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BRIANA JACKSON

Hi. Welcome to the Arts Axis Florida podcast. I'm your host, Brianna Jackson. Arts Axis Florida is a comprehensive initiative designed to shine a spotlight on your neighborhood's diverse arts organizations. Each episode will highlight their programs and more importantly, amplify the voices of the people they impact conversations community and connections. That is a value in engaging with your local arts organizations.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Arts Axis equals Arts Acess.

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SPONSOR

Support for Arts Axis Florida comes from the Community Foundation, Tampa Bay, championing philanthropy, encouraging and connecting givers to bring lasting good investing in education and economic mobility. Learn more at C F Tampa Bay dot org.

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BRIANA JACKSON

In this special bonus episode of the Arts Axis Florida podcast, we speak with Power Stories Theater about their upcoming Voices of Women Theater Festival. This event will showcase performances that put a spotlight on female experiences within our communities while celebrating their contributions to the arts. And other areas of society as a whole.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Hi everyone. I'm so happy to have you join us today, so let's jump right into it. Hey, Deb, let's start with you. So Power Stories Theater is putting on a Voices of Women Theater festival, and I see that your press materials says that the event will help to lift the voices of women and playwright. So can you tell our audience what that means and what we have to look forward to?

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DEB

Oh, absolutely. Did you know that 85% of the works right now on Broadway are written and directed by men more than ever? Our goal is to showcase and elevate women's voices with the festival over two weeks. We have two shows live in the theater and 12 live streamed from our virtual stage on Wednesday through Sunday, October 6th through 17th.

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DEB

And basically, the Voices of Women's Theater Festival puts 18 women playwrights in the driver's seat with relatable stories, comedies, dramas, shorts, full length. I mean, there's literally something for everybody. And these shows are written by women with powerful roles for women that are meaningful because these stories aren't coming from a male perspective. They only assume they know what our female life experiences.

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DEB

But I really think that's why a lot of the plays and musicals are so One-Dimensional and kind of lifeless because unless he's walked in our high heels and worried about what he's wearing or clutched a pair of keys in his hand as a weapon, I mean, how can a male writer experience our day to day life to tell our authentic story?

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DEB

The Voices of Women Theater Festival gives these women that platform.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Well, Deb, thank you for sharing that. I was not aware that 85% of the playwrights written were by men. That is that's a big deal. And I think that's a change.

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DEB

We're doing our small part.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Absolutely. Well, thank you for doing that. So I see that this is also in collaboration with Through Line, and that's a theatrical theater company. Can you tell us what Through Line is and how this partnership began?

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DEB

Oh, wonderful. We are actually we look for different theater companies that kind of either follow or have the same kind of mission statement that we do. We have similar mission statements. Ours is to tell true stories, to open hearts and minds, and theirs is to share stories that elevate and enlighten. So it was an absolute perfect match for us to work together to present this festival.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Absolutely. And thank you so much for sharing that. Sherry, I have a question for you. Speaking of where all things began, I'm eager to know the backstory of this festival. What sort of goals or vision did you have when you were creating this new opportunity?

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SHERRY

Well, I know for a long time we've represented and presented things that have been written by women and not intentionally, primarily necessarily. But we most of us are coming from that perspective. And because of that, we just wanted the opportunity for women to tell powerful stories. The same statistics that Deb was mentioning in We wanted to give them a platform and an opportunity to just be able to tell a great story that also happened to come from a woman's point of view and not only are the vast majority of the plays written by men, they're also written by white men.

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SHERRY

So we wanted to give that more people of color, women of color, different perspectives of the diversity of ages and races. We wanted to give them a platform as well to express what's going on in their lives. And a lot of the plays are also represent how they were affected by Black Lives Matter and the pandemic and all of that is really at the crux of what we're seeing socially. So we felt these voices were really important.

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BRIANA JACKSON

And I'm so glad you mentioned the point of diversity, because not only are you providing a platform for women's voices, but as you said, you've chosen to bring lots of diversity to the table. What is your thought process as you choose this line up, these different stories?

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SHERRY

Well, of course, we want to have great stories and we want to present great theater. But we also felt like they needed to be strong, not only well-written and all of the general classic terms but we wanted to make sure that it was a voice that was clear and had something to say, or it was something that really represented the daily life that we're all going through or that we have gone through a lot of them.

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SHERRY

Also, take us back a little bit into the past, some of them a little further. And there's a lot of lessons there that they taught us. We need to make sure that we're picking up on those and those women's voices are heard. One of them is about the first U.S. congresswoman and how that happened and what her journey was like.

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SHERRY

And most of us had never heard her name.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Wow.

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SHERRY

So this gives us the opportunity to learn about what women before us have done.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Right. And that just speaks volumes to just our history in America. There are so many untold stories and unknown names of unknown women. Let's hear from some of the playwrights. Carolyn, this one's for you. I see you have a play that's called In McClintock's Corn. What is this about? And what was your inspiration behind this?

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CAROLYN

Well, this is this is about the geneticist, Barbara McClintock. And I know that doesn't sound terribly exciting, but it actually is. It's about a woman who was attempting to have a career in the sciences in the 1920s which wasn't easy, but she was also lesbian. She was also gender non-conforming. She wore men's clothes a lot, didn't really care about clothes, honestly.

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CAROLYN

And her partnership with another scientist, Harriet Creighton, who was very much like she was. And the play is a lot of fun because the whole thing takes place in a cornfield. And we keep revisiting that. That's you know, she studied corn genetics. So we see the corn field at different places and times. But it's always a corn field.

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CAROLYN

And the play takes them through the Depression. Through the rise of Hitler in in Berlin, through World War Two, through the atomic era, with a discovery of the DNA structure Watson and Crick. And it ends when Barbara is in her eighties and she wins the Nobel Prize. So it's following a very unusual relationship between these two women and their struggle in a male dominated field.

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CAROLYN

But also, I feel like it says something really important. Barbara was autistic, and that was another thing I wanted to put on the stage. And she she had an intense relationship with the corn. She grew it. Generation after generation. She crossbred it. She understood it. She studied it under a microscope. And she was just so far ahead of her time not seeing nature as some kind of backdrop for human drama.

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CAROLYN

She really understood that all life is interconnect did and that we we haven't cracked the code on anything that we are. What we don't know is far greater than what we do know. She was reverent and humble in her approach to science, which we are finally coming around to realizing is something we should have been doing all along.

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CAROLYN

So the play covers a lot of a lot of different things.

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BRIANA JACKSON

How did you learn about Barbara were you doing research and came across her name? Was this a story that you've known of for years? Tell me more about how you came across her.

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CAROLYN

Well, I read a biography of her 30 years ago, and I knew I really wanted to write about her because she was so unusual and brilliant. She was just brilliant and making connections really, really asking what is life? And but 30 years ago, I was, you know, in my thirties maybe my early thirties. And I just so I just kept pushing it, you know, and I would every five years or so, I would read something else and take a whole pile of notes and then just put it to the side.

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CAROLYN

And then finally, two years ago, it was time to write the play. And in the writing of it, I came to understand that I was autistic also. So that was a bit of a surprise. But also I realized I could not have written the play any sooner because now I'm in my late sixties, and there are things that you understand about life when you have lived a lot of it and seen a lot of eras come and go And of course Barbara's was in college in the 1920s and I was in college in the seventies, but there's still just, you know, our lives have covered a long span and it's, yeah, so I really could not

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CAROLYN

have written the play. I wanted to write about her until I was old.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Well, that's a powerful testimony and the fact that you learned about her 30 years ago and you were telling you're helping to share her story today. She loves an impact on you and she does have a very unique background and I really feel that her story should be portrayed. So thank you for choosing Barbara. I really want to now I want to watch.

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BRIANA JACKSON

You mentioned also you, you placed a really important emphasis on diversity and also non gender conformity. And there are so many helpful messages in this work about Barbara. And I think it's just an a perfect example of how society shouldn't assume social standards because Barbara definitely did not fit into that. And and she shouldn't. So I really think that's powerful.

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CAROLYN

Well, it's nice to realize that today women are nowhere near stigmatized to the degree that she was you know, she just really had a great deal of difficulty trying to wear the women's clothing of the twenties. Plus, you know, her job was out in the field.

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CAROLYN

And she was having to be a farmer half the time. So, you know, it's nice to see that some things have moved, but other things haven't And she made a very bold choice. She chose to be stigmatized and isolated, but true to herself. And she paid a very high price for that. But on the other hand, she was able to devote 100% of her attention to what she cared about, which was not clothing, not makeup, not you know, climbing the ladder and promotions and all that.

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CAROLYN

And so that was she's been a role model for me for all these years because that choice to be men don't have to make this choice usually, but women have to choose between being respected or approved of. And Barbara one people's respect, but they consistently disapproved of her. And that takes a lot of courage. And as I say, she's been a role model for me because I am attempting to choose the respect route and not the approval route.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Well, I, for one, am looking forward using her story. And I hope that after your audience views it, hopefully Barbara is a household name. People know who she is and what she stood for. And it impacts someone's life. So thank you for sharing that.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Deb, I'm going to throw this one to you. So I must say the title of your play, Once Upon A seems to have a little comedic side to it, which I love. I feel like your work is something that we can all relate to in different points of our life. So tell us more about your playwright.

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DEB

Sure. I'm used to making people cry with my plays. So this was a challenge. I challenged myself to attempt a comedy because it's harder to get a laugh than it is to get a tear. And my play is about a writer with writer's block, and it literally came to life because I was having writer's block, and I visualized my characters helping me tell their own story.

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DEB

And then suddenly I had a comedy about a woman writing a play, about a woman writing a play that had a beginning, middle and an end. And I was like, Okay, I guess we can write comedy now. So I think it's a little bit of an escapism, some fluff, because a lot of dramatic pieces in this festival and this one, if you don't walk away with the smile, then I didn't do my job.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Can you give us a little sample of the comedic side in this?

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DEB

There are two characters that are trying to meet in a romance, and the writer just can't make up her mind. So you will actually see the character take on every single role, whether it's a guy and a guy, a girl and a girl, a girl and a guy. They have to emulate what she's describing in the page. So I don't want to give too much away because it's a short play.

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DEB

It's part of the night of shorts. So it's only about a 30 minute play. So I just know that there are some cute, unexpected moments and maybe or maybe not the characters will get together.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Well, I can already relate to this because you mentioned the character couldn't make up their mind and that is literally me. So it's a relatable performance. I see. It's been awesome speaking with you all today. Before we go, is there anything you all would like to add?

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DEB

Yeah. We hope everyone will come and see a show or two or buy a festival pass and see all these great stories because one of the coolest things and I honestly, personally I think is the best part, is after each production we get together on Zoom and we do a talk back with the playwright and the director and cast.

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DEB

So even if you can't physically be in the theater with us, we still can all get together on Zoom and enter questions or listen to comments and it's just an entirely different experience to actually talk to the patrons and get their responses. It really, truly is my favorite part of the festival, and you can get your ticket to Power Stories dot com and just click on the Voices of Women Theater Festival schedule and you can click on the schedule and read about the 18 Playwrights BIOS and also a synopsis of all the shows that are going to be featured in our festival.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Wonderful. Is there anything else anyone wants to share?

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CAROLYN

I just wanted to thank you all for being here, and I feel very privileged to be part of this festival.

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DEB

Just want to let everybody know that tickets are $15 for an individual ticket or $99 for a festival pass, and you can enjoy it in the theater to shows or from the comfort of your home wherever you are. Any one of the shows, because it will be all live streamed and what's super cool, what Power Stories is doing?

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DEB

The playwrights are getting $3 for every one of their tickets sold.

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BRIANA JACKSON

Well, Deb, Sherry, and Carolyn, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It's been a pleasure getting to know each and every one of you and learning about the performances and what we can expect in October. The Voices of Women Theater Festival is such a wonderful opportunity for female artists to showcase their works.

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BRIANA JACKSON

By utilizing their platform Power Stories Theater is not only uplifting the voices of women, but it's providing impactful stories of female experiences throughout history. Performances like these are pushing against the assumed values that embody the female experiences for so long. If more organizations did this, we can truly reach equality for all walks of life. To learn more about Power Stories, Theater's Voices of Women Theater Festival, please visit our Shownotes I'm Briana Jackson, and you have been listening to the Arts Access Florida podcast.

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BRIANA JACKSON

This show is a product of WUSA Public Media with the help of our sponsors, the Community Foundation, Tampa Bay, and Gobioff Foundation. Our show is produced by Malaika Hollist, Aliyah Moffitt, Chandler Balkcom, and Leslie Laney. A special thanks to our editor, Scott Walker, and our entire engineering team. You can find out more information, performances and other content that our local groups are creating by following us on Facebook or Instagram and visiting our website Arts Axis Florida dot org.

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BRIANA JACKSON

That's ARTS A X I S F L dot org. Copyright 2021 WUSF Public Media.