September 24, 2024 • 48 mins
In this episode, I sit down with Lesley Malin, the Producing Executive Director of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. Lesley helped grow this Baltimore gem into one of Maryland’s largest theaters, taking it from a passion project to a major player in the Shakespeare world. We talk about how she led the renovation of a historic 1886 bank into their now iconic venue, and what it’s like to manage a theater that never stops evolving.
But it’s not just about Shakespeare. Chesapeake Shakespeare is currently producing Joe Turner’s Come and Gone as part of Baltimore’s August Wilson Celebration, running from September 20th through October 15th. Lesley gives us a sneak peek into this gripping play, a crucial chapter in Wilson’s American Century Cycle that captures the heartache and hope of the Great Migration.
This episode is part of my ongoing media partnership with Baltimore Magazine. Want to support Baltimore’s thriving arts scene? Make sure to catch Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, and explore the full lineup of plays in the August Wilson Celebration. You won’t want to miss these powerful stories on stage.
Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:
- Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
- Edited by Daniel Alexis
- Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor
Photos:
- Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
- Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Fractured Atlas (Fundraising): https://www.fracturedatlas.org
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetruthinthisart.bsky.social
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthinthisart/?hl=en
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Website: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Shop: Merch from Redbubble
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob Lee (00:10):
Welcome to the truth in this art, your source for
conversations at theintersection of arts, culture
and community. I am your host,Rob Lee, and I'm excited to have
you with us today. This episodeis part of my media partnership
with Baltimore Magazine. Shoutout to them. Our guest today is
an actor and the producingexecutive director of the
(00:33):
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company,where she has overseen its
growth into one of Maryland'slargest theaters.
We'll be discussing CSC'sproduction of Joe Turner's Come
and Gone, the great AugustWilson play, and the Baltimore
August Wilson celebration.Please welcome Leslie Maland.
Welcome to the podcast.
(00:53):
Rob. I'm so happy to be here.Thank you for taking the time to
talk to me.
Absolutely. Thank you for for coming on, and, you
know, it's a it's a good way forme to wrap up sort of my
production week and, yeah, youknow, as we're doing this. And,
you know, it's it's that thingthat I do with the interviews
that I'm working with BaltimoreMagazine on. When I reach out to
(01:13):
someone having that thatBaltimore Magazine sort of stamp
on there, it's just, like, oh,not only I'm I'm I'm good to get
some interviews on my own, buthaving, you know, some of these
other folks is is good. It'sgood.
So before we get into the maintopics of our discussion here,
could you introduce yourself inyour own words? I I find, like,
(01:33):
we we have these, like, reallybreathy, like, artist statements
and bios, and sometimes it'svery simple. Sometimes we omit
different details that couldreally shed a light on who we
are. So if you will, introduceyourself in your own words.
I am a person who believes thattheater is, one of the most
(01:56):
essential things, and that itmakes the world a better place.
And so, that's what I havedevoted my life to. And I did,
you know, I I kind of didn'thave a choice because my parents
are both theater people, so Igrew up with theater, and it's
what I've done for most of mylife, although I did I did take
(02:17):
off a few years in New York whenI, went into book publishing,
which was fun and wonderful inits own way. And I loved my
decade that I spent in New York,and I did spend half of that
time, in the theater as well.
And, I worked for, the Lark PlayDevelopment Center, which was a
really important new play,development group that brought
(02:40):
us, people like Katori Hall andRajiv Joseph and Dominique
Morisseau, all of whom camethrough, The LARC. So, that was
a place that I continued to workfor another, 2 decades. I was on
the on the board after I movedto to Baltimore. But I digress.
(03:00):
I moved to Baltimore about 25years ago, and, I fell into, the
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company,which was a brand new infant
organization.
And I kind of, fell in love withit and said, I wanna help. And,
they basically said, okay, wannabe the managing director. And I
(03:22):
said, okay. And, I'll do thatfor a year, and then I'm gonna
go back to New York. Okay?
And everybody was like, fine.And, you know, life is what
happens when you're planningother things. And so here I am
today still with the ChesapeakeShakespeare Company, which is a
lot bigger than it used to be.
That's that's great, and thank you for it. And I and
(03:43):
I like, you know, the theatricalcomponent there where you're
kinda teasing a few things thatwe're gonna touch on a bit
further, so shout out to you. Ilike that. So this this is gonna
maybe, like, add a little bitmore depth to some of the stuff
that you did mention earlier asfar as, like, some of those
early moments. So what was yourfirst theater related job?
(04:06):
You know, I I saw that that youteed me up for that, and I
couldn't quite figure that outbecause because, you know, when
you when you grow up in thetheater, you're always sort of
around it, and so you wind uplike, oh, you know, you're gonna
be doing props for this showwith your mom, or, oh, you know,
(04:29):
help help your mom learn lines,or, you know, your dad is
working on, you know, this show,and can you help paint the set?
Right. So so I couldn't evenbegin to tell you what my my
first official job in thetheater actually was. But, by
(04:51):
the time I was in New York, Idid you know, I I was doing,
both acting and artsadministration.
Sure. But, you know, acting inNew York is takes a whole lot
of, a very special kind ofdevotion and energy, which I did
not actually have. And I decidedthat, I would be better off with
(05:17):
my talents in artsadministration. And when we
moved to Baltimore, you know,being a bigger fish in a smaller
pond meant that I didn't have touse that kind of energy to,
well, basically get cast in inBaltimore. So, I was able to
continue doing both artsadministration and acting, which
(05:39):
I've really enjoyed and doesmake me a little bit unusual.
Most people who run theatersaren't directors or something
else. I feel like it's importantto keep my hand in. It's great
when I'm at ChesapeakeShakespeare Company, and I'm
just in the dressing room witheverybody else. And I get to
find out, you know, who'sfantastic in the dressing room,
(06:00):
who's really supportive, who islosing their minds and why. I
know this for the future, and,that's kind of great.
And it's something that I do formyself. It's, a way to go back
to the well, the creative welland, and really, look look at
(06:23):
what it is that we're doing froma different perspective, which
is very different than that sortof high level, viewing that I do
as an arts administrator.
Thank you. That's great. That's great to have that
context. And, you know, kind ofsitting in, like, sort of both
areas. I think it gives us asort of a holistic view, and I
(06:44):
say us because, you know, as Itouched on a little bit earlier,
before we got started, actually,you know, I've had this
experience over the last yeardoing the education thing, like
teaching.
I'm still not 100% on it. I Idon't know about professor Rob.
I'm not quite there. Or, mypartner will say, so how's your
kids? I was like, and but asthey're learning, you know, it
(07:05):
keeps me honest and keeps me asa person that's working and
doing a lot of stuff, you know,in this podcast space to revisit
things that I thought I became amaster at or helping folks as
they're going along theirjourney and trying to tackle
being a podcaster and so on.
So it makes me more well roundedand kind of not skipping over
(07:26):
those things that are part ofthat path. And I I just think
it's something about it where,you know, a lot of times when
folks are reaching out, and it'slike, I've never taken a podcast
class. Who's a podcast teacher?I'm I'm 1, I guess. So it's it's
a new thing, I suppose.
Yeah. It's it's interestingbecause when when, my son was
(07:46):
very young, I I did, you know,my first play when he was about,
I don't know, 15 months old.Right? I hadn't done anything
else really other than being amom, And, and I did this play,
and I just, you know, I wouldcome back after rehearsal, and I
would just be such a better mombecause I had, you know, been, I
(08:09):
had been able to step away andjust be myself for a time.
And then, it was just, it wassuch a better experience
altogether. And I feel like inAmerica today with the
professionalism of the arts,right, that I think we a little
bit lost that that opportunity,for people to, you know, play
(08:32):
the piano, paint, you know,paint a picture because they're
not perfect at it. They're not aprofessional. And I think that
art has the capacity to, expandall of our lives. Even if we're
not going to sell that paintingfor $100,000 it's still worthy
(08:54):
of doing.
It still allows you as a personto exercise your creative
powers. And I think that's soimportant, and and I'm saddened
that we've kind of lost that insociety. And and it's it's
another part of of the theatercommunity that I I worry about,
that that the theater communityis very focused on who's
(09:15):
professional and who's amateur.Who's professional, you know, is
this a professional theater? Isthis a community theater?
And, you know, I think we'reall, we're all doing the same
thing. We're all just playingand pretending to be somebody
else. Right. And, and I think weshould be much more open and
fluid with each other and havemuch more respect for the people
(09:37):
who are doing it because theylove it, solely because they
love it, and they still have aday job, right, to make it
possible. And so, you know, I'vespent my life kind of in between
those sort of amateur andprofessional worlds.
And I just wish that we had awhole lot more respect for
(10:01):
artists who are doing it purelyfor love.
Thank you. That is well said and such an important
message too because, you know,one of the key motivators in in
doing this is this podcastoverall is extending the idea of
whose art matters, who's anartist, who should be doing
something. And even and I'll andI'll move to this next topic.
But even again, going back tothe the classes and the stuff I
(10:24):
was teaching, I was trying notto sound like, you know, I was,
like, tight about it or sort ofthis idea. But but literally,
you know, I would say if you'regoing to make a podcast or
you're going to make a series,think about it as, you know, not
just the first one.
Think about it as 10. What'sthat those 10 episodes gonna be?
Are you gonna be able to stickwith it? Is this something
that's kind of fleeting? Is itthe thing that everyone else is
(10:47):
is doing and you wanna ape thatversus doing something that you
might love, that you might bepassionate about?
And and it it comes from thesoul because I feel the same
way. Like, this podcast camefrom my love of where I'm from,
and my defense of where I'm fromand my curiosity and so on. And
it's not just, hey. It's a bunchof guys talking to people in
(11:08):
Baltimore about their work.It's, you know?
But I wanna move into this thisnext this next piece real quick.
So it's kind of 2 shortquestions, I think. How would
you describe your work, youryour current role in a sort of I
might call you the day walker ifyou're familiar with Blade or
what have you, working in bothrealms. But how would you
(11:28):
describe your your work in inone sentence? I have a part a or
a second part to that question,but at least when I give you
that piece.
I usually say I'm an artistmanager or an actor man. Actor
manager is what I usually say,which is a 19th century role
where there would be these, youknow, actors, and they would be,
(11:49):
you know, these wonderful actorsand they would also run entire
theater companies. And that waspretty much how the entire 19th
century worked. There was like astar, who who made things
happen, and and made an entiretheater happen. I don't act
nearly as often.
I work I act about once a year,now, but, but I still I still
(12:12):
like to think of myself as anactor manager.
Let's see it now. In her annual performance.
thank you.
Yes. I used to have a marketing background.
appreciate that. I'm gonna gopass that over to Jaylen, our
communications manager, and say,we have to have this next
(12:33):
spring.
Absolutely. So the the second part of this this
question is we have superpowers.Right? We have these different
things, these different skillsthat make us almost uniquely,
like, ideal for the work that wedo. What is that skill that you
rely on most to be as, you know,good at what you do?
(12:54):
sense of humor? Good. I mean, II think mostly what I spend my
time doing is talking to peopleand helping them figure out
their problems. And so, I Ithink it's probably empathy,
(13:15):
empathy and judgment.
Good. That's good. I was about to say, you spend your
time talking to people. Youshould try podcasting.
Yeah. But they don't come to youwith their problems.
You'd be surprised.
that you mentioned it, let metell you about in this situation
with this cast and they
That's great. That's great. I I usually come back for
(13:38):
problems as well. So I look,we're just trading. We're just
trading problems.
So moving towards, my questionsaround like, you know,
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company,he's like, let's talk about the
mission a little bit. Like, I'veread that it's to create a
joyful, accessible theater. Howdoes that influence the
productions you choose and your,like, community connections?
(13:59):
Like, I would love to hearabout, like, different programs
and, you know, some of theeducational efforts.
You know, definitely, you know,we we've actually recently
tweaked our our mission, sowhich is more about, you know,
creating community throughjoyful and accessible theater,
and, that's that's definitely ashift. We've always been very
(14:23):
focused on community, but nowwe're saying, hey. What we're
doing is creating communityrather than we're creating
theater.
Sure.
we have a lot of different waysthat we do that. And and that so
we've always had, okay, since wemoved to Baltimore, we've always
(14:44):
had this incredibly robust,education program where we
introduce middle and high schoolstudents to live Shakespeare and
live professional theater. Andso for many of our children so
last year, we brought in 12,000kids. And they either saw a
(15:06):
production of Macbeth that weoffer in the fall, or Romeo and
Juliet, which we offered for 9weeks last spring. And that
production is, either Romeo orJuliet is played by a black
actor, which is incrediblyimportant for our city.
We have so many kids coming inand, you know, the actors come
(15:29):
out and introduce themselves tothe kids, and the actor will
say, I'm playing Juliet. Andsometimes the kids will be like,
No, you're not. You could andit's like, yes, yes, I am. So so
that is incredibly importantbecause for many, many of these
kids, it's the first, liveShakespeare that they've seen.
(15:50):
It's a lot of times the firstlive play that they've ever
seen, live professional play.
It's really important to us tobring them to our theater, which
is, I always like to say, themost beautiful theater in
Baltimore, because it is mysecond child, and say, this
place is for you. We are notcoming to your cafeteria and
doing, you know, half of aproduction. We are giving you
(16:13):
gorgeous costumes, and you areyou know, this theater is for
you, and it was built for you,and and here you are going to
experience this amazinglanguage, these fabulous
stories, these exciting fights,and it's all for you. We're
doing it for you. So that wehope that in the future that
(16:36):
they, they look on this as a, asa theater home, that they won't
be scared the next time somebodysays something about
Shakespeare.
They won't say, oh, that'sboring. They'll say, I remember
going to see Romeo and Julietwhen I was 13, and it was
amazing. And they are the mostfantastic audience because we've
got plenty of schools, you know,who are with great teachers, who
(16:59):
have prepared them, and they'veread it, and they've maybe seen
a movie, and they know all aboutit, but then there are the kids
who have no idea. They're fromsome, you know, really
underfunded school. They theydon't even know why they're
there.
yelling back at the stagebecause they cannot believe that
these things are happened. Sothey they've fallen in love with
(17:21):
Mercutio, and there he is, andhe's he's dying, and he's
joking, and they're laughing,and then he dies, and they're
like, what? What has justhappened? No. And, you know,
Juliet is there, and andthey're, like, shouting advice
to her.
Like, you know, girl, don't dothat. And then Romeo's there,
(17:42):
and he's about to take thepoise. They're like, don't take
And and then, you know, the showends, and they're standing up
and they're cheering. Right?They had no idea what they were
coming into.
It's the closest you can get toan Elizabethan audience because
they don't know what's going tohappen. So, that's that's just
amazing and so important to usthat we get to do that, every
(18:05):
every year we get to do this,and our actors just love doing
it, and they get to talk to thekids afterwards and answer
questions. And it's it's just soimportant and so core to
everything that we do. We alsofundraise so that we can bring
in kids from Baltimore City,public schools to be able to be
(18:29):
bused in and get tickets for nocost at all. So, we got American
Rescue Plan money for the lastcouple of years, and we were
able to bring in as many as, Ithink, 4,000 kids for free last
year.
So that's amazing. We still needfunding for next year because
the ARPA money is going away. Soif anybody is listening and
(18:51):
would like to give us, you know,$25,000 to bring in another
couple of 1,000 kids, we wouldbe very appreciative. So that's
kind of our education program.And then during the pandemic, we
also, you know, we were thinkingabout what is it that we're
doing, and I was thinking aboutall of the people who come and
see our beautiful theater andall the students who come and
(19:13):
see our beautiful theater.
I was thinking about the tens ofthousands of people in Baltimore
who will never feel like they'recomfortable coming to our
theater, that coming to downtownis a kind of, a hurdle for them.
And so, we started thinkingabout how can we go into the
(19:33):
communities and start serving,people in the communities where
they are and offer themsomething especially for their
park that's local to them. Andso we ever since the pandemic,
we have been working really hardon what we call Shakespeare
Beyond, which is just finishedits 2nd pilot year. So we have
(19:57):
created a fabulous Shakespearewagon, which is a truck, which
kinda opens up the the, thepanel sides open up, and then we
put out platforming, and theycan go on top of the actors can
go on top of the truck and intothe truck, and we just drive up
to a a Baltimore City Park. Sowe were at Carroll Park.
(20:17):
We were at, Middle Middle RiverMiddle Branch. Oh, I'm gonna get
it wrong. They're in Cherry Hillat that beautiful theater,
Middle Branch Park, PattersonPark, and then, the the Wyman
Park, Dell. And then we werealso in Howard County, Baltimore
(20:38):
County, and Montgomery County aswell. So we were, I think, 9
different parks.
We serve, almost 4,000 peoplewith our, you know, driving up
with our little Shakespearewagon, which is fantastic. And
there are parks where we knowthat we are going to have to
continue to show up year afteryear. But we are trying very
(21:00):
hard to start to integrateourselves into the community, to
reach out to the communityorganizations that are there so
that we are not like, we are aShakespeare company, and we are
here to provide you Shakespeare,and you may be grateful. We are
not interested in that at all.What we wanna do is somebody
brought a crab feast this year,and we're like, fantastic.
(21:22):
You brought a crab feast.
Wow.
we have, projects for kids to dobefore the show, and they made
fairy wands for our productionof Midsummer Night's Dream, and
then they followed the queen ofthe fairy at when fairies when
she went on stage, and they wereher sort of fairy train. So the,
you know, the kids from thecommunity were actually part of
(21:44):
the production, which was, youknow, they just had a ball doing
that. So so this is somethingthat we hope we're going to
expand even further year afteryear, that we'll have a second
Shakespeare wagon, and that wewill eventually serve every
county in Maryland. So, youknow, 1 year we'll be focused on
(22:05):
Western Maryland. Another yearwe'll be focused on the Eastern
Shore.
But but we will be bringing thesame play to all of these
different places so that ruralareas and urban areas, poor
neighborhoods, and wealthyneighborhoods are all
experiencing the sameproduction, kind of like 1 Book,
(22:28):
1 Maryland. It's 1 Shakespeareplay, 1 Maryland, because we
believe it's something thateverybody can share, and
Shakespeare is for everyone isabsolutely our motto.
I love that. That is robust. It's it's good work
that's that's going on there,and it's almost it's almost a
pun that's in my head aboutsomething to, like, get on the
(22:48):
wagon. I I don't know. It's justsomething about it.
But it's it's great to be whatyou bring sort of, you know,
what you all are known for andwhat what you all are, like,
passionate about to differentcommunities. I think it opens up
exposure to it. I I think iteven inspires perhaps the next
generation of folks who want towork in theater, you know, just
(23:10):
add accessibility to it. Sothat's really great.
what we hope for.
So I want to move into sort of the last chunk that I
have here, and this is allaround, you know, the August
Wilson celebration. So let'slet's talk about it. Can you
walk me through some of theearly stages of developing the
celebration and things of thatnature? It's it's it's some head
(23:32):
shaking that's going on there.
know, it it it was an idea, and
was like, this is oh, I I can dothis. This is
will be this won't be a problem.And, you know, the the more I've
been working on, the more I'mlike, this is so much work. I
cannot believe I have done thisto myself, but I have done this
to myself. So, you know, I I'mrunning an entire theater
(23:53):
organization, and then I decideto do a little program, and it
just balloons. So the BaltimoreAugust Wilson Celebration is, a
a collaboration among among 9theaters in the Baltimore
theater community, to produceall of the great American
(24:17):
playwright August Wilson's 10plays that he wrote, one for
each decade of 20th century, todo them all in chronological
order, with a different theaterproducing each play.
This has while there have been anumber of theaters, including
(24:37):
Center Stage, that have done allof the plays. They have never
been done in chronologicalorder, and it has never been an
entire citywide kind ofcelebration or festival. So
that's what the celebration is,and we've been kind of knocked
out by how, enthusiastic peoplehave been. And it started out
(25:04):
with my thinking that, we shoulddo August Wilson at the
Chesapeake Shakespeare Companybecause he is a truly great
playwright, that he is, aplaywright on par with
Shakespeare, and so wouldn't itbe great if we did all of the
plays? And, and then I was like,that's kind of a lot.
And and then I went and talkedto, Vincent Lanchesi at Everyman
(25:28):
Theatre, and he's like I waslike, well, maybe you guys would
wanna do this with us, and he'slike, you need to talk to arena
players. And I was like, oh, Ineed to talk to arena players.
You are so right. And and andarena players is, of course,
the, amazing Baltimoreinstitution, the oldest, African
(25:50):
continuously operating AfricanAmerican community theater in
America. And I started thinkingabout this, and I thought, well,
it would be so cool if we had adifferent theater doing each
production.
And I was excited by thatbecause Baltimore is a fabulous
(26:11):
theater city. We do great work,and we have wonderful theaters
on all different kinds of ofsizes and ranges, but we've
never done anything reallytogether. We are, you know, each
theater does its own thing. Andvery often, like, actors only
work for every manner, only workfor Center Stage, only work at
(26:35):
Bells Point. And, you know,there's a little bit more
fluidity among the the do ityourself theaters, but still,
it's still very siloed.
And so I thought, well, if wecould all be working toward this
common goal and support eachother, this would be a way for
us to do something together andbreak down some of those silos
(26:56):
and support each other. So, Ifirst went to Donald Owens of
Arena Players, and I said, hey.You know, I've got this idea.
Would you guys wanna beinterested? And he said, well
and I did this in September oflast year, and he said, well,
we're gonna be doing gem of theocean, which is the first in the
(27:17):
cycle next spring.
And I said, oh, Laurel, nextspring. Well, that gives me 6
months. I I can pull somethinglike this together in 6 months.
Sure. Okay.
You're in. And he said, yeah.We're definitely in. And then
I'm like, okay. Next, I've gottaget Everyman or Center Stage on
board.
(27:37):
And so, Stevie had just startedat Center Stage, and, he came
over to see our theater and meetme, and he's like, what could we
do together? And I said, have Igot something for you? And he's
like, I love it. We're in I'vebeen dying to do King Hedley the
second. Like, fantastic.
You've got it. I'm like, okay.I've got them, and now I gotta
(27:58):
get art centric. Art centricbecause it's Ma Rainey's black
bottom, and they should be doingthat. And so I finally meet with
them in November, and they'relike, yeah, this sounds great.
We're in. I'm like, great. Okay.I got it all working, and then
my artistic director, Ian,wanders in. He's like, have you
talked to their estate?
(28:19):
I'm like,
Oh. No. No. No.
No. I haven't. It's like, yeah.
Nick, you wanna do that. Then,like, yeah. So, I I find out who
it is that I need to be talkingto, which is August Wilson's
widow, and I find somebody rightaway who gives me her contact
(28:40):
information. And right away herassistant gets back to me and
says, oh, I'd love to meet withyou. That's great.
And I'm like, fantastic. Andit's like the middle of
December, and, and gem of theocean is going up in April. And
so I'm like, I still got time.This is great. And then I I
(29:02):
don't hear from Constanza who,for for another month.
And then finally, we have thisconversation in the middle of
January, and she's like, that'svery exciting, but, you know,
she is lovely and supportive andwarm and enthusiastic, but she
is very cautious of herhusband's reputation, and, you
(29:25):
know, she's like, I have to gothink about this. And so she
goes and thinks about it, andI'm like, any news? Any news?
Any news? And finally, it's,it's the beginning of March.
I'm like, I I
to know. I can't I can't goforward. They're they're opening
in 3 weeks. And so she finallysays, yes. I give you my
(29:49):
blessing.
You have to call it acelebration. I'm like,
fantastic. We will call it acelebration. And I go into
overdrive. And so, fortunately,I have a good friend of mine who
was a New York publicist, and hewas the publicist for Hamilton.
And so he's, you know, on myside and he's working on, you
(30:11):
know, getting the press to knowabout this. My young marketing
associate is like, I will make awebsite, and, you know, and so
we start, and and I'm, like,okay, we have to have a kickoff
celebration, but but poor arenaplayers, they're trying to put
on this whole play. They don'thave time to plan a party, so my
(30:33):
assistant and I plan a kickoffparty 3 weeks into their show at
somebody else's theater. And sowe have to, you know, and we're
inviting everybody in thenonprofit community to come to
this kickoff, celebrationkickoff event. And I was just so
moved by how many people beyondthe theater community showed up
(30:56):
for this, which was fantastic.
The other part that I was reallyworried about was, making sure
that the theater community knewabout it, that they didn't hear
about it sideways, and they werelike, well, why wasn't I invited
to be part of it? Right. So, theGreater Baltimore Cultural
Alliance hosted, a Zoom andinvited everyone so that I was
(31:16):
able to tell everybody about itand say, if you're interested,
contact me. So that is see, I'vebeen talking about this a lot,
so I just said that all in oneridiculous stream of
consciousness, vomiting ofinformation. I'm sorry that that
was true.
No. No. No. No. Like, I from what I was hearing, it went
(31:37):
from, like, I got an offer foryou.
To to all of these differentfolks in the theater community,
almost like, I wanna tell youabout the Avengers Initiative,
the August Wilson CelebrationInitiative. Come on in. Come on
in. Yeah. The the the processbehind, you know, not even the
actual acting and the the theadaptation and all of that, but
(31:57):
more of the the thepreproduction component of it.
Like, I've gotten so much morerespect for seeing how other
people bring their stufftogether. Like, you know, I run
into it on occasion, but, youknow, I'm I'm able to kinda
navigate it and so on. But, youknow, it's sort of you have a
vision and it's a really goodidea and the work that goes into
(32:19):
to making it happen. You know,that's the thing that often we
don't see, right, that we justsee the end result. We don't see
how the the pasta is made or,you know, sauce it on.
People are vegans. I don't know.But, you know, it it's sort of
getting
that background. So so thankyou. And you can kinda help
me eliminate, like, 3 questions. So ground, so so
thank you. And you can kindahelp me eliminate, like, 3
questions. So
I don't know because I thinkit's better when it's like you
(32:40):
and me talking back and forth ateach other. So I'm sorry. I've
been used to, like, beinginterviewed by reporters, and
and I forgot about that back andforthness. So it's it's all on
me.
But I will say that, it's justbeen so positive, the response
to this. People it just makespeople happy that we're doing
(33:01):
this. People in the theatercommunity are happy. People
outside of the theater communityare happy. It was just, like, a
good idea, and somebody just hadto do it.
And so, I mean, it was almostlike I was forced into it
because I I was totally willingto get I was giving up. I was
like, this is not gonna happen.And I had a friend, and she was
like, are you really gonna giveup right now? Shouldn't you make
(33:24):
one more effort to reach out tomissus Wilson and see? And, you
know, I was like, it's not gonnahappen.
And then but I'm so happy thatit that this is this is actually
happening. And I'm I'm so proudof the theater community for
coming through, and and beingthere for each other. It's it's
(33:47):
really it's heartwarming. That'swhat it is.
Absolutely. And, you know, just when I think I think
we're we're at our best whenwe're working together, when
we're working collaboratively.You know, like Baltimore is a,
like, city is always in thiscycle in my head of, like,
developing or what have you. AndI have these conversations with
(34:09):
artists from all differentcracks and crevices within the
city, and, you know, I find thatwhen I hear the collaboration,
when I hear folks getting along,it feels so much better than,
well, I got my eyes, and I wannahold the the silos and such. And
I I think when we're able tooperate together, work together,
and the communication is there,it's it's a beautiful thing, and
(34:32):
I think it gives for much moreallowances when something may be
a bit, it may be a bitstressful, if you will, or it
wasn't the perfect thing.
It's not supposed to be perfect,but if the intent is there and
people are connecting andworking together and having fun
and feel like we like this,you're supposed to like the
(34:52):
things that you do and the timeand the effort you're putting
into those things. So, no, Ilove it. As as you said, it's
heartwarming.
Yeah. I I do wanna highlight, acouple of of, our partners who
are are, smaller organizations,in particular, the Angel Wing
Project, which they're just, 5years old. And, you know, they
(35:15):
reached out to me and said, we'dreally love to be part of this.
And, and I just was so impressedby Angela, their founder, at you
know, she had just, produced her1st August Wilson play, and she
really wanted to be part ofthis.
And I and she's just been afantastic partner, and I'm just
(35:36):
really excited to give her, youknow, a slightly larger stage to
to work on and get someadditional support from the
other theaters in highlightingher organization. And then, Noah
Silas, who's a local filmmaker,and he said, I want to, I wanna
help, and, I wanna, I wanna filmeverything that's part of this,
(35:59):
and I will do that pro bono foryou. And, you know, maybe we can
have a documentary afterwards,but I, you know, I will be part
of this. And also I'd like toproduce, the last the last show
of the of the festival. And Isaid, okay.
Let me introduce you to theaterproject that because it's, you
know, you haven't done this verymuch and theater project should
(36:20):
be part of this, And they'vegot, like, much more of a
foundation. And so they'reworking together to close out
the festival, you know, inwhatever year that is, that that
winds up being. But, you know,I'm I'm very excited to give,
you know, opportunities to to tothese partners as well.
Absolutely. And and shout out to Noah. He was he was
(36:41):
one of his podcast, earlier inthe cycle. We actually ran it to
him recently at, Artscape, andwas like, do you remember me?
He's like, brother, you look thesame.
I was like, I've had somechanges, sir. So I got I got 2
more questions I wanna ask youand and and, you know, the sort
of the place that, ChesapeakeShakespeare Company is playing.
(37:04):
You you guys are doing aproduction of Joe Turner's Come
and Gone. So
are.
Let's let's talk about that a little bit. What was the,
like, you know because then thisis the second, like, stop, if
you will, on on the circuit. Sotalk about that a little bit.
I mean, of course, it seemsright for arena to be the first,
and, of course, they alreadywere the first. So I thought,
(37:24):
well, you know, in order to getthis thing off on a on a good
footing, we should do the secondone because then I can have,
like, total control over, youknow, this is going to happen,
and I can nag, you know, all ofthe other partners to help
support. And, when things aren'tgoing right with the celebration
and the host theater, it's onme. So, it basically, you know,
(37:50):
the the the first one was justscrambled. This one is, let's
see if we can set how it's goingto actually be going forward.
We'll see. But the other thingabout Joe Turner's Come and Gone
is, it's more of a period piecethan, say, some of his later
plays. And, and it was said tobe August Wilson's favorite play
(38:12):
of his own. So I like, I like tofeel that. And it's a really
devastating play in a lot ofways.
It's about a man who, basicallywas enslaved for, for 7 years,
in Tennessee, and has beenreleased and goes home and finds
(38:36):
that his wife is gone and she'sleft, their daughter. And so he
goes on the road to find her.And he winds up at this boarding
house in Pittsburgh, which isfull of different people who are
coming and going. And, andthanks to those people, he is
finally able to deal with thetrauma that he's experienced.
(39:01):
And and as the play puts it,find his own song, he's able to
find himself again.
He's able to find his soul,basically. That's which has been
totally shut down by the traumahe's experienced. So it's a
beautiful play, but it's alsoabout this community, right,
that comes together to supportthis man and give him the the
(39:25):
opportunities to to healhimself.
I
and I think that that's a a theme or series of theme
that would resonate with EIRwith, you know, sort of the
community in in Baltimore. Ithink that it's it's right
there. It's it's right there.This is this is smooth. I like
that.
I like that. I'm seeing it. Iwas like, oh, because I was
writing down the questions. Iwas like, this seems like
(39:47):
because I was gonna go hokey andlike, Pittsburgh. No.
I won't do Pittsburgh here. It'sBaltimore. And I was just like,
no. No. But what's the theme?
And, yes, the theme in my head,it definitely connects, and I,
you know, just I just see ithere. So it's very very timely.
I think it's always timely inthat regard.
always timely. And, of course,August Wilson in Baltimore is,
you know, like Shakespeare,August Wilson has started to
(40:12):
transcend, maybe the niche thatwe, you know, looked at him as
is like the first great AfricanAmerican writer. Instead, he
sort of belongs to everyone. Butwhen we started rehearsals and
so, like, obviously, I'm I'mlooking at August Wilson as an
(40:33):
admirer, as as a white persongoing into rehearsals for Joe
Turner come, Joe Turner's comeand gone, I was so moved by, how
how much pride and emotion wasin the room from the black cast
(40:54):
and creative team, that I didnot properly understand, how
much ownership and love forAugust Wilson that's in a
different place than I have forhim. And so it's quite a
privilege to be able to witnessthat and to be able to
(41:17):
facilitate it a little bit.
That's great. That's great. And, again, you know, I
think the the benefit of, as Ilike to say, you let the guests
cook. You get your all all ofyour questions answered. So,
actually, you answered my mylast question.
So I can now move into the partthat everyone looks forward to,
the rapid fire portion.
(41:39):
don't have pop pop questions. II'm very bad at pop culture.
No. No. No. Well, you're good. You're good.
I think you'll be good. I thinkyou'll be fine here. I've been
updating them as we go along tomake them more bespoke for the
guests.
bespoke. Okay.
So I got 3 of them for you, and the the key to this is
you don't wanna overthink them,you know. Okay. So here's the
(41:59):
first one, and it it relates toit. I'm and I know you'll notice
it because, you know, you yougot a sense of humor, as you
said, is your skill. If youcould change one thing about,
let's say I'm using the the termindustry, but let's just say
about about the theatercommunity for a second argument.
With a wave of your fairy wand,what would it be?
(42:20):
government funding for theater.
It's a great and well thought out answer.
been thinking about this one fora long time. And, you know,
everybody's complaining about,you know, oh, well, if only the
government would support, thenall of our problems would be
gone. And we're in America, andwe know that the government is
not going to, so we have to comeup with new solutions. So if I
(42:42):
can get that fairy wand, I wouldlike it very much, and that's
what I would use it for.
100%. I love that. So this one I I I put in recently.
I have this book, no idea isfinal, and it's just a bunch of
quotes in there that I'm like,okay. Let me investigate this.
I'm curious about it. Is there aquote or lesson about creativity
(43:02):
that you love personally?
see, I just looked up, and I'mseeing this quote that I wrote
down from, that that I sawrecently, which was use the
difficulty. When when whenyou've got, like, some sort of
monumental challenge, you know,use that challenge to make it
(43:22):
interesting.
It's good. It's good. I'm I'm I'm gonna apply to see
whenever I ask these questionsand even the whole podcast, it's
been a clever ruse for me to getinsights
information to make myself seemmore interesting. That's all
this podcast is.
I love it. Very wise, That's all this podcast is. I
love it. Very wise of
here here's the
one as
you
touched on, when when talkingabout,
Joe Turner has, Joe Turner's Come and Gone. What is
(43:46):
your song?
can change people's lives.
It's good. It's a good point. And that's it. That's the
rapid fire. You say off the hotseat, and no no one got burned.
You were
be asking me what's yourfavorite Shakespeare play or
yeah. See, I I was being nice because I I had a
question about Shakespeare, filmadaptations I was gonna ask you.
(44:10):
see, I have the answer to that.
Okay. What is it?
I I'm I'm a Kenneth Branagh'sMuch Ado About Nothing Girl all
the way. All the
way. Okay. I I then then then you got so you got a
you got a bonus one somehow. Soyou you you like like, blood
from the stone as it were.
Hardly. Not people like me whotalk.
(44:32):
So I I wanna I wanna wrap up on, with these these 2
sort sort of final things. 1, Iwanna thank you for coming on
and spending some time with me,this afternoon leading up to,
the production. Just right init. You're just deep in it. It's
been a busy time for you, sothank you for making the time.
And, and, 2, I wanna invite andencourage you to really the sort
(44:53):
of, like, the hard sell, thesoft sell, what have you, tell
folks where to check out, youknow, Chesapeake Shakespeare
Company, anything along thoselines, when the, the play is
ready, all of that stuff. Anydetail you wanna share, the
floor is yours.
you. Chesapeake ShakespeareCompany is opening Joe Turner's
Come and Gone, August Wilson'sgreat play about the great
(45:19):
migration. And we open onFriday, September 20th, and we
run Thursdays through Sundaysuntil September 20th. We have
all sorts of fantastic, eventsthat are happening around this.
We have a blackout black onlyperformance on the Thursday
before we open.
(45:40):
We have the August WilsonSociety's coming and doing a
talk before the, the,performance on, October 12th.
And on, 5th October, we aredoing a special, seminar
workshop for teachers calledTeaching August Wilson that our,
(46:03):
our dramaturg for the entirecelebration, who is a professor
at Howard University, KhalidLong, is going to be teaching.
And then there will also be casttalkbacks and director talkbacks
as well, but those are kind ofthe big things that are going
on, and I'm really excited aboutthis production. I encourage you
to go to chesapeakeshakespeare.com to get tickets,
(46:26):
but you can also look at theentire Baltimore August Wilson
celebration, online as well, andyou can see all of the shows
that are coming up and all ofour wonderful partners.
And that website is bemoreaugustwilson.org. I see.
you for remembering that becauseI was completely stalled out.
(46:47):
Thank you so much. Podcaster. And there you have
it, folks. I wanna again thankthe great Leslie Meyland for
coming on to the podcast andtelling us a bit about the
Chesapeake Shakespeare Companyand, the Baltimore August Wilson
celebration, including CSC'sproduction of Joe Turner's Come
and Gone. And I'm Rob Lee sayingthat there's art, culture, and
(47:10):
community in and around yourneck of the woods.
You've just gotta look for it.
Welcome to the truth in this art, your source for
conversations at theintersection of arts, culture
and community. I am your host,Rob Lee, and I'm excited to have
you with us today. This episodeis part of my media partnership
with Baltimore Magazine. Shoutout to them. Our guest today is
an actor and the producingexecutive director of the
(00:33):
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company,where she has overseen its
growth into one of Maryland'slargest theaters.
We'll be discussing CSC'sproduction of Joe Turner's Come
and Gone, the great AugustWilson play, and the Baltimore
August Wilson celebration.Please welcome Leslie Maland.
Welcome to the podcast.
(00:53):
Rob. I'm so happy to be here.Thank you for taking the time to
talk to me.
Absolutely. Thank you for for coming on, and, you
know, it's a it's a good way forme to wrap up sort of my
production week and, yeah, youknow, as we're doing this. And,
you know, it's it's that thingthat I do with the interviews
that I'm working with BaltimoreMagazine on. When I reach out to
(01:13):
someone having that thatBaltimore Magazine sort of stamp
on there, it's just, like, oh,not only I'm I'm I'm good to get
some interviews on my own, buthaving, you know, some of these
other folks is is good. It'sgood.
So before we get into the maintopics of our discussion here,
could you introduce yourself inyour own words? I I find, like,
(01:33):
we we have these, like, reallybreathy, like, artist statements
and bios, and sometimes it'svery simple. Sometimes we omit
different details that couldreally shed a light on who we
are. So if you will, introduceyourself in your own words.
I am a person who believes thattheater is, one of the most
(01:56):
essential things, and that itmakes the world a better place.
And so, that's what I havedevoted my life to. And I did,
you know, I I kind of didn'thave a choice because my parents
are both theater people, so Igrew up with theater, and it's
what I've done for most of mylife, although I did I did take
(02:17):
off a few years in New York whenI, went into book publishing,
which was fun and wonderful inits own way. And I loved my
decade that I spent in New York,and I did spend half of that
time, in the theater as well.
And, I worked for, the Lark PlayDevelopment Center, which was a
really important new play,development group that brought
(02:40):
us, people like Katori Hall andRajiv Joseph and Dominique
Morisseau, all of whom camethrough, The LARC. So, that was
a place that I continued to workfor another, 2 decades. I was on
the on the board after I movedto to Baltimore. But I digress.
(03:00):
I moved to Baltimore about 25years ago, and, I fell into, the
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company,which was a brand new infant
organization.
And I kind of, fell in love withit and said, I wanna help. And,
they basically said, okay, wannabe the managing director. And I
(03:22):
said, okay. And, I'll do thatfor a year, and then I'm gonna
go back to New York. Okay?
And everybody was like, fine.And, you know, life is what
happens when you're planningother things. And so here I am
today still with the ChesapeakeShakespeare Company, which is a
lot bigger than it used to be.
That's that's great, and thank you for it. And I and
(03:43):
I like, you know, the theatricalcomponent there where you're
kinda teasing a few things thatwe're gonna touch on a bit
further, so shout out to you. Ilike that. So this this is gonna
maybe, like, add a little bitmore depth to some of the stuff
that you did mention earlier asfar as, like, some of those
early moments. So what was yourfirst theater related job?
(04:06):
You know, I I saw that that youteed me up for that, and I
couldn't quite figure that outbecause because, you know, when
you when you grow up in thetheater, you're always sort of
around it, and so you wind uplike, oh, you know, you're gonna
be doing props for this showwith your mom, or, oh, you know,
(04:29):
help help your mom learn lines,or, you know, your dad is
working on, you know, this show,and can you help paint the set?
Right. So so I couldn't evenbegin to tell you what my my
first official job in thetheater actually was. But, by
(04:51):
the time I was in New York, Idid you know, I I was doing,
both acting and artsadministration.
Sure. But, you know, acting inNew York is takes a whole lot
of, a very special kind ofdevotion and energy, which I did
not actually have. And I decidedthat, I would be better off with
(05:17):
my talents in artsadministration. And when we
moved to Baltimore, you know,being a bigger fish in a smaller
pond meant that I didn't have touse that kind of energy to,
well, basically get cast in inBaltimore. So, I was able to
continue doing both artsadministration and acting, which
(05:39):
I've really enjoyed and doesmake me a little bit unusual.
Most people who run theatersaren't directors or something
else. I feel like it's importantto keep my hand in. It's great
when I'm at ChesapeakeShakespeare Company, and I'm
just in the dressing room witheverybody else. And I get to
find out, you know, who'sfantastic in the dressing room,
(06:00):
who's really supportive, who islosing their minds and why. I
know this for the future, and,that's kind of great.
And it's something that I do formyself. It's, a way to go back
to the well, the creative welland, and really, look look at
(06:23):
what it is that we're doing froma different perspective, which
is very different than that sortof high level, viewing that I do
as an arts administrator.
Thank you. That's great. That's great to have that
context. And, you know, kind ofsitting in, like, sort of both
areas. I think it gives us asort of a holistic view, and I
(06:44):
say us because, you know, as Itouched on a little bit earlier,
before we got started, actually,you know, I've had this
experience over the last yeardoing the education thing, like
teaching.
I'm still not 100% on it. I Idon't know about professor Rob.
I'm not quite there. Or, mypartner will say, so how's your
kids? I was like, and but asthey're learning, you know, it
(07:05):
keeps me honest and keeps me asa person that's working and
doing a lot of stuff, you know,in this podcast space to revisit
things that I thought I became amaster at or helping folks as
they're going along theirjourney and trying to tackle
being a podcaster and so on.
So it makes me more well roundedand kind of not skipping over
(07:26):
those things that are part ofthat path. And I I just think
it's something about it where,you know, a lot of times when
folks are reaching out, and it'slike, I've never taken a podcast
class. Who's a podcast teacher?I'm I'm 1, I guess. So it's it's
a new thing, I suppose.
Yeah. It's it's interestingbecause when when, my son was
(07:46):
very young, I I did, you know,my first play when he was about,
I don't know, 15 months old.Right? I hadn't done anything
else really other than being amom, And, and I did this play,
and I just, you know, I wouldcome back after rehearsal, and I
would just be such a better mombecause I had, you know, been, I
(08:09):
had been able to step away andjust be myself for a time.
And then, it was just, it wassuch a better experience
altogether. And I feel like inAmerica today with the
professionalism of the arts,right, that I think we a little
bit lost that that opportunity,for people to, you know, play
(08:32):
the piano, paint, you know,paint a picture because they're
not perfect at it. They're not aprofessional. And I think that
art has the capacity to, expandall of our lives. Even if we're
not going to sell that paintingfor $100,000 it's still worthy
(08:54):
of doing.
It still allows you as a personto exercise your creative
powers. And I think that's soimportant, and and I'm saddened
that we've kind of lost that insociety. And and it's it's
another part of of the theatercommunity that I I worry about,
that that the theater communityis very focused on who's
(09:15):
professional and who's amateur.Who's professional, you know, is
this a professional theater? Isthis a community theater?
And, you know, I think we'reall, we're all doing the same
thing. We're all just playingand pretending to be somebody
else. Right. And, and I think weshould be much more open and
fluid with each other and havemuch more respect for the people
(09:37):
who are doing it because theylove it, solely because they
love it, and they still have aday job, right, to make it
possible. And so, you know, I'vespent my life kind of in between
those sort of amateur andprofessional worlds.
And I just wish that we had awhole lot more respect for
(10:01):
artists who are doing it purelyfor love.
Thank you. That is well said and such an important
message too because, you know,one of the key motivators in in
doing this is this podcastoverall is extending the idea of
whose art matters, who's anartist, who should be doing
something. And even and I'll andI'll move to this next topic.
But even again, going back tothe the classes and the stuff I
(10:24):
was teaching, I was trying notto sound like, you know, I was,
like, tight about it or sort ofthis idea. But but literally,
you know, I would say if you'regoing to make a podcast or
you're going to make a series,think about it as, you know, not
just the first one.
Think about it as 10. What'sthat those 10 episodes gonna be?
Are you gonna be able to stickwith it? Is this something
that's kind of fleeting? Is itthe thing that everyone else is
(10:47):
is doing and you wanna ape thatversus doing something that you
might love, that you might bepassionate about?
And and it it comes from thesoul because I feel the same
way. Like, this podcast camefrom my love of where I'm from,
and my defense of where I'm fromand my curiosity and so on. And
it's not just, hey. It's a bunchof guys talking to people in
(11:08):
Baltimore about their work.It's, you know?
But I wanna move into this thisnext this next piece real quick.
So it's kind of 2 shortquestions, I think. How would
you describe your work, youryour current role in a sort of I
might call you the day walker ifyou're familiar with Blade or
what have you, working in bothrealms. But how would you
(11:28):
describe your your work in inone sentence? I have a part a or
a second part to that question,but at least when I give you
that piece.
I usually say I'm an artistmanager or an actor man. Actor
manager is what I usually say,which is a 19th century role
where there would be these, youknow, actors, and they would be,
(11:49):
you know, these wonderful actorsand they would also run entire
theater companies. And that waspretty much how the entire 19th
century worked. There was like astar, who who made things
happen, and and made an entiretheater happen. I don't act
nearly as often.
I work I act about once a year,now, but, but I still I still
(12:12):
like to think of myself as anactor manager.
Let's see it now. In her annual performance.
thank you.
Yes. I used to have a marketing background.
appreciate that. I'm gonna gopass that over to Jaylen, our
communications manager, and say,we have to have this next
(12:33):
spring.
Absolutely. So the the second part of this this
question is we have superpowers.Right? We have these different
things, these different skillsthat make us almost uniquely,
like, ideal for the work that wedo. What is that skill that you
rely on most to be as, you know,good at what you do?
(12:54):
sense of humor? Good. I mean, II think mostly what I spend my
time doing is talking to peopleand helping them figure out
their problems. And so, I Ithink it's probably empathy,
(13:15):
empathy and judgment.
Good. That's good. I was about to say, you spend your
time talking to people. Youshould try podcasting.
Yeah. But they don't come to youwith their problems.
You'd be surprised.
that you mentioned it, let metell you about in this situation
with this cast and they
That's great. That's great. I I usually come back for
(13:38):
problems as well. So I look,we're just trading. We're just
trading problems.
So moving towards, my questionsaround like, you know,
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company,he's like, let's talk about the
mission a little bit. Like, I'veread that it's to create a
joyful, accessible theater. Howdoes that influence the
productions you choose and your,like, community connections?
(13:59):
Like, I would love to hearabout, like, different programs
and, you know, some of theeducational efforts.
You know, definitely, you know,we we've actually recently
tweaked our our mission, sowhich is more about, you know,
creating community throughjoyful and accessible theater,
and, that's that's definitely ashift. We've always been very
(14:23):
focused on community, but nowwe're saying, hey. What we're
doing is creating communityrather than we're creating
theater.
Sure.
we have a lot of different waysthat we do that. And and that so
we've always had, okay, since wemoved to Baltimore, we've always
(14:44):
had this incredibly robust,education program where we
introduce middle and high schoolstudents to live Shakespeare and
live professional theater. Andso for many of our children so
last year, we brought in 12,000kids. And they either saw a
(15:06):
production of Macbeth that weoffer in the fall, or Romeo and
Juliet, which we offered for 9weeks last spring. And that
production is, either Romeo orJuliet is played by a black
actor, which is incrediblyimportant for our city.
We have so many kids coming inand, you know, the actors come
(15:29):
out and introduce themselves tothe kids, and the actor will
say, I'm playing Juliet. Andsometimes the kids will be like,
No, you're not. You could andit's like, yes, yes, I am. So so
that is incredibly importantbecause for many, many of these
kids, it's the first, liveShakespeare that they've seen.
(15:50):
It's a lot of times the firstlive play that they've ever
seen, live professional play.
It's really important to us tobring them to our theater, which
is, I always like to say, themost beautiful theater in
Baltimore, because it is mysecond child, and say, this
place is for you. We are notcoming to your cafeteria and
doing, you know, half of aproduction. We are giving you
(16:13):
gorgeous costumes, and you areyou know, this theater is for
you, and it was built for you,and and here you are going to
experience this amazinglanguage, these fabulous
stories, these exciting fights,and it's all for you. We're
doing it for you. So that wehope that in the future that
(16:36):
they, they look on this as a, asa theater home, that they won't
be scared the next time somebodysays something about
Shakespeare.
They won't say, oh, that'sboring. They'll say, I remember
going to see Romeo and Julietwhen I was 13, and it was
amazing. And they are the mostfantastic audience because we've
got plenty of schools, you know,who are with great teachers, who
(16:59):
have prepared them, and they'veread it, and they've maybe seen
a movie, and they know all aboutit, but then there are the kids
who have no idea. They're fromsome, you know, really
underfunded school. They theydon't even know why they're
there.
yelling back at the stagebecause they cannot believe that
these things are happened. Sothey they've fallen in love with
(17:21):
Mercutio, and there he is, andhe's he's dying, and he's
joking, and they're laughing,and then he dies, and they're
like, what? What has justhappened? No. And, you know,
Juliet is there, and andthey're, like, shouting advice
to her.
Like, you know, girl, don't dothat. And then Romeo's there,
(17:42):
and he's about to take thepoise. They're like, don't take
And and then, you know, the showends, and they're standing up
and they're cheering. Right?They had no idea what they were
coming into.
It's the closest you can get toan Elizabethan audience because
they don't know what's going tohappen. So, that's that's just
amazing and so important to usthat we get to do that, every
(18:05):
every year we get to do this,and our actors just love doing
it, and they get to talk to thekids afterwards and answer
questions. And it's it's just soimportant and so core to
everything that we do. We alsofundraise so that we can bring
in kids from Baltimore City,public schools to be able to be
(18:29):
bused in and get tickets for nocost at all. So, we got American
Rescue Plan money for the lastcouple of years, and we were
able to bring in as many as, Ithink, 4,000 kids for free last
year.
So that's amazing. We still needfunding for next year because
the ARPA money is going away. Soif anybody is listening and
(18:51):
would like to give us, you know,$25,000 to bring in another
couple of 1,000 kids, we wouldbe very appreciative. So that's
kind of our education program.And then during the pandemic, we
also, you know, we were thinkingabout what is it that we're
doing, and I was thinking aboutall of the people who come and
see our beautiful theater andall the students who come and
(19:13):
see our beautiful theater.
I was thinking about the tens ofthousands of people in Baltimore
who will never feel like they'recomfortable coming to our
theater, that coming to downtownis a kind of, a hurdle for them.
And so, we started thinkingabout how can we go into the
(19:33):
communities and start serving,people in the communities where
they are and offer themsomething especially for their
park that's local to them. Andso we ever since the pandemic,
we have been working really hardon what we call Shakespeare
Beyond, which is just finishedits 2nd pilot year. So we have
(19:57):
created a fabulous Shakespearewagon, which is a truck, which
kinda opens up the the, thepanel sides open up, and then we
put out platforming, and theycan go on top of the actors can
go on top of the truck and intothe truck, and we just drive up
to a a Baltimore City Park. Sowe were at Carroll Park.
(20:17):
We were at, Middle Middle RiverMiddle Branch. Oh, I'm gonna get
it wrong. They're in Cherry Hillat that beautiful theater,
Middle Branch Park, PattersonPark, and then, the the Wyman
Park, Dell. And then we werealso in Howard County, Baltimore
(20:38):
County, and Montgomery County aswell. So we were, I think, 9
different parks.
We serve, almost 4,000 peoplewith our, you know, driving up
with our little Shakespearewagon, which is fantastic. And
there are parks where we knowthat we are going to have to
continue to show up year afteryear. But we are trying very
(21:00):
hard to start to integrateourselves into the community, to
reach out to the communityorganizations that are there so
that we are not like, we are aShakespeare company, and we are
here to provide you Shakespeare,and you may be grateful. We are
not interested in that at all.What we wanna do is somebody
brought a crab feast this year,and we're like, fantastic.
(21:22):
You brought a crab feast.
Wow.
we have, projects for kids to dobefore the show, and they made
fairy wands for our productionof Midsummer Night's Dream, and
then they followed the queen ofthe fairy at when fairies when
she went on stage, and they wereher sort of fairy train. So the,
you know, the kids from thecommunity were actually part of
(21:44):
the production, which was, youknow, they just had a ball doing
that. So so this is somethingthat we hope we're going to
expand even further year afteryear, that we'll have a second
Shakespeare wagon, and that wewill eventually serve every
county in Maryland. So, youknow, 1 year we'll be focused on
(22:05):
Western Maryland. Another yearwe'll be focused on the Eastern
Shore.
But but we will be bringing thesame play to all of these
different places so that ruralareas and urban areas, poor
neighborhoods, and wealthyneighborhoods are all
experiencing the sameproduction, kind of like 1 Book,
(22:28):
1 Maryland. It's 1 Shakespeareplay, 1 Maryland, because we
believe it's something thateverybody can share, and
Shakespeare is for everyone isabsolutely our motto.
I love that. That is robust. It's it's good work
that's that's going on there,and it's almost it's almost a
pun that's in my head aboutsomething to, like, get on the
(22:48):
wagon. I I don't know. It's justsomething about it.
But it's it's great to be whatyou bring sort of, you know,
what you all are known for andwhat what you all are, like,
passionate about to differentcommunities. I think it opens up
exposure to it. I I think iteven inspires perhaps the next
generation of folks who want towork in theater, you know, just
(23:10):
add accessibility to it. Sothat's really great.
what we hope for.
So I want to move into sort of the last chunk that I
have here, and this is allaround, you know, the August
Wilson celebration. So let'slet's talk about it. Can you
walk me through some of theearly stages of developing the
celebration and things of thatnature? It's it's it's some head
(23:32):
shaking that's going on there.
know, it it it was an idea, and
was like, this is oh, I I can dothis. This is
will be this won't be a problem.And, you know, the the more I've
been working on, the more I'mlike, this is so much work. I
cannot believe I have done thisto myself, but I have done this
to myself. So, you know, I I'mrunning an entire theater
(23:53):
organization, and then I decideto do a little program, and it
just balloons. So the BaltimoreAugust Wilson Celebration is, a
a collaboration among among 9theaters in the Baltimore
theater community, to produceall of the great American
(24:17):
playwright August Wilson's 10plays that he wrote, one for
each decade of 20th century, todo them all in chronological
order, with a different theaterproducing each play.
This has while there have been anumber of theaters, including
(24:37):
Center Stage, that have done allof the plays. They have never
been done in chronologicalorder, and it has never been an
entire citywide kind ofcelebration or festival. So
that's what the celebration is,and we've been kind of knocked
out by how, enthusiastic peoplehave been. And it started out
(25:04):
with my thinking that, we shoulddo August Wilson at the
Chesapeake Shakespeare Companybecause he is a truly great
playwright, that he is, aplaywright on par with
Shakespeare, and so wouldn't itbe great if we did all of the
plays? And, and then I was like,that's kind of a lot.
And and then I went and talkedto, Vincent Lanchesi at Everyman
(25:28):
Theatre, and he's like I waslike, well, maybe you guys would
wanna do this with us, and he'slike, you need to talk to arena
players. And I was like, oh, Ineed to talk to arena players.
You are so right. And and andarena players is, of course,
the, amazing Baltimoreinstitution, the oldest, African
(25:50):
continuously operating AfricanAmerican community theater in
America. And I started thinkingabout this, and I thought, well,
it would be so cool if we had adifferent theater doing each
production.
And I was excited by thatbecause Baltimore is a fabulous
(26:11):
theater city. We do great work,and we have wonderful theaters
on all different kinds of ofsizes and ranges, but we've
never done anything reallytogether. We are, you know, each
theater does its own thing. Andvery often, like, actors only
work for every manner, only workfor Center Stage, only work at
(26:35):
Bells Point. And, you know,there's a little bit more
fluidity among the the do ityourself theaters, but still,
it's still very siloed.
And so I thought, well, if wecould all be working toward this
common goal and support eachother, this would be a way for
us to do something together andbreak down some of those silos
(26:56):
and support each other. So, Ifirst went to Donald Owens of
Arena Players, and I said, hey.You know, I've got this idea.
Would you guys wanna beinterested? And he said, well
and I did this in September oflast year, and he said, well,
we're gonna be doing gem of theocean, which is the first in the
(27:17):
cycle next spring.
And I said, oh, Laurel, nextspring. Well, that gives me 6
months. I I can pull somethinglike this together in 6 months.
Sure. Okay.
You're in. And he said, yeah.We're definitely in. And then
I'm like, okay. Next, I've gottaget Everyman or Center Stage on
board.
(27:37):
And so, Stevie had just startedat Center Stage, and, he came
over to see our theater and meetme, and he's like, what could we
do together? And I said, have Igot something for you? And he's
like, I love it. We're in I'vebeen dying to do King Hedley the
second. Like, fantastic.
You've got it. I'm like, okay.I've got them, and now I gotta
(27:58):
get art centric. Art centricbecause it's Ma Rainey's black
bottom, and they should be doingthat. And so I finally meet with
them in November, and they'relike, yeah, this sounds great.
We're in. I'm like, great. Okay.I got it all working, and then
my artistic director, Ian,wanders in. He's like, have you
talked to their estate?
(28:19):
I'm like,
Oh. No. No. No.
No. I haven't. It's like, yeah.
Nick, you wanna do that. Then,like, yeah. So, I I find out who
it is that I need to be talkingto, which is August Wilson's
widow, and I find somebody rightaway who gives me her contact
(28:40):
information. And right away herassistant gets back to me and
says, oh, I'd love to meet withyou. That's great.
And I'm like, fantastic. Andit's like the middle of
December, and, and gem of theocean is going up in April. And
so I'm like, I still got time.This is great. And then I I
(29:02):
don't hear from Constanza who,for for another month.
And then finally, we have thisconversation in the middle of
January, and she's like, that'svery exciting, but, you know,
she is lovely and supportive andwarm and enthusiastic, but she
is very cautious of herhusband's reputation, and, you
(29:25):
know, she's like, I have to gothink about this. And so she
goes and thinks about it, andI'm like, any news? Any news?
Any news? And finally, it's,it's the beginning of March.
I'm like, I I
to know. I can't I can't goforward. They're they're opening
in 3 weeks. And so she finallysays, yes. I give you my
(29:49):
blessing.
You have to call it acelebration. I'm like,
fantastic. We will call it acelebration. And I go into
overdrive. And so, fortunately,I have a good friend of mine who
was a New York publicist, and hewas the publicist for Hamilton.
And so he's, you know, on myside and he's working on, you
(30:11):
know, getting the press to knowabout this. My young marketing
associate is like, I will make awebsite, and, you know, and so
we start, and and I'm, like,okay, we have to have a kickoff
celebration, but but poor arenaplayers, they're trying to put
on this whole play. They don'thave time to plan a party, so my
(30:33):
assistant and I plan a kickoffparty 3 weeks into their show at
somebody else's theater. And sowe have to, you know, and we're
inviting everybody in thenonprofit community to come to
this kickoff, celebrationkickoff event. And I was just so
moved by how many people beyondthe theater community showed up
(30:56):
for this, which was fantastic.
The other part that I was reallyworried about was, making sure
that the theater community knewabout it, that they didn't hear
about it sideways, and they werelike, well, why wasn't I invited
to be part of it? Right. So, theGreater Baltimore Cultural
Alliance hosted, a Zoom andinvited everyone so that I was
(31:16):
able to tell everybody about itand say, if you're interested,
contact me. So that is see, I'vebeen talking about this a lot,
so I just said that all in oneridiculous stream of
consciousness, vomiting ofinformation. I'm sorry that that
was true.
No. No. No. No. Like, I from what I was hearing, it went
(31:37):
from, like, I got an offer foryou.
To to all of these differentfolks in the theater community,
almost like, I wanna tell youabout the Avengers Initiative,
the August Wilson CelebrationInitiative. Come on in. Come on
in. Yeah. The the the processbehind, you know, not even the
actual acting and the the theadaptation and all of that, but
(31:57):
more of the the thepreproduction component of it.
Like, I've gotten so much morerespect for seeing how other
people bring their stufftogether. Like, you know, I run
into it on occasion, but, youknow, I'm I'm able to kinda
navigate it and so on. But, youknow, it's sort of you have a
vision and it's a really goodidea and the work that goes into
(32:19):
to making it happen. You know,that's the thing that often we
don't see, right, that we justsee the end result. We don't see
how the the pasta is made or,you know, sauce it on.
People are vegans. I don't know.But, you know, it it's sort of
getting
that background. So so thankyou. And you can kinda help
me eliminate, like, 3 questions. So ground, so so
thank you. And you can kindahelp me eliminate, like, 3
questions. So
I don't know because I thinkit's better when it's like you
(32:40):
and me talking back and forth ateach other. So I'm sorry. I've
been used to, like, beinginterviewed by reporters, and
and I forgot about that back andforthness. So it's it's all on
me.
But I will say that, it's justbeen so positive, the response
to this. People it just makespeople happy that we're doing
(33:01):
this. People in the theatercommunity are happy. People
outside of the theater communityare happy. It was just, like, a
good idea, and somebody just hadto do it.
And so, I mean, it was almostlike I was forced into it
because I I was totally willingto get I was giving up. I was
like, this is not gonna happen.And I had a friend, and she was
like, are you really gonna giveup right now? Shouldn't you make
(33:24):
one more effort to reach out tomissus Wilson and see? And, you
know, I was like, it's not gonnahappen.
And then but I'm so happy thatit that this is this is actually
happening. And I'm I'm so proudof the theater community for
coming through, and and beingthere for each other. It's it's
(33:47):
really it's heartwarming. That'swhat it is.
Absolutely. And, you know, just when I think I think
we're we're at our best whenwe're working together, when
we're working collaboratively.You know, like Baltimore is a,
like, city is always in thiscycle in my head of, like,
developing or what have you. AndI have these conversations with
(34:09):
artists from all differentcracks and crevices within the
city, and, you know, I find thatwhen I hear the collaboration,
when I hear folks getting along,it feels so much better than,
well, I got my eyes, and I wannahold the the silos and such. And
I I think when we're able tooperate together, work together,
and the communication is there,it's it's a beautiful thing, and
(34:32):
I think it gives for much moreallowances when something may be
a bit, it may be a bitstressful, if you will, or it
wasn't the perfect thing.
It's not supposed to be perfect,but if the intent is there and
people are connecting andworking together and having fun
and feel like we like this,you're supposed to like the
(34:52):
things that you do and the timeand the effort you're putting
into those things. So, no, Ilove it. As as you said, it's
heartwarming.
Yeah. I I do wanna highlight, acouple of of, our partners who
are are, smaller organizations,in particular, the Angel Wing
Project, which they're just, 5years old. And, you know, they
(35:15):
reached out to me and said, we'dreally love to be part of this.
And, and I just was so impressedby Angela, their founder, at you
know, she had just, produced her1st August Wilson play, and she
really wanted to be part ofthis.
And I and she's just been afantastic partner, and I'm just
(35:36):
really excited to give her, youknow, a slightly larger stage to
to work on and get someadditional support from the
other theaters in highlightingher organization. And then, Noah
Silas, who's a local filmmaker,and he said, I want to, I wanna
help, and, I wanna, I wanna filmeverything that's part of this,
(35:59):
and I will do that pro bono foryou. And, you know, maybe we can
have a documentary afterwards,but I, you know, I will be part
of this. And also I'd like toproduce, the last the last show
of the of the festival. And Isaid, okay.
Let me introduce you to theaterproject that because it's, you
know, you haven't done this verymuch and theater project should
(36:20):
be part of this, And they'vegot, like, much more of a
foundation. And so they'reworking together to close out
the festival, you know, inwhatever year that is, that that
winds up being. But, you know,I'm I'm very excited to give,
you know, opportunities to to tothese partners as well.
Absolutely. And and shout out to Noah. He was he was
(36:41):
one of his podcast, earlier inthe cycle. We actually ran it to
him recently at, Artscape, andwas like, do you remember me?
He's like, brother, you look thesame.
I was like, I've had somechanges, sir. So I got I got 2
more questions I wanna ask youand and and, you know, the sort
of the place that, ChesapeakeShakespeare Company is playing.
(37:04):
You you guys are doing aproduction of Joe Turner's Come
and Gone. So
are.
Let's let's talk about that a little bit. What was the,
like, you know because then thisis the second, like, stop, if
you will, on on the circuit. Sotalk about that a little bit.
I mean, of course, it seemsright for arena to be the first,
and, of course, they alreadywere the first. So I thought,
(37:24):
well, you know, in order to getthis thing off on a on a good
footing, we should do the secondone because then I can have,
like, total control over, youknow, this is going to happen,
and I can nag, you know, all ofthe other partners to help
support. And, when things aren'tgoing right with the celebration
and the host theater, it's onme. So, it basically, you know,
(37:50):
the the the first one was justscrambled. This one is, let's
see if we can set how it's goingto actually be going forward.
We'll see. But the other thingabout Joe Turner's Come and Gone
is, it's more of a period piecethan, say, some of his later
plays. And, and it was said tobe August Wilson's favorite play
(38:12):
of his own. So I like, I like tofeel that. And it's a really
devastating play in a lot ofways.
It's about a man who, basicallywas enslaved for, for 7 years,
in Tennessee, and has beenreleased and goes home and finds
(38:36):
that his wife is gone and she'sleft, their daughter. And so he
goes on the road to find her.And he winds up at this boarding
house in Pittsburgh, which isfull of different people who are
coming and going. And, andthanks to those people, he is
finally able to deal with thetrauma that he's experienced.
(39:01):
And and as the play puts it,find his own song, he's able to
find himself again.
He's able to find his soul,basically. That's which has been
totally shut down by the traumahe's experienced. So it's a
beautiful play, but it's alsoabout this community, right,
that comes together to supportthis man and give him the the
(39:25):
opportunities to to healhimself.
I
and I think that that's a a theme or series of theme
that would resonate with EIRwith, you know, sort of the
community in in Baltimore. Ithink that it's it's right
there. It's it's right there.This is this is smooth. I like
that.
I like that. I'm seeing it. Iwas like, oh, because I was
writing down the questions. Iwas like, this seems like
(39:47):
because I was gonna go hokey andlike, Pittsburgh. No.
I won't do Pittsburgh here. It'sBaltimore. And I was just like,
no. No. But what's the theme?
And, yes, the theme in my head,it definitely connects, and I,
you know, just I just see ithere. So it's very very timely.
I think it's always timely inthat regard.
always timely. And, of course,August Wilson in Baltimore is,
you know, like Shakespeare,August Wilson has started to
(40:12):
transcend, maybe the niche thatwe, you know, looked at him as
is like the first great AfricanAmerican writer. Instead, he
sort of belongs to everyone. Butwhen we started rehearsals and
so, like, obviously, I'm I'mlooking at August Wilson as an
(40:33):
admirer, as as a white persongoing into rehearsals for Joe
Turner come, Joe Turner's comeand gone, I was so moved by, how
how much pride and emotion wasin the room from the black cast
(40:54):
and creative team, that I didnot properly understand, how
much ownership and love forAugust Wilson that's in a
different place than I have forhim. And so it's quite a
privilege to be able to witnessthat and to be able to
(41:17):
facilitate it a little bit.
That's great. That's great. And, again, you know, I
think the the benefit of, as Ilike to say, you let the guests
cook. You get your all all ofyour questions answered. So,
actually, you answered my mylast question.
So I can now move into the partthat everyone looks forward to,
the rapid fire portion.
(41:39):
don't have pop pop questions. II'm very bad at pop culture.
No. No. No. Well, you're good. You're good.
I think you'll be good. I thinkyou'll be fine here. I've been
updating them as we go along tomake them more bespoke for the
guests.
bespoke. Okay.
So I got 3 of them for you, and the the key to this is
you don't wanna overthink them,you know. Okay. So here's the
(41:59):
first one, and it it relates toit. I'm and I know you'll notice
it because, you know, you yougot a sense of humor, as you
said, is your skill. If youcould change one thing about,
let's say I'm using the the termindustry, but let's just say
about about the theatercommunity for a second argument.
With a wave of your fairy wand,what would it be?
(42:20):
government funding for theater.
It's a great and well thought out answer.
been thinking about this one fora long time. And, you know,
everybody's complaining about,you know, oh, well, if only the
government would support, thenall of our problems would be
gone. And we're in America, andwe know that the government is
not going to, so we have to comeup with new solutions. So if I
(42:42):
can get that fairy wand, I wouldlike it very much, and that's
what I would use it for.
100%. I love that. So this one I I I put in recently.
I have this book, no idea isfinal, and it's just a bunch of
quotes in there that I'm like,okay. Let me investigate this.
I'm curious about it. Is there aquote or lesson about creativity
(43:02):
that you love personally?
see, I just looked up, and I'mseeing this quote that I wrote
down from, that that I sawrecently, which was use the
difficulty. When when whenyou've got, like, some sort of
monumental challenge, you know,use that challenge to make it
(43:22):
interesting.
It's good. It's good. I'm I'm I'm gonna apply to see
whenever I ask these questionsand even the whole podcast, it's
been a clever ruse for me to getinsights
information to make myself seemmore interesting. That's all
this podcast is.
I love it. Very wise, That's all this podcast is. I
love it. Very wise of
here here's the
one as
you
touched on, when when talkingabout,
Joe Turner has, Joe Turner's Come and Gone. What is
(43:46):
your song?
can change people's lives.
It's good. It's a good point. And that's it. That's the
rapid fire. You say off the hotseat, and no no one got burned.
You were
be asking me what's yourfavorite Shakespeare play or
yeah. See, I I was being nice because I I had a
question about Shakespeare, filmadaptations I was gonna ask you.
(44:10):
see, I have the answer to that.
Okay. What is it?
I I'm I'm a Kenneth Branagh'sMuch Ado About Nothing Girl all
the way. All the
way. Okay. I I then then then you got so you got a
you got a bonus one somehow. Soyou you you like like, blood
from the stone as it were.
Hardly. Not people like me whotalk.
(44:32):
So I I wanna I wanna wrap up on, with these these 2
sort sort of final things. 1, Iwanna thank you for coming on
and spending some time with me,this afternoon leading up to,
the production. Just right init. You're just deep in it. It's
been a busy time for you, sothank you for making the time.
And, and, 2, I wanna invite andencourage you to really the sort
(44:53):
of, like, the hard sell, thesoft sell, what have you, tell
folks where to check out, youknow, Chesapeake Shakespeare
Company, anything along thoselines, when the, the play is
ready, all of that stuff. Anydetail you wanna share, the
floor is yours.
you. Chesapeake ShakespeareCompany is opening Joe Turner's
Come and Gone, August Wilson'sgreat play about the great
(45:19):
migration. And we open onFriday, September 20th, and we
run Thursdays through Sundaysuntil September 20th. We have
all sorts of fantastic, eventsthat are happening around this.
We have a blackout black onlyperformance on the Thursday
before we open.
(45:40):
We have the August WilsonSociety's coming and doing a
talk before the, the,performance on, October 12th.
And on, 5th October, we aredoing a special, seminar
workshop for teachers calledTeaching August Wilson that our,
(46:03):
our dramaturg for the entirecelebration, who is a professor
at Howard University, KhalidLong, is going to be teaching.
And then there will also be casttalkbacks and director talkbacks
as well, but those are kind ofthe big things that are going
on, and I'm really excited aboutthis production. I encourage you
to go to chesapeakeshakespeare.com to get tickets,
(46:26):
but you can also look at theentire Baltimore August Wilson
celebration, online as well, andyou can see all of the shows
that are coming up and all ofour wonderful partners.
And that website is bemoreaugustwilson.org. I see.
you for remembering that becauseI was completely stalled out.
(46:47):
Thank you so much. Podcaster. And there you have
it, folks. I wanna again thankthe great Leslie Meyland for
coming on to the podcast andtelling us a bit about the
Chesapeake Shakespeare Companyand, the Baltimore August Wilson
celebration, including CSC'sproduction of Joe Turner's Come
and Gone. And I'm Rob Lee sayingthat there's art, culture, and
(47:10):
community in and around yourneck of the woods.
You've just gotta look for it.
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.