimately after isn’t a girls-only space, but a feminist space.
With four theatre markets under my belt; nonprofit, commercial, and freelance experience across multiple industry pockets – including professional performance in the artistic and corporate worlds; I now have a better understanding of how my skill sets fit into the theatre industry. I’ve been at the drawing board, so to speak, out in the woods:
To those who’ve reached out to ask where I’ve been –
First off: THANK YOU for asking – seriously. I’ve said it before: writing into the void of the Internet is weird for me, so hearing from you is the best.
To answer:
Musical-writing continues. Think of it like I’m a new parent: never sleeping, constantly stressed, thrilled/terrified by what I’m attempting to bring into the world…
I’ve been lucky to jump onto various short-term projects in- and outside the theatre world, as well as starting a formal study of Japanese to dig more seriously into my sumo love.
As mentioned above, I’ve started to freelance for outside publications – because paychecks are important for me right now. (…If you prefer the frequency of JMSunderduress, by all means.)
Cake’s gone, 35 has settled: exciting times ahead…
More of JMSunderduress you may enjoy…
BETWEEN TWO BEAUTIFUL BOOKENDS