 So, are we all ready to go, Caitlin? Yeah, we've got all the attendees. We're letting attendees in currently. And people might also trickle in. So I'm going to give Richie, yeah, the ready. Just checking that we're good to go. All right, I am just going to start my intro. Hello, hopefully we are live on HowlRound. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Reimagined Theater, a panel series that brings artists and community leaders together to envision a new theatrical world. My name is Nubra Nelson. I'm the director of arts engagement at Seattle Rep. And my pronouns are she and her. I'll give a brief physical description of myself for blind and low-vision audience members. I am a light-skinned brown woman with short brown hair, wearing a multicolored shirt and a gold necklace. Behind me are as a white wall with black and white photos. I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the Coast Salish people here in Seattle, including the Duwamish people past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish tribe. This acknowledgement, of course, does not take the place of authentic relationships with indigenous communities that serves as just a first step in honoring the land that we're on. For more resources on how to support local indigenous communities, please visit the land acknowledgement page on the Seattle Rep website. I really deeply appreciate each of these panelists being here to have this conversation. I know they're all incredibly busy folks and all parents themselves, or mostly parents themselves here. We're doing these panels so that we can envision what a future of equity and justice looks like and how the arts and theater should be a part of that and be a consistent part of community voice. The leading questions for this discussion are, if you could wave a magic wand and build a new theater landscape, what would you create? What does theater at the heart of public life look like? And what would theatrical processes and organizations look like if they were fully supportive of parents in all stages and structures of parenthood? People in the Zoom audience, please think about your answers to these questions since we're going to invite you to be a part of the conversation and join the discussion actively at the end of the panel. And in the meantime, you can react and ask questions in the chat box. This panel is in partnership with Bushwick Book Club's concert based on Angela Garb's book, Like a Mother. That concert is taking place on Saturday, May 22nd at 7.30 p.m. and will feature monologues about motherhood from previous Seattle rep shows done by local actors, including our panelists today, Faith Russell. You can get your tickets at thebushwickbookclubseattle.com. Now I'm going to pass it to my co-facilitator for this panel, Jasmine Joshua and the rest of the panelists to please themselves briefly. Hi, my name is Jasmine Joshua. I use they, them pronouns. I am also speaking on Duwamish land. Thank you, Nara, for that acknowledgement. I am a white person wearing a light blue shirt with dyed reddish hair. Behind me is a mess. And probably there will be a black and white cat who will walk across my face several times during this talk. And I am going to pass it to Veronica Wilhelm. Hi, I'm Veronica Wilhelm. I use she, her pronouns. And I'm an organizational development consultant. I'm so excited to be here. I'm a light skinned person with dark hair. And I have a green plaid shirt on behind me are bookcases that are teal with rainbow order books, and I'm looking for other tchachis. Yeah. Do I need anything else for that, Jasmine? I think that's the whole intro. Okay, I'm going to pass it to Sarah. My name is Sarah Russell. I use she, her pronouns. I am a black woman with kind of long, wavy blondish brownish hair. My background, I'm at work. And I'm wearing a black t-shirt all behind me where you can see a couple chairs. And I'm wearing a black shirt that you can't fully tell, but I'm wearing a black panther t-shirt. Wakanda forever. And I'm going to pass it to Jess. Thanks, Sarah. My name is Jess Spencer. My pronouns are she, her. I am the artistic associate and casting director at village theater. I'm wearing my hair. I'm wearing a rainbow striped shirt and a gray cardigan. And I'm in a predominantly white background room until I move. And then you get to see a dresser with a lot of books and mess and additional tchachis on it. Very grateful to be here today. And I will pass this to Faith. Thank you, Jess. I was so enraptured with your room. I had to unmute myself. I'm so happy to be here. My name is Faith Bennett Russell. I use she, her pronouns. I am a 35 year theater professional as an actor, director, teaching artist, playwright, et cetera, et cetera. I am an African-American caramel colored woman. I have what I call Beyonce blonde hair, which she took from me. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm in my dining room. Don't tell her I said that or the beehive. They'll scratch my eyes right out. I'm in my dining room with beige and white pictures of sorts. I collect teapots. If I was able to scan to my left, there's flowers and also various teas. Jasmine come on over for tea sometime. I can see you looking. And again, so, so happy to be here. And I'm going to pass it to, I'm going to pass it to you. I am mixed pexa plenty. My pronouns are they, them, yes, queen. They aren't preferred. They are pleased and thank you. And I am a burlesque performer and producer in the Seattle area. And I am the chair, board chair of the newly formed Seattle burlesque and cabaret co-op here in Seattle, which now operates the give in, which was formerly the copious love space. Thank you to copious love for the generous, generous gift of the space. And a brief description me. I am a black non-binary human. I am wearing black glasses that have leopard print on the edges. I'm wearing a black t-shirt with white print that says social justice rogue by any means necessary. And I'm wearing a black and white cardigan that is hounds to print. And I have a flower in my hair that is also black and white hounds to print. And my background is a rhinestone white shelf and a white wall with black feather fan there in the corner. And is it Alisa? I'm always the last one because no one knows how to say my name. Thanks, mom. It's A, Lisa. So with a big A. My friend said one who came from New York, he's like, just think of like, hey, Lisa. You're A, Lisa. That's how you say it. I am a light-skinned lady with blonde hair. I have a hat on. My daughter said, why are you wearing a cowboy hat, mom? I like hats. Yeah, I have some blue earrings, an orange-ish, reddish, rusty shirt, I suppose. Behind me is, well, too many pianos. And some guitars and a drum and some lights on a fake wall. This wall was really gross before, but I found this drape that makes it look like barnwood. So that was like $12. Good purchase. And a couple of plants. I am the development director for Bushwick Northwest. And I also run the choral program at Anglemore High School. And I teach songwriting and guitar and piano. And I'm also the music director of the musicals there. And I help run the Women in Music Collective. And I sing in the Maggie ensemble, which I may talk about because I love them. I think that's all. Is that all? Okay. Lovely. Thank you all so much. I'll pass it to Jasmine, who will really be lead facilitating this panel as our parent facilitator representative. Take it away, Jasmine. Hello. Hello, friends. Thank you all for coming. I'm so excited. I love this conversation because while I have had it a couple of times, it is always different because parenting, there's a thing that connects all of us, the experience of raising other human beings. But everyone comes at it from a different perspective. And sometimes I also love hearing other people say things that I'm like, oh, yeah, that thing that I never thought of, but I do and that I feel. So let's start with our first question and dive right in. And which I believe was if you could wave a magic wand and start everything over, how would you rebuild, especially from the lens of a parent? And I think we can just popcorn this. Or I can force one of you to do it. My Spanish teacher in high school used to say voluntarios o victivas. That was her line. I have so many opinions about this. First of all, the culture of theater, I wrote a whole master's thesis on it. The culture of theater and the culture of martyrdom around your job. For the American workplace, that's key to how we operate. It's martyrdom within the work that we do. One of the things that I keep thinking, and I think it's important to think about that. When I had my son, my husband and I were the last ones in our friend group or within the crew that he was on. He was the master of Christian at the Seattle Repertory Theater. We were the last ones to have kids. So we got to watch everyone else try and figure it out first. And then it was us. And one of the things I thought about was how he did a lot of hard work. Part of that was great just because he could do that. But also, man, it took a lot of trial and error, a lot of families and a lot of children who had to suffer first before he could figure out the right mix of advocacy to get what he needed. So when I think about if I could rewrite everything, I would start by saying, I wish theater would accept from the outset that the work that we do, we don't have to suffer at all hours of the day and night. We can actually integrate the science that we know about what makes people best, not depriving them along the way. And the work will still get done. And it will still be beautiful and impactful. You can still support people in the way they want to be supported. If you can start by saying, let's take into account that humans are the ones who are putting on theater and take humanity into account. And I think that would go a long way. And in the U.S., in particular, I feel like we suffer from this martyrdom that coincides with capitalism and how capitalism treats people like cogs in a machine. And the thing I think that we got the benefit of by the time we got around to having our kid was at that point, everyone else had stripped away the cogniz of their work. It became clear by the time we were, I think we had like the fifth or sixth kid in the Bagley crew. It was clear we were working with people at that point. So most of my work I do is about reminding people of humanity, reminding people of how humans are complex and how humans need a whole bunch of different support. So at the baseline, stop treating people like cogs, treat them like humans, use the science that we have. It seems straightforward, like I have a lot of conversations that way about that. So you're welcome, humanity first. Yeah, I think that's great. And I think that that, I mean, I feel like as parents, a lot of the cracks in the system we come up against because we aren't just thinking of ourselves. We also have like other people who aren't necessarily hired to do a gig, but are affected by the gig. So, yeah, that, and that culture of martyrdom is not just for, and like even, like that's also a thing that parents are supposed to do, right? Especially people who have uteruses and carry those children. They are especially required and asked and assumed to give up everything because why wouldn't you? You're supposedly hardwired that way. I mean, the amount of people who asked me. So you've had children and especially you had, I have twins. You have twins? Well, you're gonna, I mean, like, so you're gonna give up theater, right? You're gonna, you're done, right? That's it, right? And my, my spouse who works in tech and is often male presenting, how many people asked them? The answer is zero. The answer is absolutely not a single human being and our children were born ever, ever asked them if they were going to give up their career because of their children. So like that martyrdom is like so ingrained, like as a parent who can bear children, but also in theater. So it's like this compounded. Pucks, I would love your, are like from a burlesque like freelance perspective, like how, how would you answer that question? Cause it's a little different than like a traditional. It is, cause most of the burlesque folks are having children now-ish. I came into burlesque. I was a grown ass human being, excuse me. When I came, I was fully grown, came into burlesque and had my, I've been in burlesque now for four years. So I have a kid with special needs, the whole, whole gambit. And so it was always treated by folks, like it's a my hobby. This is your hobby. Like, oh, well, I mean, okay. So I kind of bought into it a little bit. Like I'll get over this. Like my need to take off my clothes to music on, at various bars that will just, I just need to get this itch scratched and it's turned into like this whole, whole career. Yeah. You like run an empire now. It's like- I do. It's, it's really every, every year it gets bigger than I expected. You know, it's, it's interesting cause I am a, I'm a single parent. I'm polyamorous. So I have a lot of extra support that other single parents probably wouldn't have. And I have a really good relationship with my son's father. So I have, I have sitters. Like my kid has places to go, but I definitely know of other burlesque humans that like you know, when they're like, I can't show up to the show. I don't have a sitter and you, you hear like, you know, the producers grumbling and getting all shady. And I'm just like, a lot of us burlesque is such a fringe group of folks. And a lot of us who are really out here doing the grind are like estranged from our families or transplants or whatever. So like our support network is smaller. And so who you trust to watch your baby is huge. Right. It's huge. And you're skipping across town to go do the show where you were going to get maybe 50 bucks to do the thing. And now you're weighing, should I pay a hundred bucks to have a sitter come? So I can go get 50 bucks and attempt to find parking on second Ave. You know, at 6 30. You know, it becomes a matter of like the thing that was already kind of a weird. Financial negative is becoming a bigger financial negative. Yes. And then you got to pay for parking. Right. So it's this whole thing. So it's really interesting watching that group of producers that were very kind of thumbs downy about folks who are having babies or now having babies right now. And so it's just, you know, and you hear folks say we should have, you know, we should have like a babysitting tree and stuff like that. I'm like, oh, we should. My kids 11, like, you know, at this point, I'm just like, who gone watch my kid? My kid can watch himself now. It's very fascinating, especially with how, how we, how little we get paid and how sexualized art, our particular part of the industry is. The assumption is that like from at least when the outside that you're going to stop. Yeah. Once you have a kid, like, well, clearly you can't go and take your clothes off. You can't go gallivanting across the country to take your clothes off to music, no matter how artistic it is or, you know, what political message you're trying to make. That's not a responsible thing when you're a parent. My kid thinks I'm a superhero because of all the costumes I run with it. Yeah. My kids love the amount of glitter. I, I so, I didn't say anything that what I do. I run a theater company called reboot theater company. I also did drag for a while, which is how I met Pucks. Yeah. But my kids like my like makeup kid with all that glitter, they're like, they think it's the best. But yes. Yeah. Absolutely. No, it's a very, I mean, especially since like you're going into bars, which are not like, you know, there's, they've been sometimes we're like, I've had to just like have my kids sit in the audience until someone could come pick them up and you can't do, you can't do that at a bar. They frown upon minors. So like you can't, you know, there's like a whole other level that's shut down. So even, you know, I mean, I could be wrong, but I, I don't even know. You're the only burlesque troop. I know that even has a venue that you could even have like jurisdiction over. Yeah. So like our venue, we have a bar in our venue, but we have, it's all sectioned off, but like, yeah, you can't take your kid. I think the, the interesting thing about COVID, right? Is like, I've been able to go to different theater and record. And my kid has come with me and I'm like, Hey, you can sit in this back area and all of that while this is happening. My son has never watched me do burlesque until COVID. He asked, he's like, I would like, I want to see this app that you're doing because this is amazing. I just wait what's going on. And so I really kind of had to wrestle with that. Like, I, you know, like, like how raunchy is this thing I'm doing? Is it raunchy? It's not raunchy. Okay, let's go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right on the way home. Right. My son just like, I think it's really interesting that you pick that song. I'm on a bow. I love lonely island. And I'm just like, Oh, that song has a lot of f bombs. Whoops. You know, so it's, it's kind of, you know, it's kind of that, like picking your battles. Right. But yeah, you can't really just like take your kid to the bar. Right. You can't do that. And the cool thing about having the space right now is that you can have that, have that, that time with it, but it's, it's really interesting. Yeah. There's no other burlesque group right now. From what I understand, the past 50 years to actually operate a venue for burlesquers by burlesquers. So that's amazing. Kind of a big deal, but it's as parents, there's several of us who are parents and several of us who are like kids, fuck that. It's very interesting when we start having these conversations about setting up, you know, times for board meetings and stuff like that where I'm just like, I can't, it's centered around, like my kid has this thing and you have these people just like, can't they watch themselves yet? Like I'm just like, listen, like it's hard. It's hard to have those conversations. So it sounds like, you know, some of the things that we would love to change are like when, when like setting up meetings or, I guess, first one was having a space that is welcoming to children should they need to be there for however length of time. And two, when setting up meetings, perhaps bristles, perhaps tech, like being cognizant that like there are certain times of day that are very hard for parents. I mean, just the idea of like, oh yeah, and call time is at six. I'm like, oh god, okay. Like what goes into getting there at six o'clock. Well that means that I need to get a sitter to get there probably by five because with traffic I need to have enough space to get downtown, park the car, walk to where I'm getting, and then have a friggin' second to gather myself and even know what's going on. This is not to mention like, do they need to be fed before I leave? Like explain if the sitter hasn't met your kids before, making sure they know who this is. Does the sitter know anything and you know, figuring all that out. And you know, the amount of emotional labor that goes into and the amount of juggling that goes into taking care of your kids. Because like, I mean, I have a partner who works full time but like, I can't ask them to leave the office at four thirty. That's just not possible. So I need to find, you know, an hour and a half for someone to watch my kid and I don't have family up here so grandma can't come. I'd love to hear like anything else like, jazz, faith. Lisa. Yeah. Well, I wanted to I mentioned earlier that I wanted, that I was going to talk about Maggie ensemble because when I first asked me, I was like, oh yeah, I have stuff to say about ten years ago. Well, it'll be ten years ago next next season. We, a friend of mine in college started this vocal ensemble and it was, it started as like four or five of us just because we all had met at UW, we were getting graduate degrees in various musical ways and she wanted to start this group and we all were pregnant and she wasn't, but you know, like the people she wanted her closest friends, people she could trust people that she liked their voices and so we started the group and we kind of realized all, you know, we're all going to sort of be in the same boat so we had rehearsals at a house and once we had the kids, like the partners came and we had you know, like food together we didn't have to think about cooking and then the kids all went in another room with the partners and we all sang and had a rehearsal and that was just kind of how it went and then the kids grew up my daughter's now 10 so that was you know, she was little and then has grown up in the ensemble that way and so have all the other kids and we had an incident, I don't know if it was it was a kind of very cool event and we were singing for the, a big like all these choirs coming together at St. Mark's Cathedral and so it was a huge I mean it was, it was being videoed and you know, it was sold out and one of our members, a new member had her newborn with her and her partner was stuck in traffic and she had, you know and then we were going to go on and the director was you know, she's like, what do I do and the director's like, break her on so we went on stage and she had the newborn like swaddled and in front of her and it was totally fine and also amazing and obviously she could have cried and that would have been an issue but it wasn't and she felt, you know, like you know, somebody said, oh just hand the baby over to this guy and she's like the baby, who? The baby doesn't know this guy I'm not going to just hand my child over to some random person and and does that person, is that person okay with that? Right, and it was just, I mean that was the director of, you know, whatever and our director was like, no, that's not going to happen it's fine, she's going to go on and of course it went it went a little viral so we had the video that went online and people were very like in the proper choral world they were like, how dare you bring a child onto the stage Wow, the response was antagonistic, I'm surprised by that because it's so it's a lot of the choral world is so old fashioned and so I mean and it was a few songs, you know it wasn't even a whole, it wasn't just us you know, we were singing maybe three pieces so it was a little bit of us and then other choirs coming on and so it was really incredible to have that you know, response from people being like shaking their heads and just like that group from Seattle you know but it's been like the Maggie Ensemble which has been a really important part of me going through motherhood and having the support where I could continue like the week after the month after I gave birth I could continue being a part of this I didn't have to leave and a lot of the other things I did I couldn't breastfeed and I couldn't do all these other things but in this group that was so supportive I could keep, I could continue being a member and learning music and singing and so that was huge for me and I think imagining, I grew up in theater I grew up singing musicals it's important to me so I assumed that anyone that's in it it's important to them and would be important to their kids so why not have that's the opportunity where your children can be involved in it too if you're like having a rehearsal well I work with Youth Theater Northwest and how about Youth Theater Northwest does a kids thing at the same time that I'm doing my thing so they can go and experience that at their level and I can experience it at mine and if I'm hired to be in a show my kid gets free tuition for this you know or just things that you can write in to those are my ideas yeah that's cool so basically for theaters or for organizations that have also a youth program how can those how can parents who are working in the adult land use the youth program as an activity that they can bring their kids to that's great what a great idea yeah yeah completely and I think about that in I just started a house concert series and I asked my artists you know do you what do you think about having kids there and that was a discussion you know it was like well this we want this to be a listening audience we want this to be you know so how do I provide space for parents that want to come see these shows and but also you know and and starting a series where it's like the first act is for the kids and the second act you know that kind of thing so Jess when you were at Inverse Opera I know I was thinking of Sarah Wall I don't know if I'm allowed to say I'm sure I don't know she wouldn't mind I don't think Sarah would care but Sarah Balsch had a baby in the middle of that rehearsal process you know she like sings your praises of how accommodating you were because she I mean right in the middle like what are you going to do yeah well I feel like this is the the other thing was you know I was I think it also depends on are you in rooms with people who get it right because I think in that case like Sarah had me and Rob Scherzer who's also killer parent also had Max in the room when Max was like this tall and so it is about setting the example and setting the precedent of like this is our priorities and we have the honor to grow from a small company to a small company and and it's easier to integrate your core values at the beginning right and it is harder for these large companies who have million-dollar budgets to go but we need every dollar we need every dollar to just do what we're doing and they don't and it's harder to then adjust and make the big whoop for like what can this look like now we're like the nimbleness of small companies yeah I just praise because it's like you can do what you want to do you can assess you can assign your values now so that as you grow you know I think that that's like if I could start the world over again I would go to each company when they're starting and being like yo in 20 years you're going to be sad you don't instigate these policies now and you don't make your space to welcoming now because when you're trying to readjust and re-support the 200 plus employees it's going to be harder than if you learn how to do that at the beginning so I think that's my thing is like please try to learn how to like support people at the beginning of your organization um yeah and I think for me you know there are things like I could make the list of like here's where I see caregiver support getting uh really jumping up jumping up their game right but for me I think the overall cultural thing that I would love to see change is just that we talk about it more just like this and that people can see what caregiver support lit how it lives out so that young people who are coming up within the industry know that being a caregiver within the industry is possible for them because what breaks my heart is that process when you hit that wall and you've been focusing on this you've been in this culture of I need to be grateful right I need to be grateful to get ahead rather than I could be thankful that I'm here and still tell you what I need in order to survive and exist right so if we can see the culture that culture taken out and young people can say I want to grow within this industry I want to keep going and it's possible to have a family right and it's possible to adopt and it's possible for me to say mama move in with me I got you covered right it's possibly to be caregiver and still thrive in this industry I think that that's what our job is right now to do for the next younger generation comes up is like okay we have to set the example so that people don't feel like it's a choice people don't feel like they have to choose my passion or a family that's that's the thing that we have to get out of there so it looks like to me there are things that we get to do now which are like creating a caregiver support fund and acknowledging that there are additional expenses that come up in those emergency situations that both of you have already lined up right so how is an organization do we support and say we know that you're going to have more unexpected expenses come up than most so how can we provide a retainer so that when you have to make that choice do I lose $50 today so that I can go to what I love you actually don't have to lose $50 today you know how can we do that and and I've been learning a lot in my research that there are organizations throughout the country that are specifically looking to give to theaters that are small medium sized to support things like this and so just like give a giant shout out to pal parent artist advocate because they will hook you up with those resources and they've been such a great support to me but then also like those we work at the weirdest times y'all and how can we just set this up so that we align a little bit more with the way the world works right I also think of like value I think I get that there has to be shows on Mother's Day and Father's Day I get that that's a weekend right faith space I'm like but do you I'm like what have you got parents in your cast can you give those parents can you give those kids comps so that the parent so that they can be together without having to spend money like what are what are those things that you can do I don't know um I have a whole no god but just that's so simple and I think that you know I think people when they come again it's up against issues like how do we help parents that a wall comes out of like well we can't that costs too much money we can't do that I'm like okay but comps for like I mean how many how big is this cast you know comps for like I'm just gonna say ten kids you can't make that happen on Mother's Day or Father's Day I bet you have ten empty seats you know what I mean like I mean that's so simple and that just shows like hey we I see you gotta do a thing and maybe it's even a two show day but like your kid should come and be able to see you and here you go outside of like the regular whatever I mean you know like that's such a simple thing I mean I think Rachel Spencer Hewitt who runs pal one of the luminaries who run pal one of the things that she said was like you know what I bet you you could find in your budget she was like five hundred bucks to give to a parent just during tech week would that not change your life just tech because rehearsals like you know like that's you know that's at least the same but tech you know you don't know when when you don't know until 1 a.m. what you're scheduled the next day is gonna be and that scheduling rodeo like my god yes Halloween oh my god someone just mentioned Halloween the amount of times that I've skipped trick or treating with my kids because I was in a theater like I mean I don't know my kids are little they're sick so like sometimes I'd be like let's go to the mall at 2 p.m. and like they don't know any better but like you know but there's something fun about it being like kind of dark and you want to see them and you want to tell the other kids and like you have to say no can I just jump in please don't do because you know I have so much to say oh my god I've been waiting I've been first of all I want to say just piggybacking on Mrs. Jess you put money towards what you value right that's where the money goes so I would love to see normalizing prioritizing family just make it normal I want to piggyback on this Veronica humanize it it's everybody came from a the JJ right we all did so normalize it the fact that the people look down on the newborn whatever I say shame on them so many feelings Ms. yes queen with you're too late with doing this this day care thing I say yes what I would do and y'all are kind I would do my mother has always said about politics she said she would fire every one in government and hire women in every position that's what she would do and that's what I say I would take my Thanos glove and just click and then all of the people without uteruses would just be gone because it's a normal thing it should be a normal thing to to support families if those parents are taking care of they're going to produce for you happy parents happy employees who have kids support their creativity by taking that off their plate supporting them and they will give you whatever you need I was spoiled when I first first came into acting in the mid 90s I started my career at taproot theater taproot theater was so excited you guys to have me on board this project I had three little seven five and four one of those with autism they said what do you need I said I have to bring my kids every once in a while because I was a housewife y'all so my spouse at the time was like this is great what are you going to do with the kids when you come to rehearsal it's like that's a that's a question he was supportive sometimes but sometimes it was like I can't do this you know I can't work all day and then have the kids even though we do stuff like that all the time but anyway whatever by guns so taproot let my kids come to rehearsals some of the people that work there live in an apartment above the theater and so during some shows they would go up and play with my kids they made it absolutely normal so of course when I started working for the bigger theaters I was like well these are just how it works and storybook theater run by Lonnie Brockman and Sue Bardsley both mothers both with children said bring your kids and one of my kids is here that I would I homeschooled and brought to rehearsals and during her homeschool curriculum I made stage managing one of her subjects so the stage manager trained her and she literally three of my kids all of them grew up in the theater the other thing I would do is I think it has to start from within that change so the institution itself anybody on that staff and leadership that's not down should not be a part of that you shouldn't be able to just hang out there and cause problems if you're going to be a problem they should not be a part of your staff and I think partnership as I think Jess talked about Boys and Girls Club you can partner with local daycare there's teachers that could do classes at the grounds of your theater even if you're not an institution that does that type of thing all kinds of things that you can do to support families it honestly is not hard all you have to do is just value it and then you'll make a way to make it work I'm done I'm dropping the mic that's it yes yes I mean I think that your budget is a moral document that goes for literally every friggin problem your budget is a moral document if we have learned nothing else this year where are you spending your money because that is what you believe in exactly and what are the things you're saying okay I mean this is an inside out kind of issue when we're talking about equity and inclusion and all those things it should include how you treat women those that identify as women or have the uteruses how do you treat them how do you engage with them in the fact that I can't be here in fact I just signed on to direct a show and I was given the schedule of what time things were and all of this and I had to say I am a single mom of an adult semi-autism so I need to call these shots I need to let you know when these times are I need to let you know when I'm available and if I can get a caregiver or not so it should just be an automatic oh you're a parent what do you need God what a again this is a very simple question what do you need and you know if you can't make it work like you know what I mean reboot theater company, my company we are not an equity house we don't have a venue we're non-union we do one show a year but like for me when I start rehearsals I start them at 7 o'clock because that's just easier because that means I know that my kid is fed, I know that my spouse is home and I know that it's a little later I'm not fighting traffic for an hour and then racing in and just moving that back very simple because we still do rehearsals in the night we don't have daytime rehearsal time because all of our artists have to also work during the day because we pay them a stipend right so just like and I do that because I am in a position of power I don't know why I put quotes on that when I'm in a position of power as a director and as an artistic director I get to make that decision for me but when you're not in a position of power it's so hard to be like could we not start at 5 or could you not email me the day of and be like we're gonna start a half hour early hope that works and you're like no it doesn't work it does not work for me and again it goes back to what Veronica was saying of like how we have this need to be like absolutely of course I will because you can replace me easily as an actor right there's 400 billion of me which is what we tell actors all the time which is disgusting and horrible but that is the message right well I feel like the pandemic has shown us that how we can be human when we're all on the zoom and like what was that classic where there was some I don't know he was conducting a it was like a news anchor and like his little toddler like came in and then the mom like pulled him out you know and he was so embarrassed and it was just terrible and I just thought in my head like why do we need to be embarrassed why is it terrible that he has a child I'm gonna make a leap and make a lot of assumptions but I bet you this male person has never had to be inconvenienced by a child before because that was never that was something that that person was always protected from and it is like as I mentioned before we went on my kid is watching Doc McSevins in the next room and if they suddenly turn up their volume during this guess what y'all that's what you're listening to there's not like I am the person who would keep that from my spouse who works in tech upstairs my job right as the primary parent but when you are the primary parent no one is oh I'm so sorry nobody's doing that for you and I think in theater especially the primary parent if you are like if you do have a partner right if you're the one in theater you become the flexible one because your schedule is who knows what see and so you're suddenly flexible because you and it's like except you're entering into a space that has no flexibility and you have to be available whenever and they actually have the set schedule and they actually have the grounding but I'm the one who needs to or the person with the flexible schedule has to be the one to adjust and take this so I think that that is also a thing that's a thing we internally within my family scope work on often but something that I'm also constantly aware of is the pressure of being assuming I need as an arts administrator to assume that artists that I'm hiring are being forced into the flexible position and that they are the primary support rather than they have primary support you know what I mean that's like a compassion mindset as well and an understanding I don't know if I explained it well enough but hopefully you understand that and I just also want to shout out to boys and girls club they are always willing to create partnerships within communities and like I'm working on right one right now that I'm like really praying works out all the way but I know oftentimes what happens is if you are lucky to work in an arts administration that has an education program that just means that you're tied for space in such a stressful way that you usually have a space issue where you can support education or you can support rehearsals but neither at the same time and there's opportunity there though if you have rehearsals and you don't have space for education partner with something like the boys and girls club where they can offer you support in caregiving and you can offer them support in additional arts programming and when I was this is like way before Seattle so this is a Jessica none of y'all knew but when I lived in San Antonio I had the privilege of being part of the team that opened the the Mahalia Jackson in New Orleans after Katrina and I was in charge of working up their theater services program and getting volunteers ready boys and girls club they love to send their older students to volunteer usher at your organization because those kids then get to see theater and they get to experience it so why don't you offer students the opportunity to see live theater and experience theater and they will also offer you support for your for your caregivers on your staff it's like so symbiotic and you can continue your mission of encouraging younger folks to love the theater so just invest in those partnerships get creative they're there community members that already exist that want to do this stuff that's such a great idea I want to throw one idea out and then I'm gonna I'm gonna pick on Sarah because we haven't heard from her yet so get ready so another idea that I've heard a couple times is for example and this can be done at any level of theater again because your budget is a moral document so auditions how long do you spend in an audition two minutes three minutes how long does a parent need to like they have to figure out a way to prep for their audition they have to get all their stuff in the car they have to drive away park go to the thing come back wait because maybe they're behind maybe they're whatever and that is like what like an hour and a half if you've ever tried to get a babysitter for an hour and a half at three o'clock it's impossible it does not exist it's not true it's not a thing so what if you had a theater company that said we have I mean this is a pre-COVID idea I'm sure there are a lot of ways but what if there was a theater company who also I mean I'm thinking about TPS here in Seattle there's a theater group that basically runs a bunch of studios and you can rent people can rent them what if you rented an extra room and you hired there are actors who nanny and would be more than happy if you had two or three of them even if you just paid them and no one brought their kids and they just sat in that room on their phone and you just happened to pay actors you know whatever a hundred bucks each that's still a mitzvah so that's nice but if you told parents by the way bring your kid drop him off in the room next door we've got crayons and whatever so that you can sing for two seconds and then put the kid back in the car oh my god I mean I've done that for other parents they'd be like I have an audition can you just come with me to the hall with the stroller and do this and I'll do that for you next time like great like imagine like if you just like walk them in the stroller like this is their nap time they're just gonna sleep and if there's the big kid I'll be right back I mean that is such a simple thing that is so simple and just relieves and you know what you're gonna get more people who are gonna be willing to come out think of who you are missing out on because someone does not have access to your auditions because the burden of figuring that out it's gonna keep people from it's gonna keep artists from you and don't you want new artists so like you're the brain trust theater companies like figure it out alright so you we got a little bit of your background you were basically raised in the back of a theater like what for you as a kid who grew up in theater from that perspective I also was a kid my parents were in film so it was a little bit different my mom was was in soaps back in the day when they used to film them live so I was always in the green room like eating donuts with the other actors and I just remember them with their like smocks on so they didn't get powder sugar so I get it it's a little bit different but that being said like what for you as a kid growing up did you see of like man I wish more than anything like what would you have wanted to see that made you feel like you were welcomed and not a problem right I know it's very interesting I'm so appreciative to be a part of this conversation because I am a child of this of the outcome of this like I am your children's future pretty much of like how they you know did but for us it was very right but it was it's funny because like I had a great childhood I never thought twice about it but we went everywhere like from time to time I look back and I think like I don't know how you did it in the sense of during the day we go to the zoo and we we play we do stuff and then we go to rehearsal in the evening and it was like you're gonna go hang out with Sean and Catherine and it'd be like great I love Sean and Catherine like they let us play with toys or they like let us read these weird books that I don't know you know they're big words I don't know if they are but they let us I was like wait I was like no that's not like weird but they just give it like they didn't have children so it's like what do you do with children that you don't have yourself you know and we had so much fun I had a blast being a child in a product of theater I grew up into it I don't actually know life without I've never lived it I can't imagine it and to me it never felt like a struggle and that you know I feel like a lot of that is my mother Ms. Faith Bennett Russell making it not feel that way for us so if there's any pressure on her I would have never known and never felt it because I just got to spend more time with mom which was great and even growing up we did a lot of Studio East in Storybook Theater and I would be in shows and I would trade off and teach and assist camps or go with her to camps during the I was I mean I also just love to be there I would just hang out for hours and be quiet in the corner but there were those trade off so things do exist but I do think that it is a lot of those smaller companies especially you know run by people with families who know those setups where you can do trade and it's like I will trade you know if my mom is directing a show for them I get less tuition on a show that I'm doing or less tuition on a class I would ask me to assist a class during the summer time and during summer I'd always have internships in theater and I was always doing stuff because they offered me the opportunities and that is the difference of offering and extending the opportunities and thinking about if we want this person to teach and be a part of this we have to offer them something that is worth it to them and their family and that is I agree with so much of what everyone has said of that is the missing piece the empathy the being able to put yourself in someone else's situation whether you have kids or not like don't you remember you were a child like did we forget we all had to be children at one point and need our parents for life you know so where is that disconnect and a lot of the talking I've been speaking a lot about I've been really fortunate to be able to do public works with Seattle Rep and one of my favorite parts of course is they would have community dinners and there would be people who would volunteer to have food and we had kids you know in the show people had families and we would all come together beforehand and eat and commune and then go our separate ways so my thought is too is like why don't we do that more in theater why don't we actually build community especially if we're all working in the same region if we're all see each other a lot of the time why don't we do these things that then it's like let's have a meal that has to be at six can't we provide a meal have a potluck like come anytime between five and six with your family you get a meal they can hang out and then you know what afterwards your kids are going to go with teacher Sarah and you're going to teach a class I also think about how there's so many teaching programs here there are always students who need volunteer hours there are always people who want to learn and want to take those things on so can we partner with like U-Dub teaching can you partner with other places can you partner with your education department and say hey we are looking for people who need more experience to do teaching from six to ten or seven to ten you know with the kids and you'll help them with homework or we'll have a couple people come you know if we have these education programs or things why can't we just translate copy and paste to me that makes sense you know or like Boys and Girls Club like how can we the tradeoff doesn't seem that hard to me because I did it I worked I was able to be at these places that were like yes you're going to teach a class or like you're going to assist the class and I learned I'm definitely who I am today because of that nurturing and I use that all the time in my tech job like I work as a front desk host you know right now and it's like oh I use these theater skills for life you are helping your kids when they get to be a part of these programs so how can we do that as a whole like Alisa like I love that you were like yeah like let's partner with these places like I think Jeff said it too and it's like yeah like why I don't understand why we don't partner with the or like even thinking of auditions like I personally don't have kids so I don't have to think about it and it's a pain in the butt for me to have to drive downtown and park I couldn't imagine having to think of another child or I have because you know I will help with my brother and watch him if my mother needs it and I'm able to but even though a lot of times I'm not able to because I have such a busy schedule and it's like I wish I could support you but like I'm in this 10 out of 12 like why am I here 10 hours of the day that's a great question too you know so I just yes and to everyone and I'm very grateful to listen to this conversation and to also see how I can be an advocate for these changes as well because I think it's easy out of sight out of mind I don't have children it's not my problem but it is my problem because I am a daughter I am a sister I am an artist I am an ally for many things and I should be an ally for parents as well especially because a lot of dope people and artists are parents and it's like I want to play with you I want to play with you so like like Jebman one day we will do something oh man it's going to be good I want to advocate for you and say like yeah how do we get a teacher or like who do I know help volunteer you know to then have a class or just even have a trade off or it's like you'll be here for two hours and someone else will come in for two hours you know I love that Sarah thank you like the idea that I think that it's very in vogue especially amongst theater people and probably amongst like the younger set to be like ew kids are dumb and kids are gross and I hate children and like that's like not actually cool like hating children is like that's not something that like makes you good I don't know why I have to say that but I do I see it a lot and I'm like like ew why would you bring your kid in public I'm like on a plane on a bus in a restaurant like I mean again this is the back of the old days but like because they're a part of life they're a part of public life and I'm not saying that you have to and I think that it's a reaction to the hurt that people feel when they feel pressured to have children and I get that but that's not me and that's not my kids and so you know I think that you know to Sarah's point like anyone can be an advocate anyone you know let's all take care of each other we're like we're all a part of this community right I had you know the the honor really to work as an assistant director on the musical bliss which was at the fifth avenue and my director Cheryl Coller is a mother her kids she has three daughters they're all grown up but she had and she chose to take like like 15 years off in the middle of her career to raise her kids and then came back into the game at 40 in New York and then was nominated for a Tony Award so like so basically I admire her I think she's freaking brilliant and wonderful and she knew that I had kids we were rehearsing in New York which meant I had to leave my family to go work with her we could talk about what I had to do to make sure that that worked but I did it and when we came back to Seattle to start pecking you know we would be and because I was an assistant I wasn't an associate I was an assistant which means that you're nothing to a lot of people everyone was very nice to me but like you know you're either down the ladder than others so when we're at like you know one two in the morning on tech and again I'm back home so that means I like my full time parenting duties resumed even though it was during tech and you know the lighting designer was like I need someone in here at 8am so that I can I just need someone to stand on stage so I can focus and I don't want to call the actors in because they're out of hours and blah blah blah and the lighting designer was like let's just make Jasmine do it and I immediately was gonna be like yes of course I can do it I'm game to do that okay so to get to the theater at 8am that means I have to find somewhere for the kids to be by 7 30 in the morning it's 2am now I have five and a half hours and I'm doing this in my head while I'm saying absolutely I will be there how I and Cheryl was like absolutely not Jasmine has children we'll find someone else the director said that and I was like thank you I mean it makes me emotional like someone took care of me you know I'm 36 I'm a 36 assistant your old assistant director with two little kids like how many chances do you get to work with someone who was Tony nominated at a theater like the 5th avenue and I didn't want to say no and she took care of me because she'd been there and how many parents at that level have been there not a lot and that's this is part of this problem and it goes back to what Jess was saying which is like start now start now so that pucks with an 11 year old you know what I mean like it doesn't have to be like oh yeah that sounds friggin great glad you caught up like enough of that and how great that people like pucks and people like Cheryl Cowell are now in positions where it's like that's not how it happens in my house that's not how it goes you know faith as a director can be like no I don't do that that's not how it happens you know like at least I can be like no that's not how it happens in my choir and if like there's no one to watch your baby you'll bring them on stage and if you have something to say about it you come and talk to me you know like more of those people I feel like caregiver support is something like that just doesn't get talked about until you need it right I remember like that hitting me really hard when I was like okay I want to have a family now I was down for time for salary negotiations and I was also like let's go ahead and ask remind me what your maternity leave or your parental leave is and maybe I can wrap that into some negotiations and I just had a moment where I was like why have I never asked about this before why have I never why when I am hired at a place was I not trained to ask when I wasn't thinking about being a caregiver tell me about your caregiver support plans when I wasn't a caregiver right so that's my thing is like we have to start training people to think about it when they aren't in the situation where they need it so I remember calling my mentor from college why didn't you ever tell me blah blah blah blah blah ask this question and she was just like well because I mean it's just what I had to do and I was like no no no no no more like I don't want any more of that so I told my teacher the kids I taught in high school this year was like ask about these things whenever you go to work someplace and maybe by asking we will show them that we need it and if the younger generation keeps going and you ask before you need it like maybe that will help too I don't know I have so many I have so many thoughts and I think I don't know how many of you know like in the work that I do there's so much that I do that is about marrying value to structure the execution of the things that you say that you put value around and one of the things that I heard pretty consistently here that I experienced for myself as a parent is the more regular of a schedule you can offer for people the easier it gets so and specifically I'm thinking about I was a stage manager my husband was a stagehand this whole you'll come in at 11 you'll come in at 9 you'll be here till 10 you'll be here till 6 whatever it is it's hard on a human being to begin with to do that to then have to integrate tiny human beings who are still figuring out what their structure is it's impossible and then like Jasmine as you keep talking about you can offer to parents to people, period from the outset it makes things so much easier and so my husband when my son was born he was a year and a half when my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and we went through that whole thing until he died a year and a half ago and I will never forget that when the time finally came that we were like you can't be working these 12, 14, 16 hour days and the rep was able to make it so that way he was only in the building from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday or Tuesday through Saturday or whatever the possibilities that suddenly opened up for us to spend time as a family were just like exponential so when I think about the regularity of scheduling of like give people a sense of what their structure is because that's what creates emotional safety, that's what creates mental safety and also like literally makes your workplace safer because then people can like plan shit around and they're not trying to figure out like how to fit in this thing into this other thing or they're not at like Jasmine at 2 o'clock in the morning trying to figure out how she I mean truly, truly so there's the regularity of schedule that I heard and then within that also I remember when I got the very lucky experience of getting paid standby pay and it happened a million years ago but this was when they were like okay we want you to keep your schedule open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. we're going to pay you for every one of those hours but we're going to call you in when we're going to call you in and it was life changing it was life changing to have that because then I was like okay well I know I'm going to get paid for 14 hours every day but then the stage management and directing staff had the freedom to sort of then choose where they still wanted people but the belief was like you're already paying people to be available 9 30 to 6 30 8 to midnight whatever it is like actually honor that you are asking people to hold out that time in their lives so that when they do have to make the last minute flex and they can only find the sitter who is paying $25 an hour then they have that cushion there and then like and then like the last thing that I just kept thinking of is within the theater community itself right like I had my child he was he came early so Andy ended up taking off work he was supposed to work a summer show he didn't work the summer show we were very lucky that the rep was willing to bend some rules to make that way Andy could use his sick pay to stay home with me and Roman which is great because it was the off seasons so technically they shouldn't have that wasn't allowed but like also they're like we can we'll do whatever we need to do that was great so companies that can make those kinds of flexibilities and like even if they're in the off season like trying to give people the benefits that they have banked they just might not be on contract to use is a huge thing and then even within that I didn't know how much my community supported me until I was in like the most the highest state of emergency right like my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer we started chemotherapy immediately I had a year and I had a 17 month old and people mobilized for me in a way that I I didn't even know was possible and so when I think about that one of the things that I it took me and is still taking me time to figure out like it's not a transactional thing people didn't show up for me expecting that at some point I would pay them back down the line so what would be really cool is in this industry where we claim that we are communal all in this together wouldn't it be really cool if you just supported your community before the emergency happened before someone was dying before someone was like I don't know guys it's just a thought just a thought don't wait for the emergency to be building your network and conversely we all can be paying into that system that helps the people when the emergency happens they already know who they can turn to because I swear that was the thing that changed for me going from a cancer caregiver to a widow was knowing that I already had this network set up that when the time came for me to be like I am in over my head I cannot be with my child for another minute I need someone to please come and take him and take care of him so I can have a break so I can probably literally just go cry in a corner before we were in this stage of everything being on fire and then I could have just had time with my family before we knew that my husband was dying before we had to deal with all the stuff that happened so like take care of each other please I've always felt like there should be a hospitality coordinator in the theater and sorry for your loss Veronica thank you for sharing that so sorry for your loss just to piggyback on that and I shared that if there was a person hired to check in with things like that that's just their job moms how are you doing you who change your pronouns and people aren't getting it right how are you doing you who are going through a crisis that way again it's mission statement and vision and what Sarah said about community hospitality is a huge thing for me and feeling safe in whatever community you're in and so if there was a hospitality coordinator or concierge of some sort whose job it was just to make sure people were okay and I also think when you're hiring a family a person with a family maybe for that tech week and I think maybe Jasmine already said that it should be in your contract to have us stipend for child care if they can't provide it for you on site then you should get an extra whatever for that and that goes to that coordinator who would be like what do you need how's it going do you need a meal you look kind of peak it because you came right from home with your kids we're just going to have them hold for five more minutes so I'll make sure that you can go to the bathroom I just think that would be so valuable I'm just going to jump in really quickly that's something Faith that I talk about a lot with my clients is like where can you as an organization spend a dollar that saves someone else and things like coordinated meals coordinated childcare like coordinated this is why group health care plans are so powerful right because like you're paying one dollar that someone out on the open marketplace would have to pay three dollars for so the power of recognizing that like you have the ability that even though it costs you an organization one dollar it saves all of those people their six dollars each and then suddenly everyone is so much happier and so much more relaxed and then can actually be creative because they're not dealing with like all of the basic humanity things that they need which includes knowing the kind of state that your family is in when you show up to rehearsal that's so good this is not a fully formed thought so feel free to shut me up so this reminds me there's a Seattle luminary named Kathy Shea I don't know how many people who are not from Seattle who are watching this but Kathy Shea is ours and we love her so she actually does like nationwide talks but in any case but she does so much anti-racist work in the arts that's like she's a queen and one of the things that we have talked about like me and other artistic directors and other leaders in the Seattle theater community have talked about is you know how can we decolonize how we think about doing theater so that we can better support other and specifically by we I mean white led theaters better support BIPOC led theater works and what it always comes down to is the money I don't have the money we can't take the money if I do I can't all of that like Heming and Haing which is understandable but Kathy was like who said money no one said money you said money because that's what like white supremacy and capitalist thinking that's the first thing that comes up is money because that is how you are valuable right because I mean I know like for me like we don't have paid staff you know like I'm I don't get paid nobody gets paid so I'm like God like and I say all the time like I feel embarrassed to ask people who I I know deserve to be paid to do things for me when I cannot pay them their worth and again to go back to Kathy saying like you can give something to someone that isn't just money that adds value and I think that when it comes to parenting like to like I want to like mesh those together like you know just the act of someone being saying again it gets back to that very simple thing what do you need do you just need someone to like meet you at the door with a banana anyone can do that and I get the banana cost money but whatever I don't know maybe you have an apple tree in your backyard but whatever like you know we can break that down later but you know what I mean like how you know hey can I like do you just need 10 minutes I'll just tell the director you need 10 minutes so that you don't have to like be put in the position of having to ask for that I can see you need that would you like me to ask that for you no problem go do what you need to do you know like that is something that is just caring for someone else right well I think too like as everyone's talking it's so interesting that we are in a career whether it's burlesque whether it's theater that reflects life that asks questions about life but has very little respect or support for real life where it's like you want me to emulate these things and make people ask questions and feel but you also can't let me take a day off to go to my best friend's wedding you can't let me take time to go like someone said in the chat about a breastfeeding or thinking about how my costume might be different because I'm pregnant or because I just had a baby like it is unfathomable for you to think of those things yet we're doing a show about families or about life about weddings about love about loss but you can't imagine how to support that like that really doesn't make sense to me especially listening to all of you talking it's like I really I mean I know this is slightly different but like I have lost friendships or lost connections because I couldn't take a day off for their wedding and it's like I'm sorry that I am a slave to my job like you make me feel like I am one in a million but this pandemic has proven that we are not that you actually cannot survive without us you have nothing without your performers and it's learning living in that power learning to advocate for what you need and finding these supports for that and having being able as a group and as a community to say we will not stand for it any longer because you actually need me and maybe there is someone who is willing to do it for nothing and doesn't care about those things but do you actually want that in your community and to build something and just hearing all of this I'm like wow it just blows my mind for the work that we all do and what we give to people how many people have said oh yeah I do miss theater I'm missing you on stage but it's like if you actually we don't actually have to be starving artists like why is that a part of it we don't have to do that especially when some of y'all are making so much money on the back end I don't know maybe this is a hot take but your job is to get me here so like why can't you support me here and it's some I don't know I was like listen to y'all I'm like yeah we are emulating real life but why aren't we supporting real life that's so good I love that Sarah thank you I think it all goes back to what Faith says which is just like where everybody in restart anyway I'm jumping on board the faith train I've always been a fan I'm ready to get on board I also just want to offer that in the vein of right dollars to spend and that fear of like oh my gosh we have the bubble of money and the idea of like can you just show up with a banana I need something just to offer this is you can have a rehearsal room and instead of taking a five or a 10 in the middle of the day you can take a 20 so that a parent can go and call and check on their families or pump or pump and also you can adjust everybody's schedule so that one person can pump and everybody will appreciate it right I just want to say that like that's a reality and if you're curious on how to make that space available you need to start with having that space available don't try to find the space don't try to find the family space when you have the need arise even all theaters right now where is that space you might not have somebody knocking on your door with that need but you need to know right now and you need to make it feel safe and comfortable and welcoming and I think that the rehearsal rooms need to be safe comfortable welcoming have you ever tried to pump so it needs to be a safe comfortable healthy space where people can relax right it does not need to be a closet with a chair in it with no circulation that is unacceptable and I just want to offer that directors like uplift what Faith said about the agency and saying this is how I run my space if you've signed me on this is the community and this is the environment you sign on to pair that with Sarah's we have the power you can't actually do anything without your artist at any level so using the agency I think I'm like I'm all for that find that that's beautiful and oh gosh just uplift all of this I don't know how much time we have because I've lost but we're in the like I know we put it in the chat if anyone has questions put them in the chat but we'll keep talking if you parent artist advocacy league pal teaches what's called compassion training courses where they will actually come and teach leaders how to lead with a mindful for mindful support for caregivers what's called free programming similar to what didger woods and I co-produced will be hosting a two hour caregiving compassion training for leaders and anybody who wants to come and it's free how can I redo my rehearsal schedule so it supports caregivers what are those small free things that I have a room that I should be considering as a stage manager as a director as an arts administrator as anybody who cares about the other caregivers in their room and just wants to know how they can advocate for them I'll share that link with Navarra so that she can share it with everybody but it's free it's the experts teaching us how to do this I'm excited to listen and learn because even though I'm a parent I know I could do it better so just to offer that as another opportunity to learn and I just to start to usually we'll have kind of a town hall portion but we have a small audience here I at least wanted to share what Molly class and said in the chats which folks have been responding to but for those who can't see our chat the industry also needs to acknowledge the special needs of breastfeeding or chestfeeding parents in terms of scheduling breaks and costuming for actors and be able to offer those things without a caregiver needing to ask since it can feel like such an uncomfortable or controversial subject or at least make it known that those accommodations are expected and acceptable and if there are other caregivers family members in the Zoom room please do share your thoughts in the chat or your questions and we'll share it make sure to share it in these last few minutes but just shared I would love to make space as well for anything else that is coming up for folks any other spaces that you want to shout out I know mixed pucks has their burlesque space that y'all should have to keep your eyes out for that is opening back up so also giving space for y'all to shout out what you want to and bring them into the room if you'd like to and we'll close out soon I keep thinking about the word community it's used so much to the point when I hear the word my stomach actually tightens up because I don't think it means what people think it means when they use the word we've been using this phrase community nourishment a lot for the space bringing into the space what you want to see come out of it and so there's a few of us on the team that are parents and we discovered that we get an office space and I thought it's going to be the size of a 5x10 closet and it's actually a really big office and the first thing I said is we're totally bringing our kids here this is where the kids are going to go right so that's been really interesting and like we have folks on the team who are like closer to my son's age and they aren't at my age because black don't crack so no one really knows how old I am but it's really interesting because at first they were just like what? why? because our kids need to be here I don't want a board member because right now it's a working board and I don't want anyone to be like well I can't come to help clean up the space or I can't come to rehearsal or I can't come to these things that we have to do because I can't find a sitter like that's a no and like we got way too many too many tablets and fun things for kids to get into that we can put in that office space feed and water them and they're going to be just fine and then one of us is going back there and checking on them but yeah we're going back to school our first show is June 12 it's career prom Seattle and this is our third year it's a hybrid event so it's virtual with some in-person stuff and it's a fundraiser for a festival that I founded and co-produced called what the funk and all people of color burlesque festival it is the only one of its kind in the pacific northwest and we're the only all people of color to attribute to the black American art form music genre funk and we're really really excited and we're proud to announce that we'll be doing that festival at the triple door which as far as I know will be one of the first times they've had an all by pock production on their stage oh that's so cool it's so cool I want to know if it exists at all miss pock and I'm going to talk about my friend Lee burlesque because I have an adult son with autism who might think all the fanfare is awesome but you know yeah I do know my kiddo has autism we do I'm just saying for the future that might be every organization should have a sensory friendly production even if there's one everyone should have ASL we should hear more about that because that would be amazing two members of our board are actually autistic and then one of my partners is autistic so it's something that has come up and is really near and dear to my heart I'm a sex educator on top of all of this and a lot of the work I've been doing recently is in disability justice and making spaces more accessible just in general and so yeah we have a lot of info in the chat to you right now I'm just saying we're going to talk can we also just say spaces that aren't accessible for children that aren't easy for children to come into the rehearsal halls that I've been a part of are the productions that I've been a part of as a stage manager they're terrible shows because there is this sense of play that isn't as allowed so like if you're creating an environment whether it's your administrative offices or your rehearsal halls or your space between shows for your crew members kids or whatever that isn't actually accessible to children there's a good chance people aren't having fun doing what they're doing and I have lots of stories about that but that's the bottom line to me anytime I think about the shows that I've been a part of that or workplaces in general any of the other workplaces that I work with that are not arts organizations where children are this big controversial thing it's like ooh it is so toxic in here that like this actually this place should just be shut down is what needs to happen at this point we need to burn it all down and start over but if you have an environment that's welcoming to children that's welcoming to the people who are caring for children inevitably you have to invite in a sense of play because that's what kids are doing like and curiosity so I would just say like if you are doing examination on your organization whether you're an arts organization or anything else and you're like oh yeah we're not really friendly to kids there's probably bigger stuff going on about how your environment operates and what what kind of like the space for experimentation that you might be allowing and not allowing as a result Veronica can you plug your incredible business yeah what is it called oh will hum consulting and my last name is it's your name H-E-L-M I do mostly organizational development work I do a lot of work with leaders who are trying to figure out like what their impact should be on the on the world I work with Jasmine both within reboot and then just with them in coaching Jess has been subjected to one of my trainings so ask them if you have questions yeah and I love the work that I do so call me I have some spaces open thank you can I plug bushwick really quick yes yes oh sweet okay yeah so I'm the development director for bushwick northwest which is bushwick book club and we are we hire artists to write songs that are inspired by books and our other half is style songwriting for youth literature education and we go into the schools and teach kids how to write songs based on the literature that they're reading in their curriculum it's pretty badass and we have our show on Saturday night I hope that you can come to it the 22nd and the book is Angela Garbes is like a mother which is all of you would love but Navar and I have talked about that everybody you know some people avoid it because they think it's for mothers only and it's really not it's for everybody else I also wrote a choral piece and the Maggie ensemble is singing in it so all my worlds are colliding in this concert it's going to be really cool and then Navar you can talk about the rep part of it yes and we will be featuring some monologues from different productions we've put on at the rep about motherhood to add some theatrical flair to that concert and faith Russell will be performing a couple monologues so seeing that side of faith as well is just a joy thank you all so much for joining us really it's been such a pleasure to talk to y'all it's incredible there's so much more to talk about I know the villages event that will be sending out to everyone who registered will be a place to continue this conversation but please continue it in your theaters and your organizations in your rehearsal spaces with your families with everyone you can you can get to talk about it who can get to you can get to listen that's as we talked about part of part of the culture change so thank you for coming and have a lovely evening thank you so much and thank you to our panelists God what a good combo