An Interview With The Strides Collective

so we can know who we're talking to. Let's start. Jonathan, tell us about yourself.

production each fall. And this upcoming production of Confabulation will be our third full in person production that we're doing at the Hamilton Family Art Center, which is attached to

the Art and Theater Company in Old City. And the Stradspective was really founded with the idea to provide a space for queer play rights and queer artists designers to be able to explore the themes they want to explore in a room that doesn't have the same judgment in some other rooms, and just the safer space to explore and be supported in the things they want to talk about.

He was working on a different playback then, and then we approached him last year to see what he was up to, and he was working on this play talking Fabulation, which takes place in a support group that is for past life regressions, So folks who are experiencing some difficulties in their current life that may or may not be connected to who they were in past lives and the group is led by this character named Agnes, who's able to guide these individuals to interact with their past lives

and sort of see how that influences who they are right now. So it's really a journey of identity and figuring out what makes us special, what makes us not special, and sort of dealing with past and current and future trauma. And as the play goes on, those layers get more and more murky and things become a bit more complicated. It is a very like complex, sort of like mental show that is so hard to describe in one sentence. I've been trying to for the past couple of months

and I haven't been able to figure it out. But I think that just complexity is in the nuances in the piece, which we all find really exciting and challenging as artists, I think, which makes it a very interesting piece to explore, particularly with the identity piece obviously really

to like queer theater. Some of the characters in the play are queer and are sort of experiencing some you know, journeys with that and as it relates to their overall identity as just a human being, and ultimately it's about like human beings trying to like move forward from things that they've gone through that are difficult. So I think it's a universal story with a lot of queer elements mixed into it.

into the role. Rain, let's start with you.

his own sexuality. Frankly, so, he offers a lot of sort of cynicism and groundedness for better for worse for the show.

this play. It's interesting because I'm the group leader and I am a support group leader in real life, so I've been able to bring some of that. But you know, by the end, I'm also the main character's mother, and I've been a mother and I have adult children, so it's interesting to also, you know, bring that into the dynamic and to see how they do overlap and kind

of speak into the same space. I am with a better support group leader and a better mother because I fill each of those other roles in real life.

To me, he's offered some interesting thoughts around like whether anyone needs somebody else to take accountability in order for you to move on from a given situation, So whether someone has wronged you, whether someone has traumatized you, or you feel someone is accountable for your own hurt. Do we need that person to own up and to apologize for that thing in order for us to make peace

in ourselves. That's been a really interesting piece that I think, once again, for better for worse, looking at Grant and his character and what it is that he's working through has sort of offered me in my own life.

do that and how you push forward through things? And like is it actually like do you actually need anything from anybody else? And if you do get that, how does it actually feel? Because it never feels as good, like in your head when you finally have that confrontation with someone and then you leave and you're like, well, I still feel bad and I still don't feel like I've, let you know, done anything, because it kind of comes

from within ourselves. So I think the show takes like a really really hard at times bleak look at how difficult like being alive is and having relationships is, and it's not always the most uplifting thing to like think about those things all the time. But it's really human and it's real, and I think that's what's interesting about it.

I know it is challenging me as like an artist and a leader and a director to sort of dig into this type of material that is a bit more like introspective and more just like complex than since some other pieces I've worked on and really tackle things that are like bleak and not super fun to talk about. So I've been pushed in ways that have been surprising to me, even though this is something that I knew we were going to be working on because it's a

world premiere. The also like unique challenge is that it's the first time the play is being produced ever for anybody, So the playwrights also working on the script as we're like, as we're working on it too, so things have changed quite a lot over the last year, especially since this cast was brought on like in the early summer, so we've all had to roll with the changes as well, and it's exciting to make those changes, but also like

really daunting. So as an artist, I think I've learned a lot about how to navigate that process of just having suddenly like a new scene or like an entirely rewritten scene from the thing that you read before, and working with that on the fly is just something you don't get if you're not working on a world premiere. You know, if you're doing an established play, you just have what it is and you can't change anything. And

here we're like, great, this word isn't working. Let's suggest something else, or let's bring the play right in to like write us a new sentence to like bridge this thing. And it's it's really awesome and also like very overwhelming that you don't just know from like day one, you know how you're gonna get from a to Z. You're like, well, it's a to Z for now, and like we've had so many drafts of this play we've lost count. So it's that's very very interesting and unique to this process.

queer collective because if nothing else, we are resilient and adaptive. Yes, And you know, I appreciate the introspective nature of this work because you know, we're each individually and together approaching life, you know, as outsiders, even if we have you know, a supportive family or support group or or chosen family, because you know, you might be the only one in your in your circle who comes from a supportive family, or you might your situation might be completely different from

from everyone else. And we and we all have that unique thing as as a queer collective of people that we're the outliers even in the most normal circumstances. So I appreciate the fact that we get to take this moment to see moments of introspection. So which you know, talk to me about how important it is to be a collective of artists who you know, uplift queer queer art and tell queer stories. Why is that important?

guess I'll work off of. Like, one of the things I like in the script is one the fluidity of people as their relationships and their relationship with their self and their relationship with other people is changing. I think that happens in life, and it's nice to see it within the context of a single story. But also there's nothing confrontational really about the queerness. Like, yes, the one character's incident is kind of incited Grant's character by a

perception that there's you know, an anti queer thing. Everybody's just sort of existing. Nobody's defending their queerness. It just is And I like that.

She has a lot of other trauma going on and a lot of other history, but like her sexuality, it's so sure, it's all like imbued in there, right, but like it's not the it's not the inciting incident of the play. It's not the main motivational factor. And the people around Caroline don't blink an eye, and the same thing with other characters when they when they delve into

that identity to nobody blinks an eye anything. So the sort of you know, the quote unquote normalizing of that in the narrative is really refreshing because we just don't see that a lot in media. Like when queer stories are on stage or on film or whatever, it's usually there's something hateful happening or very very difficult related to it, right, and we try as a collective to like find stories

that aren't always just about that. It's very real obviously that you don't want to shy away from just like the realness of what we all go through. But also we see so much of it, we live it, so like to live something else is nice. To just like play queer on stage and like have other issues is also like you know real, so that I think is

something that is unique to us. And we also like we clearly have like a goal and a vision and you know, theater costs some money, and there's the business side of it, which is like boo boring, but it is unfortunately like a thing to keep in mind that

we have to because things cost money. But you know, I think prioritizing like humanity and creativity and fun as much as we can over anything else is really important too, and constantly trying to remind ourselves that, like that is why we're here and that's what we want to do with our time, because none of us are doing this for full full time jobs by any means at all. We're all working other jobs and doing this on the side.

So like trying to emphasize the humanity always, I think is something that is really really important and hopefully is how folks feel working with us and working on this process. Is that you know, we're all there for each other and are like the same team working on something really supportive. And I think that speaks to the like larger idea of like queer chosen family and just communities and stuff like.

There is just that vibe as we were building this little community like working on a show, between designers and actors and everybody, and it's fun to see it all like come together and just have that supportive space, and yeah, it's it's nice.

know what I mean. I do appreciate that, which brings me to a question that is, you know, it's a topic that's kind of a hot button. Now, So how do we feel about non queer actors taking on queer roles? Like I personally like, of course, the best actors should get the should get the gig. However, why do we act like there's like four queer people on the planet and you know, if the role doesn't fit those four people, let's give it to Brendan Fraser, you know what I mean? So how do we feel about that?

and about the characters. We say, like what pronoun are used in the script for the characters, and we ask folks to just submit for for roles that they would feel comfortable playing, because we don't it's you know, far be it from us on the other side to prescribe anything. So we just say, like, if you want to submit, submit with what you're comfortable with. And then you know, once we're starting work to work with people and in the team, we can see so we try to approach

it that way. I do think that there's there's no denying that, like, you know, and obviously Cat and Rain can speak even more to this than I can as actors in this particular show. But like you bring your lived experience to the roles you're doing, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, but like you always do because you are when you step off stage, like you're back to being yourself, right, So there's no denying that. So there, and I think there's a short there's a shorthand we

talked about. There's also a sort of like if you had to give everyone the backs, like you know, if someone had never come out, for example, or adult with anything like that, then having to sort of like go and tell an actor about that, like I don't know, it would be it would be different. It wouldink it would be it would just be different. It would just be different to work with an actor who hadn't had

that experience versus someone who has had that experience. And you don't even, like Cat said, that's just like unspoken. It's just sort of like you know, is what it is. So yeah, I don't know, it's it's tricky as I don't know, rayin kind of you have any thoughts as as folks portraying people on this show, But.

It's our job as actors to kind of find those experiences we don't relate to and find ways to relate to them and connect to them and make them real and lived. But there's a nuance that I think an actor with lived experience is likely to bring that another actor isn't, And I think a lot of it right now. It is just a representation is so important. Like, yes, maybe in a hundred years we've got straight people playing queer people and nobody cares because there's plenty of roles

for everybody to go around. But I think right now, as an actor, being able to be visible about my queer play is important to me and is a component of it.

and body postures that you can't teach that. You know, you there's no method for that. You have to just you know or you don't. If you know, you know, If you don't, you don't. And I guess my personal stance on that is, you know, again, all things being equal, the best the role should go to the best actor, but give queer actors write or first refusal, you know, before we before we widen the pot because you know, don't have a DEI department and then immediately go to

a straight person for a queer role. That's just me. So where do we see strides collective? This might be an odd question, but where do we see strides collective as part of the Greater Philadelphia Theater tapestry, Like, there's definitely room for plenty more queer centric work, whether that be the subject matter or you know, just focusing in terms of who is one and behind the stage, Like where do we see ourselves in the Philadelphia art scene.

We don't have a physical space. We just like rent spaces, so we don't have a physical presence anywhere in the city, which is cool because then we can sort of like hop around the different neighborhoods and produce work in different communities, which is really awesome and it doesn't tie us down

to anything particular. There's also hard because we don't have like a place people can like it's not like we're like the Walnut or the Woma where people know exactly where we are and they can come to our shows, you know, year round. So in terms of like physically being in the community, it's it's still sort of a work in progress as we just get people to know

that we exist. But I think that what of course the queerness of everything we've talked about, But I think something else that we've been able to start offering is like a place for emerging artists who are maybe you know, newer to to what they're doing, or out just out of college or just move to the city, who don't

know a lot of people. We actually with a lot of folks who are like sort of new to Philadelphia, and the work we're doing is at a scale that's in a way that you can have you can hold other jobs, Like I work full time in a different position than what I do now, so you can have another job, but you can still practice your art and get and get paid something for it and work on a you know, semi professional level without being in a union.

So there's a little bit of like a bridge I think between like doing like community theater and then there's like us what we're doing, and then there's the woman of the woman at the art and who's producing you know, seven shows a week for equity pay and union pay.

So I think we're able to provide that space for people to sort of cut their teeth and like be a full set designer for us and and be a full landing designer and act in a lead role as opposed to maybe interning in those departments or understudying at

a large institution. We're able to provide those opportunities, which is something that you know, again, it's all scalable, and it's still small scale and it's not the right fit for everybody, but we're able to, like, you know, do things on a little bigger scale and have a bit of a reach because of you know the fact that we are non and we've been around and we have

a little bit of a following. So that I think is something that I really love that we're able to do because I know, like when I graduated from college and sort of looked around, I was like what do I do now? Like the big theaters aren't going to hire me, no way, I have no experience, right, so it's like where do I go? And community theater is awesome. I direct in community theater too. It's absolutely no no

shade to community theater. But it's nice to have a different thing where like you're doing world premiere plays too, which totally different like community theater, you're just usually usually not getting that. Sometimes you do, but usually it's you know,

more classics and stuff. So to be able to provide that space, I think is something that excites me and something I wish that I had, which is part of the reason that we wanted to start in the first place, is to provide that opportunity for people.

really affirming in a lot of ways. Obviously, because you know, a job is a job, and it's affirming to be led into any creative space and to get to do what you love. And also, yeah, for the reasons that Jonathan is mentioning, because I find this work really important and have felt really race creatively, and also that like Strides sort of being who they are and allowing to giving themselves permission to take up space in the way that they have have also made a bit of a

name for themselves. And so I'm hopeful that plenty of Philly theater folks, whether they're directors or playwrights, artistic directors, come to the show and you see the work that they're doing and find it important too, and hopefully build connections with the theater artists that are working with Strides and are able to again bridge that sort of gap between where folks are and where they would like to be.

myself as an artist. Now what do I want to do with that power? What do I want to do with this voice? And Yeah, I think Strides has been out there as kind of a beacon. I've seen them on the audition boards and existing in the community and

putting stuff on for a few years. And I'm excited to finally I feel like, you know, like I got on the island and have seen Strides as sort of this rising beacon for the queer theater community to say like, hey, we're here and we're trying to do something with this voice that we have. We're creating a space where we want to say something and what do y'all want to speak into it? And what can we find to do there?

And I think that's really exciting and very much in long where I'm trying to go with Okay, I'm a favorite artist with a voice. What do I want to do with that? What do I want the world to know? And Yeah, I'm excited to be in this space together.

time growing yourself an as an entity. I love that. It reminds me of what feels like a lifetime ago. I produced something called the et Cetera performance Series at the CEC and it was basically an opportunity for artists of all genres of performing art to be able to get their work seen in front of an audience. And you know, you got actual lighting and promotion and marketing, and it gave you. It gave you something to be able to show, you know, like something professional looking to

be able to show. If you weren't in that space of like being in an actual company or something or an actual theater. So I love that this feels like that, that that community orient but still like a significant force. I'm digging that. I'm digging that. Yeah, props too, Strides Collective.

getting people just in the door is hard. So even just having a little bit of a following is helpful to have that at least as though like now we've done a couple of shows, people are like, oh, like I want to see whatever Strides is doing, the same way that like the larger theaters in the city have like they're following, right, So we can keep building that

and have you know, good products and stuff. Hopefully people will continue to come because there's i mean industry wide right now, it's very hard to get people to come see theater unfortunately, so small and big theaters are experiencing that for sure, but it does hit small theaters really hard because you know, we only do one whole production a year, so this is our opportunity to to make an impact in the community and also you know, ticket sales just you know, we need people that comes see

your work so we can keep doing it. You know, we're nonprofits. All it does is just regenerate our you know, go right back into the work for next year because we want to keep doing it. But in order to do that, we got to have people who support us, and we do. We have lovely supporters right now. But of course we would also like to grow as we get bigger and provide more opportunities, which we can only do with you know, access to funding and access to

space space as a resource. People don't I don't think people realize is like so scarce in Philly that we're not just rehearsing in like a room closet somewhere that we're rehearsing and has a little bit of space and like something that's like nice for five people, you know, and then performing as well, so there's all of those business decisions that I knew going into this would be difficult, but then the realities of it day to day, it's like, oh, yeah,

this is a thing I have to always think about. I wish I could just like live in the dreamy art of it all all the time, and I do, and I allow myself to live in the dreamy art, but then you know, the reality sets back into It's like, okay, we got to also, you know, sell some tickets to the show. But the dreamy art part is what keeps I think, everybody going and why we're all here, and the you know, the mission of the company, I think is what leads us to it no matter what you.

a little bit bigger. So we did that in February of twenty twenty when when Philly when Theater Philadelphia did I think it was their first or second Philly theater week. We were part of that. So we were like and it was like really fun and like people came and liked it and like we had a good time, and

we were like so energized to like meet. I think we like literally had like a meeting, like the show closed in February, and I think we had a meeting on the calendar for like March thirteenth, like literally like the day like Broadway shutdown. So then we were like we should probably cancel the meeting, and the meaning was going to be about like what we're going to do next, and then you know, blah blah blah. Everyone knows what

happens after that. So I think we were like on the cusp of about like about to officially be the Strids Collective, and we put it on pause and then like the summer happened, and then we should have revisited it, and we were all at home. You know, a lot of us like had were were laid off from jobs or on furlough or whatever, so you're sort of like losing our minds like that. You know, we're like, well, let's try to like channel all like and then you know,

the world at large obviously as well. So there's just so much going on. So those of us who felt like we wanted to do something about everything, whether let's just get together and start like trying to plan this, and it actually ended up being like all like the boring paperwork part of it all. We had time because

we were just like get home. So you know, I don't know if I would have had the capacity to to build the team and do all the filing and all of that stuff if if I didn't get furloughed from my full time job, which I'm not thankful for, but like it was just the reality, right, So there was a little bit of space. But yes, starting the company and then trying to get people to like do anything virtually was hard and then but at least we

had the foundation. So when theaters were ready to open, we had already had like ten to twelve months under our belt of like doing some stuff together that we knew each other, and like, I think we're ready to

like then start right away. I think it would have taken us longer to do our first in person production if we hadn't had that like runway of at least working together and getting like mission vision values and like all of that stuff, because that all could be done like virtually, so that was like like healthy conversations and we could really like sink our teeth into all of that without and then we were like, well, we're no rush to do a show because we can't do a

theater right now. So we just sort of like allowed ourselves time to do that stuff, which was you know, I think really good work that we did and helped obviously set the foundation for what we are now. And then we came back and then we started you know, doing stuff, and now it's a couple of years later, so so there's interesting time. But yeah, yeah, well that is.

what worked, what didn't, what could be Like do we all feel like we came out on the other side as, if not better, at least different.

be like why am I doing this? Like like do I actually want to say yes to this gig that's like an hour and a half away from my house that pays me like twenty bucks? You know, like is it creatively worth it? And if it is, then how do I manage that? With my So I just think it gave me that personally speaking, that just gave me that opportunity to reflect and then you know, think about how I want to move forward in my like creative

journey while I balance everything else. Because that idea that I had, I'm sure it's like so many people I had like wonderful like jobs lined up, like directing jobs lined up for like late twenty twenty and early twenty twenty one, and then that I worked really hard to get and we're like gonna be like really good gigs, and then they were just gone and they never came back and I never you know, it's four years later,

and it's not like I didn't get them again. You know, it was just like right time, right place, and then suddenly wrong time, wrong place. So the idea that could be taken away like that was like, well, that's that's hard. So you sort of start to reevaluate of like how you really want to be spending your time on things.

And I know, obviously everyone's situations are difference. I don't know Rain and Catherine how you all navigated that, but it was definitely a shock to my system of just going, going, going, and suddenly being like nope, And then for the foreseeable future, which ended up being a long future, there was just like nothing, very different, very hard for me.

that got canceled. I did have some creative project going on. Most of them did actually happen in post COVID, but it gave me the time and the space and the financial resource is not going to lie to reset my life. And I came out of COVID with some money in the bank and a plan and was just like I'm leaning into this. I didn't have any job prospects at the time. I found something that is blissfully part time and gives me lots of freedom to focus on my creativity.

And yeah, I mean COVID was a tragedy, but a lot of us were able to turn it into a win, and I did.

working before. We're going to do and I'm not willing to sacrifice my soul again, you know what I mean. Like so many of us re entered the world on

our own damn terms, and I love that. I love that, and I do feel like the artistry and across the board from what I've seen Philadelphia in particular, but in general, has got this new sense of purity, for lack of a better word, authenticity, because we all had the opportunity to sit with ourselves and you know, discover or rediscover ourselves and who we are, who we aren't, who we want to be. And I feel like that's how we

move forward now. Power structures are different, you know, and folks at the quote unquote top are shaken in their boots because folks aren't willing to do what we were willing to do before. Necessarily, you know, and I love it. I think it's the first steps toward revolution. Yeah.

starting at zero. And it was felt like just a really like generative time to start at zero and think about all the things that like we're not working for us in other places, and like what we wanted to do moving forward, and that was there was no obligation for us to do anything other than like what we

felt we wanted to do. And that doesn't mean that we always made like the right decision every time, but it was it was great to just not have to uphold to like thirty years of history somewhere or whatever. It was like, we'll just do what starting now, starting now and forward, we want, you know, make this what

we want to make it. And that was really like liberating for a lot of us who were coming from other jobs and places that you know, were a bit less than ideal for us and able to start creating something that we felt was a little bit better for the time we're living in and the people that we want to work with, and as a work in progress. Always they were always evolving, always thinking of ways to make things better, safer, happier, more fun, you know, more professionally,

you know, all the things. But I'd be starting at that place than having to start with, you know, the old ways that just weren't working. So that was definitely a plus side too of starting during that time, was starting at zero in a positive way.

power struggle. That is a handshake, you know what I mean. Like, I love that we decided, you know, and we get to create new traditions and rewrite, rewrite our own history. I love it. I love it.

speak about it and share thoughts. It's always great to get things out there and spread the word in any way possible, so thank you for the platform.

in every theater industry in any given city. I think Philly theater artists are very willing to support each other, and it's something that I found through my time auditioning and meeting folks, and it's not something that I take for granted. So I'm really excited to share this work with folks. Really grateful for you having us, Charles, and I hope that people learn from it.