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Producer Playwrights & SheATL with Erika Miranda and Caitlin Hargraves
131 Plays6 months ago
In this episode Amber talks with Erika and Caitlin about why they decided to start producing! In an effort to fill a gap in the art ecosystem of Atlanta, they became producers. They refer to the artists they serve as Producer Playwrights. Tune in to learn about how SheATL is empowering playwrights and theatre artists of all kinds to produce their own work. And check out the SheATL festival in September!
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Transcript
Introduction to Season 2 and Table Work Podcast
00:00:07
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome to season two of Table Work. My name is Amber Bradshaw, and I'm your host. I am a new play dramaturg, arts administrator, and educator. And on season two of Table Work, I am going to be interviewing the artists behind the many collectives in Atlanta, people that are bringing the artistic community together to connect.
00:00:28
Speaker
This grassroots work in our field is essential to the development of theater. We can't make it alone. We need collaborators, supporters, and audiences, and we have to meet those folks somewhere, y'all. So I want to lift up the people that are doing this work, often on their own or with just a few other people, because this work has an impact.
Grassroots Theater in Atlanta
00:00:47
Speaker
So let's lift it up, y'all.
00:00:50
Speaker
This podcast is brought to you by Working Title Playwrights, a new play incubator and service organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, in which I serve as the managing artistic director. For more about WTP and me, check out WorkingTitlePlaywrights.com.
00:01:08
Speaker
Again, the goal was to not wait for permission to have someone else say yes to your script, but to instead empower you to realize what it takes to get your script off the floor and into a space and in embodied. So it's like, don't wait for permission. Don't wait for these people to tell you when your voice is ready to be heard.
Meet Erika and Caitlin
00:01:31
Speaker
I'm happy to introduce y'all to Erika Miranda and Caitlin Hargraves from She ATL Today. Erika, she, her, is a Mexican Norwegian actor, producer, and director. She received her BFA in acting from the theater school at DePaul University. She pursued additional training from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Upright Citizens Brigade. Her theater credits extend from Chicago to LA and then to Atlanta.
00:01:56
Speaker
She founded Cafecito Productions, an incubative production company. Cafecito's first production, Mikasa, can be found on all HBO platforms. Currently, Erica continues as the executive producer of She ATL. Erica has been awarded top accolades, including named one of the Amazing Women in Film by Oz Magazine and one of Georgia's top industry influencers by Georgia Entertainment 2024.
00:02:19
Speaker
Kaitlyn Hargraves, she-her, is a Chilean-American actor and educator. She moved to Atlanta after completing her M.A. at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where her courses were focused around classical theater. Kaitlyn received her BFA from New York's University Tisch School of the Arts and was also able to train at the International Theater Workshop in Amsterdam. While in New York, she was a member of the performance art collective The Million Underscores and created devised work all around the city.
00:02:47
Speaker
During this time, Caitlin also worked regionally. Locally, she has performed with the Alliance Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Synchronicity Theatre, Aurora, The Weird Sisters Project, and Theatre Emory. This interview was recorded on March 28, 2024.
00:03:04
Speaker
So y'all I'm so pleased to welcome my friends, Erica and Caitlin from SheATL, which is an organization that Working Title Playwrights partners with and we love SheATL. Y'all are doing such great work. I wanted to lift that work up, but I wanted to start by talking a little bit about y'all first. So if you could share with us a little bit about you, where you're from, how you came to Atlanta, Erica, would you start?
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, of course. I am from so many different places. I feel like I've been so fortunate to have so many different cultures make me who I am. I am a Mexican Norwegian who was raised in the south. Caitlin and I have that in common. We come from a couple of different worlds.
00:03:51
Speaker
My dad is Mexican. My mom is Norwegian. I am a Cancer Sun, Virgo Rising, and a Leo Moon for those of you who would dissect me. I always laugh because once you learn a little bit about me, you're like, oh, all of those parts show up in her.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yes, I grew up just outside of Atlanta in Gwinnett County and I left for about eight years. I found myself in Chicago and Los Angeles. Chicago for school and Los Angeles for life and mistakes.
00:04:29
Speaker
I came to Atlanta in search of community and to be closer to my family. My brother was having his kids at the time that I decided to move back and it was important for me to be rooted with people that I loved. And then, oh my gosh, I live a whole different life since moving to Atlanta.
00:04:51
Speaker
completely crazy to see how my life has gelled. But I like to say that I don't think that it would have happened if I hadn't been everywhere else and I hadn't found myself in all those different places.
Finding Community in Atlanta
00:05:01
Speaker
That's awesome. That was about five years ago now. It sounds like, did you find community that you were looking for?
00:05:08
Speaker
I did. I did. And I mean, it's crazy how that happened. But it's, you know, it started with CHEATL, actually. I think CHEATL was like the ignition for so much that has happened for me and for us, Caitlin, in the past five years. Yeah, absolutely. I think producing has a magic to that, right? There's something to it.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, because you're forced to create. I mean, not forced. No one's like making it. But you force yourself to be like, OK, I'm going to pull people in. We're going to do this thing. Yeah. It's creating space intentionally, especially like you're saying. I think you were joking. You're not forced to. But it was kind of like we were looking for something that we needed and couldn't find.
00:05:59
Speaker
you know, both from like personal perspectives and both from like, you know, a community perspective. So producing allows you to do something differently, you know, to take that opportunity and create in the way that you've been craving rather than being subjected to what else might be happening, which works for people sometimes and works in different spaces. But wow, it's a gift. I love that. So what about you, Caitlin? So I like
00:06:24
Speaker
Erica said as well, I'm from many places and cultures. My mom is from Chile, so I grew up spending most of my summers and winter breaks with my family in Chile. And my dad is from Arkansas, which is the opposite of Chile. So, and was raised in Panama City, Florida, the Redneck Riviera, as I call it. A lot of love.
00:06:55
Speaker
So yeah, I have a lot of different places that I call home. I went to college in New York. I went to NYU. I loved New York. I mean, it was such a dream to live there and spent about eight years in the city working. I mean, after school, I did a whole lot of devised work. I did a lot of like
00:07:19
Speaker
freaky downtown experimental stuff, you know, working with people like Mary Overly, like Richard Foreman, these like giants of the downtown New York theater scene and just getting to play the color green or an alien from like 957, you know, it was like, did a lot of really freaky work and then decided that I wanted to go back to school because
00:07:49
Speaker
I love school and I love learning. And I also had an inkling that I'd like to teach. So I went back to school to get my master's. I went to London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and I studied classical theater. So really niche program focused on theater between 1450 to 1890.
00:08:14
Speaker
pretty much just in those years. We have no idea, Galen. Yeah. Yeah. So it was... We were there at the same time, but didn't know each other. Yeah. It was like, I think we had like one week overlap.
00:08:30
Speaker
that we didn't know about, obviously. I had just like a summer program there. So it wasn't as intense as Caitlin had, but it's just, it's so funny because when you track like the invisible string that is all of our lives, I mean, it's so perfect that Caitlin and I found each other in Atlanta. Yeah, it really is meant to be. Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
Oh, that's so cool. So I went to London. And then when I was done with my master's just just before I had moved to London, I met my now husband and Dorian. That's his name. Shout out Dorian. Dorian was starting a grad program at Emory.
00:09:12
Speaker
in Atlanta. And so I got done with my master's first. So I moved to Atlanta. That's what brought me here. And I was like, let's let's try this out. Like, no promises. And here I am, seven years later.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah. And a baby. With a baby. Yeah. And now I really full circle. Now I teach at Emory. I'm a part of the theater department there. And it's a funny place that's been such a big part of my story.
00:09:47
Speaker
Yeah, I really am so grateful to have found Atlanta and spent the first two years really being like, what's going on? What do I do? Who are my people? Because in cities like, well, I think it's really like in educational systems, which is the thing that had brought me to previous cities, New York, London, you've got built-in community.
00:10:13
Speaker
When you're an artist on your own, you're like, what? Okay, when I do one show here, I'd do one show there. Erika and I also, we worked for the same yoga studio. And that was another thing that really brought us together. I think that we both really were searching for community. And then we found each other and we found she ATO.
00:10:43
Speaker
That's incredible. I love, I love, I had no idea about all the alignments between y'all. That's so cool. I know, it's wild. Soul Sisters for sure. We'd like to stay at Linus De Galma. Exactly.
00:10:55
Speaker
Oh, I love it. I love it. Well, so this is so great. Both of you coming to Atlanta and really finding a home here. Can y'all talk a little bit about what you think Atlanta, you know, what is that thing that Atlanta has? A lot of people like to talk about it, but I think everyone has their own unique take.
00:11:14
Speaker
I do. I really love to talk about this because I hope it doesn't change, and this is for selfish reasons that I hope it doesn't change. But everyone talks about, Caitlin mentioned these cities like London, New York. I spent time in Los Angeles.
00:11:30
Speaker
These are places that have a brand. They have a style. They have a brand. For me, when I've talked to people, they're like, I wonder what Atlanta's voice will be or I wonder how Atlanta's going to make its mark.
00:11:48
Speaker
not to find for a reason and it's this like fluidity and it's this like ever-changing state that is our gift and it makes it the epic epicenter for creation and creativity and for like you know investigating as we as artists do so it's not that it's like voiceless but i think it just has this beautiful i don't know adaptation like if if artists
00:12:13
Speaker
If artists are meant to like take the temperature of the world and to take the temperature of like our environments, Atlanta is a perfect place to do that because we are so fluid in the way that we bring people together or that people find it or that, you know, our history with like.
00:12:26
Speaker
an incredible rich black history has just set us up for the success of being in touch with our people. So I hope that it continues to kind of like not really be defined, but instead to be a place where people can, you know, create and come up with things. Yeah, there's in that, there's an opportunity to redefine continuously, right? With every
00:12:53
Speaker
group of artists with every generation. I feel that, and I can speak a little bit to New York and a little bit, even less to London, but there's so much established there that it feels really hard to make your mark. And here it feels like
00:13:14
Speaker
You can, and I'm not saying that everybody in the community is welcoming you with arms wide open because that's also not the circumstance. You do have to cut your teeth a bit, but there's opportunity in a way that perhaps there isn't as much in those other comparative cities.
00:13:36
Speaker
I love that. Somebody described it as unfinished or something like that, or gritty, right? And I was like, yeah, I think that I agree that I think our history as a Southern city and as a Black city and as a city founded in civil rights, and there's just the idea that if we defined a voice, we would be saying we were one thing. And that would be erasing all of the different voices and perspectives
00:14:06
Speaker
that are so rich here, right? It almost feels like the way I think about queerness. It's like once we define it, it's no longer queer. There's nothing interesting about saying, well, we're like this. I think that's the thing that gets confusing about cities is you're like, oh, well, it's like this and then you go and it's not like that.
00:14:25
Speaker
right? Because there's millions of people there and they're all different. So this idea of definition and labeling just feels, you know, I think there's something about establishment also means power, also means domination, also means all those things. Limitations. It's limiting.
00:14:48
Speaker
Don't tell me what to believe. Don't tell me how to run my company. Everything is, I run this my way. You can run it your way. Very little established system. Because everyone's like, well, you can do that, but this is my thing and I'm going to do it this way. And that's kind of allowing what you're saying, right? Is this idea of, well, if you want to produce it, do it. It's possible. And as a result, I think
00:15:15
Speaker
you get this great variety of things within this city, right? Like you get a really scrappy workshop show and you can also get a million dollar production. You can get a full range and for the most part, it can be accessible, which I think is a huge thing that separates us from other aforementioned cities.
00:15:44
Speaker
accessibility. I mean, I remember when I was in London, and Erica, I'm sure you had this experience as well, but like, being able to go and see a show for like 15 pounds, maybe like that was that was incredible going. I never had that opportunity in New York when I lived there. I was so seldom able to see big theater, because I couldn't afford it. I was like, save up eating rice and beans for a month so that I could go and see like one Broadway show a year, you know. But here I do feel like you can
00:16:14
Speaker
you can afford to go see theater. And there's a lot of different things to see, depending on what you're into. Yeah, I feel like most things that I do are like $20 to $30. Yep. Yeah. You know, if I go to a dance class, if I go to a play, you know, it's very reasonable. And it has to be because that's what people can manage in Atlanta, right? Yeah.
00:16:41
Speaker
Not to mention, just like LA, they're going to be paying probably for parking and gas to get to the event. So that's going to cost more money too, right? Yeah. I always have to factor these things in now when I'm producing. It's true. Just the basics. Parking accessibility. Yeah. No, it's so true. It's so true. Because we don't really have a, we don't have public transportation. So those are big realities to maintain accessibility, you know.
00:17:09
Speaker
So true, so true. So let's talk about, let's talk about SheATL.
Foundation and Evolution of She ATL
00:17:14
Speaker
Tell me a little bit about why y'all decided to get SheATL going. So SheNYC, so what we are is we're a femme-led 501c3 nonprofit organization. And it was created by our founder, Danielle, in a fight for gender equity in the arts and entertainment industry.
00:17:33
Speaker
and to try to break the mold of what we were seeing, specifically in Broadway. So the first She NYC arts program began in New York. What year was that, Erica?
00:17:45
Speaker
It's a good question. 2017, I think. That sounds about right. And then about two or three years later, they opened in GLA and brought it to Los Angeles. She ATL started, our first year was 2020. So we were putting our gears together. No, it might've been earlier.
00:18:04
Speaker
Um, I think we started in the fall of 2019 2019. Yeah, so it's funny because it's it literally I love reflecting on this because it gives you one of those moments where you're like, wow Yeah, okay the like the things I had asked for were so much in alignment with what I was giving getting at that time I i'm gonna poke fun of myself, but I was in los angeles And I was working with a life coach who was very
00:18:34
Speaker
Very, very in tune with the work. I mean, she opened up my eyes in so many different ways, but I remember this so clearly. I think I told you this, Caitlin, but like we were on the beach at like 6am. Like we were in Venice Beach at 6am, which you don't want to be at Venice Beach at 6am. But she was leading me through a meditation
00:18:55
Speaker
And I like came to out of that meditation. I was like, I have to go to Atlanta. I have to leave. And she goes, Oh my God. Okay. But I just saw like people dancing on my arms. And for some reason that meant Atlanta to me.
00:19:17
Speaker
And I moved immediately to East Atlanta and really quickly started this dinner party where I would invite women into my house and I had like up to 30, 35 women at my house in East Atlanta and I would cook them food and we would talk and we would just be together.
00:19:37
Speaker
all of them were artists of some capacity, whether they were in film or in theater or visual artists or anything, but that was like our connector. And I would have like table questions, yada, yada, yada. I made a small social presence of that dinner and someone who I had worked with
00:19:56
Speaker
in New York previously had seen that and was like, so it looks like you're creating dinner parties. That means you can produce theater. Exactly. Well, you were. You were producing. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like,
00:20:12
Speaker
What were you calling them, Erica? Yeah, tell me a little more about this because it's another grassroots concept of gathering, right? Yes, I miss it so much. A little birdie has been telling me to bring them back. I know. Cancer, I'm a hostess, like coming to my home, but they were called moonlit dinners.
00:20:35
Speaker
Oh, that's nice. I had a friend who was a chef, and they would be almost seasonal. We would work on the menu, depending on what the themes would want it to be, and the table questions were around the food and around the theme. Wow. Look at you, Dromatserg.
00:20:54
Speaker
I know. And yeah, I mean, they were amazing. And just like the people that were in my house, like, I mean, it was, we all craved it.
00:21:07
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? We all craved it. So one of the SheNYC people had seen that on Instagram and reached out and was like, hey, there's this theater festival. We're thinking about expanding it again. Would Atlanta be a good spot for it? And at that time, I had never produced anything. What year was that? That was 2019. Yeah.
00:21:28
Speaker
I had never produced anything. The Virgo in me hadn't had its spotlight yet. I'm going to be making that all day long. But it was true, but it was interesting because at that time too, as an actor, I felt like I wasn't in spaces that felt like me or felt like stories that I wanted to be in. I was acting both in the film world and then the theater world.
00:21:58
Speaker
There was a couple of things that really felt cagey to who people thought I was and to who people thought I could play. So the opportunity of producing really didn't make sense to me until I realized that that's exactly what it was, that I could build a world that I wanted to be in. And the most integral piece to that process is having someone to do it with.
00:22:21
Speaker
And I think it was, Caitlin, it must have been our second coffee date. Literally, yeah. We never acted together. I think I helped you audition for one thing. Yeah, we self-taped together maybe once or twice. And this is truly our second coffee date. And Erica sits me down. I'm pretty sure we were at muchachos, which is still one of our favorites. You could find us working there often.
00:22:53
Speaker
But, you know, she's like, so do you want to produce a theater festival with me? I'd produced like one thing for New York Fringe.
00:23:12
Speaker
many years prior. And I was like, an entire festival in this city where I've been for like two years? Yeah. Absolutely. With this person who I'm on my second coffee date with, 1,000%. Yes. This sounds like the most sense. Yes. And that was it. Yeah. And we did it. And it was just like this, I don't know. I think one thing that Eric and I, I've witnessed us do time and time again is really just like,
00:23:42
Speaker
lead with faith and really trust our guts. And I think that that has taken us pretty far so far. And there was just this feeling of like, yeah, this person's bringing me to a table that I didn't know I even wanted to see that. And now I cannot even imagine my life without it.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah. And I also think that like, well, so we had that coffee date and then it was on. We were, we were full steam ahead. I think Danielle also works in the same way that we do where it's just like, yes, okay, cool. And we're launched. Do you know what I mean? So there's, there was an intention and a mission that was really important to she NYC that I think has, you've seen the ripple effect of it, right?
00:24:31
Speaker
So our coffee date was in 2019 and we were full steam ahead. She ATL was green lit and we were rocking for our first year in 2020.
00:24:42
Speaker
which literally I have to explain to the world what that was like. Immediately our first year we had to switch into a virtual space, which was honestly incredible because it allowed Caitlin and I to again get in touch with what we thought Atlanta could use and what we thought Atlanta needed.
00:25:08
Speaker
And not just what they needed in this bizarre virtual year, but also like if we're all going to be stuck in our homes, like how can we use this time to really dig in deep to get us out on the, when we come out on the other side to end up in a much better place. So we really dug into this like idea of what's the education we're not seeing in the community.
00:25:36
Speaker
Yeah, so we had we had classes, we're like, okay, we're going to have, you know, people from our community come in, we had Evie come in for, you know, a little.
00:25:48
Speaker
a chat. We had people from VST come in. We had, we had just people in our community. Okay. So E.B. Oolabi, who's I think now in New York, but is one of our Atlanta darlings and then Vernal and Sears theater. Yes. That's very cool. I didn't know y'all offered classes. That's, that's great. It was our first year here. Yes. Cause we were also like, I think, I mean, I'll speak for myself, but I was like, well,
00:26:13
Speaker
Oh, I'll learn to tell me how you're doing things. You know, we really it was closed room. It was only for the it was classes for the playwrights who we had accepted as a part of the festival that year. So it's a small cohort and their teams like whoever they wanted to bring in.
00:26:30
Speaker
Got it. And, and yeah, so we just kind of were like, really, Erica and I were looking for also an excuse to educate ourselves. We had we had this opportunity. We also brought in like a company from a device, the company from New York, this woman who produces animation for Disney, like these fun variety of voices to be like, this is all the things that
00:26:55
Speaker
dramaturgy that playwriting that that producing can be in this one little sliver of life like Yeah, exactly and now she NYC does that yearly so they have created a program that's like what theater school didn't teach you and is accessible for Nationwide just you know, they talk about grants and applying for grants. They talk about just
00:27:19
Speaker
Caitlin and I did a theater to film class last year. They really do all the things that- Everything's theater school didn't teach you. Oh, cool. I did not know they did that. Yeah, it's really awesome programming. Everyone who teaches are a part of the SheNYC family in some sense, but nationwide. Again, like Caitlin was saying, the experiences and voices are coming from different markets, different things.
00:27:48
Speaker
in ways that you could apply all the storytelling stuff. But then that, that kind of class structure led us to, to WTP, to working title playwrights and being like, well, what else do we want to see what space in, I think you mentioned ecosystem at the beginning of our call, Amber, and how like art ecosystem, art ecosystem and what part can she ATL play in that ecosystem? Like how can we support the work of
00:28:15
Speaker
working title playwrights or, you know, programs like Stripped Bar or Riser, like each one has a really special place in our community. How can she ATL either bridge some of the gaps or create just another, there's never enough opportunities for artists. So how can she ATL be another spot for people to work and to create and to feel supported?
00:28:39
Speaker
You know, every year it changes that second year, which was our first year that was in person, and we were at Windmill Arts Theater. We had two one-person shows. It was also our first year that we had a non-binary playwright, so really expanding the idea of what
00:29:00
Speaker
She was and always it started as a representation of marginalized genders in producing and in theater and non-binary playwrights and theater makers are absolutely a part of that. All right, so I would love to hear about the submissions process for She ATL.
Submissions and Production Process
00:29:24
Speaker
Can y'all break that down for me?
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah, so it's evolved a little bit. And this year is the first time that we have lumped our submissions with the She NYC arts. In that process, the playwright is able to submit to a particular festival. So they're in one page, they're saying, I want to submit to New York or I want to submit to LA or I want to submit to Atlanta. And we're really mindful about like,
00:29:56
Speaker
obviously what each city can offer, right? Producing a play in New York is going to come with different challenges and opportunities than producing a play in Atlanta. It also might depend on where the playwright is living or focused or where they picture this story first meeting an audience where that might have the best reception.
00:30:19
Speaker
that submission process starts end of September, early October, and we're accepting submissions until early December. At that point, there is a large committee of readers who are blind reading scripts, and we luckily have a whole lot of really wonderful volunteers to help out with this because we've also seen our submission rates grow immensely over the years. This is our fifth
00:30:48
Speaker
year of submissions. I think our first year, Erica, how many did we have? Oh, it was like maybe under 20. Yeah.
00:30:56
Speaker
under 20 seconds, and now we're like over 100. Wow, that's massive. Yeah, it's it's wild. And really quickly, Caitlin, I'm just gonna be super specific for anyone who's listening, you can go to the SheNYCarts.org page. And then there is a tab that lets you choose like Caitlin was saying, like which festival you want to submit to. But across the board, we require a full script. So that could either be a play or musical that as as
00:31:26
Speaker
is at least 75% finished. And the requirements is to also, if you're a musical, if you're submitting a musical, to at least have three full songs from the show to submit along with it. There are some different requirements for like one person shows. It's just like, if it has been performed before, give us like a three to five minute clip of it. If it was recorded. There are things that like, you know, to help you kind of create your package for the show that,
00:31:55
Speaker
are asked of you, but not required if you don't have it. Because the beautiful thing is, and we'll get into this probably later, is that we get submissions in all different types of stages, right? We work with plays who have seen readings, who have seen workshops, who have seen productions, or we get plays that have never been read out loud before. You know, so the stage of which a play arrives to Chiatiel varies, which is why our submission process is kind of open to catering that.
00:32:24
Speaker
I love the accessibility of that process. And just to clarify for listeners, y'all are bringing new plays into a production and y'all refer to this as a workshop production, right? But most of these look like full productions that I've seen. But the idea is that, am I correct in that the idea is that the world premiere?
00:32:48
Speaker
is still available to this writer, which is, I just wanted to clarify that, because I know that's something that y'all were making an effort to do. Yes. Yes. So you're saying the world premiere isn't she ATL, right? Exactly. Correct. That that's not something they're, you know, the idea that there's one show and never again, y'all are trying to help with that aspect. We're trying to help. We're trying to debug that a little bit because, I mean, as you know, in like the play development, like life,
00:33:16
Speaker
It's long, and we don't want to be the last stop for people. We want to be the first stop or the second stop or the third stop, but we really want to push them to, we want these shows to get into bigger, better houses. We want them to have longer than two performances. We want them to have full runs, but this is just a piece of the puzzle for the playwright to solve in order to get to that next step.
00:33:43
Speaker
I mean, it's really on the ground playwright training for producing for everything that they might want to know about what it means to put a show up. Right. Exactly. So that that's actually a good point, Amber, because, you know, we were talking about kind of the evolution of she ATL in the beginning years, we always offered production
Empowering Playwrights Through She ATL
00:34:05
Speaker
mentors. So we would bring on, I think,
00:34:07
Speaker
you were a production mentor. I ended up being a dramaturg, but I wasn't actually leads us into how we are, you know, here today. You know, we had a lot of production mentors that was really kind of helping the player because
00:34:24
Speaker
Again, the goal was to not wait for permission to have someone else say yes to your script, but to instead empower you to realize what it takes to get your script off the floor and into a space and in embodied. So it's like, don't wait for permission. Don't wait for these people to tell you when your voice is ready to be heard. Do you know?
00:34:44
Speaker
It's honestly, if I may just say, it's almost like a self-producing training experience. Like when I hear y'all talking about it and I've always kind of felt this way about it because the people submitting are the writers. This is for the writers. And then now you are, you know, you're hiring support systems. You're the production support staff for them, right? There's just a number of different things. You're offering classes, you know, now you're offering dramaturgy to them.
00:35:12
Speaker
You know, it's absolutely phenomenal what y'all have built. I just want to say thank you because it's an incredible opportunity and I have seen so many artists come out of this program and feel really confident and keep working and be hired around town and become people that are recognized. You know, my friend is this year is a She ATL recipient, Julia.
00:35:36
Speaker
Yes. Of course. Y'all's people and your community that you're building is really making an impact. I love to hear that. You know what's cool too is that, yes, this is focused for the playwright, right? But if you're in this industry, if you're in theater, there is a time, there will come a day where you have to wear lots of different hats.
00:36:00
Speaker
and learning to self-produce, not every playwright is going to be a producer, and we know that. We know that when we read the scripts. Our job, I think, as executive producers, and I'll say, one of the talents I think Erica and I have is being able to see the person, the artist, for who they are and do
00:36:22
Speaker
our damnedest to make sure that they have the specific support that that artist needs. So saying like, okay. And yes, Amber, you mentioned like the kind of support that we offer and just logistically, she ATL tries to take care of all the burdensome things. So we're going to find your space. We're going to pay for your space. We provide intimacy directors, we provide lighting designers, we provide sound designers, unless you have your own that you want to bring into the team.
00:36:50
Speaker
We provide as many prop and furniture set piece crossover as we possibly can. So if there's like things that can get shared between shows, we'll provide it for you. So what is ended up on your plate as the producer playwright is of course working your script, finding your creative team. So that's the director and your cast. We provide the casting resources though. So we not only open up our platforms for casting, but we'll hold a call back session.
00:37:19
Speaker
So it's all the things that you start to learn if it's your first time producing or not, you start to learn the pieces that are required and will bring you into that process. So you see the pieces that are required, but we're still trying to alleviate the little bit of the burden because producing is not easy. Right. And so the balance that we've tried to find is both, we want you to have this opportunity to work creatively in your, in your script and in your world and to building what you want, what you're envisioning.
00:37:45
Speaker
while also having a foot in the, in the, what it takes to get it done. But Caitlin and this year, Caitlin, Brianna and I will, will blood sweat and tears for the, for the burden of some stuff. Not to say that you won't have some challenges because a writer and a producer for the first time will present its own challenges, but that's what we're there for. We have now shifted into our mentors being really the production staff. So will be your go-to in production land.
00:38:12
Speaker
But the she ATL dramaturgs with the WTP portion that we've included is really kind of where that mentorship has kind of transitioned into.
Artistic Collaborations and Community Building
00:38:21
Speaker
So we can also honor the process of getting it production ready, production, I'm quoting, production ready. And so it is so key that the work that y'all are doing, I'm sure that you have connected people that are going to be collaborators for life.
00:38:37
Speaker
Yeah. And we've seen it happen. We've seen it happen. And it's so exciting to see, you know, teams work together consistently after they've been through the Chiatail process. And I think that, you know, I mentioned earlier that Chiatail is trying to find its place in the, in the world, right? In the Atlanta world. And one of the things that like, we haven't talked about, but it's sticky and it's uncomfortable, but it's also money, right? So it's like, there, there is money involved in producing.
00:39:01
Speaker
Because what Caitlin and I have found is that, you know, in SheATL and in our other endeavors, there's an energy exchange that you want to have with your collaborators and you might not be able to pay them a lot, but it's being, I see you, I value you and I want you here with me. And that translates, that's money sometimes, right? So SheATL will provide a small stipend. It won't cover everything for your place, but it'll get you started. But what it, it forces you to do is to figure out how you're going to fund it.
00:39:31
Speaker
and to figure out the logistical sides of things as well. Speaking of the funding part, a lot of that can be figured out through backend funding, meaning that all of the playwrights get the majority of the ticket sales. They are able to recoup a lot of the funding on the
00:39:55
Speaker
back end of the entire experience. So that they're getting a check. Yeah, exactly. And it's also incentive, right? That has to work at your show. Exactly. So not only did you start with writing this play, but then you learned how to produce it. And part of producing is marketing. Absolutely. And if you have ever followed Erica and I,
00:40:19
Speaker
on Instagram, then you know our entire summers are, guess what? She, ATL, come in and have as many different ways as we can spin it, right? Like, you know that from our feeds, but we put a huge emphasis on our playwrights to market their shows with the incentive that, hey, if you put butts in those seeds,
00:40:40
Speaker
you get to see the benefit that is going back into your wallet and you're either paying yourself back or you're seeding the next iteration of this project. And to clarify, there's a portion of each ticket that goes to the playwright and on top of that, there's an option to tip your writer. So audience members can buy tickets online and add an extra bump, but either way, we have made it so that the writer sees a profit from each ticket sale.
00:41:08
Speaker
That's a really creative solution. That's what we're here for. Again, the opportunity to do something different, do you know what I mean? It's like the opportunity to make a space that's freaking worth it for everyone involved. And to also see a system that doesn't work for a new writer. The traditional ticket and producing
00:41:36
Speaker
model in America does not work for a workshop production. It doesn't. So let's find a system that does. And again, this does not come. What you all are hearing is a lot of like aha moments, but there was a long road before these aha moments of figuring things out of the struggles. It hasn't always been easy.
00:42:00
Speaker
And it will continue to be, right? No, but I will say that I think what has saved us, Caitlin, is that we have pretty strong pillars. Do you know what I mean? We have pretty strong intentions for what we hope remains the same. And when you're talking about tickets and you're talking about people, it's always accessibility, always accessibility. So we want people to see your shows. So as long as we can come back to being accessible, great. We've done our job.
00:42:29
Speaker
ticket prices will change, but it's like, but we're trying to get a certain group of people involved. Do you know what I mean? That would not be for goers or things like that, you know?
00:42:42
Speaker
And then it's also like space, right? So it's like, when you're building your teams, we share about spaces and about creating spaces and about, you know, having not only like a money exchange, we can't require that of our playwrights, right? Like how you build your spaces up to, up to the playwrights slash producers, but having those conversations, think about this, you know, you're bringing people into your space. What matters to you? How do you, how do you want this play to be, you know, to be embodied?
00:43:10
Speaker
There's some things that she ATL requires like, you know, the intimacy direction and things like that. And she ATL has shifted. We have, we have shifted in order to create spaces that are safe and elicit that kind of creativity that we're wanting from our team. So if a space doesn't work for us, we'll move, you know, and that's something that we have had to have tough conversations about, but like, you know, just internally be like, well, what matters to us? Is it a really, you know,
00:43:40
Speaker
leveling the scales all the time. Is it this space that we really want to be in or is it protecting our people? Right. And for us, we decided that protecting our people is always going to win.
00:43:49
Speaker
I think there's also something to be said for the cost of the space is one of the biggest costs in producing. So you're covering one of the biggest costs that we run up against. And one of the most monumental challenges in producing, especially in Atlanta, where there's so very little space, probably significantly less theater spaces than most cities where this much theater is done. Atlanta has a lot of space. It just hasn't been
00:44:19
Speaker
The doors aren't always open. Yeah, the doors aren't always open. Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, it seems difficult for our larger producers to welcome the community in. Yeah, right. And this is a bone I do have to pick with Atlanta. We need more
00:44:38
Speaker
doors open and to also recognize that not everything has to be in competition with each other. Like we can have this kind of programming and it's not going to limit me from going to seeing other kinds of programming. More is more sometimes. Okay, you know, like I want to live in a culturally vibrant city where I have the pick
00:45:04
Speaker
of shows. If we continue to say like, and this is a problem in theater across the country, but, you know, dwindling audiences, how do we capture them? For Chaitiel, we have the benefit of like, we're not beholden to subscribers. We don't have that. We are really trying to sow the seeds of younger audiences of how do we bring in this new generation of not only theater makers, but also
00:45:33
Speaker
theater attendees, right? Let us into your space so that we could share audiences because it's not a competition. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think there's in an art that is inherently collaborative. I think that we are responsible for working together and acknowledging each other's abilities to come to the table and bring something.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's just reimagine, reimagine how things can be done. Those bigger places, these bigger theaters can and should have a community liaison.
00:46:12
Speaker
They grab structure support that supports the smaller companies that will eventually feed into their ocean. Do you know what I mean? Absolutely. I mean, let's look at it selfishly. It is all building the groundwork for you. Yes. I mean, everything. We are training everyone so you can hire them. My God, you know, this is a thing.
00:46:32
Speaker
That's the thing, if it's considering, and I am no economics person, but it's an investment. I feel like I learned that lesson a lot when I became co-artistic director of Theater Emery, so a different kind of producing opportunity, but knowing
00:46:55
Speaker
Who is our biggest stakeholder? It's the students. We are producing educational theater here. What does that do? I am prepping your next employee. I am prepping your next intern. I am prepping your next creator, your next associate. That is the job that I'm really doing in this particular role. And as an institution, the more that we can think about
00:47:24
Speaker
who we are in community with and who we can best serve, the better it serves all of us. Yeah. That's beautifully put. So true. I think there's something to be said for the two of you being artists very much in the community, right? It gives you a chance to be literally on the ground with your fellow artists.
00:47:48
Speaker
knowing what is going to be useful for you as a producer to know. And I think sometimes our artistic directors don't spend enough time with everybody, right? And we're not just talking about going to see shows, like there's just so much more. There's so many different ways to engage with the community and make the ecosystem something you are actually taking part in.
00:48:12
Speaker
And, you know, it's not just the artistic directors. There's a lot of people in our community who simply don't show up. Right. And I think I think it's so important that people understand that they are missed. Right. That's that's it. I guess I feel the weight of the responsibility that a producer should have. And listen, there are producers that ignore that responsibility. And I don't have that privilege. I mean, I see myself as a Latina who is
00:48:41
Speaker
you know, in leadership spaces and I hadn't seen that a lot before, especially in theater. They definitely exist. They definitely exist nationwide.
00:48:49
Speaker
but I have not seen that in our community in a big supported way. And we all know this, so like my acting has completely informed producing. Now my producing has completely informed how I approach a script as an actor and all the different ways that we engage, like you're saying, it's like coming to community events, it's being an audience member, it's offering a voice for people who might not have,
00:49:14
Speaker
found the strength in theirs yet. You know what I mean? Like there's so many different ways to show up. And I guess that is the need is that we need to see those people wanting to show up. Yeah. Yeah. This year I have stepped down as a CHEATL producer. I transitioned to the board officially. A lot of that is because I know that I wouldn't be able to do the job that
00:49:40
Speaker
that the way that I think and really firmly believe it needs to be done. I just, for all you listeners out there, I had a baby last summer, and so now I'm producing her life, you know? But that has taken on a big chunk of my time, obviously, but it can't
00:50:02
Speaker
I couldn't let myself sacrifice the job, you know, and Erica deserves more. The city deserves more. So we've got two really awesome new producers. And again, it's this idea that we get to pass the torch to these people who now get to hold space and become leaders. And I'm thrilled to be able to do that.
00:50:26
Speaker
I'm saying this so it gets memorialized and hopefully never gets forgotten. I also think that one of our strengths is Caitlin and I know what we're not good at. Yeah. While we will put in the effort to understand that language and understand our gaps, we're never going to assume that we're the person to do it. We know what these new producers, Caitlin and Aubriana, I'm already learning so much.
00:50:51
Speaker
And they have strengths that I have had to adapt to, but I'm not good at. So guess they can fly with it. You know what I mean? And I think it's that sort of mentality that will keep us kind of on the ground in the perfect way.
00:51:08
Speaker
Yeah, that fine balance between like, I'm just not good at that. And like, I've tried it 10 freaking times and I do not like it. And let's just be honest. It's honestly not even I'm bad at it. It's like, I don't like it. I don't like it. I'm probably bad at it because I don't like it. But like knowing your strengths and knowing your weaknesses might be like the best way to move forward, you know, because you build your team, you build your team in a way that you can trust it.
00:51:36
Speaker
And you build your team with people who, you know, fill in the gaps. And Erica always says this, but we don't create art in a vacuum, right? Like we have to look outwards. We can't just rely on the self. This is the kind of art that is made in community. So yeah.
00:51:57
Speaker
Well, this is amazing. I have so loved hearing about this. Will y'all tell us about the upcoming festival this year? A little teaser?
She ATL Festival Preview
00:52:05
Speaker
Okay, so we are really excited because we have four shows this year. We tried so hard to make it three, but we really couldn't. Good problem to have. You know, we're not complaining. We will be at Seven Stages the first week of September. We have Pepsi Cola Bitch by Delilah McGee.
00:52:27
Speaker
We have Plan B by Emily McLean. We have Yani Stone and the Honeypot Trap by Ontario Leverett. And we have Searching for Abuelo by Gretchen Suarez-Pena. Amazing. So first week of September at seven stages, we will have the SHI ATL 2024.
00:52:46
Speaker
Yes. Fantastic. That's amazing. And I also just want to shout out to y'all offering dramaturgy to your artists. It is so amazing that y'all are offering that. Every playwright needs a dramaturg. So we are so excited to be able to be partnering with y'all. You've talked about training playwrights. I've been training dramaturgs for about the same amount of time. And I started doing it because there was no one to hire.
00:53:15
Speaker
And so now there's a lot of people to hire. And I can know that these amazing students are doing magic of their own across the city and hopefully elsewhere. So thank you for all the work that y'all do for Atlanta and for artists. I really appreciate it. It's so great to hear y'all talk about it.
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. It was so fun. And thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Amber. It wasn't like WTP, so we're grateful that you're willing to partner with us and make it something special. Oh, it's so fun. And Delilah and Anterior are both working title members.
00:53:57
Speaker
I know that's so great. I'm so excited. Absolutely. Interior is one of our scholarship recipients this year. And Delilah is one of our resident dramaturgs and magic makers, of course. So I'm so excited. What you're talking about is just like, we're all just... It's true. The more that the little guys can help each other out, the bigger and better we become. It's those community building blocks that really makes us all stronger.
00:54:26
Speaker
It's so true. And so where can listeners find y'all on Instagram and online if they want to check y'all out? So my personal page is at erica.inesse.miranda. We also have a she ATL Instagram page that you can find us at she ATL arts and Caitlin. Yes. My personal page is at Caitlin J Hargraves and yeah.
00:54:55
Speaker
Oh, also we should give a little plug. Erika and I also do some film work and you can follow that work at Capacito Productions.
00:55:05
Speaker
Oh, I love that name. So cute. Yeah, well, it's that's a story for another time. Yeah, y'all have been doing some really cool film work over the years. It's been really great to watch. So congratulations on that too. Well, let me just say this, I will say two of the four screenwriters that we have worked with have gone through she ATL.
00:55:29
Speaker
That's incredible. Love it. So people could potentially find themselves working with y'all on a film. We're here to tell stories one way or another. So yeah. I'll say it again. I think people that have some film experience are adding a lot to what we do here in theater. And one of the things is some producing chops. So thank you for that, right? Yeah, you got to know how to produce in film. You cannot joke around about that stuff, right?
00:55:59
Speaker
You got to know the ins and outs, like the back of your hand. I think there's a lot of detail-oriented structuring to producing film, and I do see a lot of the people that are gathering have some film experience, and I don't think it's a coincidence. And you know what I'll say just really quickly is that yes, and we have breaking a lot of those rules with our theatrical processes. That's what I was going to say first, is bringing theater into film
00:56:29
Speaker
does so much wonder, just as much as we're feeling that in the theater community, like bringing film processes into theater, bringing theater processes into film, whoever decided long, long ago, but that these two things have to be entirely separate and fuck that. Well, no. Yeah, we have blown a lot of our film crew minds with like the things that we do from our theater world. So they're like, what?
00:56:56
Speaker
which is bringing dramaturgy into film. It's bringing dramaturgy into our film process. Yeah. So you'll see a lot of it show up in pre-production development stages. Um, and it's, it's, it's, I mean, it's worked. We're on HBO, Amazon, Apple. You can find us everywhere. So it's amazing. That's fantastic. Well, I'm glad y'all mentioned that. Thank you for plugging it and all of the work y'all do y'all are so busy. How do you do it all? What?
00:57:31
Speaker
Well, thanks so much for taking the time today. Thank you, Amber.
00:57:37
Speaker
Thank you listeners for tuning in to Table Work, how new plays get made with Amber Bradshaw. This podcast was brought to you by Working Title Playwrights. If you like what you've heard today, support this podcast and all our initiatives by leaving us a review, following us, and or consider making a tax deductible donation to Working Title Playwrights at www.workingtitelplaywrights.com.