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Theatre Project Highlights Black Screenwriters, Historic Richmond Locations

Anya Sczerzenie | November 19, 2020

Topics: Break, Brittany Fisher, Cadence Theatre Company, dl Hopkins, Jessica Colocho Mairena, Margarette Joyner, Obadiah Parker, Sitelines BLM

For their Sitelines BLM project, the Cadence Theatre Company will work with five different Black screenwriters to create films depicting historic locations around Richmond in progressive contexts.

The Cadence Theatre Company has commissioned five artists to produce short, filmed performances for their Sitelines BLM series — which aims to showcase historical locations throughout Richmond in a progressive, racial-justice focused light.

“Responsive to our current political moment and with interest in uplifting marginalized voices, we seek to commission five local Black, Indigenous, Writers of Color to write screenplays and plays that will be filmed,” the Cadence Theatre website reads. 

The five selected screenwriters are Brittany Fisher, dl Hopkins, Margarette Joyner, Jessica Colocho Mairena, and Obadiah Parker. 

The films commissioned by Sitelines BLM each have to do with a specific place or space in the city of Richmond. 

“Marcus-David Peters Circle (Robert E. Lee Monument), Reclamation Square (City Hall), and The African Burial Ground are but a few examples of specific places in our surrounding community where performances that can shift and deepen our intervisibility are taking place,” the website reads. 

RVA Mag was able to sit down with two of the five screenwriters and talk to them about their pieces.

dl Hopkins. Photo via Facebook.

dl Hopkins, founder of the slam poetry group Southern Revolutionist Literary Guild and supporting actor in the 2016 film Loving, is producing a short film titled Break for the project.

The film centers on a lunch break where a Black couple tries to relate a story to their coworkers — a story which to them was quite horrifying, but comes across as funny to others. 

“It involves a young man recalling the horrors of his weekend dinner, to his co-workers’ amusement,” Hopkins said. 

The film is based on one of Hopkins’ own experiences with his wife — although telling what the experience was would spoil the plot of the film. The title has a double meaning, which becomes evident as the story progresses. 

Hopkins says he hopes everyone who sees his film comes away from it with a different perspective.

“I like things that are open,” said Hopkins. “Certain bits of art are more personal, everyone can come away with something different.  You meet it, and it meets you, as opposed to sitting in the theatre for two hours, being hammered in the head with something.”

Hopkins plans to film at two locations around the Richmond area, with the lunch break scenes being filmed at the Virginia State Capitol.

VCU Theater student Obadiah Parker, who founded the Black Theatre Association at his university, is producing a short play for the project. Focused on the Black experience at a white church, the play, titled Enough, is based on one of Parker’s own church experiences. 

“It’s a spiritual journey, interwoven with the Black aesthetic,” said Parker. “The world of Enough is dark, with colorful undertones. The whole play is about understanding and trying to see the other point of view, while also being grounded in your beliefs and your faith, and who you are as an individual.”

Obadiah Parker. Photo via Cadence Theatre Company/Facebook

It focuses on a main character named Flint, who attempts to be the first Black preacher at a mainly white church. He joins forces with a white woman who has selective mutism, and the two attempt to expose “the sin of complicit silence” within the church.

Parker says that he felt a responsibility to apply for the program after the death of George Floyd sparked the nationwide Black Lives Matter protest movement.

“I saw an opportunity that I could just be representative as a Black artist,” Parker said. “I made it kind of a responsibility to apply.”

Parker says that he wants his play to be filmed at both the Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, a historic location in Richmond, and the Marcus-David Peters Circle. 

Omiyemi Artisia Green, the director of the Sitelines BLM project, says that screenwriters will have until Dec. 31 to submit finished scripts of their work. Filming will begin in 2021, with appropriate social distancing measures in place. When the films are finished, Cadence Theatre will show them at an online film festival and host discussions following each film, according to Green.

Top Photo by Jay Paul Photography

Focusing The Line Of Sight

Greta Timmins | August 27, 2020

Topics: black lives matter, Cadence Theatre Company, Marcus-David Peters Circle, Omiyemi (Artisia) Green, Reclamation Square, Sitelines BLM, theatre in richmond va

With Sitelines BLM, Cadence Theatre Company launches a project focusing on sites of importance to Richmond’s BIPOC residents, especially those that have been reshaped by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Cadence Theatre Company is currently seeking submissions for its newest project, Sitelines BLM, a series of filmed plays and screenplays that hope to center BIPOC voices in Richmond by focusing on places that are being reshaped through the Black Lives Matter movement.

The project was created by Omiyemi (Artisia) Green, an associate professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at William & Mary who has been a resident dramaturge at Cadence for the last two years and this year became a member of the theatre’s artistic board of directors. Green was inspired to create Sitelines BLM by the summer that preceded the announcement of the project.

“COVID-19 and social unrest have shaken the American Theatre,” Green said. “As a result, the corporate theatrical body – its racist policies and practices – have been called on the carpet.”

Green saw Cadence, a predominantly white institution, as a place that could respond to the disruption of American theatre by creating a project that was “meaningful, sustainable, collaborative, and reciprocal — and, most importantly, in a way which truly recognized and centered BIPOC voices and artistry.”

The original Sitelines project, which Cadence launched in 2015, sought to bring theater into new and innovative spaces in Richmond through free performances in various Richmond locations. Previous Sitelines projects include The Flick by Annie Baker, shown in 2015, My name is Rachel Corrie, shown in 2017, and The Gun Show by EM Lewis, also shown in 2017.

For Sitelines BLM, Cadence collaborated with a variety of groups and organizations — including Oakwood Arts; the William & Mary programs in Africana Studies and Theatre, Speech, and Dance; the University of Richmond Free Theatre and Dance; and VCUarts Theatre, as well as Cadence’s producing partner, Virginia Repertory Theatre — to create a visual storytelling project that will focus on BIPOC voices in Richmond.

Green mentioned Marcus-David Peters Circle, Reclamation Square outside City Hall, and Richmond’s African Burial Ground as examples for potential storytelling locations. However, writers are not limited to those locations — Green explained that potential locations can come from sites of memory, of reclamation and reimagination, resistance, displacement and injustice, and ritual or spiritual activation.

“[The examples are used] to inspire commissioners to consider any space in Richmond that presents itself as a siteline – a space where the people wrestle with history and memory, a space that has been reclaimed and reimagined by the community, a space where the people have intentionally unified under a common purpose — to use their body and voice in service of the highest calling,and that is fighting injustice on behalf of the marginalized and voiceless,” Green said.

Green looked to recommendations from members of the Richmond community, places she heard about in the news, and places she heard about on her social media timeline when deciding which places could make good locations in Richmond.

“None of my work is done in a vacuum,” she said. “In community engaged work, especially as a semi-outsider, it is especially important that I engage the people who live here in determining what needs to be elevated or addressed.”

Besides centering BIPOC voices and artistry, Green hopes Sitelines BLM will create increased recognition and opportunities for BIPOC writers and artists in Richmond, in all areas of creative production and administration.

“Hopefully, through the artistic relationships we build through the work, we develop an even larger pipeline of talent to be fueled into other areas of the work of Cadence Theatre, and the broader Richmond theatre community,” said Green.

For Sitelines BLM, Cadence will ultimately commission work from five local writers; interested candidates should submit one screenplay or play no more than five minutes in length. The deadline for submissions is Monday, September 14 by 11:59pm. Selected writers will be notified by October 16, and full scripts finalized by December. Production for Sitelines BLM is expected to begin in 2021.

“I would love to see stories brought into the line of sight that haven’t been told before,” Green said. “Stories that compel us to act in ways that bring balance to malevolent forces and adversaries of goodness within the world, stories that elevate our cultural consciousness and strengthen our commitment to being better individually.”

For information on the submission process for Sitelines BLM, go to https://cadencetheatre.org/sitelines-blm.

Essentially Invisible: The Impact of COVID-19 on RVA’s “Non-Essential” Businesses

Rachel Scott Everett | April 6, 2020

Topics: Another Limited Rebellion, Cade Martin, Cadence Theatre Company, Coffee At A Distance, coronavirus, covid 19, CreativeMornings RVA, Dancers of RVA, Dialectix Consulting, Dogtown Dance Theatre, EVERGIB, Familiar Creatures, Fighting Gravity Fitness, Gianna Grace Photography, K2 Custom Tees, Kate Thompson, Kate Thompson Photography, Keep Calm And Nom Nom, Minima, Nico Cathcart, noah scalin, nonessential business, OnHoldAtHome, Palindrome Creative, quarantine, richmond va local business, rva together, Sacred Heart Center, Shapes & Colors, Spiritual Flow Yoga, stay at home order, Studio Two Three, Tania del Carmen, The Creative Now, Think, Urban Hang Suite

All sorts of businesses around Richmond are trying to survive in the midst of quarantine; coming up with survival strategies has been even tougher for those deemed non-essential.

With Governor Northam’s recent issue of a mandatory lockdown, it’s clear business won’t be getting back to usual anytime soon.

In the last couple of weeks, there’s been a big push (rightly so) to support local restaurants and breweries. Online delivery and curbside pickup are now the norm, and potentially the only way for these businesses to survive. It’s been amazing to witness the community come together and rally behind these establishments who’ve made our renowned culinary and craft beer scene possible. After all, eating and drinking is essential – not only to our survival, but to our enjoyment of life as well.

But what about the people working in business deemed “non-essential?” From entrepreneurs and artists to retail store owners and fitness instructors, these are the individuals who provide services that, during our current crisis, may not be “essential” for our survival. However, their income (or lack thereof) is directly tied to their survival.

This is the case for my husband and me as we run our own creative studio, EVERGIB. Within a few days, we felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with the immediate loss of a brand launch project for a new restaurant. As independent creative professionals, we know all too well that when the economy takes a hit, we’re among the first to be affected. Now, no one is immune. As we self-isolate in our respective homes, we decided to reach out to friends and colleagues working across a variety of fields to learn what their life, and their livelihood, looks like during this challenging time.

The author, Rachel Scott Everett, and her husband, Brian Gibson, are Co-Founders & Creative Directors of EVERGIB, a nomadic creative studio. Photo by EVERGIB.

“Fear and uncertainty” are top of mind for Jason St. Peter, owner of Think, a fellow independent creative services agency in town. Like us, he’s experiencing a decrease in workflow, but trying to keep things in perspective, adding that “the drama happening with the rest of our country’s workforce and health is far more concerning.”

Matthew Freeman is founder of Dialectix Consulting, which offers facilitation and training around diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Almost every single project I had has been cancelled or postponed,” he states. The work is “both high-touch, in-person work and not a priority for organizations when their survival is at stake.”

Kate Thompson, of Kate Thompson Photography and Palindrome Creative, is feeling the crunch as well. A commercial photographer specializing in interior design and hospitality who recently completed work for Quirk Hotel Charlottesville, her focus has now turned to concerns about delayed income and loss of business, since photography is generally viewed as a “luxury” item. To stay hopeful, Thompson says, “I’m reminding myself that this, too, shall pass.” 

Katrina Boone, owner of Gianna Grace Photography and creator of Dancers of RVA, shares similar thoughts. “I never in a million years believed I would lose a whole month’s worth of work that has been scheduled for almost a year… I am now aware of just how fragile best-laid plans can be.”

Jess Burgess is Artistic and Executive Director at Dogtown Dance Theatre, a home for performing artists. Photo by Gianna Grace Photography.

Small business owner Jolinda Smithson of Shapes & Colors used to rely heavily on in-person meetings to generate new business. She’s adapting by connecting and expanding her network virtually. As host of CreativeMornings RVA, she’s particularly mindful of inclusivity within the community, reminding us that “businesses of color will be intensely impacted. It’s important to elevate those stories so folks get the support and resources they need to stay afloat.”

Kristen Ziegler, owner of Minima, a professional organizing and minimalist business, has also had to adapt. “Our business model is based on face-to-face organizing services in our clients’ homes and businesses,” states Ziegler. “Over half of our clients have asked to postpone their sessions. We’re losing at least half of our anticipated revenue as of now, and I only imagine things will get worse as the situation progresses.”

Ashley Hawkins is in a similar situation with her non-profit community arts studio, Studio Two Three. She’s dealing with a substantial loss of revenue due to program cancellations. Therefore, she’s ramped up her studio’s online shop, offering custom prints, shirts, tote bags, and other items for sale. “It’s a great way of supporting the studio and also getting something beautiful to remind us that we are all in this together.”

At Dogtown Dance Theatre, Jess Burgess, Artistic and Executive Director, is not only concerned for the future of her company, but the small staff she employs. Since 2010, Dogtown has been a staple for independent artists and community-based dancers. “In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve been forced to close our doors, closing off access to the classes, performances, and workshops that keep our region culturally vibrant.”

Burgess remarked that on top of the loss of income, the loss of community has been particularly difficult. “Nonprofit organizations, rooted in the community, cannot afford this hit, both to earned and contributed revenue, and the long-term effects it could have on programs and services offered to the public.”

Laine Satterfield is Director of Education at Cadence Theatre Company, an independent theatre. Photo by EVERGIB.

That type of devastating ripple effect translates to the theatre world as well. Laine Satterfield is Director of Education at Cadence Theatre Company, a small, independent performing arts theater. They’ve had to postpone all performances and community events indefinitely, putting the entire close-knit cast and crew in limbo. Ironically, its spring production, Small Mouth Sounds, tells the stories of strangers seeking to find themselves through isolation.

Like countless others, Sonja Stoeckli, owner of Spiritual Flow Yoga, has had to rethink ways of doing business. She and her teachers are offering online classes through Zoom for a reduced fee. “I have to pay my teachers as otherwise, they have no income as well,” she says. “I try to charge a little bit for our classes. It’s hard, as many people are not able to pay anymore because they lost their jobs.” 

Audrey Bonafe, owner of Fighting Gravity Fitness, is faced with similar challenges, and trying to see the bright side of things. “There will always be something to learn and grow from. We will become stronger and wiser. We are all being forced to offer online classes now, and that was something we needed to do anyway.”

That notion of being forced into action seems to be a common theme for everyone. Social entrepreneur Kelli Lemon of Urban Hang Suite, among other ventures, is also trying to take a more positive spin. “We are all in this together. We truly have the opportunity to look at things differently.”

Sonja Stoeckli is owner of Spiritual Flow Yoga, offering vinyasa flow and restorative classes of all levels. Photo by EVERGIB.

They say constraint breeds creativity. And therein is where the solution for the survival of “non-essentials” may lie. It’s about finding creative ways to get through this together. Most likely, the success of our professional lives depends on the support of people. And in times of crisis, we need each other more than ever (that goes for our personal well-being too). It’s up to all of us to find ways to lift each other up, to help create more awareness of the different challenges we face, and to understand that despite our differences, we all share this same burden of uncertainty together.

Already there have been inspiring acts of kindness and selflessness from “non-essentials” leveraging their skills and expertise to help the community. Dustin Artz and Justin Bajan of local ad agency Familiar Creatures created Keep Calm and Nom Nom, a one-stop online shop for purchasing gift cards to support RVA restaurants.

Artist Nico Cathcart and other Richmond muralists designed custom tee shirts that are now for sale on RVA Together. Each purchase provides a donation to Feedmore. Similarly, artist Noah Scalin of Another Limited Rebellion has a limited edition tee shirt for sale, for which all profits will go to support the Sacred Heart Center. Both initiatives are in collaboration with local print shop K2 Custom Tees.

Nico Cathcart is a muralist and painter whose work addresses social issues and inspires activism. Photo by EVERGIB.

Photographer Cade Martin has developed The Creative Now, featuring interviews with creative professionals sharing their experiences about what they’re doing to stay creative. Tania del Carmen, another local photographer, created #OnHoldAtHome, a photography series that aims to shine a light on how, despite the different challenges we face during COVID-19, we’re all connected in a shared vulnerability.

While we’re all justifiably concerned about our individual livelihoods, these examples show the benefit of looking outside ourselves. If we’re feeling invisible, chances are that others are feeling the same way too. Perhaps the best way to help ourselves is by first helping others. There is power in being proactive and taking some kind – any kind – of action.

Reach out. Check in. Start conversations. Don’t just ask people to write a positive testimonial and/or review for your business – do the same for them in return. Refer people’s work and services to those who may have a need for it, particularly those fortunate enough to be maintaining a stable income. If someone refers you, thank them for taking the time to do so. Create a list of the people you know who should know one another, and make introductions for future reference. This is also a great time to become a mentor, or to search for one. Initiatives such as Coffee At A Distance connect experienced industry professionals with graduates, many of whom are entering the job market for the first time.

As we depend even more on our virtual interaction, online and social platforms is where we can particularly make an impact. Tagging, liking, commenting, and promoting people’s work or services may seem insignificant, but can often make a big difference in keeping everyone visible.

OnHoldAtHome is a photography series created by Tania del Carmen documenting the lives of Richmonders during Covid-19. Photo by Tania del Carmen.

Right now, we might not have a lot of control, certainty or peace of mind. But we may have a lot of time. Let’s use it wisely.

Top Photo: Ashley Hawkins is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Studio Two Three, a non-profit community arts studio. Photo by EVERGIB. All photos were taken with the necessary precautions and from a distance of 6+ feet.

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