March 10, 2025 • 53 mins
What happens when a childhood dream sparked by Diana Ross in The Wiz becomes a lifelong mission? Teresa Coleman Walsh, a powerhouse in Dallas's theater scene, shares her inspiring journey from broadcast advertising to leading a thriving community theater. A game-changing 10,000-square-foot building donation empowered her to expand programs, foster creativity, and navigate economic challenges.
Teresa's focus on financial management, team support, and innovation has ensured her theater’s vibrancy. She discusses moving beyond survival to giving back, tackling declining audiences, and the resilience found in genuine relationships and self-care.
Renovating a theater in the Dallas Arts District came with hurdles, but with faith, perseverance, and influential support, Teresa overcame the odds. She shares lessons on philanthropy, representation, and personal determination, offering wisdom for creatives starting their journeys. Her story highlights the transformative power of theater and community.
Teresa's Featured Guest Profile
Bishop Arts Theatre Center
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
So walking in my purpose, because even when I was, you
know, a grade school student, Iwas performing and producing and
creating community.
That is so great.
I mean, you just conjured upsomething that I had just
(00:35):
completely forgot about.
Hello and welcome to the For theLove of Creatives podcast.
I'm your host, maddox.
I'm here with Dwight, we're theConnections and Community guys,
(00:59):
and today our guest is TeresaColeman Walsh.
Welcome, teresa, we're so gladto have you.
Thank you so much for invitingme.
I'm happy to be here.
Well, I think I'll tell ourlisteners how we met, because I
think it's really, reallyimportant.
We were must have been readinga newspaper or getting.
(01:22):
It was an email that came, butit was an event that was called
Rx.
Racial Healing.
Racial Healing Circle and wethought that sounded quite
interesting.
So we registered and we went.
Come to find out.
Teresa was one of the leadersof that and it was a fascinating
(01:43):
experience.
We met some amazing people, butthat was our way of meeting.
And you know we just hit it offimmediately.
Yeah, I think that was thefirst time we met face to face,
but that wasn't the first time Ithink that you and Dwight were
(02:06):
at the theater.
Did you guys come to ourproduction of Fanny?
We did, that's right, we did so.
Liz Michael played Fanny LouHamer in our co-production with
the Dallas Theater Center of theMusic and Life of Fannie Lou
Hamer.
And I'm so glad that you cameback to the RxRacial Healing
(02:29):
Circle because it afforded usthe opportunity to really get to
know each other on a moreintimate level.
So yes, yes.
And then you and I have gottenthe lovely opportunity to meet
for coffee Well, actually forlunch one day.
It was, that's right, can'twait to do it again.
Well, let's start off.
(02:51):
I'm going to give you anopportunity because I think you
can do this better than we canto tell our listeners a little
bit about who you are and whatyou're about.
You know the Cliff Notes bio,and then we're going to get into
the story.
(03:24):
Well, I'm happy to.
So, uh I an opportunity for usto bring quality theater to an
area of the city that was not,you know, afforded that
opportunity, and so we weredoing dinner theater
performances there.
And then I married.
My husband moved to Dallas andI told him.
(03:48):
I said I want to do this theater, try this theater thing full
time and see what happens.
And in Atlanta I was sellingbroadcast advertising I should
say that right For the Disneyfamily.
So I was doing theater kind ofat night.
It was very much a hobby.
But when I got married andmoved to Dallas I decided I
(04:08):
wanted to make a career out oftheater.
I'd seen Diana Ross and the Wizyears ago and it changed my
life.
I'm serious, it changed my life.
So I mean, representationmatters, right.
So Al was very, very supportiveand he said okay, you know, you
(04:30):
can.
You know, let's try theater andlet's see what happens.
Then then in 2005, somethinginteresting happened.
One of our longtime patrons whohad followed our progress,
called me up and said I have a10,000 square foot building that
I want to donate to yournonprofit.
Now I will tell you that it wasmy husband's business partner,
(04:54):
arthur Primus, and Arthur and Alwere.
A lot of people may not knowthis, or a lot of people
probably do.
Arthur and Al were promotingTyler Perry shows.
It was when Tyler first starteddoing urban theater and when my
husband and I, when we weredating, he said, and I was
(05:20):
living in Atlanta, he sent me toa Tyler Perry show to kind of
scout and see who this Tyler guywas, and I'm like, oh God, yes,
you, definitely you deserveyour time.
Well, alan Arthur were businesspartners.
They promoted Tyler Perry shows, and so in 2005, they had this
(05:41):
dilapidated photography studioon Tyler Street that they had
bought.
And Arthur saw what we weredoing in Atlanta.
He saw that we were workingwith particularly students here
in the Dallas area and he said Iwant to donate this property to
(06:01):
your nonprofit.
So we raised $1.2 million inprivate sector funding.
We were able to get aconstruction loan for about
$800,000.
We started the renovations in2005, completed the renovations
in 2008, just as the economyplummeted.
But what we did was we heldfocus group meetings and we
(06:27):
asked the community what are wedoing that you'd like to see us
do more of and what are we notdoing that you'd like to see us
implement?
What we learned was thatparents wanted somewhere for
their kids to be during theafter school hours, the
(06:49):
neighborhood wanted a jazzseries, jazz concerts, and
artists wanted somewhere to honetheir craft, and so we began
building programs based on theconversations that we were
having with the community.
So we were active listenerseven back then.
Guys, I will tell you we havecelebrated 30 years.
(07:10):
I've led this organizationthrough 9-11, 2008, economic
downturn and now a globalpandemic.
And one of our community.
One of our superpowers is beingactive listeners with community
.
That's how we've been able tonot only survive but thrive,
(07:32):
even with everything that'sgoing on, so I'm excited about
that.
I distinctly remember attendingan art symposium back in 2008
when the economy plummeted andit was at the Latino Cultural
Center, and Michael Kaiser, whowas the president of the Kennedy
Center at that time, came toDallas and he met with everybody
(07:54):
all of the artistic leaders andwhat he said resonated with me
deeply, and that is sick.
People don't get well by doingless.
Now's the time to connect withcommunity.
So that's how thoseconversations came about, and so
I'm really excited about thework that we're doing, because I
(08:15):
really feel like we'reessential workers at the Bishop
Arts Theater Center.
That's incredible.
I mean, I knew part of thisstory, but not all of it.
Wow, I'm just so blown awaythat I'm not sure where to go
from here.
What is the part of yourcreative journey that you?
(08:46):
I mean I had a question, but Ithink you may have kind of just
a lead off question, but you mayhave just answered it but what
is the part of your journey as acreative that you most want to
share and talk about?
Yeah, I mean, you know, I kindof mentioned it.
I saw Diana Ross in the Wizyears ago and I remember, I mean
, every pageant I was in, I sangHome from the Wiz.
(09:09):
Right, I wanted to be.
I knew I wanted to work intheater when I was in Atlanta.
There was a touring show comingthrough Atlanta with Jane
Kennedy and her husband, leonIsaac Kennedy God is trying to
(09:29):
tell you something and theyneeded a choir.
So I was singing in the churchchoir at that time and the choir
director said you know, thistour is coming through Atlanta
and you and I don't talk aboutthis.
I'm so glad I love thisquestion, thank you.
But he said you know it'scoming through town and you
(09:51):
should really consider being apart of the choir.
So I did, and every night I goon stage and I was part of the
backup.
You know one of the backupsingers in that choir and I just
remember at the end of thebackup, you know one of the
backup singers in that choir andI just remember, at the end of
the run, when they were gettingready to leave, I felt like, oh
(10:11):
my God, I have found.
You know my purpose.
I found what I want to do onthis planet, and it was so
transformative and it was aroundthe time again.
You know that I was so enamoredwith Diana Ross and I decided
(10:34):
at that moment that I wanted acareer in theater, and I think I
might.
That's probably when I startedChartered the theater back in
Atlanta also.
What's interesting, though, Iwill say, is that, you know, I
got in this business for purelyselfish reasons, because at that
(10:54):
time, I was writing andproducing all of the plays that
we were.
You know, we were performing,but it's interesting Now.
What I do more than anythingelse is create opportunities for
other artists, and I thinkthat's why the theater has grown
the way that it has.
Right, I had to surrender mywill to the will of the
(11:18):
community, and I think that issuch a superpower I wish more
artists would.
You know.
It really isn't about I get achance.
We have complete autonomy to dowhatever we want to do.
The fact that we own a buildingand that I'm a Black woman in
that space right, it definitelyhas its challenges, but it is so
(12:05):
incredibly rewarding because weget to do a lot of things that
perhaps a lot of people areafraid to do, or just simply
don't have the resources to do,and so I feel like I'm
incredibly grateful to be in thespace that I'm in.
You said something that I wantto back up to.
For just a second, you talkedabout getting into it for, you
know, selfish reasons, and now,all these years later, you know
it's all about giving back tothe community, helping others
have an opportunity.
I think that's the way ourprocess was intended to be.
(12:31):
I think in the early years,when we're trying to figure out
what we want to do and how we'regoing to do it, those are the
lean years and we pretty muchhave to be selfish.
There's an element of survivalgoing on in those early years,
and when we're in survival mode,we can't think about anybody
else but ourselves.
But as you emerge from survivaland you went through your
(12:53):
process where it began to befuller and more abundant and it
wasn't about survival anymore,it was now about thriving I
think that the beautiful part ofwhat you're telling about your
story is I don't think everybodygoes to this stage where they
realize it's time to give back,but I think that's perhaps the
(13:17):
message of your at least rightthis moment.
A big message in your story isat some point we need to give
back.
Oh yeah, we need to do, andthat can look a lot of different
ways.
It doesn't mean that you stillcan't do your thing and thrive
while you're giving back.
It's just not all about youanymore and we kind of live in
(13:41):
an it's all about me world.
So this is a really big andimportant message, I think.
You know and in doing so I feellike I found other things that
I'm really good at.
Like I'm really good atfinancial management In order to
(14:03):
have a thriving business rightnow, you got to have somebody on
staff who can crunch thenumbers, who knows the numbers,
who can get very intimate withthe numbers, and I'm that person
.
I'm one of those people in ourorganization.
(14:28):
I also want to just say that, Ithink, is because I made a lot
of mistakes, maddox, when wefirst started, and one of the
mistakes that I made is thinkingthat I could do it all by
myself.
You know, I didn't realize howincredibly important
(14:48):
relationships are right.
And so now I have a team ofpeople who not only have a
genuine interest in thewellbeing of the organization,
they have a genuine interest inmy wellbeing, and so if I need
to take a sabbatical, if I needto step away, if I need a career
break, everybody knows whenTeresa is healthy, the
(15:12):
organization is healthy, and sowe prioritize self-care in our
organization, and that's fromthe top down.
So that's been a huge learninglesson, and I think that we are
a better, stronger, moreresilient organization because
of it, because of that humancomponent where we are looking
(15:38):
at what's best for theindividual.
I think a vast majority ofcompanies in our nation could
take a book out of a page, outof your book.
Wow.
You know, when we had lunch thatday part of the story because I
asked you know we talked about.
Dwight and I are avid theatergoers.
(16:01):
You know we're seasonedsubscribers to three different
theaters in the city and then wetake in one-offs with other
theaters.
We're in the theater a lot andI have been he hasn't been as
long.
I have been for 25 years verymuch an avid theater goer and
I've watched the theater crowdsdiminish little by little by
(16:21):
little.
I've watched the crowds getolder and the young people
aren't coming in.
And when we had lunch we talkedabout this.
You know what's going to happenbecause it doesn't look
promising and I think thisspeaks to your creativity.
I mean your creativity becauseyou looked at that, you realized
(16:43):
that was happening.
You could see it happening totheaters not only in our city
but all over the nation.
The crowd's diminishing, alongwith it, the fun's diminishing.
And you got really, reallycreative and you did some
pivoting and so I would love foryou to really expand on that
part of the story about thatcreativity and how you figured
(17:07):
out ways to bring people intothe theater.
That were things no othertheater was doing.
Yeah, yeah, the American theateris in an existential crisis.
Everybody knows that theNational Endowment for the Arts
is estimating that, estimatedthat two to three theaters are
closing month, right, one of thethings that we did back in
(17:36):
2008,.
Again, I think that was soincredibly important that we
were active listeners, that wewere active listeners.
That has to happen in thismoment.
I distinctly remember aphilanthropic organization
telling us when we first opened,maybe a few years after we
(17:56):
opened, that they would not fundus because theater was not the
primary focus of, they felt, ofour organization.
We had a very we have still avery successful jazz series, and
we all know music kind ofovershadows theater.
(18:18):
What's interesting in thismoment is that music venues have
recovered much faster thantheaters due to COVID, and so I
am so grateful for our jazzseries because when we were, you
(18:46):
know, during COVID, we werevery much not able to produce
performances, theaterperformances, but there were
partners like the Dallas Zoo whoinvited us to their venue to
kind of produce a jazz under thestars and that has kind of
(19:09):
taken off our jazzy subscribers.
We loved it.
We've been at the Dallas Zooever since then and so you know,
that's one of the programs.
That kind of was birthed out ofthe pandemic and still
continues, and you know, and itgoes back to what you were
saying about how we really hadto be incredibly creative.
(19:29):
But also it speaks to thestrength of our relationships.
I don't care what organizationyou're with, the strength of
your organization is going to bebased on the strength of your
relationships with.
The strength of yourorganization is going to be
based on the strength of yourrelationships.
And so we figured out very,very quickly that we had to make
(19:52):
sure that you know I'm notsitting at that desk, that I'm
in the community talking topeople, cultivating
relationships, not just inDallas.
Also, I'm getting ready to geton the plane tonight to go to
New York, because we havepartners in New York.
There are things that we'reworking on in New York.
The other thing I think that theAmerican theater has not done
well is embrace technology.
It is here, it is not goinganywhere.
(20:14):
We have to embrace it and findways for our organizations to
exist, co-exist, usingtechnology.
So I'm excited about someupcoming things that are
happening that we're launchingthe latter part of this year,
and the other thing is wefinally, I believe, have the
(20:37):
staff to do all of the thingsthat we're contemplating, that
we've been planning on doing.
One of the books that I'vereread is Good to Great by Jim
Collins.
Jim talks about how incrediblydifficult it is to build the
right team.
You can't even talk strategyuntil you have the right people
on the bus, and so I feel likewe're kind of turning a curve.
(21:02):
Even with everything that'shappening in the world right now
, I feel like it's reallyimportant that I'm really
excited about, you know, some ofthe things that we're launching
the latter part of the year orthe mid year.
I'd like to pull on a threadthat we've kind of talked about
(21:22):
at different points and you'rekind of hinting at, but when you
were talking about the waysthat you'd gone on that arc from
pursuing your own dream togiving back I know that there's
a lot that's going on.
The theater is a community hub.
That's going on.
(21:47):
The theater is a community hub.
Could you share some of thewonderful things that are
happening that the theater ishelping?
bring into being.
Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to dothat.
So prior to COVID, seniorcitizens were coming to the
theater to participate in astorytelling circle on our stage
.
Of course, when COVID happened,they couldn't come.
So I told our board ofdirectors we're going to them.
(22:08):
If they can't come to us, we'renot going to abandon them in
this moment.
We are going to them.
So we started this programcalled Patio Live, where we
would hire artists andperformers to go to aging care
facilities and perform in patiosand parking lots of those
(22:30):
facilities.
And every Friday even now youwill see if you go to our
Instagram page are where we havepartnerships with those aging
care facilities.
Many of the aging carefacilities, some of the
residents have dementia and whatwe're finding is that through
(22:54):
music therapy, there's been adecrease in medication for some
of the residents.
There's an increase insocialization skills.
So you know, I know power ofthe arts, you know the other
thing that we do is every yearfor the past 14 years, we have
(23:16):
been offering a summer theatercamp.
We have 50 kids in the building.
It's an eight-week program,monday through Thursday, from 7
am to 5 pm.
We serve breakfast, lunch andsnacks.
Those kids work with mastery,teaching artists, music, art,
dance, theater and life skills.
So we have life skills partnerslike the City of Dallas Office
(23:56):
of Environmental Quality has avery user-friendly, a
kid-friendly program where theyteach how to be environmentally
friendly workshops.
We also the Dallas Zoo or theDallas Public Safety, dallas
Police Department.
They do how to beat, you know,safety, fire and safety drills.
We also have people like TexasA&M AgriLife will come by and do
(24:19):
healthy nutrition classes forour summer theater camp students
and then and we'll have severalother life skills partners.
But at the end of that eightweeks there's a culminating
performance, there's a showcaseso parents can see what the kids
have been, have learned duringyou know, that eight-week
(24:40):
program, and so that has beenhappening for the past 14 years
and I'm so excited that we'reable to do that.
Inevitably we have a waitinglist because we're only able to
serve 50 students.
We're trying to figure out away to serve more students in
our building.
We do have also summer theatercamp programs at other districts
(25:06):
.
We've worked with the ISD sorry, desoto ISD in the past, as
well as Lancaster ISD, so we'vebeen able to find a way to serve
more students outside of ourbuilding.
But that happens also.
And then you guys mentioned theRxRacial Healing Circles.
I study with Dr GailChristopher with the National
(25:28):
Collaborative of Health Equityand I think it's really
important for us, especially inthis moment, to see people who
don't look like us to havereally hard conversations.
I will say that, to have reallyhard conversations with people
(25:50):
who don't look like us and sitin discomfort, and so that's
what those I mean.
You were a part of that, youknow.
That's what those, those racialhealing circles, were about.
So again thank you.
I appreciate that.
We've seen some really magicalthings happen in those healing
(26:13):
circles.
We just did one on Dr King'sbirthday with Stephanie Tovar
and there are some healingcircles.
Stephanie Tovar will befacilitating stories, that heal
series Starting.
I believe the first one startsin March or April, but we are
(26:37):
excited about that.
Um, but we are excited aboutthat.
So you know that's on ourwebsite and for information for
anyone who wants to be a part ofthat.
You know, it's very apparent tome.
You may have never ever thoughtof this, but if you ever get
weary of what you're doing, youwould absolutely make a
(26:59):
phenomenal freelance consultantfor the arts.
I can't tell you how many timesI've heard that I mean I'm
working with.
Interestingly enough, I wascontacted by Theater
Communications Group to jointheir board.
I mentioned that the Americantheater is in an existential
(27:21):
crisis, and so we're allthinking about, you know,
dismantling what, the systemthat has not served any of us,
and really thinking about whatdo we want to build what you
know, how can we build a modelthat is sustainable, where we're
(27:44):
not constantly or solelydependent on public sector funds
, public sector grants?
It just very well may go away.
I've considered it, and sothat's some of the work that I'm
going to be doing at thenational level with Theater
(28:06):
Communications Group, and I'mexcited about that because I get
to learn also there are a lotof very smart people in that
room and I like being in a roomwith smart people because I get
to learn.
Well, you are definitely one ofthose smart people absolutely, I
admit you and at the same timeyou're so down to earth.
Well, you are definitely one ofthose smart people Absolutely,
I admit you and at the same timeyou're so down to earth and so
(28:27):
warm and friendly.
I just felt such a connectionwith you the minute we
interacted.
I was just like she is mypeople.
But, Maddox, I felt the same waythe first, the minute you
opened your mouth and introducedyourself at that racial healing
circle, I'm like, okay, that'smy people.
(28:51):
I knew we, I would you know.
I'm glad that I made it.
We made a beeline to each otherafter that.
Yes, I would love to figure outa way where we could be perhaps
more involved in each other.
Yeah, for sure, for sure, We'llfigure it out, we'll figure it
(29:13):
out.
Well, let's.
Let's talk about maybe you knowwe've talked about lots of
successes and lots of fabulouscreativity and ideas.
Let's talk about, maybe, someof the challenges, some of the
things that you had to gothrough to get where you are now
.
You know, maybe a dark time ortwo and how you navigated that.
(29:39):
Yeah, thank you so much for thatquestion, because I mentioned
the 2008 economic downturn.
The other thing that washappening in Dallas was the
Dallas Arts District was beingbuilt, so all of the attention
and the resources was beingdirected to that area.
I distinctly remember courtinga major philanthropic
(30:01):
organization, local organization.
They said, okay, you're goingto, you have aspirations of
renovating this building.
When we see dirt moving, thenwe'll, you know, we'll come back
and help.
So we got through the firstphase, went back to them and
said they said, well, wenormally come in, you know, at
(30:23):
the end, so consider us maybefor the lighting and sound and
equipment and you know, staging,ok, all right, fine.
So we got to that stage and wewent back to them and said, ok,
we're here, we're at the stage.
And they said, well, we'regoing to support the Dallas Arts
District.
It was, we were, I wasincredibly good at it, and so,
(30:51):
again, you know, that's uh whatled.
I'm so grateful for michaelkaiser and that art symposium,
because I was such a I was justgreen, you know, I was finding
my way.
I had never, um, you know, owneda building, owned a property
before.
In that moment, I felt like itwas such a curse to have this.
(31:17):
You know that was all the moneyin the world.
We had a construction loan.
We were over a million dollarsin debt.
It was all the money in theworld.
I mean I didn't know where togo.
And the other thing is, youknow people were laughing at us.
I'm not from, I'm a transplant.
I'm not from Dallas.
I didn't go to SMU, I didn't.
(31:37):
I don't have the Booker Tconnections.
You know I was not in the.
I was not, I didn't havecommunity here.
I left the community in Atlanta.
And so you know people werelaughing at us when we said
we're going to renovate thisbuilding.
We're going to do all of theseperformances, I mean we.
(32:00):
Essentially what I learned isthat you know, we did what a lot
of people tried to do, aretrying to do, and so we had to
prove ourselves, to proveourselves and I feel like once
we were able to, you know,sustain ourselves for 10 years
(32:28):
and certainly I don't think thatit really changed until after
we paid off the constructionloan debt.
So during COVID we were able toreceive the Save Our Stages
legislation grant and thatallowed us to pay off the
building.
We didn't get the respect andthat was just a few years ago
but we didn't get the respectand the resources that we need.
(32:53):
You know even media Like it wasso hard to get, you know, the
local media to come out andreview any of our performances.
It was, oh my God, it was soincredibly difficult.
I think my faith got me through.
I know for sure my faith got methrough.
(33:13):
You know for sure my faith gotme through.
You know I grew up in Albany,georgia.
I in the Black Baptist Churchand when I tell you that I had
to call on my faith during thattime, that's what you know, that
that's really what helped mekeep my sanity.
(33:42):
My sanity, that, and a group ofagain I don't want to discount
the importance of having boardmembers who will roll up their
sleeves and get in the trencheswith you right with you right
People like Emma Rogers, wholended her name to us.
Emma Rogers owned Black ImagesBooks in Wynwood Village for 30
(34:02):
years, so she's a business.
You know she was a businessowner, she knew she as a Black
woman, she knew everything, andso having you know people like
Emma Rogers to kind of counselme and be in my corner meant
anything.
It meant everything.
(34:22):
The other thing is, you know,there were people like Ann
Williams and Zanetta Drew atDallas Black Dance Theater.
Those women have kept thosedoors open for almost 50 years
and I'm thinking, ok, again,representation matters.
I'm thinking if they can do it,I can do it Right.
(34:45):
I'll tell you something elsethat happened that I don't
always talk about, and that isin 2008,.
Barack Obama was elected aspresident and I refused to close
those doors, the doors of thetheater, under the first Black
president administration.
(35:09):
That was the fuel, wasn't it?
That was the fuel.
That was seriously.
Yeah, that was fuel, so that'sone of the things that kept me
up at night.
I'm like, nope, not gonna, Idon't care what I have to do,
not gonna close these doorsunder, not on my watch.
Huh, not on my watch.
You know, I want to call outthat you talked about the board
(35:31):
members rolling their sleeves upand you talked about the board
members rolling their sleeves upand you talked about varying
other people the women that youreferred to that had a station
in Dallas agency.
In Dallas, we think ofcommunity as something you know
in particular, like here it is,it's a community.
But I like to drive home thatcommunity shows up in so many
(35:52):
ways.
Your board is your community.
That is one of your communities.
Oh, for sure.
Women that came to bat for you.
Maybe it's just a three or fourperson community, but that's
still a community.
Community happens anytime thereare two or more.
That's right, and it wasn't awhole lot of people Trust me, it
(36:13):
was not a whole lot of people.
I mean, there were so manyforces against us.
You know, I wasn't from Dallas,I didn't have connection, I
didn't.
I don't have money tree in mybackyard, I, you know, I didn't
have the resources Like I, and Inever done this before the
other thing is, you know?
(36:33):
so very careful to tell peoplewhat they can't do, Cause you
don't know the.
You know, you don't know the,the, the principles and powers
that we can't see, that areworking on behalf of people.
I think one of the reasons whythe theater is so successful is
because I did surrender my willto the will of of of people.
I think one of the reasons whythe theater is so successful is
(36:54):
because I did surrender my willto the will of community, so I'm
very careful to tell people ohno, you can't do that.
Nobody's ever done.
You don't know, you don't know.
Well, I can also tell you thatyou have found a way to remain
humble in spite of all of yoursuccess, and that plays a big
role in what you're describingright there.
(37:16):
Humility goes a long, long way.
You know, a lot of times whenpeople find that level of
success, they forget abouthumility and they kind of get a
big head and they start throwingweight around.
And that always works against usground and yeah, um, that
(37:37):
always works against us.
Yeah, it does, it does.
I don't take any of this forgranted, because I know it could
all be gone in a blink of aneye also.
So I, yeah, I don't, I don'ttake it for granted I know that?
what have you got?
well, I just want to uh callback to how it is.
(37:59):
I know that we mentioned thatwe had seen a production, uh
fanny, before, and it goes backto what you were saying about
how representation matters andthere is definitely a strong
education component, and I Iknow that we had the pleasure of
(38:22):
seeing um, a I.
I believe it was a, a play by ayoung man who um up in Dallas
and Austin yes.
Yes, yes.
Again, that really spoke to usin ways, because you know again,
(38:44):
representation.
That's.
Where else could you see such agenuine and honest portrayal of
the experience of what it is togrow up queer and having to be
Black and navigate differentways that others might think
(39:06):
that you have to be?
And there's so much more thanwhat was on the page or what was
happening on the stage, Mm-hmm,much more than than what was on
the page or what was happeningon the stage.
I loved being able to sit inthat audience and see some
aspects of my story, and I knowthat a lot of the things that
(39:26):
you produce have that same kindof impact where there's so much
more that that happens, there'sso much transformation that
happens.
I'm so grateful that, throughyour successes, you have seen
the value in giving back in away that is profound.
(39:51):
Thank you for that, dwight.
Thank you so much for that.
So I met Joe Anderson Jr.
It's a young man who wrotePatches in Austin.
I was invited to see that showat the Carver Museum and it was
during the pandemic, whentheaters were closing like
(40:14):
because audiences were notreturning.
But at that show there was somany people in that audience
that they had to bring in chairsand I'm like oh, who, who, who
is this guy?
And then, when he startedtalking about Oak Cliff and
Bishop Arts, I'm like wait aminute.
You're from Dallas, you got tocome to Dallas and do this show
(40:39):
and so I was so excited to beable to host and he was happy to
be able to come home and dothat show.
And again, that's the beauty ofhaving autonomy, you know, to
tell those stories I didn't need, I didn't have to go through
any bureaucracy, I didn't haveto.
(41:00):
Nobody had to vote on whatshows.
You know whether or not wewould bring that show to our
stage, Like I'm, like you'recoming to Dallas and you're
going to do that show home,coming to Dallas, and you're
going to do that show home.
And I was excited and veryhonored to have Joe tell his
(41:21):
story.
It was, you know, I mean, itwas very, very moving.
So thank you so much for that.
I so relate to what you'resaying, because that's the way I
won't speak for Dwight.
He may feel this way as well,but that's the way I feel about
what we're doing with thispodcast.
We have full autonomy.
We get to invite any guest wewant and, you know, turn down
(41:42):
anybody we don't want.
For us, it very much is aboutrepresentation, you know in
every way of as manymarginalized communities as we
can touch.
You know we very much are, likeyou said, about people certainly
(42:04):
are aware of the way that we'redifferent from each other.
We're about promoting lookingat the ways that we are similar
to each other things we have incommon, because I believe that's
what will heal our planetthat's right.
Neuroscience tells us that ourbrains prefer familiarity, and
(42:25):
so we are intentional aboutmaking sure that that
representation is on our stage.
I love it, Absolutely love it.
Well, we're running close tobeing out of time, but I want to
just touch briefly on one otherthing that I want to want to
(42:48):
know about.
I'd like to hear about how itall began.
(43:10):
I mean like way back there, notthe whiz, but the Albany,
georgia, and I distinctlyremember, like as a child I was
probably in grade school Likeholding skids on the side of my
(43:31):
cousin's house and telling my,my brothers and my sister and my
cousins, okay, you say thispart and you say that part, and
you know it, it, interestinglyenough, I mean it's, it has.
When I look back, like it'salways been there, right, I feel
like this is like divineintervention and I'm I'm so
(43:54):
walking in my purpose becauseeven when I was, you know, a
grade school student, I wasperforming and producing and
creating community.
(44:17):
So Maddie that's such a greatquestion.
It mean you, just you, just youconjured up something that I
had just completely forgot about.
But even back then, yes, on theside of my cousin's house.
When you told your story justnow, it sparked a memory for me
that I haven't thought about indecades, decades.
(44:42):
Well, you got to spill.
I won't go into it now, butit'll be part of a later episode
, but it was like, oh my gosh, Iused to do something sort of
similar and it's very funny.
It's just very funny.
Wow, I'm so glad I asked that.
What a great story, not onlyjust for those that are
(45:03):
listening, but it just sparked areally cool, warm memory for me
.
So thank you for that.
Wow, yeah of course, thank youfor the question.
Yeah, of course.
Thank you for the question.
Absolutely Well, before we wrap,we like to ask three rapid fire
questions.
Okay, are you ready?
Well, you know I'm going to askone more question before we do
(45:29):
rapid fire.
Given everything that you'vebeen through and everything
you've experienced, from thechallenges to the success, what
is some words of wisdom that youcould share with our audience?
For those that may be in theearly stages of their creative
journey, you know that that'stough time when we're in the
survival mode.
(45:51):
What are your words of wisdom?
Oh gosh, I would say you knowthe fact that we were persistent
and that we were able to blockout the noise.
I mean it was, it was so hardto do.
But I just encourage anybodywho's trying to do anything that
and you're seeing obstacleslike, just find a way to block
(46:17):
out the noise, because thelonger you do it and I really
feel like there are no mistakesthat you're all of your mistakes
are ways for you to learn.
You know it's a.
It's a.
It's a learning you to learn.
(46:37):
You know it's a learning, it'sa way for you to learn.
So, even when you make mistakes, even when there are things
that you don't quite get right,that's the universe saying okay,
here's a try.
Another avenue that's beautiful.
Thank you.
I needed to hear that rightabout now, so thank you, thank
you for that yeah, regardless ofwhether the audience gets it or
(47:00):
not, I got it yeah, I'm happyawesome to share.
Okay, rapid fire.
Question number one what keepsyou going during tough times?
You may have already answeredthis, but but we'll give you
another stab at it.
You know, the reality is it'sbeen hard, for sure, but the
(47:22):
reality is I really love thiswork.
And the other thing that I wasreading I can't remember
something the other day and whatI read was you can't serve the
people if you don't love thepeople, right.
So my love for people, my love,you can't.
(47:44):
And I've learned that withwe've had so much turnover in
our office from people who wereopportunist and just didn't, you
know, weren't there for theright reason.
But what I know for sure isthat when you love the people,
(48:07):
you can serve the people muchbetter.
And that's what keeps me goingLike I knew, when those seniors
were not able to come to thetheater after COVID, that we
were going to them, that we werenot going to abandon them.
(48:28):
That wasn't even.
That wasn't even aconsideration.
Girl, you get that.
You got a book in you, don'tyou?
A few?
Absolutely.
What a beautiful answer.
Okay, who's one person you'dlove to collaborate with?
(48:49):
Oh, one person, only one.
Oh Well, you get as many as youwant, but we're just asking for
you to name one, yeah, just oneperson.
Oh, I am going to Selma for theoh, yes, okay.
So I'm going to Selma for the60th anniversary of the Selma
(49:17):
March and so I have beenfollowing Bryan Stevenson's
trajectory with Equal JusticeInitiative and I'd love to work
with him.
So he was here in Dallas beforehe wrote his book and he was
(49:39):
talking about the movie versionof his story and I said to him I
said if the movie versiondoesn't work out, I have a stage
for you.
So I love to work with BrianStevenson, I love to collaborate
some way with Brian Stevenson.
So I'm excited about that tripto South, but his the EGI, egi
(50:00):
is in Montgomery.
Well, we will hold that in thelight for you.
Thank you.
Okay, final question If youcould create anywhere in the
world, where would you be?
could create anywhere in theworld, where would you be?
Oh, so I just got back fromCosta Rica and I love, oh my God
, the people, the culture, theland, and I think Costa Rica is
(50:29):
high on that list.
But I also had a chance to goto Thailand in November and
again I had a beautifulexperience.
But I think I know that thereare a lot of Black expats in
Costa Rica, so I'm going to sayCosta Rica.
(50:51):
You know, I got to go to CostaRica in 2014.
I spent almost 10 days downthere and I absolutely loved it
and would go back in a heartbeat.
It's magical.
That place is magical.
In so many ways.
In so many ways yeah.
(51:12):
Teresa, this has just been adelight.
Thank you so much.
I just love digging in andhearing more.
I mean, I felt like I knew youand was connected to you before,
but even much more so now.
Well, before we completely closeout, I would like to ask if
there's anything that you wouldlike to share with our listeners
(51:32):
that we haven't had a chance totalk about today.
Thank you, dwight.
Yes, we have an upcoming BannedBooks Festival.
It's a one-act festival wherewe select a banned book and we
commission eight playwrights orsix playwrights this year to pen
(51:53):
a one-act play based on a bookthat has been banned.
The book that we chose thisyear is the stamp from the
beginning by Dr Ibram X, thatone at festival happens on um in
(52:15):
a.
That's what's upcoming and soum.
I'm sure we can include a link.
We'll drop in the show notes.
Yeah, so search the show notesfor all of the things that you
you have shared.
So if you're listening, be sureyou read the show notes.
Yes, yes, I'm excited about that.
Thank you so much Delight forthe question.
(52:37):
Absolutely, and this has been apleasure.
I know that we will certainlymeet with you again soon.
Yes.
So walking in my purpose, because even when I was, you
know, a grade school student, Iwas performing and producing and
creating community.
That is so great.
I mean, you just conjured upsomething that I had just
(00:35):
completely forgot about.
Hello and welcome to the For theLove of Creatives podcast.
I'm your host, maddox.
I'm here with Dwight, we're theConnections and Community guys,
(00:59):
and today our guest is TeresaColeman Walsh.
Welcome, teresa, we're so gladto have you.
Thank you so much for invitingme.
I'm happy to be here.
Well, I think I'll tell ourlisteners how we met, because I
think it's really, reallyimportant.
We were must have been readinga newspaper or getting.
(01:22):
It was an email that came, butit was an event that was called
Rx.
Racial Healing.
Racial Healing Circle and wethought that sounded quite
interesting.
So we registered and we went.
Come to find out.
Teresa was one of the leadersof that and it was a fascinating
(01:43):
experience.
We met some amazing people, butthat was our way of meeting.
And you know we just hit it offimmediately.
Yeah, I think that was thefirst time we met face to face,
but that wasn't the first time Ithink that you and Dwight were
(02:06):
at the theater.
Did you guys come to ourproduction of Fanny?
We did, that's right, we did so.
Liz Michael played Fanny LouHamer in our co-production with
the Dallas Theater Center of theMusic and Life of Fannie Lou
Hamer.
And I'm so glad that you cameback to the RxRacial Healing
(02:29):
Circle because it afforded usthe opportunity to really get to
know each other on a moreintimate level.
So yes, yes.
And then you and I have gottenthe lovely opportunity to meet
for coffee Well, actually forlunch one day.
It was, that's right, can'twait to do it again.
Well, let's start off.
(02:51):
I'm going to give you anopportunity because I think you
can do this better than we canto tell our listeners a little
bit about who you are and whatyou're about.
You know the Cliff Notes bio,and then we're going to get into
the story.
(03:24):
Well, I'm happy to.
So, uh I an opportunity for usto bring quality theater to an
area of the city that was not,you know, afforded that
opportunity, and so we weredoing dinner theater
performances there.
And then I married.
My husband moved to Dallas andI told him.
(03:48):
I said I want to do this theater, try this theater thing full
time and see what happens.
And in Atlanta I was sellingbroadcast advertising I should
say that right For the Disneyfamily.
So I was doing theater kind ofat night.
It was very much a hobby.
But when I got married andmoved to Dallas I decided I
(04:08):
wanted to make a career out oftheater.
I'd seen Diana Ross and the Wizyears ago and it changed my
life.
I'm serious, it changed my life.
So I mean, representationmatters, right.
So Al was very, very supportiveand he said okay, you know, you
(04:30):
can.
You know, let's try theater andlet's see what happens.
Then then in 2005, somethinginteresting happened.
One of our longtime patrons whohad followed our progress,
called me up and said I have a10,000 square foot building that
I want to donate to yournonprofit.
Now I will tell you that it wasmy husband's business partner,
(04:54):
arthur Primus, and Arthur and Alwere.
A lot of people may not knowthis, or a lot of people
probably do.
Arthur and Al were promotingTyler Perry shows.
It was when Tyler first starteddoing urban theater and when my
husband and I, when we weredating, he said, and I was
(05:20):
living in Atlanta, he sent me toa Tyler Perry show to kind of
scout and see who this Tyler guywas, and I'm like, oh God, yes,
you, definitely you deserveyour time.
Well, alan Arthur were businesspartners.
They promoted Tyler Perry shows, and so in 2005, they had this
(05:41):
dilapidated photography studioon Tyler Street that they had
bought.
And Arthur saw what we weredoing in Atlanta.
He saw that we were workingwith particularly students here
in the Dallas area and he said Iwant to donate this property to
(06:01):
your nonprofit.
So we raised $1.2 million inprivate sector funding.
We were able to get aconstruction loan for about
$800,000.
We started the renovations in2005, completed the renovations
in 2008, just as the economyplummeted.
But what we did was we heldfocus group meetings and we
(06:27):
asked the community what are wedoing that you'd like to see us
do more of and what are we notdoing that you'd like to see us
implement?
What we learned was thatparents wanted somewhere for
their kids to be during theafter school hours, the
(06:49):
neighborhood wanted a jazzseries, jazz concerts, and
artists wanted somewhere to honetheir craft, and so we began
building programs based on theconversations that we were
having with the community.
So we were active listenerseven back then.
Guys, I will tell you we havecelebrated 30 years.
(07:10):
I've led this organizationthrough 9-11, 2008, economic
downturn and now a globalpandemic.
And one of our community.
One of our superpowers is beingactive listeners with community
.
That's how we've been able tonot only survive but thrive,
(07:32):
even with everything that'sgoing on, so I'm excited about
that.
I distinctly remember attendingan art symposium back in 2008
when the economy plummeted andit was at the Latino Cultural
Center, and Michael Kaiser, whowas the president of the Kennedy
Center at that time, came toDallas and he met with everybody
(07:54):
all of the artistic leaders andwhat he said resonated with me
deeply, and that is sick.
People don't get well by doingless.
Now's the time to connect withcommunity.
So that's how thoseconversations came about, and so
I'm really excited about thework that we're doing, because I
(08:15):
really feel like we'reessential workers at the Bishop
Arts Theater Center.
That's incredible.
I mean, I knew part of thisstory, but not all of it.
Wow, I'm just so blown awaythat I'm not sure where to go
from here.
What is the part of yourcreative journey that you?
(08:46):
I mean I had a question, but Ithink you may have kind of just
a lead off question, but you mayhave just answered it but what
is the part of your journey as acreative that you most want to
share and talk about?
Yeah, I mean, you know, I kindof mentioned it.
I saw Diana Ross in the Wizyears ago and I remember, I mean
, every pageant I was in, I sangHome from the Wiz.
(09:09):
Right, I wanted to be.
I knew I wanted to work intheater when I was in Atlanta.
There was a touring show comingthrough Atlanta with Jane
Kennedy and her husband, leonIsaac Kennedy God is trying to
(09:29):
tell you something and theyneeded a choir.
So I was singing in the churchchoir at that time and the choir
director said you know, thistour is coming through Atlanta
and you and I don't talk aboutthis.
I'm so glad I love thisquestion, thank you.
But he said you know it'scoming through town and you
(09:51):
should really consider being apart of the choir.
So I did, and every night I goon stage and I was part of the
backup.
You know one of the backupsingers in that choir and I just
remember at the end of thebackup, you know one of the
backup singers in that choir andI just remember, at the end of
the run, when they were gettingready to leave, I felt like, oh
(10:11):
my God, I have found.
You know my purpose.
I found what I want to do onthis planet, and it was so
transformative and it was aroundthe time again.
You know that I was so enamoredwith Diana Ross and I decided
(10:34):
at that moment that I wanted acareer in theater, and I think I
might.
That's probably when I startedChartered the theater back in
Atlanta also.
What's interesting, though, Iwill say, is that, you know, I
got in this business for purelyselfish reasons, because at that
(10:54):
time, I was writing andproducing all of the plays that
we were.
You know, we were performing,but it's interesting Now.
What I do more than anythingelse is create opportunities for
other artists, and I thinkthat's why the theater has grown
the way that it has.
Right, I had to surrender mywill to the will of the
(11:18):
community, and I think that issuch a superpower I wish more
artists would.
You know.
It really isn't about I get achance.
We have complete autonomy to dowhatever we want to do.
The fact that we own a buildingand that I'm a Black woman in
that space right, it definitelyhas its challenges, but it is so
(12:05):
incredibly rewarding because weget to do a lot of things that
perhaps a lot of people areafraid to do, or just simply
don't have the resources to do,and so I feel like I'm
incredibly grateful to be in thespace that I'm in.
You said something that I wantto back up to.
For just a second, you talkedabout getting into it for, you
know, selfish reasons, and now,all these years later, you know
it's all about giving back tothe community, helping others
have an opportunity.
I think that's the way ourprocess was intended to be.
(12:31):
I think in the early years,when we're trying to figure out
what we want to do and how we'regoing to do it, those are the
lean years and we pretty muchhave to be selfish.
There's an element of survivalgoing on in those early years,
and when we're in survival mode,we can't think about anybody
else but ourselves.
But as you emerge from survivaland you went through your
(12:53):
process where it began to befuller and more abundant and it
wasn't about survival anymore,it was now about thriving I
think that the beautiful part ofwhat you're telling about your
story is I don't think everybodygoes to this stage where they
realize it's time to give back,but I think that's perhaps the
(13:17):
message of your at least rightthis moment.
A big message in your story isat some point we need to give
back.
Oh yeah, we need to do, andthat can look a lot of different
ways.
It doesn't mean that you stillcan't do your thing and thrive
while you're giving back.
It's just not all about youanymore and we kind of live in
(13:41):
an it's all about me world.
So this is a really big andimportant message, I think.
You know and in doing so I feellike I found other things that
I'm really good at.
Like I'm really good atfinancial management In order to
(14:03):
have a thriving business rightnow, you got to have somebody on
staff who can crunch thenumbers, who knows the numbers,
who can get very intimate withthe numbers, and I'm that person
.
I'm one of those people in ourorganization.
(14:28):
I also want to just say that, Ithink, is because I made a lot
of mistakes, maddox, when wefirst started, and one of the
mistakes that I made is thinkingthat I could do it all by
myself.
You know, I didn't realize howincredibly important
(14:48):
relationships are right.
And so now I have a team ofpeople who not only have a
genuine interest in thewellbeing of the organization,
they have a genuine interest inmy wellbeing, and so if I need
to take a sabbatical, if I needto step away, if I need a career
break, everybody knows whenTeresa is healthy, the
(15:12):
organization is healthy, and sowe prioritize self-care in our
organization, and that's fromthe top down.
So that's been a huge learninglesson, and I think that we are
a better, stronger, moreresilient organization because
of it, because of that humancomponent where we are looking
(15:38):
at what's best for theindividual.
I think a vast majority ofcompanies in our nation could
take a book out of a page, outof your book.
Wow.
You know, when we had lunch thatday part of the story because I
asked you know we talked about.
Dwight and I are avid theatergoers.
(16:01):
You know we're seasonedsubscribers to three different
theaters in the city and then wetake in one-offs with other
theaters.
We're in the theater a lot andI have been he hasn't been as
long.
I have been for 25 years verymuch an avid theater goer and
I've watched the theater crowdsdiminish little by little by
(16:21):
little.
I've watched the crowds getolder and the young people
aren't coming in.
And when we had lunch we talkedabout this.
You know what's going to happenbecause it doesn't look
promising and I think thisspeaks to your creativity.
I mean your creativity becauseyou looked at that, you realized
(16:43):
that was happening.
You could see it happening totheaters not only in our city
but all over the nation.
The crowd's diminishing, alongwith it, the fun's diminishing.
And you got really, reallycreative and you did some
pivoting and so I would love foryou to really expand on that
part of the story about thatcreativity and how you figured
(17:07):
out ways to bring people intothe theater.
That were things no othertheater was doing.
Yeah, yeah, the American theateris in an existential crisis.
Everybody knows that theNational Endowment for the Arts
is estimating that, estimatedthat two to three theaters are
closing month, right, one of thethings that we did back in
(17:36):
2008,.
Again, I think that was soincredibly important that we
were active listeners, that wewere active listeners.
That has to happen in thismoment.
I distinctly remember aphilanthropic organization
telling us when we first opened,maybe a few years after we
(17:56):
opened, that they would not fundus because theater was not the
primary focus of, they felt, ofour organization.
We had a very we have still avery successful jazz series, and
we all know music kind ofovershadows theater.
(18:18):
What's interesting in thismoment is that music venues have
recovered much faster thantheaters due to COVID, and so I
am so grateful for our jazzseries because when we were, you
(18:46):
know, during COVID, we werevery much not able to produce
performances, theaterperformances, but there were
partners like the Dallas Zoo whoinvited us to their venue to
kind of produce a jazz under thestars and that has kind of
(19:09):
taken off our jazzy subscribers.
We loved it.
We've been at the Dallas Zooever since then and so you know,
that's one of the programs.
That kind of was birthed out ofthe pandemic and still
continues, and you know, and itgoes back to what you were
saying about how we really hadto be incredibly creative.
(19:29):
But also it speaks to thestrength of our relationships.
I don't care what organizationyou're with, the strength of
your organization is going to bebased on the strength of your
relationships with.
The strength of yourorganization is going to be
based on the strength of yourrelationships.
And so we figured out very,very quickly that we had to make
(19:52):
sure that you know I'm notsitting at that desk, that I'm
in the community talking topeople, cultivating
relationships, not just inDallas.
Also, I'm getting ready to geton the plane tonight to go to
New York, because we havepartners in New York.
There are things that we'reworking on in New York.
The other thing I think that theAmerican theater has not done
well is embrace technology.
It is here, it is not goinganywhere.
(20:14):
We have to embrace it and findways for our organizations to
exist, co-exist, usingtechnology.
So I'm excited about someupcoming things that are
happening that we're launchingthe latter part of this year,
and the other thing is wefinally, I believe, have the
(20:37):
staff to do all of the thingsthat we're contemplating, that
we've been planning on doing.
One of the books that I'vereread is Good to Great by Jim
Collins.
Jim talks about how incrediblydifficult it is to build the
right team.
You can't even talk strategyuntil you have the right people
on the bus, and so I feel likewe're kind of turning a curve.
(21:02):
Even with everything that'shappening in the world right now
, I feel like it's reallyimportant that I'm really
excited about, you know, some ofthe things that we're launching
the latter part of the year orthe mid year.
I'd like to pull on a threadthat we've kind of talked about
(21:22):
at different points and you'rekind of hinting at, but when you
were talking about the waysthat you'd gone on that arc from
pursuing your own dream togiving back I know that there's
a lot that's going on.
The theater is a community hub.
That's going on.
(21:47):
The theater is a community hub.
Could you share some of thewonderful things that are
happening that the theater ishelping?
bring into being.
Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to dothat.
So prior to COVID, seniorcitizens were coming to the
theater to participate in astorytelling circle on our stage
.
Of course, when COVID happened,they couldn't come.
So I told our board ofdirectors we're going to them.
(22:08):
If they can't come to us, we'renot going to abandon them in
this moment.
We are going to them.
So we started this programcalled Patio Live, where we
would hire artists andperformers to go to aging care
facilities and perform in patiosand parking lots of those
(22:30):
facilities.
And every Friday even now youwill see if you go to our
Instagram page are where we havepartnerships with those aging
care facilities.
Many of the aging carefacilities, some of the
residents have dementia and whatwe're finding is that through
(22:54):
music therapy, there's been adecrease in medication for some
of the residents.
There's an increase insocialization skills.
So you know, I know power ofthe arts, you know the other
thing that we do is every yearfor the past 14 years, we have
(23:16):
been offering a summer theatercamp.
We have 50 kids in the building.
It's an eight-week program,monday through Thursday, from 7
am to 5 pm.
We serve breakfast, lunch andsnacks.
Those kids work with mastery,teaching artists, music, art,
dance, theater and life skills.
So we have life skills partnerslike the City of Dallas Office
(23:56):
of Environmental Quality has avery user-friendly, a
kid-friendly program where theyteach how to be environmentally
friendly workshops.
We also the Dallas Zoo or theDallas Public Safety, dallas
Police Department.
They do how to beat, you know,safety, fire and safety drills.
We also have people like TexasA&M AgriLife will come by and do
(24:19):
healthy nutrition classes forour summer theater camp students
and then and we'll have severalother life skills partners.
But at the end of that eightweeks there's a culminating
performance, there's a showcaseso parents can see what the kids
have been, have learned duringyou know, that eight-week
(24:40):
program, and so that has beenhappening for the past 14 years
and I'm so excited that we'reable to do that.
Inevitably we have a waitinglist because we're only able to
serve 50 students.
We're trying to figure out away to serve more students in
our building.
We do have also summer theatercamp programs at other districts
(25:06):
.
We've worked with the ISD sorry, desoto ISD in the past, as
well as Lancaster ISD, so we'vebeen able to find a way to serve
more students outside of ourbuilding.
But that happens also.
And then you guys mentioned theRxRacial Healing Circles.
I study with Dr GailChristopher with the National
(25:28):
Collaborative of Health Equityand I think it's really
important for us, especially inthis moment, to see people who
don't look like us to havereally hard conversations.
I will say that, to have reallyhard conversations with people
(25:50):
who don't look like us and sitin discomfort, and so that's
what those I mean.
You were a part of that, youknow.
That's what those, those racialhealing circles, were about.
So again thank you.
I appreciate that.
We've seen some really magicalthings happen in those healing
(26:13):
circles.
We just did one on Dr King'sbirthday with Stephanie Tovar
and there are some healingcircles.
Stephanie Tovar will befacilitating stories, that heal
series Starting.
I believe the first one startsin March or April, but we are
(26:37):
excited about that.
Um, but we are excited aboutthat.
So you know that's on ourwebsite and for information for
anyone who wants to be a part ofthat.
You know, it's very apparent tome.
You may have never ever thoughtof this, but if you ever get
weary of what you're doing, youwould absolutely make a
(26:59):
phenomenal freelance consultantfor the arts.
I can't tell you how many timesI've heard that I mean I'm
working with.
Interestingly enough, I wascontacted by Theater
Communications Group to jointheir board.
I mentioned that the Americantheater is in an existential
(27:21):
crisis, and so we're allthinking about, you know,
dismantling what, the systemthat has not served any of us,
and really thinking about whatdo we want to build what you
know, how can we build a modelthat is sustainable, where we're
(27:44):
not constantly or solelydependent on public sector funds
, public sector grants?
It just very well may go away.
I've considered it, and sothat's some of the work that I'm
going to be doing at thenational level with Theater
(28:06):
Communications Group, and I'mexcited about that because I get
to learn also there are a lotof very smart people in that
room and I like being in a roomwith smart people because I get
to learn.
Well, you are definitely one ofthose smart people absolutely, I
admit you and at the same timeyou're so down to earth.
Well, you are definitely one ofthose smart people Absolutely,
I admit you and at the same timeyou're so down to earth and so
(28:27):
warm and friendly.
I just felt such a connectionwith you the minute we
interacted.
I was just like she is mypeople.
But, Maddox, I felt the same waythe first, the minute you
opened your mouth and introducedyourself at that racial healing
circle, I'm like, okay, that'smy people.
(28:51):
I knew we, I would you know.
I'm glad that I made it.
We made a beeline to each otherafter that.
Yes, I would love to figure outa way where we could be perhaps
more involved in each other.
Yeah, for sure, for sure, We'llfigure it out, we'll figure it
(29:13):
out.
Well, let's.
Let's talk about maybe you knowwe've talked about lots of
successes and lots of fabulouscreativity and ideas.
Let's talk about, maybe, someof the challenges, some of the
things that you had to gothrough to get where you are now
.
You know, maybe a dark time ortwo and how you navigated that.
(29:39):
Yeah, thank you so much for thatquestion, because I mentioned
the 2008 economic downturn.
The other thing that washappening in Dallas was the
Dallas Arts District was beingbuilt, so all of the attention
and the resources was beingdirected to that area.
I distinctly remember courtinga major philanthropic
(30:01):
organization, local organization.
They said, okay, you're goingto, you have aspirations of
renovating this building.
When we see dirt moving, thenwe'll, you know, we'll come back
and help.
So we got through the firstphase, went back to them and
said they said, well, wenormally come in, you know, at
(30:23):
the end, so consider us maybefor the lighting and sound and
equipment and you know, staging,ok, all right, fine.
So we got to that stage and wewent back to them and said, ok,
we're here, we're at the stage.
And they said, well, we'regoing to support the Dallas Arts
District.
It was, we were, I wasincredibly good at it, and so,
(30:51):
again, you know, that's uh whatled.
I'm so grateful for michaelkaiser and that art symposium,
because I was such a I was justgreen, you know, I was finding
my way.
I had never, um, you know, owneda building, owned a property
before.
In that moment, I felt like itwas such a curse to have this.
(31:17):
You know that was all the moneyin the world.
We had a construction loan.
We were over a million dollarsin debt.
It was all the money in theworld.
I mean I didn't know where togo.
And the other thing is, youknow people were laughing at us.
I'm not from, I'm a transplant.
I'm not from Dallas.
I didn't go to SMU, I didn't.
(31:37):
I don't have the Booker Tconnections.
You know I was not in the.
I was not, I didn't havecommunity here.
I left the community in Atlanta.
And so you know people werelaughing at us when we said
we're going to renovate thisbuilding.
We're going to do all of theseperformances, I mean we.
(32:00):
Essentially what I learned isthat you know, we did what a lot
of people tried to do, aretrying to do, and so we had to
prove ourselves, to proveourselves and I feel like once
we were able to, you know,sustain ourselves for 10 years
(32:28):
and certainly I don't think thatit really changed until after
we paid off the constructionloan debt.
So during COVID we were able toreceive the Save Our Stages
legislation grant and thatallowed us to pay off the
building.
We didn't get the respect andthat was just a few years ago
but we didn't get the respectand the resources that we need.
(32:53):
You know even media Like it wasso hard to get, you know, the
local media to come out andreview any of our performances.
It was, oh my God, it was soincredibly difficult.
I think my faith got me through.
I know for sure my faith got methrough.
(33:13):
You know for sure my faith gotme through.
You know I grew up in Albany,georgia.
I in the Black Baptist Churchand when I tell you that I had
to call on my faith during thattime, that's what you know, that
that's really what helped mekeep my sanity.
(33:42):
My sanity, that, and a group ofagain I don't want to discount
the importance of having boardmembers who will roll up their
sleeves and get in the trencheswith you right with you right
People like Emma Rogers, wholended her name to us.
Emma Rogers owned Black ImagesBooks in Wynwood Village for 30
(34:02):
years, so she's a business.
You know she was a businessowner, she knew she as a Black
woman, she knew everything, andso having you know people like
Emma Rogers to kind of counselme and be in my corner meant
anything.
It meant everything.
(34:22):
The other thing is, you know,there were people like Ann
Williams and Zanetta Drew atDallas Black Dance Theater.
Those women have kept thosedoors open for almost 50 years
and I'm thinking, ok, again,representation matters.
I'm thinking if they can do it,I can do it Right.
(34:45):
I'll tell you something elsethat happened that I don't
always talk about, and that isin 2008,.
Barack Obama was elected aspresident and I refused to close
those doors, the doors of thetheater, under the first Black
president administration.
(35:09):
That was the fuel, wasn't it?
That was the fuel.
That was seriously.
Yeah, that was fuel, so that'sone of the things that kept me
up at night.
I'm like, nope, not gonna, Idon't care what I have to do,
not gonna close these doorsunder, not on my watch.
Huh, not on my watch.
You know, I want to call outthat you talked about the board
(35:31):
members rolling their sleeves upand you talked about the board
members rolling their sleeves upand you talked about varying
other people the women that youreferred to that had a station
in Dallas agency.
In Dallas, we think ofcommunity as something you know
in particular, like here it is,it's a community.
But I like to drive home thatcommunity shows up in so many
(35:52):
ways.
Your board is your community.
That is one of your communities.
Oh, for sure.
Women that came to bat for you.
Maybe it's just a three or fourperson community, but that's
still a community.
Community happens anytime thereare two or more.
That's right, and it wasn't awhole lot of people Trust me, it
(36:13):
was not a whole lot of people.
I mean, there were so manyforces against us.
You know, I wasn't from Dallas,I didn't have connection, I
didn't.
I don't have money tree in mybackyard, I, you know, I didn't
have the resources Like I, and Inever done this before the
other thing is, you know?
(36:33):
so very careful to tell peoplewhat they can't do, Cause you
don't know the.
You know, you don't know the,the, the principles and powers
that we can't see, that areworking on behalf of people.
I think one of the reasons whythe theater is so successful is
because I did surrender my willto the will of of of people.
I think one of the reasons whythe theater is so successful is
(36:54):
because I did surrender my willto the will of community, so I'm
very careful to tell people ohno, you can't do that.
Nobody's ever done.
You don't know, you don't know.
Well, I can also tell you thatyou have found a way to remain
humble in spite of all of yoursuccess, and that plays a big
role in what you're describingright there.
(37:16):
Humility goes a long, long way.
You know, a lot of times whenpeople find that level of
success, they forget abouthumility and they kind of get a
big head and they start throwingweight around.
And that always works against usground and yeah, um, that
(37:37):
always works against us.
Yeah, it does, it does.
I don't take any of this forgranted, because I know it could
all be gone in a blink of aneye also.
So I, yeah, I don't, I don'ttake it for granted I know that?
what have you got?
well, I just want to uh callback to how it is.
(37:59):
I know that we mentioned thatwe had seen a production, uh
fanny, before, and it goes backto what you were saying about
how representation matters andthere is definitely a strong
education component, and I Iknow that we had the pleasure of
(38:22):
seeing um, a I.
I believe it was a, a play by ayoung man who um up in Dallas
and Austin yes.
Yes, yes.
Again, that really spoke to usin ways, because you know again,
(38:44):
representation.
That's.
Where else could you see such agenuine and honest portrayal of
the experience of what it is togrow up queer and having to be
Black and navigate differentways that others might think
(39:06):
that you have to be?
And there's so much more thanwhat was on the page or what was
happening on the stage, Mm-hmm,much more than than what was on
the page or what was happeningon the stage.
I loved being able to sit inthat audience and see some
aspects of my story, and I knowthat a lot of the things that
(39:26):
you produce have that same kindof impact where there's so much
more that that happens, there'sso much transformation that
happens.
I'm so grateful that, throughyour successes, you have seen
the value in giving back in away that is profound.
(39:51):
Thank you for that, dwight.
Thank you so much for that.
So I met Joe Anderson Jr.
It's a young man who wrotePatches in Austin.
I was invited to see that showat the Carver Museum and it was
during the pandemic, whentheaters were closing like
(40:14):
because audiences were notreturning.
But at that show there was somany people in that audience
that they had to bring in chairsand I'm like oh, who, who, who
is this guy?
And then, when he startedtalking about Oak Cliff and
Bishop Arts, I'm like wait aminute.
You're from Dallas, you got tocome to Dallas and do this show
(40:39):
and so I was so excited to beable to host and he was happy to
be able to come home and dothat show.
And again, that's the beauty ofhaving autonomy, you know, to
tell those stories I didn't need, I didn't have to go through
any bureaucracy, I didn't haveto.
(41:00):
Nobody had to vote on whatshows.
You know whether or not wewould bring that show to our
stage, Like I'm, like you'recoming to Dallas and you're
going to do that show home,coming to Dallas, and you're
going to do that show home.
And I was excited and veryhonored to have Joe tell his
(41:21):
story.
It was, you know, I mean, itwas very, very moving.
So thank you so much for that.
I so relate to what you'resaying, because that's the way I
won't speak for Dwight.
He may feel this way as well,but that's the way I feel about
what we're doing with thispodcast.
We have full autonomy.
We get to invite any guest wewant and, you know, turn down
(41:42):
anybody we don't want.
For us, it very much is aboutrepresentation, you know in
every way of as manymarginalized communities as we
can touch.
You know we very much are, likeyou said, about people certainly
(42:04):
are aware of the way that we'redifferent from each other.
We're about promoting lookingat the ways that we are similar
to each other things we have incommon, because I believe that's
what will heal our planetthat's right.
Neuroscience tells us that ourbrains prefer familiarity, and
(42:25):
so we are intentional aboutmaking sure that that
representation is on our stage.
I love it, Absolutely love it.
Well, we're running close tobeing out of time, but I want to
just touch briefly on one otherthing that I want to want to
(42:48):
know about.
I'd like to hear about how itall began.
(43:10):
I mean like way back there, notthe whiz, but the Albany,
georgia, and I distinctlyremember, like as a child I was
probably in grade school Likeholding skids on the side of my
(43:31):
cousin's house and telling my,my brothers and my sister and my
cousins, okay, you say thispart and you say that part, and
you know it, it, interestinglyenough, I mean it's, it has.
When I look back, like it'salways been there, right, I feel
like this is like divineintervention and I'm I'm so
(43:54):
walking in my purpose becauseeven when I was, you know, a
grade school student, I wasperforming and producing and
creating community.
(44:17):
So Maddie that's such a greatquestion.
It mean you, just you, just youconjured up something that I
had just completely forgot about.
But even back then, yes, on theside of my cousin's house.
When you told your story justnow, it sparked a memory for me
that I haven't thought about indecades, decades.
(44:42):
Well, you got to spill.
I won't go into it now, butit'll be part of a later episode
, but it was like, oh my gosh, Iused to do something sort of
similar and it's very funny.
It's just very funny.
Wow, I'm so glad I asked that.
What a great story, not onlyjust for those that are
(45:03):
listening, but it just sparked areally cool, warm memory for me
.
So thank you for that.
Wow, yeah of course, thank youfor the question.
Yeah, of course.
Thank you for the question.
Absolutely Well, before we wrap,we like to ask three rapid fire
questions.
Okay, are you ready?
Well, you know I'm going to askone more question before we do
(45:29):
rapid fire.
Given everything that you'vebeen through and everything
you've experienced, from thechallenges to the success, what
is some words of wisdom that youcould share with our audience?
For those that may be in theearly stages of their creative
journey, you know that that'stough time when we're in the
survival mode.
(45:51):
What are your words of wisdom?
Oh gosh, I would say you knowthe fact that we were persistent
and that we were able to blockout the noise.
I mean it was, it was so hardto do.
But I just encourage anybodywho's trying to do anything that
and you're seeing obstacleslike, just find a way to block
(46:17):
out the noise, because thelonger you do it and I really
feel like there are no mistakesthat you're all of your mistakes
are ways for you to learn.
You know it's a.
It's a.
It's a learning you to learn.
(46:37):
You know it's a learning, it'sa way for you to learn.
So, even when you make mistakes, even when there are things
that you don't quite get right,that's the universe saying okay,
here's a try.
Another avenue that's beautiful.
Thank you.
I needed to hear that rightabout now, so thank you, thank
you for that yeah, regardless ofwhether the audience gets it or
(47:00):
not, I got it yeah, I'm happyawesome to share.
Okay, rapid fire.
Question number one what keepsyou going during tough times?
You may have already answeredthis, but but we'll give you
another stab at it.
You know, the reality is it'sbeen hard, for sure, but the
(47:22):
reality is I really love thiswork.
And the other thing that I wasreading I can't remember
something the other day and whatI read was you can't serve the
people if you don't love thepeople, right.
So my love for people, my love,you can't.
(47:44):
And I've learned that withwe've had so much turnover in
our office from people who wereopportunist and just didn't, you
know, weren't there for theright reason.
But what I know for sure isthat when you love the people,
(48:07):
you can serve the people muchbetter.
And that's what keeps me goingLike I knew, when those seniors
were not able to come to thetheater after COVID, that we
were going to them, that we werenot going to abandon them.
(48:28):
That wasn't even.
That wasn't even aconsideration.
Girl, you get that.
You got a book in you, don'tyou?
A few?
Absolutely.
What a beautiful answer.
Okay, who's one person you'dlove to collaborate with?
(48:49):
Oh, one person, only one.
Oh Well, you get as many as youwant, but we're just asking for
you to name one, yeah, just oneperson.
Oh, I am going to Selma for theoh, yes, okay.
So I'm going to Selma for the60th anniversary of the Selma
(49:17):
March and so I have beenfollowing Bryan Stevenson's
trajectory with Equal JusticeInitiative and I'd love to work
with him.
So he was here in Dallas beforehe wrote his book and he was
(49:39):
talking about the movie versionof his story and I said to him I
said if the movie versiondoesn't work out, I have a stage
for you.
So I love to work with BrianStevenson, I love to collaborate
some way with Brian Stevenson.
So I'm excited about that tripto South, but his the EGI, egi
(50:00):
is in Montgomery.
Well, we will hold that in thelight for you.
Thank you.
Okay, final question If youcould create anywhere in the
world, where would you be?
could create anywhere in theworld, where would you be?
Oh, so I just got back fromCosta Rica and I love, oh my God
, the people, the culture, theland, and I think Costa Rica is
(50:29):
high on that list.
But I also had a chance to goto Thailand in November and
again I had a beautifulexperience.
But I think I know that thereare a lot of Black expats in
Costa Rica, so I'm going to sayCosta Rica.
(50:51):
You know, I got to go to CostaRica in 2014.
I spent almost 10 days downthere and I absolutely loved it
and would go back in a heartbeat.
It's magical.
That place is magical.
In so many ways.
In so many ways yeah.
(51:12):
Teresa, this has just been adelight.
Thank you so much.
I just love digging in andhearing more.
I mean, I felt like I knew youand was connected to you before,
but even much more so now.
Well, before we completely closeout, I would like to ask if
there's anything that you wouldlike to share with our listeners
(51:32):
that we haven't had a chance totalk about today.
Thank you, dwight.
Yes, we have an upcoming BannedBooks Festival.
It's a one-act festival wherewe select a banned book and we
commission eight playwrights orsix playwrights this year to pen
(51:53):
a one-act play based on a bookthat has been banned.
The book that we chose thisyear is the stamp from the
beginning by Dr Ibram X, thatone at festival happens on um in
(52:15):
a.
That's what's upcoming and soum.
I'm sure we can include a link.
We'll drop in the show notes.
Yeah, so search the show notesfor all of the things that you
you have shared.
So if you're listening, be sureyou read the show notes.
Yes, yes, I'm excited about that.
Thank you so much Delight forthe question.
(52:37):
Absolutely, and this has been apleasure.
I know that we will certainlymeet with you again soon.
Yes.
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