INTERVIEW: JAG Productions partners with New York Theatre Workshop
Image courtesy of JAG Productions / Provided by NYTW with permission.
Over the years, the esteemed New York Theatre Workshop has been heading to New Hampshire in the summertime for a theatrical residency at Dartmouth College. Right across the river from the Ivy League institution is the border with Vermont, which is the home of JAG Productions, a successful theater company that stages works by African-American writers. Eventually the two companies — headed by Jim C. Nicola, who serves as artistic director of NYTW, and Jarvis A. Green, who is founder and producing artistic director of JAG — started to have conversations about future collaborations.
Recently, NYTW and JAG solidified their relationship, and Green couldn’t be happier. The news came earlier this year: JAG Productions is one of the newest companies-in-residence for NYTW, and there’s no telling what this partnership will produce in the coming years. In fact, JAG is the first non-New York company to partner with NYTW.
“It’s very exciting,” Green said in a recent phone interview. “I love New York Theatre Workshop. I love Jim. It’s a big moment for our company.”
Green and Nicola first met a few years back. They were introduced to each other during one of the Dartmouth residencies, and they immediately hit it off. Here’s a fun fact: They both share the same birthday.
“He was very impressed with what I was doing in the community,” Green said. “He took on this mentorship essentially. It was kind of unofficial. I would reach out to him for various different things. We would go see some theater together. He would come and see our work. I’ve always been a fan of New York Theatre Workshop. … And then I received a text from Jim as he was starting to think about expanding the company-in-residence program, asking me questions about what it is that a company like JAG needs, and doing what he does as an artistic director, checking in with artists, checking in with companies to see what is needed. And he listened, and he took that back to his team. They reached back out and said, ‘We would love to partner with JAG.’ Since then, we are taking it as it goes. The program is definitely catered to whatever said company needs, and so right now we’re in the beginning processes of developing and strategizing around what this partnership can look like.”
New York Theatre Workshop is also partnering with Safe Harbors NYC, the Dominican Artists Collective (DAC) and Noor Theatre. Green said he is hopeful that at some point New York audiences will experience a JAG Productions show (the partnership formally begins in the 2022-2023 season). His company began in 2016 and has served as an incubator of new works by Black playwrights. Recent productions include the first all-Black cast production of the musical Next to Normal and Nathan Yungerberg’s Esai’s Table, which eventually played off-Broadway.
“I’ve always wanted to expand the work of JAG into New York City,” Green said. “New York is a second home for me. I moved to Vermont from New York, and a lot of my peers are there. A lot of my family, friends are there, and so I came to this area because I was looking for a place where I can not distract myself and heal a little bit. I know for me as a creative and artistic director, I need to get away from the hustle and bustle of cities to rejuvenate and have space to imagine and create. I’ve been here since 2016, so six or seven years, and I go back to New York quite a bit. … The fact that we’re in a place right now where we can be dreaming and talking about bringing that work into the city is exciting. Ninety-nine percent of our artists come from New York, so we still have really close relationships with artists there because that’s where I go to cast shows and hire all of our artists.”
Green said that the audiences in Vermont are mostly people who enjoy theater, reflect upon humanity and ask intelligent questions. They are creatives and intellectuals, he said, and many of them also have ties to New York City. Over the years, the company has used many spaces, including the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, Vermont, plus the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre and Main Street Landing in Burlington, Vermont, among others.
“It’s a really unique community that has been waiting for something like this to happen,” Green said. “It’s sort of a win-win. We get to create this work with Black artists, queer artists at the center and create this community of support for these artists, and then we have these audiences that recognize that they live in a community that is primarily homogenous that are excited to grow, to learn, to support. And so it’s really interesting to see how those two worlds come together and the sheer joy from our community that want to help in various different ways, and help not in terms of guilt help, but knowing that they have resources to help further the importance of this work, particularly in this moment, is really exciting. It’s such an unlikely place to be doing this type of work, but it feels like perfect in a way because of how this work should be happening in this area. It’s thriving essentially.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
JAG Productions has become a new company-in-residence of the New York Theatre Workshop. Click here for more information.
