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14 playwrights + 13 theatre companies = multitudinous perspectives on the 19th Amendment

19 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by in Carrie Knowles, playwriting, Tamara Kissane

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According to ourdocuments.gov, the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution was “passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920.”  It goes on to say “the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote.” The Amendment “prohibits the state and federal government from denying citizens of the United States the right to vote on the basis of sex”.

To mark the 100 year anniversary of ratification, Burning Coal Theatre Company in partnership with The League of Women Voters of Wake County and thirteen other theatre and/or opera companies from across central North Carolina will present The 19th Amendment Project, a collection of 14 short plays written about the passage of the 19th Amendment 100 years ago and its impact on our society.

Each of the short plays will be released virtually, one at a time, between August 17 – August 30, 2020. The plays will all be available until September 30, 2020. For more info: call 919.834.4001 or https://burningcoal.org/the-nineteenth-amendment-project/.

I’m honored and humbled to be a name on this roster of playwrights for my 10 minute piece THUNDERCLAP.

THUNDERCLAP description: Parents Rachel and Jake are stoked that their daughter, Alice is now 18 and can vote, but she doesn’t believe that her vote will actually help.  Content warning: language and sexual violence.

This week, I’m grateful to have been given space to talk about this project in podcast form and in print. Big thanks to journalists Lauren Van Hemert and Byron Woods for listening to me go on about writing generally and writing 10 minute plays more specifically, setting a play in the current moment, the future of theatre and what voting means to me.

If you’d like to listen or read, please see the info below. And then grab your tickets for The 19th Amendment Project. The other playwrights are amazing (including 2014 Piedmont Laureate Carrie Knowles) and it has truly been an impressive collaborative effort across our theatre community.

ALSO, VOTE. #votevotevote

RDU ON STAGE PODCAST

Do you know about THE 19th AMENDMENT PROJECT?
Want to hear me confess my love for Geraldine Ferraro?

Listen to this podcast from RDU on Stage and the ones to follow!

This is the 1st episode in a nine part series featuring playwrights and creatives working on The 19th Amendment Project. Lauren speaks with the wonderful Playwright Hannah Benitez (The 19th), Dianna Wynn with the League of Women Voters, Jerome Davis, the Artistic Director of Burning Coal, ….and ME saying things (a lot of things!) about my play Thunderclap, what voting means to me, the conflict I feel about celebrating the 19th Amendment, and the present and future of theatre (just a few small topics!).

All this week and next, RDU on Stage will be spotlighting the playwrights behind this collection of plays. (Here’s the podcast interview with Carrie Knowles: Episode 73: Carrie Knowles get Arthurian with Ladies are Waiting)

INDY WEEK

Check out this promo piece for The 19th Amendment Project at Burning Coal in INDY Week:

Fourteen Ways of Looking at What the 19th Amendment Achieved—and What It Didn’t

I hear you, mamas. Listening to PAALs across the country.

07 Thursday May 2020

Posted by in parenting, Tamara Kissane

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Friends,

Mother’s Day can be tricky. If it’s a tangled web of emotions or expectations for you, then I wish you ease and peace this weekend.

If you are a mother, I raise my giant cup of coffee to you in solidarity and with love.

I’m not getting much writing done (see that blank page!). I hope you are having more success than I am, and if you’re not, well…then you are not alone.

I am Mama to a preschooler and a middle schooler. On the best of days it’s a challenge to navigate family, work, and creative responsibilities. During the COVID-19 epidemic with school closures, event cancellations, financial concerns, family/social distancing, and emotions running rampant, the challenges are even greater.

When I find caregiving-while-creating to be particularly difficult and isolating, I seek out other people who are facing similar challenges; people I know will understand.

This year, I’ve been especially grateful for the opportunity to interview parent artists from across the country on the Artist Soapbox podcast.

If you’d like to hear the perspectives of all types of theatre artists who are also parenting, then I invite you to listen to these interviews with PAAL Chief Reps:

The acronym PAAL stands for PARENT ARTIST ADVOCACY LEAGUE (PAAL) for PERFORMING ARTS + MEDIA

PAAL is a national community, resource hub, and solutions generator for individuals with caregiver responsibilities and institutions who strive to support them.  PAAL aims to elevate the national standard of care for caregivers in the performing arts and media. PAAL has a fund for caregivers that you can donate to or apply for.

Please also see a recent issue of American Theatre magazine, which includes a series of articles under the heading Care for the Caregivers that was undertaken with the support and insight of the Parent Artist Advocacy League.

The feature article in this series, written by Rachel Spencer Hewitt, the founder of PAAL is titled: Work/Life Balance Is Everyone’s Urgent Business Now. She writes, “As we face the COVID crisis, our field has a chance to restructure itself around human needs. Caregivers can lead the way.”

There’s also a very thoughtful and powerful series of essays on parenting on the Howlround Theatre Commons website.

Happy Mother’s Day to me and to you!

If you know a mama who could use a friendly phone call, please reach out and recognize her labor. Ask her how her writing is going, encourage her, and tell her you care.

I’m wishing you a few uninterrupted moments to write, especially if you are carrying a heavier load than usual.

Virtual Talk Back with RDU on Stage

06 Monday Apr 2020

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Hello friends,

Lauren Van Hemert of RDU on Stage was so generous to invite me to have a Facebook Live interview with her about being Piedmont Laureate, writing during a pandemic, writing audio fiction vs. writing for the stage, being a parent-artist, creativity, and more. You can see the video (1 hour) of us conversing HERE. The podcast version will be coming out in the coming weeks on the RDU on Stage podcast if you prefer audio only.

I hope that you are safe and well.

Sending you love,

Tamara

What’s next? Big feelings + big love.

13 Friday Mar 2020

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The text below is a transcript from today’s Artist Soapbox podcast episode (if you didn’t know, I am the host of the Artist Soapbox podcast). If you would like to hear my voice saying those words, then you can do so via the Artist Soapbox podcast here or via any podcast platform such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, etc.

It’s very likely that the Piedmont Laureate events that are scheduled for the next month(s) will be postponed. In the meantime I am thinking of ways to say connected. Perhaps you have ideas?

You are not alone

Transcript:

Well, Happy 2020! It’s been a few months since I released an episode on Artist Soapbox.

These are strange and uncomfortable times. I want you to know that I’m thinking of you wherever you are, I’m thinking of you and sending you love.

At this moment in time and for some undefined period into the future, many of us feel that our way of life, state of mind, health, loved ones and livelihood are under threat — by COVID-19 sure but also by the response or lack of response or lack of support in our particular communities. If you are having big feelings, as I am as a result of this, I just want to say that it’s totally understandable — big feelings are coming up because these things: our way of life, state of mind, health, loved ones, and livelihood are big deals. People are suffering. If you are feeling isolated and at sea, as I am, then I also want to say that you are not alone and I am sending you love.

To be sure, I am not an expert in anything, nor am I particularly skilled in any way that could be helpful in a time of crisis, and I don’t say that in a self-deprecating way, it’s just true. However, I’m thinking a lot — I’m thinking hard about community and what it means to build and maintain community when we cannot congregate….when we cannot be face-to-face.

I’m thinking about how we can care for each other and care for ourselves and pull together in a way that makes us feel less lonely and perhaps even momentarily soothed. If you’ve been listening to this podcast, then you’ll also know that for a long time I’ve been thinking about how we can make art and tell stories when we cannot physically show up together. That was the genesis of this podcast and the work I’m doing in audio fiction and…. All of this has been on my mind increasingly in the last few weeks.

So I want you to know that I’m going to start pushing out content as often as I can via Artist Soapbox — I’ll do as much as possible given my family and work responsibilities – thru the podcast and the website — if you have the brain, heart, life space to listen or read, then I hope that content makes you feel less alone or distracts you or reminds you that we are a community of creative kick-ass people. Because we are. And you are a part of that.

A month ago, I was planning this episode to be an update on all the cool things I’ve been doing since my last episode in 2019 and everything you have to look forward to from me in 2020. I had a long list. It was pretty exciting! The truth now is that the multitude of live events I had planned for the next 6 weeks will almost certainly be postponed and perhaps cancelled indefinitely. I’m in a place where I need to recalibrate my expectations, my priorities, and reconsider what I have to look forward to in that regard.

And I think I’m reconsidering that what I have to look forward to is this. If you are out there and you can hear my voice….I like to hear from you now. What would soothe you, distract you, entertain you? What would you like to hear about? What are your questions? I am a playwright, audio fiction writer, actor, director, producer, parent, creative coach and podcaster — those are things I can talk about. I can also connect with other people and they can talk about what I can’t.. Friends, if you share your thoughts with me, then I will share my voice and the voices of my guests with you. Email me at artistsoapbox@gmail.com.

If any of you are audio fiction fans, you might have seen a tweet from Mr. Paul Bae who’s an amazing creator associated with big audio fiction series like the Black Tapes, The Big Loop, and more recently The Marvels podcast. He’s amazing. Anyway, Paul Bae recently tweeted that “Podcasters are the cockroaches of the entertainment world during pandemics” and as much as I groaned when I read that, I also embrace the idea that this medium could be a way that our community can bridge what feels like a chasm in our usual connection and remind us that we have voices. We are here. We can make things. We are together. I’d love to hear from you.

Friends,there are many people who are providing resources and wisdom and helpful tips for weathering this crisis and the impact. Please seek out real experts and reliable sources of information. Let’s agree to care for each other, care for those who are most vulnerable, and care for ourselves.

Stay safe out there. Be in touch. Wishing you peace, sincerely.