Interview with Annele Spector, apprentice, company member

By Keith Hennessy

Keith Hennessy: So can you just say your name and say what you do here, and just cover the basics?

Annele Spector: Okay. My name is Annele Spector. I am one of the apprentices here, we call ourselves the apprenti. I do lots and lots of different things. I really like doing sound for shows, so I get to do that a lot. I do lots of things in the office. It’s always something different, you know mailing lists, membership, fundraising. I’ve been here since January of ’99; since then I’ve been asked to take over program advertising for the programs. Doing that. Doing the monthly newsletter that goes out to the company and board members right before the board meeting, called the Communiqué. Sterling used to write that and he just said, "Annele will you do this?" So, I’ve been ghostwriting that for him. This month they’ll find out that he’s not doing it anymore, and they had no idea. That was a kind of big ego boost for me, cause they couldn’t tell he wasn’t doing it.

KH: How many hours a week are you here?

AS: Ten. Only ten. That’s what the TCA grant covers. That’s what I get paid for.

KH: And TCA is?

AS: Texas Commission for the Arts. So, I’m actually probably more here maybe 12,13, 14 hours, maybe more with rehearsals, but I just mark down what I get paid for. So, I’m here more often then that.

KH: How did you find Jump-Start?

AS: Through a friend. A friend of mine brought me to a performance party. That was a few years back. Just slowly started learning about all the cool organizations in San Antonio. I was born and raised here and knew that there was fun things to do, but had to really look to find it. So, I found Jump-Start and what happened was the large women of Big, Bad and Beautiful needed a sound technician really bad. So, they asked my friend if he could do it and he said, "No I’m really busy but try Annele," And so, I did the sound for them, and I had never done sound before, and they totally exploited me. They like paid me two dollars an hour or less; for a six-week run, they gave me like a $100 check. I was so disappointed, but I got my foot in the door here at Jump-Start. Then one of their apprenti quit and they were looking for somebody and I was working full-time at the college radio station. They said, "We need an apprentice," but I said I can’t do it I’m really busy. They said, "It has to be a minority," and I fit that. But I said, "I’m really busy." And they said, "Well you know it pays $7.50 an hour," and for San Antonio that’s high. That’s like a really good wage. So. I thought, maybe I’ll make the time for it. And I have not stopped. I’ve gotten more and more, and this is all I do now. Other stuff has come in, like the teaching and doing shows, which is really sporadic but it’s fun and time-consuming. This is it for me. This is all I do and I love it.

KH: I know you talked earlier today about the sense of feeling like being part of the family, and how being in the company and being staff is not a separation, but tell me more about coming into a company that already had such a history. What’s your own relationship to that history, how you are attracted to it, how it is challenging?

AS: Before I started working here, I felt like Sterling and Lisa Suarez and Steve were these legendary people doing these wonderful things, doing their art, and had created this company from the ground up. And that they had done it with nothing except for an idea. So, I came into the company thinking that it would take a long time for me to become a company member, that I would just put in my time, and do my time, and work here and just enjoy it. Over the time, I realized that they want to grow. They came with open arms, whatever you want to do you can do it. That’s the whole thing that I’ve learned from the beginning. You want something to happen, you make it happen. So, I came into this company not really knowing too much about their history, but hearing stories about the 24th Street experiment and their other spaces around town before they came to Blue Star. How these people were working with no budget and performing in people’s living rooms and really doing this amazing work that really made me proud and lucky, and very humble to become a part of that family. I love it. It just makes me happy.

KH: What are your favorite projects since you first experienced Jump-Start?

AS: The first really huge thing I worked for was Festival de Libre Enganche. I was like Felice’s technical assistant for that. That was in ’99 when I first started working here. That was amazing because Jump-Start was bringing people here from Mexico. Bringing people from all over the country. Then doing quick, dirty rehearsals. Boom. Have the show. All these great parties. All this stuff going on. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. My background is in sound and radio/TV/film. That’s my degree. Theater had really been a new territory that I really wanted to learn about. So, that was amazing. It’s going to happen again this year even though our funding was cut for it. We are going to make it happen. Doing Young Tongues was really great learning experience. I couldn’t have done it without Shimi. It was just a bunch of young kids working together, not really knowing what we were doing. Steve said, "Here’s your budget, make it work," and we were like okay, ummm— We had to worry about printing and what the calendar was going to look like, getting press.. We got really great press, which was amazing and people actually came and saw the stuff. I love Paul’s work. I love Shimi’s work. Steve is a big inspiration because he never stops. He’s always working and working, and I am a workaholic too. You were talking about the astrological thing. I’m a Capricorn so I’m just always going at it, and it’s fun.

KH: The whole part of this research that I am doing is really looking at the relationship of the company to the community and the community to the company. Since you’ve grown up in San Antonio, how can you see over the years how Jump-Start is affecting, I’ll call it "the community," but I think actually there are several communities that Jump-Start affects. Just your own hit on that. What you think is the effect that Jump-Start is having on the world outside this place?

AS: I think that it has a major impact in San Antonio because there is a huge gay and lesbian community here that does not get represented at all. Now I don’t want to say it is like stuck to bars and clubs and stuff...you know, bookstores... But I really think they have tried to involve other community organizations, like the Esperanza, the Guadalupe work together. I know that people have come here from out of state with the goal in mind to work here. Now Dianne and Shimi both came into San Antonio with the goal in mind to work at Jump-Start, and I think, wow, how did they know about Jump-Start? When we go on retreat, we want to make Jump-Start a national presence in theater . It’s basically word-of-mouth and producing excellent work is how we plan to do it. Our budget won’t do it for us. And we can’t go take a show on tour to New York or L.A., even though we want to. We can’t. I feel like Jump-Start is really important to the San Antonio community because we are the only theater of our kind here.

KH: Say more about "our kind". What’s the version you’re describing?

AS: We are freaks. We just don’t care. If no one gets it. If the paper says the wrong thing, you know the interview with the artist, at least we are getting some kind of press. We are still doing our mission, is to reach — we don’t like to use "disenfranchised," but, you know, it’s there. Our mission is just to reach people who don’t have a voice. Youth, minorities, women, women of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, whatever. Our kind is just the different person that gets made fun of in high school, that gets laughed at and teased in public. That’s who we are. That’s who we want in our family. These people who are so gifted, and so talented, and they are just— It blows your mind and makes you cry. It just makes you want to hug them. They are part of the family because they are just like you. They’ve been through the same things you have. They can carry on a conversation. Have creative thoughts.

KH: Tell me a little bit about how you think being involved in all these different communities – whether it’s minority voices, disenfranchised people — how it affects Jump-Start. How it affects the company, the individuals and the work.

AS: I think how it affects people is that it fuels the fire. It motivates people to do their work. To reach a mass audience. All we want to do is bring in new people who have never been to Jump-Start, never seen our work. To bring them in and have them like what they see and come back. We all have our own different groups that we go to, work with, meet with because we want our audience to grow. Just like any business, company, or theater . We want to reach the new people. Working together with other communities in San Antonio, somehow new people come. And don’t know anything about Jump-Start, and want to learn, and can’t believe that we’ve been doing it for 16 years. They’ve never been to Blue Star, they’ve never been down here. "You’ve been here for that long?" No, not really. But here’s our story. People just love it. Especially the board members and volunteers. They just want to get involved in any way that they can get there.

KH: Has the organization been through any big changes since you’ve been here? Any big transitions?

AS: Slightly. The staff has grown. Almost I would say doubled since I began. They created a new position for one of the apprentices who was really great with volunteers and membership. She became a staff person permanently after she went through her apprenticeship. So, that’s a change. We are just growing so much and we needed somebody to tackle that. Steve, as he said earlier, has tried to step back. When I first started, I thought Steve was my boss. That I would answer to Steve. But it’s not like that. I answer to everybody, because I’m expected to do every role here in the theater whether it is help Felice put down the dance floor, or help Sterling do p.r., or help Lisa with Festival. That’s kind of shifted where everyone has a leadership role. Also Lisa used to do the education coordination and now Steve does it. As I thought, Steve had plenty of stuff to do, he took on this other thing because he really wanted to do it. So, people have stepped back a little bit from things that they have been doing for a long, long time and taken on new things. A lot of people on staff teach at universities in town as well. I can’t think of any major thing that has happened except that we have really grown at a fast pace.

KH: Earlier when we were more of a group there was a little discussion about the constant struggle around who’s in power, where the men are, where the women are, where the people of color are in relation to the people of color. Do you have any version of a story around that, like your own issues with that? Where you think it is a problem, or a success, still room to grow?

AS: Okay. I think the perception from everyone on the outside is that Steve is the man in charge. I can say that is not necessarily the case because everyone shares in everything. That is part of the model that Max was talking about. We need a new refrigerator. We are all going to vote on it. Do we need a freezer in this refrigerator, or not? So, we talk about whether we need a freezer or not. And that’s for everything we do. This new school wanted us. We all had a vote. Can we do this? Can we work on this? It’s not like Steve is saying we are going to do this whether we can or not. All our input is important to each other. So, I do not have a problem personally with people thinking that the men are in charge. It’s just not like that. Where Sterling and Steve are in charge and Lisa, Felice, Dianne and myself, Sarah. We are just the women on the other side. It’s not like that. We all work together. I feel just as comfortable telling Steve or Sterling about my problems and things going on as I do with the other people in the office. I really like it. I’ve worked in corporate America and I really like that everyone shares power.

KH: Well and it seems to me that, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that leadership comes up with the projects. When I look at what’s here, Steve and Sterling definitely get their projects through and worked on... But I’ve already heard about projects that they were not the instigation of. Even this weekend there’s two shows. It’s not because of Steve and Sterling that Dianne and Shimi have shows. Does that seem fairly true that anyone can come up with an idea, not just an idea like a festival, but can actually put forward their own work?

AS: Oh yeah. Absolutely. We want more company work. When we go to our retreats we plan out our season together with the board, and the company, and the staff people and the apprentices. And everybody talks about, well I know this group that wants to do something. Oh okay we’ll put them on the list. We just have this big old flow chart of names and people. If they want a weekend and it fits into the schedule, then they can just go ahead and do that. I’ve never seen that happen anywhere else. I’ve never worked at a place where your ideas are welcome, appreciated and nurtured and people respect you as an artist. It’s not like everyone is fighting over this small piece of meat. There’s plenty to go around. The people who really want it, do it. The people who just talk, that’s all they do. I’ve seen plenty of talkers. Oh, they would love to show their piece at Jump-Start, but they just want to be asked. "Will you please come and show your work here?" When we have all these other people doing it, and working here, and volunteering here. I’ve seen people my age who’ve been given a two-week run, and they’ve done wonderful. Sold out. And Jump-Start helped them get to that place. I think that’s really what it’s about, and what we are about. Opening the doors to anyone, but really wanting company work to get started, revisited, reshown. We are doing an entirely new company work in the spring for "Illusions". I have no idea what that’s about, but now I’m involved in it.

KH: How old are you, since you mentioned your age?

AS: Twenty-five.

KH: Are you also involved in the education partnership work? Have you been teaching in the schools? Do you have any interesting stories about that?

AS: Yes. I had no experience at all. I never, ever, Keith, saw myself working with children. I just didn’t think that was something I would be good at. But I really like it, and I am good at it. I love learning new things and doing new things and like plunging into it. So what if I’m afraid? I’m still going to do it because these people believe in me and they are giving me responsibility. So they threw me into the education thing. So, I started working at Kelly. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I was just pretending to be a teacher, but I feel like I’ve done workshops and I’m going to take classes in college — you know, arts education — because it is really fun. It’s great. So, now I work at Bonham with Shimi. So, now I work at two schools. That came out of retreat. I said "Oh, I want to work with the education group". Okay. You asked for it, you got it. Kind of like Toyota. They threw me in there. And it’s amazing. These kids. Some of them are so smart and you can’t wait to run into them at Jump-Start or Blue Star in ten years. And then, some are just problem kids and you have to give them their time, let them talk, and just be with them. I was just really glad to be asked. I just really love working here. And I’m so glad that you are here, and that we are like on this list of groups. I think it’s a big thing to be involved in this. I love Jump-Start. I would do anything for Jump-Start. I’m moving two streets away. I used to live in the neighborhood. I moved out. I’m moving back, because I just want to walk to work. I’ve been sucked in.

Keith Hennessy is a Canadian-born, interdisciplinary artist choreographer and community arts organizer living in community in San Francisco. Hennessy's solo work has been produced throughout the U.S., in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, including several gay and lesbian performance festivals. Since 1998, he has performed with Cahin-Caha, cirque bâtard, a French/American, mongrel circus based in France. Hennessy was a member of the performance collective Core and was a founding member and principle collaborator in Contraband, a San Francisco-based performance company. Hennessy co-directs 848 Community Space. He is a member of Alternate ROOTS, a service organization for community-based artists, and serves radical cultural agendas as a consultant, director, teacher, curator and agitator.

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Carpetbag | Cornerstone | Dell'Arte | Jump-Start
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