 My inspiration would be, it's going to be like there's not men in my life, like men are great, but he was really young, he was 30, I would be great. And it would just be my moment of success. You could easily be like making sure that like there's probably just Jews in the grid or something like this. I just watched that persevere and then it spread to my sister and now my spouse who was also in my reading, Ian Davis. And the three of them are kind of like my holy trinity in a way. They just kind of keep me going because I see like the setbacks they've had and they've kept going. So I'm always like, well, who am I to complain that actually I can see the difference. And this inspiration is not an artist from the medical field, but she truly feels like these two black women in Little Rock Arkansas have these very majority white spaces. And she just made me feel sort of home and like she taught me that I belong everywhere. You might have seen my melanin when you left it. And even when I went away to school, when I was pretty mad and then I switched it up, she was shocked. In which I play my mother. Every gay man's dream. So I guess actually for this weekend, my pronouns are she, her and her. And yeah, yeah, I'm going to say mom too. For me, this play was really about stepping into my mother's shoes, like literally stepping into her shoes and embodying our relationship and sort of seeing things through her perspective. Yeah, sort of just taking, taking on a different worldview. And that's been giving me a lot of life to sort of explore my family's history and what it means to put that history in my body. So yeah, mom's, because I'm on this one. My name is Brenda Johnson. I came out from Harvard. I'm a co-creator, co-composer, co-wrestler for Dr. Silver and that's my first wife. I'm going to echo what's been coming down the line that I would say my family and my friends have been inspired. I don't know if you noticed, but it's been a weird couple of years. Everything kind of fell away, specifically my professional opportunities where I normally made music. The past couple of years kind of reconfigured that because when that falls away, I still have this desire to do it because it's how I engage with the communities and how I engage with my family. It's actually been kind of the most transformative thing about the past couple of years and remembering that this is an important function of life to community no matter what. No matter what structures look like outside of that. It's been a lot more joyful, actually, some of the creation that's happened than I would remember. And returning to this process on the other side of that with my family, with my sister, with my sister. There's this new sparking, there's this new gratitude that has been sitting on stage playing the show with Annika last night. We made eye contact and everything. This feels different. This is different. This was made from part of my family community studio. Hi, Annika, for this big sister of another co-creator, composer of Dr. Silver. We're not a morning person. So, like, quite sentimental because it's been such a profoundly doing week. So I will be a bit emotionally involved with Kyle over here. I would build on, it's so true, like, whatever it's said about drawing inspiration from your family, and we've heard of his photo. It's so true. And I would say, I would add to that, that my biggest goal in this work is the excitement of creating family with people you just met. Like, when you make live art that you share with people in a lot of space. When it's at its best, you are suddenly so intimate with the people who are doing it with you, whether they're on stage with you or in the audience. And that is something that happens in the last few years. And so, getting to meet new people and then having this short cut, this grace cut to feel like I know them very, very closely. But if you can work with them and the people who have been here and possible watching the shows. I would not want to charge them so, so, so great to be with all of you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I love that. Humanity and nature. We have to center each other and center our love and center our inspiration when we gather to create. First question, to Britta and Naomi Spencer. What do you think the theater needs more of now? Britta, they only were sensitive to show their softening. Me. People that is everyone that requires these roles. And I think it's really important to reflect your community. I read this book when we go home, where our chief folks said, write your story in your corner of the world and if you relate to all forms of the world. So, I believe that specificity is so important. Like, when I'm writing, I, I love to always tell me, write what you know. I think that's really important because the way I see my community is, it's not just, you know, I'm important in this, like, look at black people. I'm a black man and I know such a variety of people. And I think that my perspective is really important. Your perspective is really important. I think it needs that bravery that all of you have and that all of you have, that you and your kids are out there who need vulnerable and safer things that make people cringe in order to start conversations that will help relieve, relieve that, that cringing sensation. And then I guess to build on that, like, it needs more funding. It is the big thing. It is. It is so high up-coast-reff and PPF has, like, these awesome honorary producers and it's so sad what an anomaly that this is. It's the idea that, like, we could all come out here for a week or so, turn off our brains to almost everything else and just write. Just having that peace of mind, like, just makes the art better. And then it gives us more opportunities to pay. Not, you know, the idea of, like, to get a story, like, how to roll one on stage is incredible. Let's try to pay them a living wage as well or get as close to it. Because, you know, if everybody's still having to, like, you know, work for pennies, I don't think it, like, does anybody any good and it's not a healthy situation. So getting them on stage isn't enough. It's also about, like, getting folks a paycheck in a way that feels reasonable. So, yeah. I mean, I'm just going to, like, be able to say that, yeah, new work, lots of it, and meaningfully supported in a way that lets people have their fun is incredible. Because, like, I think that, obviously, the world is changing quickly and it is our job as artists to meet, to meet the conversations of bravery, the answers to that is always community. I don't know any, theater is always how I engage in community and I think there's a lot of feeling that is possible there. And if you can meet these moments that we're in, these complex moments that we're in for creation, community, meaningfully supported, creation and community, I think that is what this art form is possible. Thank you. Armica, Michael, Christine, I'm curious about a piece of advice you've been given that has shaped you. Sometimes it's a critique or a note. I think that's an actor and my teacher, Marcella Lorca, hit me with the most backhanded compliment of my life. I was a senior and we were working on Chekhov and I hadn't worked with her yet and we were doing it. You know, I was doing, I thought I was brilliant. Marcella said to me, she said, H. Adam, 98% of the people who see you will love it. 2% including me will go tricks. No tricks on my stage. My whole world, it collapsed in on myself and I had to like dig a little bit deeper to figure out what that note was about. So I'm curious, what's the piece of advice that has shaped you? Armica, Michael or Christine? I will actually jump on what you just said because one of my best pieces of advice came while I was in theater school. I also did my undergrad as an actor in classical acting and cinematography and my teacher in Watson was on Shakespeare. He's since passed away, but he was like one of the best Shakespeare teachers in Canada, and he gave me a piece of advice which was that the best warm up, I'm like a perfectionist and a hard worker and a very melodic artist in a lot of ways and he was like the best way to warm up to do your work is just to get in a good mood. So do whatever you want to do to feel good and get in a good mood. And that has been the best advice I've ever seen because if you show up in a good mood, you're gonna be able to share that with people you're working with and then you will all be at your best and on the most profound creativity. So that's my advice from you. You know, I, as you said, no tricks on stage. I actually started out as a magician. The biggest form of theater. There are a lot of tricks on stage. So that's two scandals for a 9 a.m. panel. So, yeah, but actually, you know, so I'm playing my mother and I worked with Luisa Alvaro who's just an incredible mentor and teacher and playwright. He's just brilliant there. And we did a workshop together at Land and Literary and he taught me that playwriting is sort of an act of channeling and it's a ritual, right? He sort of introduced me to this idea. He introduced me to the work of Maria Irene Fornez and her methods, which are all about sort of dreaming your way into a play. And that's how I really got into this piece and to Avaaz was sort of channeling my mother, literally. And then to see her in the, she came and saw the show and that was really terrifying. You know, we sat her like in the second row, third row back. She walks in, sits in the front row center, arms crossed, what you got, baby. So that was really scary, but it did feel like an act of sort of really embodying and channeling her. And then to watch her watching me play her and talk about her son was like this out-of-body experience. So I am currently not in my body. I am just, I don't know, I'm a vessel for something on this panel. So yeah, but it was, so I guess it's like the channeling and bringing that energy both to the writing and then to the performing. And then I guess that makes you more available to the life too, right? When you're in an experience, you're sort of able to like be super present for it. Yeah. Like you were saying, yeah. Like you were saying. Christine? Yeah, I felt the real turning point when the cleanest bitholist got passed on three times by three different photographers who all said this is a play. And, you know, I was still in the 20s and I think I would have really collapsed earlier, but this time I suddenly was like, who are you to decide? Even to perform a mentor to run institutions, who are you to decide what is the play? What is the play? And you know in Canada right now, indigenous artists are leading the way, bringing ceremony on stage, oral storytelling, multimedia remixing in traditional forms of theater and indigenous artists. And this is all work that people said that's not a play, that's not a theater. And so that's gay keeping. And I was so grateful that I finally employed by a huge community of resistance that comes in many, many decades before I started making theater. Kind of like, you know, who are you to decide? This is a play. And Matt also gave me far to the pandemic with all the things that people were like, you cannot see it if it's online. You cannot see it if it's mass. It's not, sure it is. Sure it is. If we're here together, whether it's over, you know, online or friends who are listening now, or might be listening now, you know, a couple hours that they're listening now, or the people in this room, that's that spark, you know, there's nobody who can say what it is or what it isn't. And so I was really glad that that this isn't a play. You can get my tea time the safest way. That's what new work does, right? You're always trying to change and alter the form of what we know. And sometimes people are resisted to it, which I always think is amazing and it takes such courage. So a round of applause for these courageous people. I'm going to go forward when our feminist wrote around criticism, right? You all are working on new plays. You've all heard critique. An actor told me once that there are three things you go through when you get a note from a director. The first one is, oh my God, I'm awful. I didn't believe you, you know, who sent my choice on a bad actor. The second one is like, I don't know who you think you're talking to. And the third one is wait, what is the note? And he said to me that those three things never go away, but you got to move through them faster. So I'm curious, anybody when you get critique, I mean, what is it? How does it feel? How do you like to be spoken to? Like that's one thing I've had to learn how to work with one of my playwright collaborators. He's like, you need to start here and then you need to go there. What do you need, anybody, when you're getting critique? Well, I mean, a really big thing you learn as you do more new work is figuring out how to ask for what you need to be in a critique and being very specific about that because you really did identify you always go through those three stages. And if you're going to make yourself go through that, you're very clear about how you engage with it and what you expect from different people. You know, because everyone's coming to the work from a different place with a different set of lenses. I don't know if it's a clear answer, but I learned, like I get in fights with my hands and say every time he comes to one of my shows because I forget to ask him what I need to act first. And when you're that vulnerable, inevitably you're going to be really pissed off no matter what. I think being clear about that is the key. I think that's an answer at all. I feel like following the performance of anything like I've worked on, whether it's a reading or an actual show, I hate going out to the lobby after because when somebody's like, good job, I'm like, I don't believe you. I have some notes, I'm like, don't kill my buzz. So nothing you can say is going to be helpful. I will say during this process, Dramaturg Jerry Patch and director David Ivers were both being incredibly kind and they were like, have you considered, and they were asking me questions, they were being very soft, and I was like, guys, I have, I'm going to be up to 3 a.m. rewriting this thing, like what's broken? You know what I mean? And so I just like, I finally, and once they understood how I needed to hear it, they said, then Ivers was like, well, I demand you. He kind of played my game with me. So it was like, it was, sometimes I think just having it like a, almost like a blunt hammer is sometimes incredibly helpful just so you can get right to the heart of it and you're not dancing around the note. For me, it's just in the house, right? I, with my, particularly my like, whatever they feel like isn't working for the piece, we're going to another piece. I haven't, like, whenever I'm editing anything, I have this other document open that I move with you. I believe nothing because something from this is going to that and it's very deep. Like, it's not, you know, it will just become a message into the film. And so what I've gotten from Fran, from my brother's left, Fran was my dramaturg, we had a very, like, join this room. So like, we all hear it and just cough our heads, like, and I was like, you heard it too. It was really, like, it was the spirit of, like, honesty and, like, let's carve it down a little bit more. I see the angel, but, like, it's ears too big. Let's trim it down a little bit. So just that joyous generosity of, like, we're getting close to the actual thing, you know? So it didn't feel, like, negative and kicking anything away. It was like, we are carving this album looking more specific and it made it really, like, sexy. So it's really, it's the spirit. I'll say, you know, my mother is my biggest critic. She came on to me after the show. You know, honey, I have some notes. So Christina Wong was our dramaturg and she's absolutely brilliant. But I was telling David, I said, we need to add under dramaturg Christina Wong and Mom. She was like, she was breaking the dramaturg. You know, but I think what it showed me was, like, you know, as a playwright, like, my job is also to be honest, right? I have to tell the truth in the play. And so I'm going to be accountable to, you know, to my mother, yes, but also to my community, to other theater makers, like, this is, like, this is truth telling 101, right? So, and hopefully we can do it in a fun, sort of theatrical way. And, you know, she is very funny. She is larger than life. But also there's some real, she faces some ghosts of her past in this play. So it's, like, balancing that and telling that story with care. You know, being very, I think my experience, and you said it was someone with a generosity. And, like, that's kind of what it feels like. Yeah, that was you. Oh, yeah, but you are a very generous writer and spirit. But, yeah, you know, bringing that generosity into the room and then also sort of, just, like, staying true to that spirit. Yeah. Just such a vital part of the process is choosing your collaborators, having two people, and I'm inside of you where there's, like, two things that are abundantly cares that you have a common goal and the work is too much possible. Not about anyone getting a certain amount of credit for that work or anyone need orientation. This is a shared common goal. You know, no matter what, you can always feel when you work with a collaborator where they're, like, trying to protect you from the truth. Which makes me go more than that. Because then I'll be, like, you must admit it! But those people can then help you to filter early in my written journey. I would just kind of, like, enter with anyone, tell me anything about anything. I'm like, I'm just learning. It's useful. Like, it's important to be able to listen to what's, listen to what the next helpful thing is and be able to set the other things aside. And for me, that's a part of that and some figuring out how to have the best co-writers next to me and best directors and the best dramaturg for me where that understanding of storytelling is always there and the shared common goal. Yeah. You've all spoken about the dramaturg and the co-writers, which is so important. You don't do this alone. You know that. And one of the things that Repertory is always about with PPF is, like, we're trying to get you to the director. You want the dramaturg you want. And we've heard a little bit about dramaturgs and so I'm going to hit you with a lightning round, okay? Three words that describe your ideal director. Three words that describe your ideal director. We're starting with Anika and we're working our way down. Three words that describe your ideal director. I'll keep repeating so you can keep thinking. Three words ideal director. Funny, smart, cool. That's great. How do you do integrity and sensitivity? You know, good person. Honest. You've got to laugh if you have to stay up till 4am. Am I D.D.? Moritz Von Skifnik. Oh. Oh. Brutally honest, fun, honest. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to lie to you. Brutally honest, buddy. Collaborative, careful. Just wanted to. I love that. Thank you for that. Open into question for all of you. What do you, when you are watching actors do your work? What's the greatest mistake or error or note you always have? Hey, this needs to drive. Hey, this is more joyful. What's the greatest mistake or error or note you always have? Hey, this needs to drive. Hey, this is more joyful. What's the thing that you always want to offer up to anybody who might do your work? I'll tell you one of the best things about writing music is that you get to give your performers a line. Like, you write the exact way they have to perform that phrase of text. Yeah. And so, it's a very simple thing for me. If they don't sing the line right, that's all I care about. But it's a very controlling position to be in. Yeah. Oh, that was a trick. Yeah. Anybody else you think you're looking for? I feel like, like, I really like, and I know several of us write really bouncy, like fast dialogue. And I think the thing that I always find myself saying is like, it's not about talking fast. It's about picking up your fuse fast, right? Because even if we can't articulate it as an audience member, it will sound like normal speak in rhythm, not in speed. So that's always the note I find myself giving. Yeah. One note I give, because my comedy, you know, with all that stuff is state. Like, even though she's going on and on about this thing and she sounds like it just doesn't matter. It is life or death. Like, this is the love of her life. Like, you're about to lose everything. So, like, it's this idea of hiding but grounding. Because, you know, truth has no thought. It's really huge, but it has to be brought in truth. And I'm just the state, better than the state, state, state. Yeah, I love that. I think, like, you know, well, so Maritz and I have been working together for a while now for a couple of years. And what drew us together, I think, was the comedy. Like, he's a brilliant comedy director. And, you know, I like writing comedies. But I think it's like, the humor in a play is really important for me. Because, you know, we love to laugh. We love a good joke. We love a good punchline. But it's also like, the humor, I think, can open you up, right, at the audience. Like, you know, if you have a big laugh and then you have a big gut punch, right, but sort of adjacent to one another. Or a big gut punch and then a big laugh. Like, I think that's equally powerful. I think it opens you up to experience the play, what the play is trying to do and say in a way that you might not otherwise. Right? I think it's a it's sort of just a very particular experience. So, I'm always about, you know, I want my plays to feel like parties. You know, I want them to feel like they're being welcomed into a space and being an entity. Feel fun, right? Like, I come to the theater you know, I think just like a very entry level. Like, we want to have a fun experience. But I think, you know, when you bring the comedy in a very intentional way, you can sort of like, you know, really go deep. Yeah. Sort of like you were saying about stakes. Like, sort of opens you up to those stakes. Well, isn't it interesting, like, sometimes the laugh will come from, especially the plays like y'all's the laugh will not come from this is a funny situation. Sometimes it's really dramatic, but we laugh at like recognizing ourselves and we're like, oh my gosh, that reminds me of, right? So there's that laugh of recognition. Yeah, which is why mine is it's don't take me or my work that seriously. I'm kind of worried about really having stuff, but I'm like, you know, it's like the way we all walk around. We're like, you know, just like trauma. You know, just the creep, you know, whatever. And the let's take it seriously. I think the more there's that projection where you go, oh, that's that. Yeah. Thank you. You know, that would be interesting. I mean, our main language is music. When you teach music ever since, you know, you direct, you know, children's part of the thing you say is strong and wrong. It's always most valuable for creators. Even if you're not sure about it yet, like step in and show us what you've got somewhere logistically when you're teaching that you have to be able to hear if they know it or not. But also I think that, but it's just dramatic. I always appreciate the performance of boldly stepping in and making a choice and being vulnerable and with us to figure it out and telling you that. Like, boldly step into a strong and wrong require and even your notes rhyme is what I'm hearing. I'm a rhyme. Michael, what playwright or artist do you think we should know about or who we should be revisiting? What is an artist that either there's someone that inspires you that's working right now other than the illustrious panel that you've got here? Or is there someone you think we should be revisiting? Something we all should be taking off the shelf and looking at again. Oh, man. That's such a serious question. Yeah. Um, I it's, I, it's not the precise answer to this question, but my greatest living celebrity role model is Jody Mitchell and it's not about revisiting, we've been looking to her and we're all looking at her all. She's been on that one. Oops. Sometimes it's passed away and it's been so we visited and this collection of work has been a big part of past few months for me. And that's been inspiring all over again and it's not like anything we forgot about but I think it has shown me how much songs we do and how much songs we sing about people in this place. You haven't investigated songs? I recommend it. You heard it here first. For me, it's hard to name one. I mean, I mentioned Maria Grifornes who is just a brilliant a brilliant playwright and a teacher who played, she had this that I talked about and I think it really drops you to the play. You're just sort of there. But also, I think there are just so many playwrights that I was in grad school, in that program at Brooklyn College and some of the playwrights that I worked with were just totally changing the form of Grifornes and the Alvinias and Kenny and Bailey, just brilliant, brilliant writers Deepa Baroje oh my god, now I have to name them all. You know, just brilliant writers who are sort of bringing in a new wave of like when it comes to form thinking about form and how form and content sort of align or misaligned and yeah, I mean, I'm just sort of like I love all playwrights Deepa Baroje No, I always think it's important, you know the most powerful thing is when people speak your name in rooms you're not in, right and that's how so many of us get access and that's how so many people find out about us, is that somebody is speaking our name in a room we're not in and that opportunity is being open and then it's a reminder to revisit the ones we've been talking about before our art form has passed down, you know we are inspired by these people and so I love that idea thank you for those opportunities to hear Naomi, Spencer, and Christine often in my EDI and anti-racism work I ask people about their beloved community meaning who is that community that you sort of care about who do you sort of think about when you're creating art so I'm curious like who would you describe as your beloved community who is the audience and why are you doing that? Yeah, yeah What are the two people? My mother and my father and my son like it's a real life so if I write something I was like well it would make them laugh it would make them cry it would make them sick those two people are very different people you know ideology wise and all that stuff but they represent so many different facts of the Black community which also is my audience I write for everyone but specifically people that are descendants of Americans specifically but why? Why? Because I feel like there's so much to say and I do feel like specifically with that community the conversation the story is easy about how they became that community and there's so much joy there's so much more to that life to the history I don't know if you watch the Gilberts but they have a character who is Black but they're in the North in the 1800s and they're not slaves and they have money and they have gold and they have joy and they have death and they have a life that is not completely just on the the plantation or on the square that is White America and I think that there's just so many more stories that you can tell about those people specifically my people specifically my people and they just bring me joy and like I like to talk about Black joy and that's not to say you don't have to talk about Black trauma but as soon as I I laugh right that's who I am and that's what my mom does my partner actually the more I see him cry from pure joy I've actually never lived in pride but he's just he's an amazing person and so I like I like that yeah I definitely write for that like whole eternity I was talking about before the family and my partner my mom and my sister will they laugh will they cry will they faint also just like instead of being like oh I write for this audience specifically I think my ideal like patron my ideal like audience member is somebody who like comes in with a little bit of curiosity like a million tiny pieces is like a big ensemble like docu comedy I think is what Jerry Patch called it and like it's kind of a departure for me like most of my work is like asks these really like sociopolitical questions but like wrapped in genre wrapped in comedy so there's that feeling of like coming with your belief system but like be open to the idea that this is going to challenge it and if you leave with the same belief system awesome like bend those beliefs and see if they break but at the very least I think you know need to meet the work that way and like listen to the voices I also kind of love audiences who come in and are open to the idea that like characters can be right and wrong sometimes at the same time I think that's very human and so that idea of like I love when I watch an audience like laugh along and cheer for a character that character says something that's maybe a little offensive and they go wait how do I feel about this person now and they don't recognize they put up with that behavior from their best friends all the time but for some reason when it happens in storytelling and makes them feel a certain way and so like I really I write for an audience that kind of comes in open with those questions and that curiosity to kind of meet it you know I think particularly with the same circles the last next movie of human parts and that I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the pioneers who helped it down many of them were part of the project at Spirit of the Drugs the pioneers in Canada working up there in isolation for a long time but also you know more broadly speaking like the theater is my favorite place in the world is where I grew up where I came to be to have somewhere to go and there is such a feeling of betrayal sometimes moving forward with playing and watching on stage unchecked on stage unchecked racism, favoritism and to think that not everybody feels safe on stage and so my audience is my audience that I want to bring in and say I got you to see who's safe with me and that's the other thing yeah how we make these halls sacred for all as they walk through it's a powerful, powerful thing we're going to open it up to questions from the audience a few things to know 15 minutes a lot for this we will keep moving because we got to get to bike me we are missing two playwrights who is working on bike me right now and Katie Doe who did love you long time already and who wasn't able to join us and Nick Green the book writer of Dr. Silver a celebration of life so I did want to bring those names into the space we've got about 15 minutes inevitably when you open it up for questions there is a dramatic pause the last two minutes everyone's hands go up so I'm talking right now so you can get your question ready to go one thing you should know is we invite curiosity but sometimes I want you to be aware your curiosity may be met with challenge meaning sometimes the question you ask may not be the question that needs an answer and I might say you know what thank you for that we're going to send that question thank you for bringing it into space and any playwright on this panel can pass they are not obligated to answer the question I just want to put that into the space but with that being said are there any questions or comments or offers here's the dramatic pause yes right here yes I'm going to I'm going to repeat the question for our audience how different is it to watch your play being performed versus being in the play yeah I mean I think you too I actually would ask Dr. Silver to take that since you all were performing and playing in Dr. Silver it's so much more relaxing to be active while your play is happening than just to watch it something to do I would have never I did not see that something to do some measure of control so it's actually been informative and empowering part of the process that we've gotten in our own hands but yes it's a lot more relaxing actually to be on stage with them than being in the audience but also it's a lot at this point in the process and some of the discussions that this piece is I find it more informative actually than doing it on stage how about you Michael yeah you know it's really strange so I you know I write all kinds of plays and I try to make you know for me the challenge is sort of like each play have to be sort of different from the last right like I'm interested like you know how can I take what's the form of this play going to be what does this play need and how do I bring into that so for this play for Abbas you know it's it's sort of this meta thing that's happening where I'm playing my mother also like there's a turn where I sort of have a conversation with her and that sort of out of body experience it feels very dangerous and scary to put my body on stage in that way and like I'm there like it's me playing you know playing my mother in front of an audience and it's just like it's almost weirdly like stand up you know but like as my mom you know like so I'm like stand up you know can be very scary because it's you know it's live theater right like we're in the audience you know something goes wrong you say something like there's that but then also like the sort of the stakes of this story and of the of her history like I'm dealing with topics that are very taboo you know that we don't really talk about in the Iranian community and in our culture so and also bringing them to go back to early question like bringing them to spaces where you know these stories aren't really told so you know it feels like like a great responsibility but also super rewarding to be able to like take that story embody it you know to bring in folks like writing for you know for queer Iranians you know this like she's welcoming an American audience but when there are Iranian in the audience when there are queer people in the audience it's sort of like there's just a secret language that happens everyone's in on it but there's like okay you know this part of the show is for you and performing it is really special because I get to sort of be in on that with the community you know together sort of experiencing this sort of moment thank you go ahead he just made me think of something in saying that what I feel like is what's brilliant about all these pieces and especially like pieces of color or things like that so when I was little I saw myself in Frasier I really I just got him at a very young age and I think what's so cool about these pieces and I saw your people and I saw your mother beautiful and brilliant is that it allows people who are not Iranian or black to see themselves Iranian in my time Iranian in black show so I saw myself in this cis male straight you know older white man and perhaps an older cis male white man to see himself in this 28 year old black woman that I've experienced forever and I just want to share it for that but I was late so we got 10 minutes on the clock let me see hands 10 minutes on the clock I got a question here I got a question here give me one second I'm just checking the room alright we'll start here off of that actually what comes up for you all when you're writing a character that you don't identify with has an identity that you feel like is outside of your own what comes up for you when you are writing a character you don't identify with let's start with you Christine accountability and anxiety both of those things just did together come on does anybody have anything different inside of this I mean for somebody who writes mostly women and people of color it's like get as quickly as possible fill the room with the folks whose experiences that reflects and make sure that authenticity I think is also incredibly important as far as that's concerned anxiety, accountability and authenticity right here courage to be self-employed sisters down here what gave you the courage to be writers to choose this life that's a wonderful question and it's a question I ask myself every time we were very lucky our parents were both full-time freelance musicians and we were raised in Stratford, Ontario which is a theater town and our parents were in the pit-band there and all of our friends their parents were in the theater so we came up in an ecosystem where it seemed very normal and responsible like everyone had a house and a job in theater and that hasn't been my experience as an adult but it is nice to have an imprint in the form of a degree not yet not yet yes you're right we have to get from a very functional and abundant life I always find people they're always surprised I feel like I have a lot of great examples I knew artists too were making a living my high school theater teacher said you yourself are and you'll never run dry and so that was the courage I want to create that's the life I want to live and when it means I got a household I got a whole job I got all of those jobs I'm going to do it for the art which I think we've heard how much the art is important to all of these people we have a question here yes I'm a 30-year veteran of Comic-Con I can see your left showing not in the right because you need that visual for that but do you have a plan for that a 30-year veteran of Comic-Con it's a question for Spencer have you thought about opening a closed gap at Comic-Con? have you thought about your first comic-Con million tiny pieces Tetris it's a game it seems like you can get some advertising information we just need after this who do a million tiny pieces takes over all the comic-cons we got time for one or two more questions anything you have not heard you want to hear yes this is a question for Naomi your device of repeating certain phrases in all of the different sections of all of the different couples are very interesting why can you talk about the choice to make a device at all? question for Naomi, how to roll a blunt has scenes where characters repeat things what are you thinking about how did you get there? I just say the same thing over and over in my personal life you already told me that you know to quote that's what I do and that's what my mom does and that's what our group of college friends do from when we got their freshman year our little community would have these phrases that we would bounce back to each other and I feel like it was deeply rooted in respect and honor because what they say over and over is really trying to hone in a point but try not to be overbearing because of the comedy that would kind of undercut that tension but it's literally how I talk and their quotes that I have like from my intro that just replay over and over my favorite book I would just read over and over my favorite music when I'm writing a play I listen to the same song over and over there's a soundtrack for the play because it's a soundtrack for the characters and it's a soundtrack for that time which I'm telling the story and it's just it needles the thread it just really helps tightly read the story so it's just, it's like, yeah it's not a musical but it isn't thank you with the last five minutes I will offer, I have one last question for you all, it's one of those large big ones so you can take your time whenever you're working when I'm working with a group of collaborators we do Rosie, Thorn classic one there and I just want to hear your scene I just want to hear what you wish for what are you wishing for the American theater what are you wishing for the industry what are you wishing for it can be simple, it can be large what is your wish for the American theater for the industry for where we're headed what is your wish we won't go down the line because I imagine it will come to you when it does so whoever wants to go first you can, there's still plenty of time what do you think I think that my biggest experience has been just the joy of connecting with new people and so I think my wish sort of takes me back to I think the first thing I'm going to talk about today is that like we find more opportunities after having been apart for a while and in such a fraught time to be together and find the delight and joy of connecting with and being surprised I think there's a danger of reemerging from a time to continue to walk through and operate in the presence of fear and I think what I wish for for the theater is to live in abundance and responsibility and to not use what happened here as a reason to do so dreaming of the bigger and better things for all of us in a more sustainable future I wish I think abundance was the word that literally came to mind because I think there is this sense of I think we all thought at least theater can be like you can't take away being in a group and then it actually was taken away from us so I do hope that we realize what we have just by being able to be here even with masks on and that idea of if there's anything sitting on our heart anymore get rid of that filter and share that now more than ever yeah, yeah, abundance for sure I feel like there's this idea in the theater that there can be in a season in a theater season room for one one person of color we've done our black play this season that's it, we're good we checked the box there's one Iranian playwright we're good so like and I feel like that's a really dangerous paradigm because we are first of all, who's making the decisions but also like how do we sort of open how do we come to the theater with openness and how do we sort of what are the stories that we're telling what are the stories that we're looking up if there's only room for one and then you're sort of like hitting people from in community against each other it's not really like it doesn't really make sense so I think like yeah, just like a spirit of abundance of openness and I definitely felt that this week I felt that with my collaborators but like how do we bring that more widely more broadly to the theater that we're in just with your beautiful question and your one of the answers you made early on I realize now, I just have my son and my town doing this I'm using the check I'm going to get from this to fund this because I have to bring my whole family out and be the only four months old now but I want to be this forever I have to be this forever we also need to help each other so I'm like how can we actually make some living ways that we can tell someone you're an artist I'm an artist I'm good for you just like a dentist or anyone else a living wage and health insurance so it's not so beautiful for other young people to get into it because it should be with such a beautiful profession and I think it should be problems they do research you know I can't believe that's what you said because what I thought actually was the basic income which for a brief moment in the pandemic Canadians got third service so great with effectively universal basic income it was $2,000 a month and I think you could go for up to six months and the renaissance of art from people whose financial situations precluded them people with children who can afford to participate in an architecture people with disabilities people who are not from privileged economic backgrounds who really are and just that moment when that pressure was lifted the abundance that came from them and the voices that we would get to hear if everybody's in need for next with universal basic income and other jobs there that's what I thought so I guess we're thinking the same thing thank you all so much I know we at South Coast Repertory wish you radical joy we wish you radical sustainable joy however that joy needs to be sustained whether that means you are a hit house in New York or whether you are in Mount Shack in Vermont we wish you radical sustainable joy thank you for being present thank you all for showing up thank you on the high ground