SETC News - January/February 2023

CARLTON MOLETTE

KEYNOTE: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4

AWARD

PRESENTATION: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 4 SETC Awards Gala

CARLTON AND BARBARA MOLETTE 2023 Distinguished Career Award and Saturday Keynote Speaker

SETC is pleased to present its 2023 Distinguished Career Award to Carlton Molette, PhD, and Barbara Molette PhD (posthumously). The authors of numerous plays, books and scholarly articles, the Molettes have received many honors for their work, including the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism’s Playwright’s Award, Black Theatre Network’s Lifetime Membership Award, National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award and Atlanta Black Theatre Festival’s Legend Award.

The couple met in 1957 when Carlton (he/him), then a Morehouse College junior, took a class on Spelman College’s campus that was also attended by Barbara Roseburr (she/her), then a Spelman freshman. They married in 1960 and joined Spelman’s faculty in 1969.

Dramatists Guild members since 1971, they began playwriting collaborations with Rosalee Pritchett, premiered in 1970 by Atlanta’s Morehouse-Spelman Players, produced in New York by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1971 and 2017 for their 50th anniversary season, and also by the Free Southern Theatre and several university theatres, and published by Dramatists Play Service and in the anthology, Black Writers of America. Their body of work includes more than 20 plays and short plays, as well as two nonfiction books, Afrocentric Theatre and Black Theatre: Premise and Presentation, and numerous articles.

Their plays include: Noah’s Ark

Fortunes of the Moor Our Short Stay Prudence Legacy Presidential Timber Ada’s Husband Passed

Former students include: Pearl Cleage

Sheila K. Davis

LaTanya Richardson Jackson Samuel L. Jackson

Bill Nunn

Horace Rogers Meshach Taylor

Both also mentored many students during long careers as professors. Carlton, a professor emeritus of the University of Connecticut, is currently living in Atlanta, actively writing and facilitating workshops. Barbara, a professor emerita of Eastern Connecticut State University, passed away in 2017.

More info: convention.setc.org/keynotes

INDIRA ETWAROO, PhD

Convention Keynote Speaker

Indira Etwaroo (she/her), PhD, is an award-winning producer, director, scholar, and arts and culture executive. She has worked across the world to develop multiplatform venues and content that represents the diversity of the globe and explores the complex intersections between stories-thatmatter and the topics-of-our-time. She currently serves as the first-ever director of the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple in California.

Etwaroo was a major force for content innovation and inclusion in the public media field as the founding executive producer of The Greene Space in NYC and founding executive producer of NPR Presents, the national live events platform bringing live, on-air and online content to audiences across the world.

Of note, she executive produced the American broadcast premiere of the 75th anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, starring Phylicia Rashad, and the first-ever audio recordings and video broadcasts of August Wilson’s entire American Century Cycle. She led The Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn through radical growth as its executive artistic director: more than doubling the audience, increasing revenue by 212%, and producing groundbreaking content.

Etwaroo spearheaded the launch of the first-ever national $10-million strategic plan for thrivability for Black theatre institutions, The Black Seed. She has been a professor of graduate studies at Temple University and at NYU, teaching “Leading Performing Arts Institutions in the 21st Century.”

She has received awards and honors for her work, including the “40 under 40” of national leaders by The Network Journal, the Black Theater Network’s Larry Leon Hamlin Legacy Award, and the Larry Leon Hamlin Producer’s Award from the National Black Theatre Festival. She has lectured and published extensively on the performing arts, race, womanhood and equity, and has served as a Fulbright Scholar, where she lived and worked with refugee Somali women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Etwaroo is the mother of Zenzele, a director and writer.

SKYLAR FOX Thursday Convention Keynote

Speaker

Skylar Fox (he/him) is a director, playwright and creator of magic and illusions for theatre. He cares about making wildly theatrical plays and musicals that push the boundaries of what theatre can do to tell demandingly vulnerable stories powerfully.

As a magic designer, Skylar is the illusions and magic associate for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway and around the world, and has created magic for Fat Ham (The Public Theater and National Black Theatre, Broadway upcoming), You Will Get Sick (Roundabout), A Beautiful Noise (associate design, Broadway), Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival) and Dracula (Maltz Jupiter Theater). He also has consulted on The Tonight Show, The Tony Awards and San Diego Comic Con.

He is the co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed and cowritten an apocalypse around a campfire (The Grown-Ups, secret location); a live, immersive alien movie (Alien Nation, Paradise Factory); a fivedimensional community meeting with a full pancake breakfast (Providence, RI, The Tank); a haunted rock concert (Thank You Sorry, Ars Nova); and a hybrid comic book with interactive animation (Apathy Boy, The Brick & Ars Nova, 2015 O’Neill finalist). He also directed and co-created The Annotated History of the American Muskrat by John Kuntz (The New Ohio, Boston Center for the Arts).

Other directing credits include Pussy Sludge by Gracie Gardner (2017 Relentless Award, HERE Arts Center), Juliet & Romeo (The Brick), and the Boston premieres of the 6-hour genre-bending epic The Valentine Trilogy and of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, for which he was nominated for an IRNE Award.

Fox holds a BA in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies from Brown University.

2023 SETC Distinguished Designers Announced

Don’t Miss the Design Keynote on Thursday at the SETC Convention! The 2023 distinguished designers will deliver a keynote address Thursday evening, March 2, during the 2023 SETC Convention in Lexington, KY. In addition to sharing advice and career retrospectives in the keynote – which is open to all convention attendees – the distinguished designers serve as judges for SETC’s annual Design Competition.

Mary Louise Geiger Distinguished Lighting Designer

Mary Louise Geiger (she/her) is a lighting designer whose work has appeared on Broadway (The Constant Wife), off-Broadway and on regional theatre stages.

“My work runs the gamut from weird devised work pieces with Mabou Mines and Double Edge, for example, to regional theatre plays and musicals, to opera and dance,” she said.

Geiger, who earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, serves on the faculty of the NYU/Tisch Department of Design for Stage and Film.

Advice for young designers: I can think of no better inspiration than Robert Edmund Jones in The Dramatic Imagination:

“The creative approach to lighting design – the art, in other words, of knowing where to put the light onstage and where to take it away … The secret lies in our perception of light in the theatre as something alive. Does this mean that we are to carry images of poetry and vision and high passion in our minds while we are shouting out orders to electricians on ladders in light rehearsals? Yes. This is what it means.”

Harlan D. Penn

Distinguished Scene Designer

Harlan D. Penn (he/him) is a scenic designer whose work has appeared offBroadway, off-off-Broadway, on cable television, in regional theatre, and in educational theatre.

He also has served as art director or assistant art director for film and TV productions for Netflix, ABC/Disney, CBS and others. Penn made his operatic design debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s world premiere production of Factotum (hip-hop opera) in January 2023.

A Florida A&M University graduate, he earned an MFA in scenic design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Penn is an assistant professor of scenic design at York College in Jamaica, Queens, NY.

Advice for young designers: Commit to every project fully and never forget that design is a collaboration of minds … not just yours. Trust your gut instincts and everything else will fall into place, but most importantly, believe in yourself.

The Distinguished Costume Designer will be announced soon.

More info: convention.setc.org/keynotes

More info: www.setc.org/upcoming

HAVE A GROUP ATTENDING THE SECONDARY SCHOOL FESTIVAL?

Non-Members of SETC Need Tickets

Anyone who is registered to attend the SETC Convention may attend performances of the SETC Secondary School Theatre Festival, which will be held at the Lexington Opera House. However, friends and family of festival participants and the general public must purchase tickets. Ticket information to be announced!

Ticketing for the Secondary School Theatre Festival is sponsored by:

Find Your School at the 2023 SETC Convention in Lexington, KY

u Undergraduate & Graduate Auditions

u Design/Tech/Management/Playwriting Interviews u Education Expo

The 2023 SETC Convention offers both undergraduate and graduate candidates the opportunity to connect with dozens of colleges, universities and training programs from around the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Below are the schools registered for Education Expo and/or Auditions/Interviews as of Dec. 29, 2022:

Accademia dell’Arte

AMDA College of Performing Arts

Arcadia University Asbury University

Auburn University

Auburn University at Montgomery

Austin Peay State University

Brenau University

Campbellsville University Carnegie Mellon University Catawba College Centre College

Christopher Newport University Circle in the Square Theatre School

Clemson University Coastal Carolina University Coker University

College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati College of William & Mary Columbia College Chicago DeSales University

Dobbins Conservatory at Southeast Missouri State University

East Tennessee State University Florida School of the Arts

Furman University

George Mason University

Heidelberg University

High Point University

Hollins University

Illinois Wesleyan University

Indiana State University

Ira Brind School of Theater Arts, University of the Arts

Jacksonville University Kent State University

Lees-McRae College

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA)

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA)

Long Island University

Marshall University

Mary Baldwin University

Miami University of Ohio Middle Tennessee State University Milligan University Mississippi State University Mississippi University for Women Murray State University National Theater Institute (NTI)

The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts

New World School of the Arts

North Greenville University

The Norwalk Conservatory of the Arts

The Ohio State University Oklahoma City University

Palm Beach Atlantic University Point Park University

Radford University

Randolph College

Saginaw Valley State University

Samford University

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)

Sewanee: University of the South Southern Illinois University

Stella Adler Studio of Acting Temple University

Terry Knickerbocker Studio

Texas Tech University

Touchstone Theatre / Moravian University

Troy University

The University of Alabama University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Alabama in Huntsville

University of Arkansas University of Georgia University of Indianapolis University of Kentucky, Department of Theatre and Dance; and Department of Arts Administration University of Louisville University of Memphis University of Nevada, Las Vegas University of North Alabama University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of North Carolina School of the Arts

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

University of Wyoming

Virginia Commonwealth University Villanova University

Virginia Tech

West Virginia University

Western Carolina University

Western Illinois University

Western Kentucky University

Wilkes University William Carey University Winthrop University

West Virginia Wesleyan College Youngstown State University

See updates to the list of schools and get more information here.

More info: convention.setc.org

Bring Your Ideas to EDIA Meetings, Workshops during the 2023 SETC Convention in Lexington

SETC encourages all members to get involved in our mission to make the organization more inclusive.

u ATTEND AN INTEREST GROUP MEETING

Learn about our initiatives to foster greater equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in SETC and get involved in our efforts by attending one of the following Interest Area Meetings during the 2023 SETC Convention. Check the convention website for details on when these groups will meet:

Applied Theatre Ad Hoc Committee

Chair: Christie Connolly, cconnolly@unionky.edu Vice-Chair: Tenika Dye Burgess, tenikadyeburgess@gmail.com

BIPOC/Global Majority Theatre Persons Interest Group

Co-Chair: Robert Shryock, rcshryock@okcu.edu Co-Chair: Steven Butler, steven@flatheatre.org

Black Theatre Committee

Co-Chair: Brian Martin, bmartin@alasu.edu Co-Chair: Yolanda Williams, yolanda.r.williams@jsums.edu

Cultural Diversity Committee

Chair: Kyla Kazuschyk, kkazuschyk@lsu.edu Vice-Chair: Elizabeth Watkins, e.watkins1990@live.com

Disability Inclusion Committee

Chair: Hannah Williams, mshannahcat@gmail.com

LGBTQ+ in Theatre Committee

Chair: Carlton V. Bell II, me@carltonvbell.com Vice-Chair: Allie Nichols, allienichols@aol.com

Student & Emerging Artists Interest Group

Co-Facilitator: Kyla Kazuschyk, kkazuschyk@lsu.edu Co-Facilitator: Jehan Hormazdi, jhormazd@ttu.edu

Women in Theatre Committee

Chair: Rowen Haigh, rowenhaigh@gmail.com Vice-Chair: Keyanna Alexander, alexander.keyanna@gmail.com

u JOIN US FOR EDIA WORKSHOPS, PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Join in one or more panel discussions or presentations to expand your understanding and help your work in equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. These programs are meant to assist your EDIA efforts and eradicate racism and bias in the classroom, the boardroom, backstage or at the box office. Topics, presenters and dates/times to be announced on the convention website. There will be numerous workshops with EDIA focus throughout the week!

More info: convention.setc.org

GET THE FULL DETAILS

See all available options for convention sponsorships here.

QUESTIONS?

Contact Shameca Freeman at shameca@setc.org.

COMMERCIAL VENDORS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: Boost Your Brand at the 2023 SETC Convention

include:

REGISTRATION

SPONSOR $4,000

Connect with your entire audience at SETC, where theatre practitioners of all levels come together in one place! The spotlight is on you at registration, giving you direct access as your brand welcomes every convention participant to the registration booth.

EVENT SPONSOR: $750 – $4,000

Put your name front and center on events ranging from our festivals to the Exhibitor Beer Break to the Women in Theatre Reception! No matter your target audience within the theatre community, SETC has an event that will directly connect your business to that audience.

PROGRAM SPONSOR: $250 – $3,000

Introduce one of our keynote speakers, support our EDIA series, or sponsor one of our programming tracks! Go beyond a single event or workshop – choose the perfect programming track that will keep your brand in front of your target audience throughout convention.

Sponsorship includes:

4 3 convention app push notifications

4 6 kick panels

4 Premium logo placement

4 30-second looping video on convention website

More info: See Page 2 of the link below.

Options include:

4 Exhibitor Break: $1,000

4 Mixer sponsorships: $2,000

4 Awards Gala: $3,000

4 Festival sponsorships: $750 – 2,000

More info: See Pages 5-6 of the link below.

More info: click here

Options include:

4 Design Competition: $250-500

4 Keynote speaker sponsor: $2,000

4 EDIA series sponsor: $2,000

4 Workshop track sponsor: $1,000

More info: See Pages 3-4 of the link below.

Whether you work at a company that markets to theatres or at an educational institution that recruits students, you’ll find a wide variety of innovative sponsorship opportunities available at the 2023 SETC Convention in Lexington, KY. Options still available

INTERESTED?

Visit the Scholarships page on the SETC website for details on eligibility, how to apply, and the selection process.

WOULD YOU LIKE FREE MONEY FOR SCHOOL? Apply now for 2023 – 2024 SETC Scholarships

Planning to attend college or graduate school in 2023 – 2024? Applications are being accepted until April 3 for SETC scholarships. Below is information on the scholarships, as well as comments from past recipients on the impact their scholarships had on them. Click on the scholarship names to learn more.

STEVE BAYLESS UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP: $2,000 to a high school student planning to major in theatre “I am so appreciative of the support from SETC’s Bayless Scholarship. I’m currently double majoring in Dance Performance and Choreography (BFA) and Drama (BA), and not only has receiving the scholarship helped fund my education, but it’s also providing me the opportunity to attend SETC’s convention this year.” – Peyton Walton

LEIGHTON M. BALLEW DIRECTING SCHOLARSHIP: $2,500 for graduate study in directing “The money generously provided by SETC allowed me to spend more time focusing on experiential learning opportunities and less time wondering how to pay for tuition and fees.” – Shane Strawbridge

DENISE HALBACH PERFORMANCE SCHOLARSHIP: $2,000 for graduate study in acting or musical performance “Winning this scholarship helped me defray the cost of conferences this year As I approach graduation, I am excited to say that I booked my first professional job through SETC this year!” – LaShondra Hood

ROBERT PORTERFIELD SCHOLARSHIP: $2,000 for graduate study in theatre “The Porterfield Scholarship was very helpful to me in my graduate studies … I was able to use the funds to buy materials for my portfolio projects, including digitally printed fabric, new tools and supplementary books for my classes.” – Jane Reichard

MARIAN A. SMITH COSTUME SCHOLARSHIP: $1,500 for graduate study in costume design and/or technology

“The Marian A. Smith Scholarship … granted me the ability to expand my techniques and further my development as a designer and technician.” – Toni Gary

WILLIAM E. WILSON SCHOLARSHIP: $5,000 for graduate study by a secondary school educator

“I am so thankful for the William E. Wilson Scholarship! It has allowed me to continue working toward my MFA in Theatre Education. With my degree, I have become a more effective teacher … I hope to continue making a positive impact on theatre education with the help of this scholarship!” – Erin Gill

More info: www.setc.org/scholarships

Alabama Conference of Theatre

Meanor State Representative

Event: Alabama Conference of Theatre’s Walter Trumbauer High School Festival and ACTFest22 Community Theatre Festival. Held online or in person? Both events were in person. Number attending: 2,887 high school students attended the Trumbauer Festival. Approximately 75 artists were involved in the Community Theatre Festival.

Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Cullman High School, Cullman, AL; Opening Night for the Diva, Bob Jones High School, Madison, AL.

Winners of Community Theatre Festival: Launch Day, Theatre Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa, AL; A Storm Came Up, Wetumpka Depot Players, Wetumpka, AL. More information: ACT is committed to helping each company travel to the SETC Convention. Each winning high school and community theatre group is awarded $1,000 to help cover expenses. This was the first community festival since the pandemic, and participation was strong with five productions. The two community productions advancing on to SETC are new works that were finalists in the American Association of Community Theatre’s New Play Festival. To our knowledge, that’s a first!

Florida Theatre Conference

Marci J. Duncan State Representative

Event: Florida Theatre Conference. Held online or in person? In person.

Number attending: 1,300. Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: 1st: Scarecrow, South Broward High School, Hollywood, FL; 2nd: Concord Floral, West Orange High School, Winter Garden, FL.

Winners of Community Theatre Festival: 1st: Head of the Family, Highlands Little Theatre, Sebring, FL; 2nd: Hamlet POV, Venice Theatre, Venice, FL. More information: Additional programs included college auditions, college fair, and Middle School and Youth Theatre OneAct Festival. To lessen our carbon footprint, FTC developed its first program app. This also was our inaugural year for FTC Works!, a hiring expo. In an effort to increase activities for high school and earlylevel undergraduate technical production students and to attract upper-level undergraduate and graduate students to the conference, FTC Works! provides opportunities to learn, network and pursue employment in technical production. This initiative includes three sectors developed and served by technical theatre educators and professional company representatives.

Georgia Theatre Conference

Andersen State Representative

Event: We are such Stuff as Dreams are Made On… Celebrating Life in the Theatre. Held online or in person? In person. Number attending: 820. Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: Ray Horne Play Festival Winners (advance to SETC): The House with Chicken Legs, Perry High School, Perry, GA; Ripcord, Lakeside High School, Atlanta, GA; Lynne Wooddy Play Festival Winner: 9 to 5, Houston County High School, Warner Robbins, GA.

Winners of Community Theatre Festival: 1st: Sister Act JR., Augusta Jr. Players; 2nd: The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition, Saltwater Performing Arts Mainstage Troupe, St. Marys, GA. More information: After more than 30 years of service to GTC, our executive director, Mary Norman, and our programming coordinator, Dean Slusser, retired following this year’s convention. We are excited to welcome our new executive director, Jono Davis, and we will be introducing new programming at our 2023 convention in Columbus, GA.

More info: www.setc.org/state-organizations

Ian

Kristy

Kentucky Theatre Association

North Carolina Theatre Conference

Angie Hays Executive Director

Event: Kentucky Theatre Association annual conference. Held online or in person?: In person. Number attending: 785. Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, McCracken County High School, Paducah, KY; The Old Man and the Old Moon, Lafayette/SCAPA High School, Lexington, KY.

Winner of Community Theatre Festival: Wanda’s Visit, Playhouse in the Park, Murray, KY.

Events: NCTC’s fall events included seven regional high school play festivals, the NCTC State High School Play Festival and NCTC College Day.

Held online or in person? In person. Number attending: Approximately 3,000 students participated in fall NCTC events; 25 colleges recruited at NCTC College Day. Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: Failure: A Love Story, Charlotte Country Day School, Charlotte, NC; Our Place, Watauga High School, Boone, NC. Winner of Community Theatre Festival: N/A More information: Upcoming events include the NCTC Middle School Play Festival, to be held March 10–11 at NC State University Theatre in Raleigh and Blumenthal Performing Arts in Charlotte, and the NCTC Theatre Admin Intensive, to be held April 3 at Blumenthal Performing Arts in Charlotte.

Event: South Carolina Theatre Association Convention: “Better Together.”

Held online or in person? In person. Number attending: 498. Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: Parallel Lives, Rock Hill High School, Rock Hill, SC; Sweet Nothing in My Ear, Woodmont High School, Piedmont, SC.

Winner of Community Theatre Festival: WASP, The Community Playhouse of Lancaster County, Lancaster, SC.

More information: 1) Broadway actor Russell Joel Brown (Disney’s The Lion King, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Big River and Ain’t Misbehavin’ ) served as our primary keynote presenter.

2) We plan to develop more opportunities for professional development for the K –12 teacher (with a focus on the Theatre for Youth program).

3) Our attempt to offer a workshop for those submitting a digital audition for SETC screening is still under review. Impediments included difficulty in getting the word out to the C/U students.

More info: www.setc.org/state-organizations

South Carolina Theatre Association

Jack Benjamin State Representative

Jeremy Kisling State Representative

Anna Filippo Executive Director

Event: Tennessee Theatre Association annual conference.

Held online or in person?

Majority of conference held in person in Clarksville, TN, at Austin Peay State University; the Theatre for Youth Festival was at Nashville Children’s Theatre; SETC screenings were by video. Number attending: Approximately 480 children, high school and college students, teachers, professors, vendors and professionals.

Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: 1st: Badger, Bearden High School, Knoxville, TN; 2nd: Black Comedy, Collierville High School, Collierville, TN.

Winner of Community Theatre Festival: Not held.

More information: For our Theatre for Youth Festival, TTA co-sponsored two performances on Oct. 22 of the Nashville Children’s Theatre production of Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat! Our keynote artist this year was Paul Carrol Binkley, a noted Clarksville/Nashville- based musician who has composed dozens of original scores for professional regional theatres in Nashville and the surrounding area.

Virginia Theatre Association

West Virginia Theatre Association

N. Turley State Representative

Event: Virginia Theatre Association conference.

Held online or in person? In person.

Number attending: Over 1,300, including 1,000 or more students

Winners of Secondary School Theatre Festival: 1st: Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, Stafford High School, Stafford, VA; Runner-up: The Beggar’s Opera, Jefferson Forest High School, Forest, VA.

Winner of Community Theatre Festival: Not held.

More information: As a conference, we were delighted with our festival! Participation exceeded our expectations, and we were delighted to have so many fantastic presenters. We pulled together and made a truly memorable experience. We remain financially solvent despite COVID – great news for Virginia and for SETC by extension. Many thanks to our fabulous team and notably the executive director, Wendy Novicoff.

Look for the Mississippi Theatre Association report in the March/April issue of SETC News.

Event: West Virginia Theatre Association conference.

Held online or in person? In person. State screening auditions held virtually.

Winner of Secondary School Theatre Festival: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, North Marion High School, Farmington, WV. Winner of Community Theatre Festival: Not held. More information: We are still recovering from COVID. We held screening auditions online this year. We’re looking at a hybrid model for next year, as we’d like to offer additional educational opportunities. Our community theatre festival received no submissions this year, so we’re working to rebuild our community theatre relationships following COVID. Our high school theatre festival included one school. While we were so happy to have them, I know they (and we) would’ve loved to have another school join them in the festival. It’s been a complicated year for us, to be frank. Our board has a new president, Michael Aulick, who has done an excellent job moving us forward and planning for the future of WVTA. We’re excited for this year’s SETC Convention and look forward to chatting with other states about their experiences.

More info: www.setc.org/state-organizations

David Becker State Representative

Leah

Tennessee Theatre Association

Please take a few minutes to review SETC’s proposed slate of officers for 2023-2024. The officers and the Nominations Committee members pictured below will be presented for a vote by SETC’s membership at the 2023 SETC Convention in Lexington, KY, during the annual SETC Business Meeting, which will be held in the afternoon on Saturday, March 4. 2023 – 2024

A special thanks to the members who served with me on the 2022 – 2023 Nominations Committee this year: 2023 – 2024 Nominations Committee TBA TBA

President Ginger Poole

VP, Administration Kris Rau McIntyre

VP,

VP,

Garland

II

Marina HunleyGraham Rowen Haigh

Elizabeth Watkins Ex-Officio Member

Kevin P. Kern

CLAY SMITH (he/hIm) AKA

DELIGHTED TOBEHERE

(she/her)

Delighted Tobehere is an internationally acclaimed drag artist based in Greenville, SC. Delighted was featured on America’s Got Talent season 10, has given TEDx talks, has lectured at universities, and tours her cabaret shows Drag 101, Hello, Daddy! and Simply Delighted.

Yes, Drag Is Theatre

In February, I’ll celebrate 22 years of being a drag queen, a term that my friend Bob the Drag Queen defines as “blurring gender lines through art.” This definition, in my opinion, breaks down the archaic defining walls of drag as simply a man in a dress, creating instead an umbrella term that encompasses a vast array of participants and artistic mediums.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a Gemini – or perhaps it’s my interdisciplinary education as the first music-focused performing arts major at Clemson University – that allows me to see both sides of the coin of show business. Show. Business. For decades, drag performers truly excelled in the area of show – thrilling nightlife audiences with costumes, props, choreography, wigs and stage makeup (sounding familiar?) with only one guiding principle: hide.

“Perspectives”

is an SETC News column where guest contributors are invited to share their diverse voices.

Drag has since come out of the closet, creating a new world of entrepreneurs in the performing arts world. My transition from nightlife to footlights started when I got sober in 2014. In order to provide myself with a buffer from alcohol, I moved into the very small live singing drag world. Using my degree, I started writing and producing my own one-woman cabaret shows, working with arrangers, costume designers and directors to create unique shows and tour them across the country. You might see this combination of drag show and business in your town in the form of drag brunches – business and performance with a side of bottomless mimosas, but nevertheless a visible reminder that we are a legitimate and successful form of the performance industry.

This column is short, so I’ll cut to the chase. Drag is more than lip-syncing and wigs. Drag is theatre, be it served with a cocktail or hash browns. We are siblings in the world of show business. I hope you welcome us into the community and onto stages around the world. Maybe even consider booking a drag cabaret show as part of your theatre season (wink wink). We are ready for the spotlight. I am grateful to say that drag is about more than doing splits – which is great, because I can’t do one.

More info: www.imdelightedtobehere.com

Delighted Tobehere in a faux fur costume (far left) and in a scene from Hello, Daddy! (left). Above: She works a fundraiser for Fran Drescher’s Cancer Schmancer organization with Tony winner Patti LuPone (left).

McNerney Azar SETC PRESIDENT (she/her)

Explore Change in the New Year

You might have noticed in the six years that I’ve been writing articles for SETC News that I’m fascinated by what motivates change in people and in organizations. I read about change, I listen to podcasts about change, and I work to enact change. “The way we’ve always done it” makes me bristle. Being the start of a new year with everyone making their resolutions, I thought this might be a good time to share some tips I’ve learned about how to make change in our personal lives – and maybe these will trickle out to the organizations we work with, too.

u

A few good reads on this topic:

Shankar Vedantam’s Hidden Brain: “You, But Better” with Katy Milkman

Katy Milkman’s How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be Neelima Mahajan’s “Katy Milkman on Why Change is Difficult” Think:Act Magazine

Share feedback in the moment.

A really important element of change is receiving feedback. Sure, set the goal, but also get feedback in real time on your attempts to reach the goal. Behavioral economist Katy Milkman says, “We can’t say we’ve had a success and respond to that success by celebrating and building on that success unless we know how things are going.” This is why so many people use apps like Forest to focus at work – it’s a gamification strategy that can show you’re making progress as you work to achieve a specific goal.

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Temptation bundling works.

Find the most fun way to achieve your goal and you will create lasting change. Think about it: If there is a reward at the end of a hard task, won’t that make it better at the end? Absolutely! I do this with grading papers all the time. I set a goal, and once I achieve that goal, I get a reward. Grade this week’s pile of journals and once I’m done, I give myself a 30-minute walk outside. Or how about exercise? Pair listening to your favorite podcast with your hardest workout. What about cleaning the house? Only listen to that favorite album while you do the dishes. It works.

Reframe your default.

Milkman states, “Defaults are this amazing tool. What defaults do also is they harness our natural laziness, but actually turn it into an asset rather than a liability.” If you’re trying to cut back on social media usage this year, why not make your home page on your web browser something enriching instead (ahem … SETC Stories Blog?). Or, if you’re trying to lower your cholesterol, make sure your pantry is stocked with whole grains, nuts, beans, and enriching foods instead of the other stuff. Default savings contributions are another way to alter your behavior in a small, but meaningful way for the future.

I first came in contact with Katy Milkman’s work on the podcast Hidden Brain. The more I’ve explored the ideas she shared, the more they make a lot of sense. I hope you’ll take some time to look for small changes you can make in your life this new year that will have lasting impact.

More info: see links above at left

Maegan

Connecting You to Opportunities in Theatre Nationwide

Central Office

SETC

5710 W. Gate City Blvd. Suite K, Box 186 Greensboro NC 27407 336-265-6148 info@setc.org

Toni Simmons Henson (she/her) toni@setc.org

Executive Director

Lee Crouse (he/him) lee@setc.org

Convention Services

Clay Thornton (he/him) clay@setc.org Marketing & Communications

Lea Gilbert (she/her) louise@setc.org

Program Management

Noah Taylor (he/him) noah@setc.org Resource & Media Management

Shameca Freeman (she/her) shameca@setc.org Operations & Logistics

Veronica Neblett (she/her) veronica@setc.org Accounting/Human Resources

Executive Committee

Maegan McNerney Azar (she/her) President

Kris Rau McIntyre (she/her) VP of Administration

Neno Russell (he/him) VP of Services

Annette Grevious (she/her) VP of Finance

Adanma Onyedike Barton (she/her) VP of Equity & Inclusion

Ginger Poole (she/her) Secretary

Tiza Garland (she/her) Elected Past President

Jeremy Kisling (he/him) VP of States

Lynn Nelson (she/her) VP of Divisions

Participating in One of SETC’s Festivals? Abigail Mowbray Is Here to Help

Abigail Mowbray (she/her) has joined SETC as our festival intern. She will work with SETC through the 2023 SETC Convention, serving as the point of contact for those who are participating in all five theatre festivals.

These include:

u the Community Theatre Festival. u the Fringe Festival. u the Secondary School Theatre Festival. u the SETC Short Play Festival, formerly the 10-Minute Play Festival. u the Theatre for Youth Festival.

Originally from Georgia, Abigail is a rising senior at Greensboro College in North Carolina. She has stage managed at companies across the country. After undergraduate school, she plans to pursue an MFA in Stage Management. Selected stage management credits include Stop Kiss, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The School for Scandal, Aida and Stinney: An American Execution. Abigail is excited to join the SETC team!

t Need information or have questions about one of the festivals?

Contact Abigail at abigail@setc.org

Thanks to SETC’s Contributors

We send our thanks to the following individuals and organizations for contributions made to SETC from Oct. 6, 2022, through Jan. 2, 2023:

Individuals:

Lisa L. Abbott

Ella C. Anderson

Juma Bader

Emma Baker Resek

Zak Blatche

J. Theresa Bush*

Donald E. Cover

James Adam Crawford

Chip Egan

Randall Enlow

David Garrett

William D. Justice

Don Ralph Lampton

Roy Lewis

Russell Luke

Elaine L. Malone

Jasmyn Mann

Gabriel Marcelo Peña

Jennifer Matthews

Stacey Maxwell

Chad McDonald*

Gary A. McIntyre

Martha A. Moore

Samuel L. Reed

Lang Reynolds

* Denotes Monthly Contributor To make a donation to SETC, click here

Send your news to deanna@setc.org

Thomas E. Rodman

Christina Roy Mia L. Self* John Setzer Dennis Wemm Wesley A. Young

Organizations: Indiana University at Bloomington Purdue University

Abigail Mowbray