Hang & Focus LIVE! with Sean Daniels

Arizona Theatre Company’s Sean Daniels (Artistic Director) and Carley Elizabeth Preston (Development Operations Manager) hang out with Mark Armstrong (Artistic Director of The 24 Hour Plays ) and Ashley La Russa (Founder of Roux Events and BlaxFriday.com, and beloved member of the ATC family).

This week of Hang and Focus is co-hosted by Jasmine Roth, Director of Learning and Education and Assistant Production Manager and Chair of the DiveIn Committee, Tajh Oates, as we discuss the different ways that artists and arts organizations can be advocates for change. Tajh meets with Catherine Campbell, Production Manager at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, MN, to discuss the what their theatre is doing to assist the situation in their town after the murder of George Floyd and how they integrate social justice work into their organization. Tajh and Will also speak with Diana Burbano, actor and playwright most recently featured in as Amalia in our production of American Mariachi, who speaks about her experience as a Latinx playwright and performer, the way that she advocates for her fellow Latinx artists and young artists in her community, and how her experiences have inspired her to make change within the industry.

Artistic Director Sean Daniels and Development Operations Manager, Carley Elizabeth Preston, are joined by incoming Associate Artistic Director, Chanel Bragg to talk about ATC’s exciting future!

As a surprise bonus, we will also talk HAMILTON with Jesse Sanchez, Musical Director for Cabaret and creator of SUEÑOS: Our American Musical who was the Musical Director for the Angelica touring cast of Hamilton.

Megan Carney (Artistic Director of About Face Theatre in Chicago),Sharon Pasia (Member of the Youth Ensemble AND Youth Task Force at About Face) and Amy Young (Amy Young, the Managing Editor of Echo Magazine, Phoenix's longest-running LGBTQ publication)  hang out with Sean and Carley Elizabeth Preston (ATC’s Development Operations Manager)

“We felt really strongly as a company that we wanted to be in direct support”  “The young people in our program are directly impacted by the way systemic oppression is working against all of us” “If we want our artmaking to be about social change, what are the different tools we have to really advance that?”  “I want to speak to what’s happening right now” “As a brown person in this community it doesn’t feel welcoming sometime” “That program is so flexible, it starts as one thing and ends where it needs to go” “I’m not doing it perfectly and I'm learning all the time” - Megan Carney (Synthesis)  & Sharon Pasia (“Present”)

“ECHO magazine is Phoenix’s longest running LGBT Magazine” “Built to echo the voices in the LGBT community” “In order to create real change we have to sustain all these efforts “We have to communicate with new people" “Trying to get people to understand the importance of voting” “EQAZ.org are providing a lot of resources” “If you are going through a tough time please let us know. We would love to put you in touch with an organization that might be able to help you” “I struggle with the idea that we have to be excited about progress like that when really we should have equal rights” “We have a strong community that is interested in raising voices and continuing to make change” “Quasi The Great is a short spined German Shepard”- Amy Young (“Strength”)

Hosts Sean Daniels and Carley Elizabeth Preston interview Joanie Drago (Creator and Playwright of HOT PINK OR READY TO BLOW) and Oscar De Las Salas (Community Leader) on their work, experiences and projects. Here are some of our favorite quotes from the interviews (you'll have to listen to find out more!):  “I thought I was a playwright and then I realized I just knew how to run my mouth”  “ They were wearing their slut buttons”“what is the starting point of self”  “If I were to say I am, there is creative energy in that” - Joanie Drago

Reggie D. White (Actor—The Inheritance [Broadway]) and Raymond Carr (Puppeteer—Jim Henson Studios) hang out with our co-hosts Sean and Carley. 

Larissa Fasthorse (Playwright, co-founder of Indigenous Direction, member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and Vice Chair of Theatre Communications Group) and Hana Sharif (Artistic Director—The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis) talk about systematic inequality in the theatre industry, and how we can use this moment to retool the systems, rebuild the structures and realign our values in order to create a better theatre industry and community. 

Kent Gash (Founding Director of New Studio on Broadway at NYU Tish School of the Arts, Director of Master Harold and the Boys at Arizona Theatre Company) and Carley Elizabeth Preston (Chief Development Officer) discuss racism, current events and how we as artists and theatre makers can be actively anti-racist. 

Tune in with Sean for this timely and important interview with Ralph Remington (Artistic Director, Tempe Center for the Arts) and Larry O'Keefe (Broadway Composer and Lyricist - Bat Boy, Legally Blond, Heathers)!

Artistic Director Sean Daniels talks with Jaime Dempsey, Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Mitch Menchaca, Executive Director of the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture.