Episode 2: Dawn Meredith Simmons and Maurice Emmanuel Parent, Front Porch Arts Collective

Lacey: [00:00:00] hello listeners. Welcome to While the Applause Is Paused, conversations with regional theater makers,

I'm your host Lacey Tucker. Join me as I talk with artistic leaders around the country about what's challenging and constricting or creative and exciting, or all of the above in the pandemic. Curtain up on some real conversation for these real times.

This week, we welcome Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Dawn Meredith Simmons of the Front Porch Arts Collective.

Hello, hello, this week we have such abundance with not one, but two incredible guests. Dawn Meredith Simmons is the Artistic Director and Maurice Emanuel Parent is the Executive Director of The Front Porch Arts Collective informally known as The Porch. 

Dawn is a director, a playwright, and an arts administrator. She has worked with among many other theaters, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Speakeasy Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Bad Habit Productions, Anthem Theater, Boston Public Works and Lyric Stage Company. She's the co-artistic director of New Exhibition Room and a founding member of The Small Theater Alliance Boston and Executive Director of Stagesource.

Maurice is an award-winning actor, director, educator, and mentor. He has over 40 acting credits at theaters across the nation and abroad as well as at some of Boston's oldest and most respected companies. His work as an actor has earned him two Elliot Norton awards from the Boston Theater Critics Association, three Independent Reviewers of New England Awards and an Arts Impulse Award.

He's also been an educator for nearly a decade. He's taught for Northeastern University, MIT, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and also for six years as a performing arts specialist in the Boston Public School System. Currently he's a full-time professor at Tufts in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, and also a visiting faculty at the Boston University School of Theater.

So in this episode, Maurice and Dawn reference a lot of different theaters, some theater history, and some technical aspects of starting a non-profit theater company. But don't worry because if you want to know more about any of the resources they mentioned, they're all in the show notes. 

I also want to give a quick shout out to my friend Nehassiau DeGannes, the amazing human who introduced Maurice and I. Nehassiau, we love and admire you. So I could gush all day about this episode, but how about I just let you listen to it instead? 

I am so glad to have you both here today, Don and Maurice, you are the co founders of the Front Porch Arts Collective in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I have so many questions for you and it's just a thrill to have you here and thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. 

Maurice: [00:02:52] Thanks for having us. 

Lacey: [00:02:53] I would love to start by you telling us all about your mission and your community. 

Maurice: [00:02:59] Cool. I'll get started. Thank you for having us and Dawn. Should I tell the origin story? Should we go there? I do enjoy telling the story, like so much in that theater, great ideas happen. I'm not promoting alcoholism, but so many great ideas happening at the bar on opening night after performance, and that is certainly how this idea of our company came about.  My wonderful friend and colleague Dawn Meredith Simmons had directed a production of Katori Hall's Saturday Night, Sunday Morning at Lyric Stage Company of Boston. And after opening night performance at the bar, after  Manhattan number two, I like mine on the rocks with extra cherries. She prefers hers up.  

Lacey: [00:03:39] Huh. Okay. Well noted.

Maurice: [00:03:42] I was like, wouldn't it be great if there was a theater company that did shows like this all year long and that the show was , I'm sorry, is a 100 percent, all black cast, overwhelmingly, a black female cast.

And I just was surrounded by friends and colleagues and inspired by the beautiful acting and the directing. And I was just like, wouldn't it be great if, and we were, I was. Grateful that the company was producing the show, but it's like, wouldn't it be great if there was a company whose entire mission was to do shows like this all year long, as opposed to maybe one show a season with a predominantly white institution, is a predominately white institution by program.

And then four, a little bit over four years later, here we are. She was like that is a great idea. Glug glug glug. And we pretended we, we proceeded to a start brainstorming. 

Lacey: [00:04:28] That's amazing. 

Dawn: [00:04:28] And I, well, actually I want to add this. I said it was a great idea, but like had, had a couple cocktails, so didn't think anything of it. And then the next month Maurice called my bluff. Right. And he was like you said, this was a great idea. And I was like, Oh yeah, we were serious. Let's do this, let's do this. Right. Because the opportunity, I mean, the opportunity was now. And the time I think the timing great. We've been really successful I think because we hit, we hit the need. Of the city and this community at the, at the right time. And that's something that I really value in Maurice as a partner, he sees an opportunity. It's like, we're doing it. And I'm like, shit, get in there and it's taken off and it's just been really beautiful.

Maurice: [00:05:17] Right. Thank you for that, Dawn. And I value you as a, as a partner. We certainly aren't by any means the first Black theater company. We aren't the only... boston has a legacy that dates back to like the Federal Theater Project in terms of Black theater in this area. And also 

Lacey: [00:05:33] sorry, when you say the Federal Theater Project you're talking about during the Depression.

Okay. I just wanted to, for people who might not know, okay, go on. 

Maurice: [00:05:41] Yeah. Yeah. So being a part of that legacy and realizing sort-of the shoulders we're standing on the community, we want to be a part of and know that our goals are to create a theatrical home, the explores stories of a diaspora. Cause there's no... being a Black person in this country, there's not a monolithic experience. There's a lot of nuance and beautiful narratives and, and, and differences and nuance of story and culture within the umbrella of being part of the African diaspora.  So how can you make a theater companies dedicated to that all year long and also being run, not just having that representation on stage, but in the audience, backstage, in the boardroom, and on the staff.

So we have that culture represented in the, from the DNA of the company from, from its inception. And we are telling these stories from an authentic place, because these are stories that we are they're part of our own narratives and heritage. And then also reaching out to the audience and the communities of Boston from a genuine place, because, you know, we all, we call us as a Porch family.

We're building it, we're making theater, but we're also building a community and a family. 

Lacey: [00:06:46] I was on your website yesterday, in fact, and the photo, the front page. Homepage. Yeah, that would be the word Lacey  the home page photo. Ooh, it's early, but it's not at all. It's just, it's just me today. Is it so gorgeous, when you talk about family, that was really the sense that I got from it. It's just a very arresting photo. Are those other people in that photo  I think they're about eight people, are they also part of your core group? 

Dawn: [00:07:11] So many of them are part of our core group, some of them, cause we took that picture early on have moved on to other things, but.

For the most part, right, when we say family, even though friends may have moved on, they are still involved in some kind of way. So two of those folks are now part of our board, right? One of them is a frequent collaborator. And then there are some other people who are doing some of the core work of this organization who are not in that picture.

Right. Pascal who works as our education director, Phyllis... Pascal Forsal, Phyllis Smith, who is our production manager. They're not pictured, but they are folks who came on just a little bit after, or just as we were like in that process of, okay, this thing is taking off and now we have to start talking about us and we have to start showing people who we are.

And they've been really just incredibly integral to the work that we're doing. And especially in this time of pandemic when it's a little, sometimes it's catch as catch can, and sometimes it's, Oh, this amazing opportunity has come up right now. Who's on first. And so wanting to acknowledge that, right? Like that, that picture is just the start of who we are. And right. As soon as we can all get out of our homes and we're safe in the arms of the vaccine we want to update so that we're requesting again, who we are now. And I think that's, this organization has evolved so beautifully over the last four years, continually meeting the moment, right.

Meeting the moment of pandemic programming smartly. The education work that we did this summer with Commonwealth Shakespeare company, right. Really meeting the moment to provide services, to BIPOC students BIPOC up and coming actors at a time where they would normally, right. If we could move about the cabin freely would be taking classes and workshops and really honing their skills.

Like we were able to give them something online to take care of that need. The Juneteenth programming that we did and then the culling together of information to bring visibility to what all of the incredible Black artists in this community are doing and who they are, and right. Like sort of driving that conversation and bringing visibility to that.

And then I think the incredible concert that we were able to do at Starlight stage in Central Square, being able to in a small window, get outdoors, and then to having having the ability and the foresight to get in there and program and program something  something of joy. That people need right now being able to meet those moments.

Being able to be that flexible. And then the work that we actually did, just like the programming of shows with our co-producing partners. Again, always something that speaks to the moment or that, or that educating you about a part of our history that you don't know I'm going to tie it all in, I promise you. The imagery that we go forward with forward with, I think, always speaks to that evolution of our process, of our team, of our thinking and our place in this community. So I cannot wait until we can get out there and get those images up and in the world. 

Maurice: [00:10:05] That was beautiful and getting back... and just always value your thinking, Dawn, and specifically the shots you  referenced on our website were taken by Niles Scott Hawver, who has been a supporter and a family member since the beginning.

He's a photographer who is a friend of mine, he's also an actor we'd worked together. And I told him about the company. And so , he did all that pro bono saying like this  organization should exist. And then separate of that, he also was cast in our very first show, Breadth and Imagination and, it's interesting,

We, we are clear about our mission. We are a Black theater company. We want , we want to put out into the world narratives that explore the diaspora. We want to make sure that culture is overwhelmingly represented on all areas of the company in the audience as well, and on the boardroom, staff, backstage.

But for everyone. If you want to be part of a, of a place that centers Black narratives come on board. And Nile's a perfect example that he, he is not a person of color. He also is one of our largest donors. He did a whole fundraising strategy where he wants it was safe to reopen a studio, a portion of all of his photographs and headshots came to The Porch.

And then so many people signed on so many people donate a part, working up their fees to us. That is like our third largest individual donor because of that. So it's just an example of how, in these times you can be specific about narrative, be specific about perspective and, and art, but also inclusive at the same time, like around that specificity can be healing and actually can be very inclusive.

We've had people that come to us and say our efforts to sort of center certain narratives and uplift communities and Black communities, it seems exclusionary or exclusive, which actually is opposite. It's actually inclusive. We're actually riding the ship as Dawn often says where it's, you know, we're just building a place that centers our perspectives and our narratives in ways that other perspectives and narratives have centered in other institutions.

But if you're cool with that centering and those narratives, come on. No one's telling you not to come. We're saying, come bring your friends, bring your family. Know that this is the, but this is the home for these narratives, down the street might be a home for another narratives. And that's cool too. Yeah.

Lacey: [00:12:10] Well, I just, I want to really congratulate you on building something so robust in just four years, because I have also helped to build a theater company, several, in the past. And it is not easy. I mean, the economics of it are just not on your side as an artist and as a founder. And I just, you know, your, your programming is so robust.

Your, your mission is so full, you both just express it so beautifully that I just think it's really, it's an amazing feat, especially to be surviving during the pandemic. And Dawn, you spoke already a lot about the type of programming that you've been doing during the pandemic. Well, let me just ask a question because I have seen several things at Central, the Central Square Theater, and you have a home there, right?

Did that come after you founded the company, was that part and parcel of the founding, is that I'm a grant, you know, I'm just, I'm just curious about your relationship with that space. 

Dawn: [00:13:03] So let me start and then Mo jump in. Cause again, and this sort of speaks to what I was saying earlier about Mo like knowing and being able to like take advantage of the moment.

So we had started these conversations about The Porch, right. We didn't have a title then, but we had, we were starting this conversation about let's start a company and Maurice was working on a show at Central Square, The Convert which was right. 

Lacey: [00:13:27] Which I saw 

Dawn: [00:13:27] Gorgeous  show, right? Like, absolutely.

Lacey: [00:13:35] Yes. That is in fact how Maurice and I first met, although we may not have remembered it. 

Dawn: [00:13:39] See, like, I want to say small world, but like, no, we're just doing what we're supposed to do and meeting the people we're supposed to meet in the time we're supposed to meet them. Well, so right. He's doing the show and he's talking with the executive director over there, Kathy Carr Kelly with all the folks at  Underground and Nora, and telling them about us starting this organization.

And Kathy told him that she wanted to help. And so we got together in a conversation. Maurice was like, Hey, let's they want to help? Not sure how, why don't we have a conversation? See where it is. Me, I'm like,  we're, like two months out. We don't know what we are. Why are we having this conversation? And then right. You think better of it. Like, yeah. Why not actually let's see what they can do. I mean, they have a different model. They're they're successful. Like what, what can we learn? And Kathy, honestly, this woman just was like, I am prepared to do whatever it takes to make space in this community for an organization like yours to get up and running and be successful.

And so the thing that I always tell everybody, because I, when people are like, how can we help? What can we give you? How can we get you in residence? All of those questions. I'm like, let me tell you what this woman did without hesitation, without double thinking. She handed us keys, in my purse are keys to,  Central Square Theater, in Maurice's pocket are keys to Central Square Theater she was  like, my home is yours.

Right? Gave us keys, told us that her home was our home, that we can come in there and rehearse. That we can come in there and have a meeting, that we can program there, which led to conversations, which got us programming. Our first year productions, which were the Gods Closet Reading Series with Liana who is pictured and that beautiful image that you talked about on our websites homepage.

Just that right. I'm giving you space free of charge. You don't have to worry about it. And then that opened the door for us to be in there more often have conversations to sort of hear things for her to just say, Hey, I'm thinking about something I want to, I want to run it past you, right, they're working as our fiscal sponsor.

Who's like, you guys are going to need somebody to collect money for you. You can use us, they can make a tax deductible contribution. Right. How can we start to program together, use our infrastructure to help get your name out there and not have to do so much of the work right from the start. Right. She introduced us to her donors.

She helped start these conversations with our first set of co-producing partners at Lyric and at Greater Boston Stage. Sorry, Mo you were going to say. 

Maurice: [00:16:02] No, I think you're completely you're on a roll.

Dawn: [00:16:05] So right. Like it was that that one person to invest, but to invest in a different way. I'm sure there was an expectation on her end of like, I'm going to get something on the backend, but right. The way in which that was born out with like, I'm going to do everything in my power to try to like, get you guys to a place of a success. I'm going to do everything in my power, whether consciously or unconsciously to help you bypass the fringe level and like automatically be working at this sort of mid-sized level so that you have the visibility with the press. Right. So that you have visibility with funders. 

Lacey: [00:16:38] You know, it just occurred to me that this, what you're describing, it could be a model for other, you know, when you have a larger established institution to bring in, rather than, as, as you said, Maurice, you know, one production per season that, that they produce, cast, choose, et cetera, that speaks to other people's perspectives, nonwhite perspectives, you know, to bring in instead a young company.

Let them do the programming, let them, you know, have the artistic reins. I dunno, that just popped into my head. It's just, it sounds like something that maybe we should be talking about for, for other people. 

Dawn: [00:17:12] Absolutely. And Central Square has designs on doing that. Right. As we start to leave the nest we are moving towards our 501(c)(3). We have our application in. So that is.

Lacey: [00:17:23] Congratulations, 

Dawn: [00:17:23] super excited. And it's just a matter of time, but like once that happens, how are we now making space? And CST CST is really interested in, in turning this into a model where they're helping to do that. Now, I think for other organizations and particularly in our city, but right, in other parts of the nation, there's, I cannot tell you what intestinal fortitude it takes to actually do the things that they do. Right. And I'm sure she's looking at the bottom line, don't get me wrong. But like the first thing in her head at least is the I'm going to make space any way I can. And I don't know that everybody has the stomach for that. I wish they did. I wish there was someone. 

Maurice: [00:18:02] That's what I was going to say, like the, to piggyback on exactly what you said, Dawn was the whole support of The Porch started with a grant that we were going to apply for a Fox Foundation grant me as an individual, but then looping in the organization, Debra Wise at Central Square and I were talking about, and we  designed that grant. We ended up not getting it as soon as we got to know Kathy, she said, as Dawn pointed out, we're still committed to supporting you. And I just really want to reinforce what you said. Dawn is like the level of support that it will take to incubator organization to as a culturally specific organization, by a larger institution for eventual leaving of the nest is really, really personal, it's on many levels and it's really complete.

It's not just the  the first step, which was amazing, was giving us the keys, but then they went beyond. Cause it's also making sure that we have our own relationship with foundations and funders, separate of the organization. They put us in front of their donors and a lot of times larger organizations  are fearful of that, thinking that the donors will stop giving to the big organization when we get to the small organization, but they are putting the money where their mouth is honestly. And the idea is that if someone is well heeled enough to give to one organization, they usually have the funds to give to two.

But if you're committed to this assessment as an organization, that's a risk, you got to take knowing that eventually they're going to leave the nest and be their own institution. It's about what is right versus what is  comfortable in many ways. So That's it cut there 

Lacey: [00:19:27] Scene. I mean, that was really well said. And, and I think this is a really important conversation. I'm excited for people to hear it. So let's put this all into the boiling pot of 2020 and the pandemic. And I'd love to know, you know, in March of 2020, what you were doing as a company, what you were in the middle of, what you were planning for, and then how that may have changed given the theater shutdown that we all are so aware of.

And what did you do then? You know, what happened? How did you. How did you pivot? How did you decide what to do next? 

Maurice: [00:20:03] I'll start then Dawn, please chime in. As you feel moved to. , We are a company of we are a company but also a company of individual artists. So we're all doing things for The Porch, but then also are maintaining our individual acting jobs and directing jobs and teaching jobs.

And that's where we were finding ourselves in March. So we all, there was a combination of things as the organization had to hold and stop, and also things that we were working on individually that we had to stop and eventually either go online with 

. So I'm also a professor. I work full full-time at Tufts university. So all the shifting of your courses going on zoom and teaching, figuring out really quickly how to teach acting on zoom, which was a thing, which is, we're still working out. I was directing a play for another university. And these young folks we had, we had worked so hard. They were so hard and they had gotten through rehearsal.

We were just about to start tech and open in a week. I had just blocked the final thing, gearing up for tech, but we ended up, they ended up . It's heartbreaking, the young folks, a number of seniors, they ended up doing some type of a virtual saying it was a musical,  the musical Violet. 

Lacey: [00:21:08] That is truly one of my favorite musicals of all time. You were, you were directing Violet. What? Are you? I mean, yes. And 

Maurice: [00:21:18] Beautiful. And Lacey. That worked so hard. I, they  sang like angels and big ups to the Suffolk University cast of Violet. I love you all. And I'm proud of even, guide you through this amazing show which I did, like years ago in a community theater, like I had no, you know, they were doing way better than I was than had any right to be guiding.

It was. Yeah, and it's such a great story. And it's in a time when, like the, sort of my statement when we got started with the thing was like at a time when people who maybe are from the areas that Violet is from, sound the way she sounds, has experienced what she has, at a time when people like those are demonized and, and right off the bat. And I'm not saying... a lot of times you need to highlight and quote, unquote, cancel some people for what they say and do what they believe, but at least give them the benefit of the doubt, because Violet is the story of somebody who is from a small town, had no experience of people of color at a time, the Sixties, a tumultuous time racially and she journeys, and she goes from her small experience. And she was given the benefit of the doubt and able to grow and understand and realize like the ways I'm was raised are not serving me now that I'm outside of my bubble. And now I'm seeing the world the larger perspective and was able to grow and change and become a new human.

And if we don't give people that opportunity to do that, We are not going to heal as a nation. Sometimes people are given the opportunity and don't make those changes and that's when they need to be put on blast. But until that, give them the opportunity to grow and change. You never know what they're dealing with. She has this disfiguring scar that has, that defines how she sees the world. 

Lacey: [00:22:58] Right. Yeah. And I always thought that scar was well, the, I saw the Roundabout production, I guess. Wow. It was five, six years ago now. And, and in that production, she didn't, there was nothing actually visible on her face. As you're speaking, I'm S you know, realizing the brilliance of yet again, because that scar could be anything and it could be in any person, whatever that scar is. It doesn't have to be visible. It's usually not visible. She's like an allegory in that way. Almost. 

Maurice: [00:23:25] Whatever emotional pain or trauma that you experienced that I will also didn't have this visible scar you know, we didn't get to  tech though, but like whatever, whatever inciting event or incident that happened to youas a young person that defines how you see the world you just never know what those are for people.

And then, and then what tools and experiences they need to be able to. In some way, process it and deal with it because when you're traumatized a young person, part of you never grows past that age. So I've gone down a whole rabbit hole. 

Lacey: [00:23:55] I mean, we can do a whole separate, literally we could do a separate episode on Violet because I love hearing your perspective having come to it as a director and Yeah.

Wow. Okay.

Maurice: [00:24:06] Yeah. Dawn, I want to give a spotlight because 

Lacey: [00:24:10] back to the facts and the figures about the pandemic. 

Dawn: [00:24:15] Yeah. So at the time at that time in March The Front Porch was rehearsing Fabulation Or The Re-education of Undine by Lynn Nottage, was our co-production with Lyric Stage and we were sort of watching like really closely monitoring what was going on in the nation and what news was coming back from DC and very slowly Courtney O'Connor and I started having these conversations of, Hey, we might have to, we might have to pause. Things are looking weird and people are kind of closing up shop. We might have to, we might have to figure out like taking a week off and then the intricate puzzle of what does it mean. If we have to take a week off how naive we were at the start of March, it's going to be a week, two. It's fine. It's fine. We've built in room for the schedule. There was a, I think there was room in everybody's contracts that we might extend. And so looking at the extension as a, okay, that just means we're going to push it back two weeks and we're going to go into that extension and you that, like, we're doing all of this sort of like trying to figure out what does this mean for rehearsal? What does it mean for the contract, that set's already been built?

Can it hang out in storage for a little bit? Like we're trying to do all these things and I remember really like. We had a, we had an actor from Florida that we were housing. Right. Trying to figure out all of these sort of like little pieces, like, okay, he's going to have to go home for two weeks.

He'll come back for a little bit. What does this look like? And so there was a point where right. Everything closed down and we're like, great. We're taking the week off. And we're like, great. We will keep you all informed when we're coming back. We had a zoom conversation with the cast to try to figure things out, see where everybody was.

Right. Like this is disrupting everybody's lives. We came back, I think for like maybe a day or two, right. People were talking about not wanting to be on the phone. Oh my gosh. I remember we had this one scare. This was. intense, there's an actor who working on the show, right? I'm directing the show.

One of the actors who's working on the show also in her day job, right. Is working to do sort of creative work in the senior sector and finds out that somebody who was in right. One of the rooms that she was in, that she was working in. Had COVID. So now we're all like, what does this mean? She stays away for two weeks.

We moved like, or she stays away for a couple of days. Doesn't get a test because other folks in that facility were getting a test to find out that person didn't have it, but like, right, this was the start of the anxiety. Right. As we're sort of trying to figure all of this stuff out, we go away for two weeks at the end of the first week, I think, courtney and I, and Maurice and Matt, like those principles of each company we're having this really hard conversation of, Oh, this isn't a two-week thing. This is, this is going to be a month. This is going to be maybe two months and we can't keep everybody on the line for that long. They've got the next project.

And at that time we're expecting that all of the next projects will happen. 

Lacey: [00:27:13] Right. I mean, isn't it amazing looking back and knowing what we know now, it's, it's a little mind blowing, but yeah. Going back to that time, I mean, that's exactly how, how many people were responding, 

Dawn: [00:27:25] right? We're like, Oh, this is temporary.

Knowing what I know now. I probably what I wish we had done was pull the plug on everything sooner. And started planning for like, great, we're not doing this right now. When do we think we can? What can we substitute with? I wish we had, I like, and there's no way to know this until you're in it. Right. But I would have said like, great call it, time of death is now, is there something that we can do with these actors digitally?

Lacey: [00:27:52] Ugggh, that made my

heart hurt 

Dawn: [00:27:54] Sorry. Sorry. I got like, I good for a turn of phrase

Lacey: [00:28:03] that resonated. 

Dawn: [00:28:04] Yeah. And again, there's no way to know, but there are things that I would have done so very differently. That I think, knowing now what we know about producing digitally and I mean, I think we've talked about this before, too, right? Like there are some of us that are nervous about moving into digital production because at the beginning, right, it looks very amateurish. Like many of us, not all of us, because there's, some of our friends came out the gate like. Or you, but for a lot of folks, right. But that digital world looked kind of amateur. And when we're used to producing world-class work, right. When you go to see a Front Porch show, you're like, Good Lord, the design, the actors, like everything is at the top of its game.

So like for me, hesitant to move into that digital world and sort of look like kids, trying to figure out how to like, right like, is your mic on your you're muted? You're not talking. Right. Like, didn't want to go through all of that. And now I think what it will teach me to do is be bolder and be able to be okay with that. Like, do it, get something out there now, we're all figuring it out. We'll learn as we go. That said the way that we went about things. I mean, I think. I think our stuff, we've had the benefit of watching other folks do things and learning from that. And so some of our stuff looks a lot slicker and some of our stuff is right, like it is what it is, but yeah, I might've made some different decisions, but again, who knew, like we're 10 months out, I was just saying to a friend. We've now had a baby and we've had it in our home for a month. 

Lacey: [00:29:26] Yes. I was literally just thinking this morning, as I was thinking about this podcast that I'm going to release it in the next couple of weeks and that it's taken a long time for me to get to that point. And I was like, what animal gestates for more than nine months. Cause that's what I am. I have to go look that up. I know there are a few, I believe in elephant. Right. So I guess maybe I'm an elephant when it comes to this podcast. Where did you look for guidance or even just facts about what to do during that time, or even now, where are you looking?

As you plan for the future? 

Dawn: [00:30:03] I would say places that we look so in my day job, I run an organization called Stage Source. It's a member service organization for theater professionals. And so what it has allowed. What we've been able to do there is actually pull on the expertise of other people in our community.

And so the, the New England theater community I think has actually called together in really interesting ways. Zoom being a huge help that like at any point in the week, you can probably jump on a call with 10 other people in a group. Like Stage Source in the beginning, like we ran conversation, we ran zoom conversations, asking everybody, like, what are you dealing with right now?

What are the questions that you have with keeping you up at night? What are you worried about? And then like, right, bringing, right, like always inviting, Hey Maurice, come into this conversation. Let's listen to what all these folks are saying. And then like, what do we need to take from there? The artistic directors in Boston and New England got together and started having their conversations about like, here's, what's keeping us up at night.

Here are the things that we need to do. Here's how we can look. It's better. There are so many art service organizations in New England alone, but also like right across the nation that we have also hold on for help. So like in a very practical way, I think there are a lot of people in the community having these sorts of conversations.

A lot of people pulling too. And Maurice and I having worked in this community for over 50 years combined. Right. Like when you look at how long we've been here, maybe 50 is hyperbolic, but you get what I'm saying? We also know a lot of people, so I think we're also able to have discrete conversations, pulling from our own mentors, pulling from the people that we really like to have those sort of, what should we be thinking about what are we missing?

Right, and we've been able to talk about fundraising and talk about programming, keep our name out there and keep things going and sort of not hibernate. But not panic about not producing, right, we've been able to insert ourselves in some of those great conversations and people sometimes come to us, right?

Like, what are you doing? How are you doing it? But I think organizations, the art service community in Boston and New England has been incredible in terms of getting resources and things like people like Kara Elliot Ortega, the city of Boston, right, has put together a lot of stuff that we can take advantage of has helped get a lot of funding into people's hands.

Same with a Mass Cultural Council, our good friend and funding champion, Eva Rosenberg over at the Boston Foundation, right, is one of those people who has also been like just pumping information, pumping opportunities out into the world. It's a really well connected community and we are fortunate to be well-connected people in the community so that we can yeah.

Maurice: [00:32:44] And that was beautifully put and do benefit from the community that holds us up. Cause I, one thing that I like to articulate about The Porch in response to the COVID, what's a nice way to put it like a reorganization of the world. I was going to say, Shit Show, but whatever, I don't know if I can say that language, language.

Lacey: [00:33:05] Yep. You can  you can say it. We'll just, we'll put a little explicit  in the show notes. No, I like it. I think it's, I think it's accurate. 

Maurice: [00:33:12] And then we are, we being a small organization at this point. We don't have the overhead costs of some of the other organizations, so we're not paying for space. We don't have a large staff or in large and paying salaries right now. We're, we're moving. We, we pay stipends, but we don't have those overhead costs. But we were on the brink of getting there and when COVID hit and it was more our upward trajectory that was really interrupted and we were kind of left, we had to close some shows, you know, but that was one thing. But the other thing that really kind of impacted it was my thinking. It was like, where do we go? You know, COVID has completely disrupted our, our mobility and our momentum. And then the community was like, no, this you're an organization we want to see succeed. So all the people that Dawn mentioned and others were, have, have really rallied in, in making sure our organization and other organizations, particularly culturally specific, particularly BIPOC focused, particularly black focused organizations. You know, there's still a lot of work to do and there's still  a lot of obstacles overcome, but we, as a community are saying like, particularly these organizations need to survive in response to not just the pandemic of COVID, but systemic racism that is being highlighted in response to the murder of George Floyd, you know, which, which I feel really blessed to be in a community that values that. And it's one of the things I wanted to say. Also I want, it's a few moments of joy and hope that are given in these times. And one is that one point of joy and hope that I find and we'd benefit from is that we're all in this together.

It's a crappy little log ride on, you know, I don't know why I'm getting the visual, like an amusement park everybody's on one of those log rides and just. Yeah. It's like a flume, a log flume ride. Yes. Together. So when one person figures something out that helps the world like this sharing we're all in this together.

So we've benefited from people pivoting and learning and growing the science, the medical community, the things that we're figuring out that can apply to making art safely. So I'm thinking specifically Starlight Square in Central Square was built completely COVID safe. And conversation with the medical medical professionals and scientists.

How can you make an outdoor performance venue? Once it was just common knowledge that being outside socially distances is a safer practice. So how can you make a testing, once it was available, testing infrastructure? How can you build that into a performance? How can you build an outdoor venue that is socially distanced and the stage that is large enough to prevent spray and things like that.

So, But once that understanding was out there, they were able to build this venue. We were able to come in and make some programming and get some money in the pockets of some artists that we support. We had a six person cabaret series where we paid them a union wage, but then also all donated funds for the link and.

Thank you folks in Cambridge, they tend to like to donate to us and we'd like to take it because we value them. We value they that's where the, the organization grew and that community really embraced us and supported us. We were able to double I'm sorry. I didn't say that all donations went also into the pockets of the artists involved.

So they actually got double the salary through donations. So that was like a highlight we wanted to, I mean, I think we want to highlight is like, how can we fund artists in this time? 

Lacey: [00:36:19] Yeah. That's such a big question. And so many things that you just said are fascinating because I've been speaking to people who run very large, very old institutions.

In comparison, you're a young, nimble institution. You don't have the problem of having to, you know, currently having the overhead of a rent or a space. It allows you to make fast interesting decisions. And, and also hearing, you know, what you just said about the Boston and the greater New England community, I mean, my sense was that a lot of the responses nationwide are regional because you know that the information there's just, it's too big a country, there's too many factors going on in various places for there to be kind of an, all of the theater companies reacting in the same way or finding the same solutions.

So I mean, everything that you just said kind of bears that out. You're like, really bringing that example forward. And so thank you for that. I know that we have to finish up here in a couple of minutes. So I would just love to hear from both of you kind of on a personal level, what's giving you joy right now.

Maurice: [00:37:21] I know I can do some real quick. I'm watching more television. I'm usually always on the run. I've not been, I've been in my apartment six years this is the most time that's been here. I'm actually able to watch TV now, that I'm no going from job to job. So Queen's Gambit has been the latest thing, but in general, this is so cheesy, I go on like just kind of vision walks with friends over zoom or phone calls. So an artist that I just am a fan of that I've always wanted to work together with them, I'm like, can we just have zoom coffee and dream, just to have the joy of potential, you know, not worry about budgets and timing and contracts and dollars and above, you know, what, what would you love to create?

What can we create together? And, or what shows, what dream shows would be let's let's live in a dream land. So like a little mental vacation, the dream world, and not worry about all the stuff that makes things difficult.

Lacey: [00:38:10] I love that. 

Dawn: [00:38:11] I'm going to say right now, my niece is bringing me joy. Just sorta thinking about her.

She's the most adorable little peanut. She just turned five. You can see her personality growing. And I say that because I'm like, I just moved into this place. She painted a picture and I was like, auntie Dawn wants that picture. And she said, what are you going to give me for it? And I was like, candy, you take your candy trade, but I like framed it.

And that idea of like, Oh, this little kid made this really lovely piece of artwork, even though it's like, right, five-year-old but that like, I can frame it and I can put it up and I can enjoy it. And, and see her and see her personality and see her growing in that. And that maybe the future. Like, it just gives me a way to future cast.

That's a little nicer, like, all right, all the work that we're doing, stories that we're telling, the way that we move in this world is so that she is going to have a better and brighter future, so that things will be easier for her, so that she doesn't have to do the hard work that we have to do fighting for our space.

Right, because she won't have to do that because we've already done it. 

Lacey: [00:39:22] Hmm. Well, boom. To both of you, because those were both such beautiful answers. It's like nothing more needs to be said. Thank you. You're both superstars. I can't thank you enough for being here today.

Maurice: [00:39:34] Oh, can I say thank you. Thank you for having us in.

I do remember meeting you. There's a lobby. I do. Yeah, 

Lacey: [00:39:40] You do? I mean, I kind of do too. Actually, you were standing, you weren't, your back was against a wall. Like, and I, I just, I do remember that. I don't know. Yeah, but this was a pleasure. 

Maurice: [00:39:52] Thank you. And so it was a good time to chat with my compadre, my partner in crime, Dawn.

Lacey: [00:39:59] Thank you both.