Interview with Jump-Start staff: Lisa Suarez, Felice Garcia, Sterling Houston, Dianne Monroe, Annele Spector, Steve Bailey and Max Parrilla

By Keith Hennessy

Keith Hennessy: The question for me, just a really starter one, is: What is Jump-Start. What do you actually do and personally why are you a part of it? What do you get out of it? Do you have a personal vision that matches a larger vision. Why are you here?

Lisa Suarez: The world’s greatest theater in the nation. That’s what I have to say.

Felice Garcia: Because I can do what I want. I’m not put behind a desk and told, "You can only do monthly reports," and basically I can say whatever I want.

KH: And what are some of the things you want to do?

FG: Last year, I mentioned on the retreat that I wanted to do some directing, and since then I’ve gotten to assistant direct two shows. And that came about very quickly. Pretty much everybody gets to do what they want if they express that, and they are always encouraged to express their wishes and dreams.

KH: How long have you worked with Jump-Start, Felice?

FG: I have worked here as staff for five years, but I did some shows, a show prior to that.

KH: If you were telling someone who had never been to San Antonio before what is Jump-Start, and what role do they play in the community what would you tell them?

FG: I would say it is a grassroots theater that does diverse original works. They play a big role in the community in the fact that it is open to the whole community. There is no cut-off point. Anybody can come and do what they want here, as long as it’s original, and as long as it’s their own. It’s open. It’s just that open. It’s not limited to Chicano theater or— Well, there are some limits in San Antonio. Some places do grassroots Chicano theater, and that’s not what we are about. We do all...

Sterling Houston: Because it’s not boring. Part of it not being boring has to do with the fact that it has such a broad — I hate to use the Republicans’ term — but a "big tent," a big umbrella of a lot of disciplines, a lot of points of view. We self define as to be inclusive of under-heard voices and that brings in a lot of very interesting artists and view points that I personally would never have thought of as community, such as people who are fat, or people who have to deal with physical limitations. We had a wheelchair dance company that did work here. And to actually allow ourselves to not be defined. The work that I’ve done here has been all over the map in terms of subject and style often. That is a real luxury to not be trapped by your previous success or something that has worked before. To have the freedom to explore in a whole other area. And also, speaking for myself, and I think it is true for the artists too, we allow risk-taking and failure to be a part of what we do. We are not frightened by that. We just pick it up and move on and learn from that.

KH: Just so you can prove your point to me, tell me about a failure that happened here, or a lesser success.

FG: Someone else’s or his?

SH: I’ll speak to my own, I don’t want to speak to anybody else’s; what I consider a failure they may consider a great success. It’s not tied to financial success, although that is something we have to more and more be aware of you know in terms of being able to afford the luxury of shows that don’t draw, for the sake of that artist’s growth. When we were a much smaller organization it was much easier to do that than it is now. We are much more sensitive to it than we need to be.

I’d say, a couple of things come to mind. The piece that opened the space, "Isis and Nubia" was a mega-buck, large-cast production, lavish, the most lavish show I’ve ever done. Well maybe the second most lavish, big production values. Gorgeous, glitzy, you know beautiful costume, sets, beautiful people, which was a luxury. And it didn’t draw. We did it in cooperation with the Carver Center, the African-American cultural center, and they helped with the funding. It was a big expense and it did not draw. It was sort of misunderstood by the press. I’ve had enough feedback over the years that I feel it was not a total failure. People did get it, some of them did. Because my work is kind of on at least two or three levels at once, that’s kind of difficult for some people. It was like the myths of ancient Egypt that I set in Nubia, the black kingdom that was adjacent to Egypt but had the same mythology. So, I set the myth of Isis, Osiris, Horace in Nubia. But contemporized a lot of language. I used anachronisms, I used a lot of things that are fun. So, it wasn’t straight history. And it wasn’t straight comedy. And it wasn’t— It was easier to say what it wasn’t rather than what it was. People get confused by that a lot. I mean it is something we have to deal with,. So that is one example of a piece that...

KH: So I’m just going to get little pieces here, so that’s great. Someone else? What are you doing here?

Dianne Monroe: Well, I got on the Interstate one day in Atlanta, Georgia. And I didn’t have a map. The reason I actually intentionally came here, because I am an intentional transplant, I would say has to do with two things – the diversity, and the risk-taking. For me this is not a space that is ethnically specific, or gender specific. It is a place where all the different voices and issues kind of, I want to say get stuck together with some kind of magic glue as it were. And to me that’s very valuable and unique. I don’t see anyone else doing exactly that. If you go downstairs, you are going to see some really beautiful folk art by Mary Francis Robinson, who is an African-American artist, and one of the beautiful pieces is called "The Baptism," and it is showing here in the gallery the same weekend that we are having a double bill of atheist shows. Only at Jump-Start would that kind of pluralism of diverse and especially marginalized ideas take place. To me the luxury of being able to say and do what I want to do, but in an atmosphere where other people are doing what they want to do. It is to be cherished.

Annele Spector: I think that Jump-Start is an amazing collection of artists that are all diverse and very nurturing of each other and each other’s work. Just a group of people willing, like Sterling said, to take risks, try new things, take on challenges, and to really find new ways to reach the community. Whether it is through the education program, or bringing new artists into the theater and letting them show their work where they never thought they could, and really nurturing new people to come in. I’m personally here because I feel very lucky to be a member of this family. I always have to take on new things, new responsibilities and it is always fun. It’s never boring. It’s just growing so fast. We can’t even keep track of all of it. Our staff has grown. Whether we do or not, I don’t know if we keep good track of it, but we try. I just love it.

KH: What are your personal interests? If you could see a little bit of a future here what is it that you’d like to personally do, be involved in, make happen?

AS: I would love to perform. I’ve never done that.

SH: You mean on stage? You want to be in "Illusions" in May? Okay you are in. I’m serious. I’m not joking. If you want to be in it you just say that it and you are in it.

AS: I want to be in it.

SH: Okay.

FG: That’s how I got in my first show. I walked in the door and Sterling says, "You wanna be in a play?"

AS: And it’s all thanks to Keith. Asking the question. Big brain storm. We went to our retreat and I said I wanted to do a youth festival. So, Sterling said "Go ahead and do it. You want to do it, then do it". And so I did it, and Young Tongues was born. I was the great instigator, then Shimi and I went ahead and did it. Lisa and Steve found some other young people that were active in the community for us to work with as coordinators and it was just amazing. I had never done anything like that before. It was so much work, and it was so rewarding at the end to just say we did this. People came and saw it, like the last night we had hip-hop djs, and break-dancers, and break-dancing on the screen. The audience had about six or seven people all over the age of 50. And it was like, how did this happen? Okay. I think they dug it. It was so much fun. I would also like to stay here for awhile, become part of the administrative staff after my apprenticeship kind of goes through. You know just work on more shows, more company work and present my own piece someday. You know, whatever it may be. I’ve seen all these people grow and do their own thing. That’s what I would like to do.

KH: Steve? What’s something you would like to do here that you haven’t done?

Steve Bailey: I was trying not to think ahead. Isn’t that a good question? Well artistically, I think music and sound is— I would like to score. Not write the music for something. I would like to really make a sound score that is really complex, which I think we are going to try anyway. That is an interest of mine. Remixing and that kind of stuff, I am really getting interested in that kind of stuff. The reason I am stumped is that maybe Jump-Start is a place where when you say you want to do something, you can do it, and I get to do what I want to do. It isn’t like there aren’t things that I want to progress to, or I can’t grow as an artist. I love to do lighting design and I say that directing is secondary, although I am doing a lot of it now. I really love this lighting design and I get to do a lot of it. I think I have grown in the last three years as a lighting designer in a way that I never imagined, just because of the work I get. The various work I’ve gotten. I think I am challenged all the time.

KH: I think it is a tricky question for anyone I would call a mid-career artist, because often what you would want to do is to do deeper and in slightly different ways what you have already done before. It’s not like, oh, all of the sudden you want to do a tap musical.

SB: I think what’s exciting me around Jump-Start is the education work. I think what is in the last year that has really got me, what is really jazzing me is this idea of doing what we believe art education should be, but with really different populations, like children who have been sexually abused. We are possibly entering into a program with adult mentally ill people who are living in homes. And so, those kinds of things are really exciting to us. To try and translate our techniques, or those things that we really believe in from elementary schools or public schools, which are really kind of insular institutions, to other kinds of public institutions. For me, I’ve really gotten jazzed about this whole connection between sexually abused children and arts techniques. What arts can do for them. I am reading all the research now, and what arts can do for them is just amazing. I think there is just an incredible opportunity for us and for a bigger audience to kind of get this.

KH: Only because this is the jump-around interview, and after this it will be more specific talking with one person, following a track, I would love to hear from different people how Jump-Start actually is organized. What’s the leadership and power stuff; where you are personally in it? Just know that I have read things about you. How there are long-term members, how some people are seen as leaders, but at the same time how all the staff are in the company. I do understand that. And at the same time, everyone has got their own personal hit on it. Don’t worry about saying things you think I know, because other people will listen to the tape.

FG: I just have to say that when I came here Sterling said "Be careful what you wish for because you might get it".

AS: That is so true. It should be on a plaque on the wall.

SH: What does that mean? What does that mean to you all?

FG: The reason that he said that to me, I remember the first time that I walked into the complex I said "I want to work here" and then like two years later I was working here. It means to me that your wishes come true.

AS: To me it means like Young Tongues or taking "Frontera" on tour. Lisa and I both wanted these things, and we got it, but we really, really got heavy work load. It’s wonderful, but it’s like be careful what you ask for because you might get it and then you are going to have to really try and keep it all together.

LS: Sometimes we get to thinking about whether we really want to voice what we want to do at a certain time. Chances are you are really going to have the opportunity to do so if you really want it. One of the things for me is that I’ve been wanting for the longest time to put some of my own work out there. I’ve always said it, and everyone says they are waiting for me to do it, and it hasn’t happened because of all the other work we have to do. That’s okay, because I am still doing what I love doing, and involved in more programs than I had ever dreamed I would be doing. For me, one of the things is I can’t believe I am making a living in San Antonio, Texas, as an artist. People see me, from schools and ask me, "Well what are you doing since you left the administrative job at college?" And I say, well, I am an artist, but I am still getting the chance to teach. "Are you doing okay? Are you getting by?" They are looking at me thinking, "Poor you". But I am okay. I’ve got plenty of work. And now we are sometimes having to turn down things, not because we don’t love doing it, but because our plate has gotten pretty full. Now we are having to pick up new plates. I can’t express how wonderful it is to work here because of the people. Our colleagues are also our friends. Probably the people that we hang out with the most are the same people that we work with and make decisions with. About administration: Our say is important. If you don’t like something you say it and it is taken very seriously. We do not move forward with any decision if somebody feels strongly about not doing it until we talk to them. That’s one of the ways that we make decisions. It comes all the way down to who gets to be in the company. Everybody has to agree and everybody has to be on that same page with you and say, "Okay we are willing to do this".

KH: Based on that, would you say that there was an organic way that you came about this or would you just sit down and call consensus? When you say everyone has to agree, does everyone just have to agree or is there an actual structure to do this?

LS: Both of the words that you used. Organic consensus. Because at some point we have to reach a consensus, but organically we talk together, and if someone is not quite budging, some folks will take turns with that person trying to figure out what is going on. If it takes us two weeks as opposed to two days that it would take on a regular structure thing then we’ll take that time. It’s important. So that, at the end the success is because everybody was in on it, everyone agreed to it based on the consensus. We do agree to disagree at times. It’s a good thing.

KH: Anyone else on structure, organization, power?

SH: I think people are hesitant to talk about it because it is very complex and when you hear it and say it in words it kind of gives not quite the impression. It is a fact that all of us know one part of what we do really well. You know like I do the gallery, I do the P.R. and I kind of know what is going on with that. Everybody has those areas that they do. Now Steve knows all the areas. It has pretty much been true that Steve has known all the areas. We are now at a point where I think Steve doesn’t know. It has gotten so complex, and so huge that he misses hearing things, he misses knowing about an area that he would have known about in the past. That’s okay. We’ve adapted to that. The power thing is an interesting question. I have as much power as I want. I don’t want any more power than I have. I think maybe all of us are able to set limits that we are comfortable with working at. There’s a part of what I do that is for me, that’s not for Jump-Start. And I want to keep the ability to do that. I think that is okay. That, in turn, nurtures the 85% part that I do that is for Jump-Start, that part of my life is fed by the part that is not for Jump-Start. And I’ve never ever felt that any direction that I wanted to go in— you know, I made this big leap into writing prose, writing fiction. I’ve had nothing but encouragement from the company, and it doesn’t even really effect the company other than my success is related to the company’s success. It doesn’t directly effect the company if I write a historical novel. But I feel very supported in that work. I couldn’t do it without them.

KH: Also the way I see Jump-Start, it’s not a defined agenda in that you could decide to start publishing novels and it doesn’t fall outside the realm of— The way I understand it is you basically present yourself in the largest sense as a production company, aren’t you?

SB: We are coming out with a play-works book this fall. It’s the performance works, but we are publishing our own book. Well, it is with a local house, but we are involved. I think it is really interesting. I want to say two things about Sterling, ’cause he popped me into stuff. One of them is that sometimes we struggle. One, there is a white man in power in this organization that is multiethnic and multidimensional. No matter how much I want to be democratic or participatory that is an issue. The other side of that — that I want to reflect that Sterling has called me on — is that leadership is important and to not back away from it. I feel that he has acknowledged my leadership in this organization and to not back away from that, but there are power dynamics. There are power dynamics around race. There are power dynamics around gender a lot. The two leaders of this organization are male. Although there is a lot of female participation, the two leaders are male. We are perceived outside, and I think it also happens inside, about gender issues. I would say we wrestle about participation constantly. It is a thing that has been a constant thing for Jump-Start. We started as an almost all-white company. This was three or four years into the company that we had a person of color in the company. Jump-Start is not only what it is today. It has evolved from a disciplined, experimental-based, white company, current with aesthetics to this place which is a very different place from where it started. For me, I know from around the country about power and politics and all that kind of stuff, it is very hard. I think there are very few organizations that have transformed themselves. It is very difficult when you start one way to get to this other way. We, for some reason, have figured out how to do it. Although we still struggle with it all the time, as does everybody. No matter what. I think we have really transformed. That is one thing that I would like to talk to you about. I would like to hear other people to talk about it. I think that is one thing that is very unique about Jump-Start.

KH: I think while we are capturing the history, for anyone that has the history, to not just stay in the last couple of years, that kind of whole thing is interesting. To me one of the things that I see is that ensemble theater projects, or performance projects are often a laboratory for not just a discussion around race and gender, but an actual laboratory for exercising our power politic in it. When groups fall apart because they can’t survive the discussion, I am often sad because usually what that means is those people leave that laboratory and it is often hard to replace. Often when I am working with people, often I encourage even when people are in an imperfect power structure, to go, "At least it is on the table in the world of ensemble theater and art projects." The work isn’t only what is happening between you, but it is also having a mythological or symbolic realm. One of the art projects that is going on is how you organize. It effects the world in the same way that putting on a performance and inviting an audience does. This effects your families and all that. This is me editorializing. I don’t think that the struggle around participation and inclusion, I don’t think that is ever over. But I also think that to be in that, to be consciously in that discussion, struggle and work that’s actually one of the gifts of a group like this.

SB: My final comment is that I want less power. That is as much my shit as everyone else’s. My struggle is always to have less power around the organization. I want to have less power. Everybody is pretty aware that is the struggle I face. I’m not saying that it is successful.

AS: Remember the other day, we figured out that you have all the power because you are the only one that reads the mail. It’s true.

SB: Look at the mail sitting for everyone to read! We have a structure for it and no one goes to read it but me. Information is power, and I have all the information cause I read all the mail.

KH: This will be a really strange aside... One of the things that I would recommend, like if I were a consultant, would be to hire a really top notch astrologer to do the charts of the whole company. One of the things that you see is that there are people who are more likely to read all the mail, and people that are more likely to clean a bathroom. For example, I am a bathroom cleaner, and a mail reader. I co-run a small space and it’s like I am really a bathroom cleaner, and other people aren’t. I’ve spent a lot of time, living collectively and working collectively, tripping on people who don’t do that. There are certain ones of us, and one of the ways that we consider to be good hosts is we are going to clean bathrooms, and other people it would never occur to them. And if it did, they would never do it. Now, I just kind of celebrate it. It’s like that’s one of the things I’ll do. But getting my astrology chart read in relation to others, you start to see these little ways. It is fascinating. And I was never a big astrology person. In the same way that we all have a story to tell, and we all have different gifts to give, we all have different roles to play in the organization. If there are too many people in an organization trying to play the same role, either some people are faking who they really are and really need to find themselves on a more deep level so that they are not constantly in competition, or they really are meant to play similar roles and they need to amicably split up and create sister organizations.

SB: My question to everyone is do we do this? We talk about it all the time. We try to let people do what they do best as opposed to giving them job descriptions. Remember?

SH: I think we are absolutely on the path, if we aren’t 100% there every time with every person. I think everybody knows that too. Granted we all do things that we would rather not do. They have to get done. Steve and I go back and forth about me writing press releases for the last five years, but I realize that I need to do that. I’m the best person to do that at this point. So, I give up other things to do that. To get back to the mail, for me it is overwhelming. It is too much for me to deal with. I can deal with what’s coming over the phone or what Steve says to me, and that takes all my time. I don’t want to know if there is an opportunity in there unless is gets to me in another way. It’s just a practical thing for me that I don’t do it. There is a real reason.

KH: Is there anybody else have something they want to say in this opening volley of getting a chance and starting to see the interview process happen?

AS: Hey Max, what’s Jump-Start to you? And why are you here?

Max Parrilla: It’s not for the bookkeeping, it’s not that, though that is fun.

KH: See, he likes it.

MP: To encompass all these other things that have been said, when I was asked to join and I did, since then I’ve left to go on to, as Steve said, bigger and better things, but they weren’t really bigger and better. They just looked it. It was weird because every time I’ve worked other organizations, when I’ve talked about Jump-Start, I’ve always said it as "we". When I’ve addressed it, "You know, this is what we do." And they go, "But you’re not there anymore." And I say, "Well, no, I am." I’m still part of the organization. And I attribute it to one thing that happened when I was a part of one of the other organizations. My mistake was to try to take this model over there and introduce it. But there was so much resistance to the model. It was foreign to everyone there. It was totally foreign to them. They couldn’t understand the model. The sharing that happens here.

KH: Could you say anymore about what you think the model is, or words you would use to describe it?

MP: Well it’s basically the sharing. That’s the model. I’ve said it before, we all share in the decision making. We share in the ideas, you know as violent as they become. The exchange of ideas. We share in that. And we do come to the consensus of what we want to do. The beauty of it is that we all realize that for the good of the company we go forward. Even though it’s like, I did not like that, but the compromise means everybody is willing to compromise. I remember when we had one meeting awhile back when we were talking about, well, the reason that we all hang around here so long is that generally we like everyone. We are around people we like and that’s what happens. The people who have left the company have left because they’ve moved away. I don’t think anybody has left the company that has stayed in San Antonio. People have stopped working for us, but they have left because they’ve generally moved away. Where I am there’s always the center. Jump-Start will always be the center of wherever I am working at. That’s the model. And I’ve learned now not to try and take that model over there. I’ve learned to just accept what their model is and to try within myself to just incorporate it. Instead of trying to incorporate it into their organization, I keep the model to myself. With what I am doing, I try to make it work because people just don’t want to do it. It’s really weird. They see something that works, but they don’t like the model. They just don’t. It’s too foreign to them. The people that come here, that work at Jump-Start they are drawn to it. It’s foreign to them until they come in and see it. Then they are like "Oh. Wow, this is a much better way to work." It really is. It is much more conducive to getting the most out of people. I see people who go somewhere else and they don’t work as hard. It’s really true.

DM: It seems like things happen organically, and I’m not sure how codified that organically is in anyone’s head, but it has appeared to me that there is this a kind of system of sweat equity with power, which is that if you want to get something done and you are willing to drive it and do it, then it can get done. And that’s a way the people have entree to getting what they feel is important, or what they feel passionate about. That’s what seems to function.

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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