Re-Imagining Actor Training in Community and Outside the Academy

So, hi everybody again. I'm Ashley. I'm the focus group rep for VASTA, the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, and this is a Vasta session. We have a bunch of other sessions today that are really exciting. If I can find them, I have them just pulled up. There we go. Um, so at 10:30 with Micah, we have Fitz Morris and Knight Thompson in Rossa Boxes. Uh, and then later in the afternoon, cohorts, collaborators, and conspirators. That's at 2:45. Uh, and then a last panel at 4:15, breaking out of our silos. Can act in class and voice class collaborate. So, some some good offerings today, unpacked schedule. Um, and if you want to stay up on the happenings, that's what the email is for. So, you will get an email from me, but you can always opt out. We're excited about our conference this fall, October 14 to 18. Is that correct? I think so. Uh, in Pomona at Cal State Poly. Uh, it's called Change Makers. So we're looking at all the shoulders on which we stand and then looking to the future. So that's going to be an exciting conference. That's it. I'm going to turn it over to this amazing panel. >> Good morning. >> Thank you all for being here so early. Um, we're here to talk about the actor training laboratoria which is uh a passion of my co-ch champion Mike Espinosa and I and we've been working on this I think for I think we met in 2009. Yep. Yeah. and um over similar scholarship. And out of that, what really was born was the book The Latinx Training, which created 25 chapters uh with several scholars looking at both the history of Latinx a sector training uh practices, pedagogy, and um and future applications. So out of that, we also created uh we began to create the uh actor training laboratory. >> Yeah. And I'll just say that um what I discovered when I was looking at what happened to Latinos in the industry was that there were absolutely no resources for them. And this was I mean years ago um before even 2009. It was a 2000 around the 2000s. I I started looking and there there were there was nothing. And so we also I I have monologues for Latino actors and then we co-edited Scenes for Latinx actors and scenes for Latinx actors too is coming out. But I I I bring this up because the problems of the early 2000s have not changed. >> If anything, they have continued. And we we kept thinking that there was going to be this Latino wave and it it never came. It never came. And if anything um the problems still exist. So from that we co-champion. So we've been reimagining actor training in community and outside uh the academy. So we we've been doing the work in the academy both of us. And then with the help of the Latinx theater commons, we uh we received a grant and we were able to create the Latinx actor laboratorio. And the yeah the call was >> so in creating this laboratory we sought to to change through this collective the reimagining and restructuring of actor training to investigate heritage identity practices examine history and acting methodologies to explore linguistic identity and dialectical representation. So these are the sort of the our provocations and questions that we thought about when we were trying to propose this to the Latinx actor uh Latinx theater commons. Uh what happens when Latin actors do not have to contextualize their own identities, culture, bodies, and existence to the faculty that teaches them? What happens when culture is embraced as part of your curriculum? What happens when you're invited to transform and expand your skills by an all latin faculty? What happens when you train in community is after training a predominantly in predominantly white institutions the only pathway for training and success? So with this incredible support of the Latino Theater Commons and um also the University of Wisconsin Madison, we were able to make a call out to actors in the community and the response was overwhelming. 35 applications with people from all across the field who wanted to be a part of this. We were only able to bring in 32 participants uh and then all of the teachers. We brought in teachers from all across. We brought in participants from all across the United States and Puerto Rico. And we brought in actor trainers at the top of their field from all across the nation. And and at the center of all of this is authenticity and belonging. How can we create a space where folks can come in and show up and be themselves? And that also included for the faculty. So we created also we scheduled as part of the very rigorous and ambitious uh schedule for the for the intensive weekend uh salon for the faculty to get together and really discuss ideas and out of that was also born that we're going to have as a a retreat because Latin faculty also needs spaces for us to commune with one another share scholarship share information, anecdotes and write scholarship together. So that's what's something that was born out of that. Um I want to a thing that I was I was going to add we had participants from all over including uh we we made a call for early to midcareer but we had applications from all the spectrums of careers seasoned Latina actors. We had an application from one actor who had just was just finishing an off Broadway show at the public. So the the the need for it obviously was very much so there was a lot of hunger to participate >> and it was a it was a three-day intensive and it began with a wonderful keynote by Shantel Rodriguez who that's the first chapter of the book um excavating Latinx histories in actor training. So Latinx actor training has been going on for a long time often in the datos and and that was I think very much an eyeopening experience for the participants because they didn't know their history and people were crying. that that's what was really very very moving was to for them to to be to realize um their belonging their their their place in in the field. Well, go ahead. >> Yeah. And in Dr. uh Dr. Shantel Rodriguez's keynote also was invited to give the keynote. Her keynote really began with an invitation of presente presente and and to me presente has a different connotation. It has a connotation of this sra album by ruben blades from the 1970s when I was a child in Puerto Rico and it and became sort of an anthem. And at the end of one of the songs called plastico there is a call for nations sort of like show up and be the change makers. This is what I was listening to when I was a kid. And it calls, you know, uh, Panama presente, Puerto Rico, presente, Mexico presente, and so on and so forth. But Shantal tied it has tied it together with using scholarship of Diana Taylor. And I'm just going to borrow this for a minute and bring Shantal into the room, sort of the the folks that have contributed. And she shared this by Diana Taylor. As much as um vestente is as much of an act, a word and attitude. Vente can be understood as a war cry in the face of nullification. It is an act of solidarity by responding, showing up, standing with a commitment to witnessing, a joyous accompanyment, an ongoing of becoming as opposed to static being, a gesture, a declaration of presence. And you want to tell us what happened with the fl the the the flags on the table and presenting calling to all of our ancestors? >> Yeah. Um that's well she just described it. It was incredible. It was incredible. Everybody um once again it was it was a joyous weekend. It was a joyous weekend uh with a lot of tears from the very very beginning. And and I think what's so interesting about Latin Da that is not understood is clearly it's not a monolith and there is so much richness and detail in each of the cultures and so to have them all represented there on the table and the groups coming together and yet we were all together as one. You know, I'm not sure that we introduced ourselves, our names. So, I want to make sure that we do that. So, I'm Micah Espinosa. >> I'm Cynthia Santos. >> Yes. And uh >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. And and what we're going to be doing for the rest of the session is uh we have so much to discuss obviously that we just jumped right into it without introducing ourselves. Um, but we're going to um contextualize a little bit about who we are and our role in the panels and then we'll go ahead and and move on to to all of our panelists here. So, um, Mike Espinosa, I'm professor um, directing and acting at the University of Wisconsin Madison. My role was I was the champion for the labatorio and yeah Cynthia Santos Decure she her and also along with Micah champion this laboratorio and uh do you want to talk about ourselves a little bit and I I after the last seven years I've been a associate professor adjective of acting at the Yale school of drama I am now widening my my uh resources uh to both directing and coaching ing uh at different universities. Uh I'm the artistic director for the Fitz Morris Voice Institute as well. So I want to give a shout out to that. uh the Fitz Morris voice work has been uh formative in actually being able to understand this query as to how do we um respond to um after training outside the academy and inside the academy it's been formative in that the values of Fitz Moore's voice work are very much a universal values that help me uh frame the understanding of Latinx actor training. So, I just want to give a shout out to that. No, we'll pass it on. >> And how about you? How about me? Hi. Uh my name is Joanne Yarrow. Um I was the artistic director for Theatro in Miami for 12 years. It was it was the only Spanish language theater conservatory and reparatory in the United States. Um it actually before me there was run by uh Veressa Maria. She the the theater itself lasted for about 48 years. Um also one of the oldest ones in in the country. And uh I was able when I came in it was they did two shows a year. It was very community-based and what I realized is that it was housed under Miami date college and under further investigation I couldn't find a theater conservatory in you know connected to a university that was all in Spanish. So, uh, my proposal when they hired me was I'm going to do a professional actor training program, which was what we did and was talked about in the book, chapter 4. And uh, and the challenges of that because Miami is very international in terms of its uh, South American, Central American um, population. And um and we went from when I came in two shows a year to uh 16 shows a year, international touring, international theater festivals, television show, animation company. I mean it I I needed a break after 12 years. But um but I it it was incredibly enriching and I love what you just said. Um it was actually also one of the few theater conservatories where we did teach two actors um their theater history and the importance of understanding that there was theater before the Greeks and and and the richness of that and where it comes from. So >> hi everybody uh uh my name is Gina Sandid Diaz. I am an associate professor of theater at Fresno State or California State University in Fresno. Um and I specialize in acting, directing uh but also my research uh looks into intersectionality and how how are we bringing intersectionality into the theater uh and how that can help us uh create more care center systems uh for theater making uh for belonging for everybody that's in the room etc. uh and so my role in in this uh project um has been uh really as as um a researcher that is accompanying the the process. So I was uh invited to come and join to observe to be present um and uh later on to reflect on this process. So, uh I'm here to support the the work uh and also looking forward to maybe writing uh some reflections about uh this panel and also the event that we had. Um I want to just mention briefly that um I teach in Fresno, California, which is also uh a place that has a rich history in terms of Latinx theater. Um, the theatricino was based in Fresno for a little bit in 1973 and my students didn't know that. >> Uh, and it's a it's a population that is 80% Latino. Uh, and they did not know that where they're living, where they're studying, you know, um, has really impacted, um, the trajectory of Latinex theater. And so, um, I just want to bring that up as, you know, to to segue into like what's happening here and how deep this, uh, these roots go and the impact that it can have when people learn, uh, who they are and where they belong in in the history. Thank you. I'd love to before we pass it on to Anna, I'd like to bring into the room present the other teachers who were part of the laboratorio Antonio Maris Michelle Lopez Rio >> Daniel >> Tony Mata who taught us musical theater. >> So um yeah >> yeah that was our >> and then also uh uh uh Ricardo Rocha who who could not be with us here but continues to write and investigate uh the the work alongside us. Great. Okay. Hi, I'm Anna Novak. I'm a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin Madison and um I work for the Fornes Institute which is a part of the Latinx Theater Commons and that is sort of how I was brought into this world. very grateful to the who really the women who have sort of seen me and championed my work a part of this specifically Juliana Mendes and now Micah who I said I heard this was happening. Micah and I actually both came to WMadison at the same time and I knew this was happening and I said please let me do anything I can do to help uh make this happen and so I served as the producer um of this project. Uh, but really it was a collaborative project and so I would be remiss if I did not say that this really was a um a producing role between myself and Jacqueline Flores who if you don't know Jacine Flores you should know Jacine Flores because she is the lifeblood of the LTC and she is an incredible person who just leads with so much care um in everything she does. And so really this was kind of like Michael said this was a a project that was the LTC coming together with Latinx actor training coming together with University of Wisconsin Madison. I think we'll get into that in the conversation about how we made all of these um work together. Um as the producer, I handled most of the day-to-day of the event. And I don't know if we mentioned this, but through the grant money, um the entire weekend was funded. So all of the flights were funded, all of the hotels were funded, all but one meal were funded, and they were also given a lot of resources. So that was at the beginning that was the most important thing that this was an opportunity for anyone who was interested to be able to come um regardless of whether they were able to. So um that was a really uh wonderful thing and we'll talk more about that. But I just want to say one small thing about the Latino Theater Commons. The commons approach is unique and the Latino theater commons is um it has transformed I think our field in very exciting ways. So everything is done in community. Decisions are made in community. It is extremely unique. So, if you don't know anything about the Latino Theater Commons, the Latinx Theater Commons, please uh investigate it. It it's really a beautiful model for how a community can come together and make change. And they they choose certain programming every 3 to four years. So, our programming was part of that selection. So it took us about two two and a half years to plan from from the minute that we received the yes to the actual laboratory was about two and a half years of planning to get to do everything that we needed to do. And the next the next event is going to be in San Diego and it's looking at Latinx musicals and um supporting new writers, composers, uh lyricists that are coming up and that I think it's like six new musicals that are coming up. So it's very very exciting work that is happening in the Latinx theater comments. And I'll just say just we brought the other teachers into the room. We um we all worked as a team on this project and we had a committee through the Latinx theater comments that worked on this. So in addition to everyone we've mentioned also um Andrew Aren Valdez and Danielle were also a part of our committee and were there that weekend and and instrumental in making this happen. And and we met together a subcommittee to read every single one of the applications. We had a criteria of selection for for the participants. we had pretty much decided that it was going to be early to mid-career. Although, you know, it titrated a little bit between certain folks. Um, but everybody pretty much was able to enter as like one cohort. They're still very much together as a cohort. Um I want to just talk about the resources too because we we had um >> I'm going to let you listen to one of the participants like reflection of it and then from that we move on. >> Okay. I feel like I'm gonna explode if I don't tell you guys about the Latinx actor training mode I thought I did last weekend because it was like lifech changing and I just want to talk about it. So buckle up because it's my dayong video. Basically last weekend I flew to Madison Wisconsin with my bestie Alejandro. Um, we're both from the African people at Cleveland and we were selected to be part of this cohort of Latin actors from all around the country and we would participate in this weekend of workshops taught by all Latino professors and scholars and and trailblazers of the Latino theater community. And I I really didn't realize the magnitude of what this opportunity was going to be like until I got there and we were in this like circle at our welcome session and one person started crying and we all started crying and I was like, "Oh yeah, we needed this." cuz like it's so rare to have a space in which you are able to be the truest version of yourself without having to um like change something about yourself to protect yourself, especially as a person of color. Um when we enter theater spaces and predominantly white spaces in general, it's like you have to perform a version of yourself that is palatable and um and kind of like fake it till you make it sometimes. didn't have that imposter syndrome such as myself. And so to be in this space where we all kind of understood each other, we didn't have to like explain ourselves um and we could speak whatever language came naturally to us in the moment. Um you can't underestimate like the importance of that kind of space. So the whole weekend we learned um from these incredible professors um different movement, speech, voice techniques. We worked on text from Lin scripts. Uh got to know all of these different playwrights. Got to know the history of Lin theater in the US. Plus doing other acting exercises like freaking check off and I hold listening to bad bunny and and learning the text to uh the comedy of errors, but it's a bilingual adaptation that is super conversational between English and Spanish. And it was just so empowering to know that we are not alone in this. Um because for a lot of us it's we're the first ones to go to college in our families, especially the first one to go to college for an art form. Um and maybe you didn't even know you could go to school for theater, such as myself, until like literally junior or senior year of high school. Um and and it feels like we're doing all of this alone, but this experience kind of taught us about our ancestors in Latin theater specifically. um those that are in the room with us who made all of this possible um like Cynthia and Micah and and Marisa and everybody and also the people who started it, Maria Fornes, um Luis Valdez, all of these giants of Latin theater that sort of fostered this space for us to grow and to be seen in the theater world and to know that like it's not true that there's not enough Latinos doing theater and and act and to play these roles and to um and to do these plays. And to see these people teaching us and all that they've accomplished in their lifetimes really inspired me um to kind of open up to other possibilities that I didn't think were possible. I think um after I left Chicago to move back to Cleveland, I felt like I would accidentally uh stop following my band dreams and as an actor, as a director. Um but this kind of like reinspired me to broaden my horizons to know that more is possible than I think is possible. And um and I feel like I'm in like a a a transformative kind of transitiony space where I'm like, what else can I do? What where else can I go? And like what else can I learn? It's very emotional. much that. But it's also really great because now we have this whole like what's a group chat that is still blowing up a week later um with just resources of people trying to help each other get representation and like here are some place you should read. Let's have a play reading club on Zoom and when are we going to visit each other and it's really like beautiful this community that started from just three days of being together. Um, and I'll never forget it and really hope that there's more so that other people can experience this and maybe we can experience it again. So, thank you again to the Latinx theater comments for making this possible because I think it was even more impactful than I'm sure you expected it to be. Um, because I think you changed at least 32 lives in one weekend. Yeah. >> Yeah. All right. Um well, with that, we're going to we're going to uh move on to uh a little bit of a moderated conversation. And so I have three questions for our panelists. And uh yeah, let's get started. Um so uh first what have you seen as educator and as artists in the field that propelled you uh that propelled the need for this book for the laboratorio and for the future institute. Um yeah please be specific about what you might want to bring up as someone who moved here from Puerto Rico when I was 15. Um I the entire history of my actor training was always well you need to become someone else transform into someone else. Being yourself being a Latina is not viable in this industry. So try to transform yourself into someone else. And I think it was during those moments that I began to think there has to be another way. There has to be another way in which actors like me, often I was the first one and only in the room, could enter a space without having to immediately abandon who they were, who I am. So, can we begin to work with actors and have them transform from themselves into what that is and then at the end of that project come back to who you are because we're transforming for the character, not to change the individual, their accents, their history, their identity, their last names, whatever, right? Their bodies. So I knew there had to be a better way. So for me, I think this is something that I have this been a charge of mine. I've been thinking about doing this. This has been the the Jenna Aqua the pang in my tummy since I was that age and meeting with Micah and finding knowing that there's another human being that knew who sort of was having a similar trajectory or could have other ideas that we can combine together. But I and early in my career I started working at the um volunteering as a board member of the screen actors guild and at that moment which was in the early mid 90s early 2000s we had a 4% representation of actors and this is across all of like the small parts to the big parts 4%. And yet our community was always uh showed always showed up to all of the openings of films and was the biggest uh consumer of media and yet we were consuming media that did not represent us. During that time I was able to um advocate for the largest in increase of the Spanish language contract because we have on top of that we have a separate contract for Spanish language commercials than in English which is a different story different panel. So during that time um uh I was able to do that but the point I'm making is that this is something that I've been doing since the very early 90s very beginning of my career. I feel really strong about it. I feel and I also this is also one of the reasons I went back into academia from a working actor because I was sitting across the the table from producers were saying but there's no well-trained Latina Latino actors. >> I said yes they are. Where are you looking? They are everywhere. And I understood that if I wanted to change it I had to go to the beginning. I had to go to training and that's what how I sort of began this this work and um and I still think we do need to to change the training and I'm not talking about because our students our students I'll stop talking a second our students are not also going to be not all going to be actors they're going to be directors going to be producers and alongside their classmates they're learning that if we're absent, they don't need to advocate for our representation. So, we need to teach everybody, that representation is important. So, the advocacy is for everybody, not just for the Latino community, but certainly we exist and for our students. Uh yeah, I want to kind of piggyback off of that because even though you say it's for another panel, if I'm training actors and specifically I was training actors in Spanish, right, to do what? To work where, right? At the end of the day, they were going into the field. And if just so that you have the context, I'm doing a commercial and I and the commercial is in English and I get paid $2,000 for that commercial. I'm the exact same actor and now I'm going to do the exact same commercial but now I'm doing it in Spanish. I get paid $300. >> Wow. Just so that you have the context of that and the inequity of that. And what the other component of it is that there are more Spanish speaking people in the United States than any other Spanish speaking country in the world except for Mexico. >> There's more Spanish speaking people here than the country of Spain. So the consumerism but also the fact that where are we you know there is a need for for the celebration of the the this kind of training. Um, and the reality is is that it's not just, you know, when we talk about training and what you saw in the video and I see it I also work uh I'm the director of community uh engagement at Syracuse stage which is affiliated with Syracuse University. So even though I don't work for the university, I work for the theater, I work I see a lot of students and um and they come to me because they're losing their minds. They they miss their families. there's no community for them and they all end up in my office and um say can you direct a show for for us >> or something like that. We I I'm also affiliated with the department of education as part of SA stage and what's missing is is the sense of community. If you're the only one or one or two that is in this institution, where do you find your community? And the community could be just something like I do you have a capacito? I need a capacito right now. Right? It could be something as silly as that that I may not be so comfortable to say over here. But also if if my friends understood they don't have to be of my culture to understand and celebrate and get it because I was able to get yours. Why can't you get mine? Right. Um, so I think that that's a a a component and I was just so honored honestly. Uh, Micah and Cynthia, you know, reached out to me and um, and I have, you know, some people have stage fright. I have writing fright. So I called in every week crying my eyes out. Um, but I didn't realize until I started this process the importance of what we were doing. Uh uh the other thing about that even though it was a conservatory, I didn't grade anybody. I said no grades. How do I grade? How do I grade? You show up, you do the work or get out. It's very simple. And these students came and they were older. They came from all over Latin America from their theatro, you know, their squaes from where they were training to come into this country and start from zero. I'm going to start my training again so that I can connect these two. And we had uh teachers from Cuba, Colombia, Spain, Venezuela. each of them bringing their not just their talent in terms of choreography or text or whatever the case may be but also their kind of celebration of cultures also within uh you know Spanish language we have the everybody's like oh can you sound more Mexican which is really like you right but >> right the idea of the celebration of all the accents you know Colian speak completely different from Cubans, speak completely different from Panameanians, right? Puerto Ricans. And there is a a whole celebration even in the accent just as there is uh in English as well. So being able to connect that but also find that why are we doing theater right now is really important. really under those students that that did the shows they were completely invested as this show is life and death for them and also in terms of theater history I worked with uh Dr. at least at risk um who just came out with a dictionary of Latinx theater history of the United States. It is a two volume two volume. Uh you can grab it at your university. It is absolutely incredible to have this amazing resource and for these students to to learn the history of the of theater from the country that they were coming from. >> And it was really incredible. Yeah, we we can either Should we move on? You want to move on? >> Um, >> well, that is the time we had. >> Yeah, let's move on. Let's move on. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, all right. Uh, within the the social context and the historical moment that we find ourselves, um, the laboratorio becomes a radical act. uh can you contextualize what the laboratorio means in this landscape and how it impacted you too as faculty and practitioners? >> Sure. Um so this can um this speaks to the first question and the second question which is um the lens through which Latinos are seen in the United States. Last last night I I I was crying because my my father was a a a person who who loved the United States. He he he was from Mexico and he came here and he instilled a love for the United States and I started thinking about how he would feel about this moment and he was the man who took me to Broadway to see a Broadway show. He was the person who instilled a in much of Latino culture there is a love for singing and dancing and so it's a natural thing that that that of course we have that and um it makes me very sad this moment and that affects Latinx students on a really deep level and I think that this particular generation very much is feeling that uh and it it's different. I I I did not know about Latinx theater until I went to graduate school where I meta present. We need to bring him into the room. um at that point he was he was the first Latinx uh PhD scholar to bring that work really front and center and and meeting him and finding out that there was a a place where I belonged and then going into the academy and meeting students who were hungry for belonging and community and trying to fill that and always being the person to fill that. and I did a study called Insights into the challenges Latino students face while training in theater and I started looking at monologue books and things like that and a book of a thousand monologues there was not one for Latino actor not one a thousand monologues so that that that where where do I belong where is my community that continues now and it's even worse particularly under um this gaze and I'm going to pass it over to Anna who will uh let you know a little bit about some of the things that happened uh during the LAR uh to sort of show you the inequities that continue. >> Yeah. Um I'm just going to talk a bit about Madison and the role that Madison played. Um because I think that what we have seen and what we continue to see is that Madison and the community of Madison impacted and affected the labor as much as the labor impacted Madison. we were able to bring local Latino actors um into the training that live in Madison who are now my co-conspirators, if you will. Um we have a Spanish language troop at WMadison that um I'm sort of the the baton is being passed over to me and they have now all said we're not students but can we be in it? And I was like yeah you have no choice. Um so it's really wonderful to see that and I think that that was really important. I think one of the first things that was ever said to me when I joined the project in August, it was like, "We're starting this project. This is in Madison. What does that mean for the Madison community? And how are we bringing the Madison community, the indigenous Madison community into the room?" Um, it's been a really difficult week for the city of Madison. If you saw on the news, um, a black Latino man was murdered by the police three days ago in Madison. And um it just goes to show that like that I think sometimes uh people forget about Wisconsin, forget about arts in Wisconsin, forgot about, you know, Latinx arts in Wisconsin. Um and this work is really was I think a wonderful way to uplift the we're going to maybe you want to talk about Dane County Arts a bit. >> Yeah. Um, Day County Arts um, supports Latino initiatives and they very much uh, luckily I think the community has said to me, when are we doing it again? So, I hope that we can do it again. Um, but I but I want to say something about that weekend and what was happening that weekend. That weekend, ICE was in the airports and there was a huge ICE presence and not far from Madison is also Minneapolis where ICE has had a huge presence and the community has been coming out and activating against ICE as as you know. So all of that has ripple effects. It affected our participants. We had one participant who did not feel safe to come and chose not to come because it just was too dangerous. So this is the environment that we're trying to create in. Um so it's it's a it's a challenging time. >> Absolutely challenging. It's challenging to use our voices to speak Spanish and not being attacked for using our native tongue. Um and I and I wonder you know just looking into the future I just wonder what are the students how this how are we going to encounter students 5 10 years from now after living in this moment where they did didn't feel free enough to express themselves in their native tongue because it was dangerous and instead of expanding they've actually atrophied because something that was very inherent to themselves now has been taken away or they protected because they could they didn't feel safe expressing themselves in the classrooms or in institutions where it's not allowed. It's not invited. Yeah. Um I had a thought just left my mind. Um so to close this section uh I would like to gather some thoughts on replicating this experience and refining the model uh into one that other people can replicate. Uh any thoughts on that? >> We've already expanded the one one note on just the laboratorio. So in the same manner in which the the foress institute sort of grew out of the Latinx theater comments we've begun to form an instituto so it's a Latinx actor training instituto and in this institute the idea is to as funding allows uh to create uh summer gatherings or summer training congress where we can actually have folks come in and spend some time with faculty and train and or have institutal classes that will be going around the country in different places maybe hosted by a university or hosted by a theater um to be able to access actors who need this work um taught by Latin faculty. So that's one model, that's one idea um that's coming out of this, but then there are other I I think I'll take it more into a a poetic view of it. I think what does it mean to to be a Latino and in the US or really anywhere? And often it's to to to be uh like I said very much an um sometimes an American um a Latino American that belonging um but also an an immigrant um or somebody who's new to a land. And what's been really interesting about the Malong book and the scene book is that it's been used um a lot in London in in England for students who are uh from other cultures. So I think what I'm trying to say is that the experience of belonging and of replicating this model means about being attuned to identity development, attuned to where students are coming from. Um attuned to how do we make community? How do we celebrate culture? And so I think that looking at at at that through through this lens a bit. What is this model? This model is something that celebrates culture. This is a model that um invites belonging. This is a model that says community matters. So it's a it's a question of values and celebrating those values. In terms of replicating producorial models, um something that I think was really successful in our work was um utilizing collaboration on the productorial level as like sort of a a radical act for sort of imagining um how we could change um the academy because I know this is called outside the academy. Um, and I I think what I saw in that is working with Jacqueline who is from the LTC which is a creative common sort of Jaclyn is from the commons and then I'm from WMadison. And I think at first the the institution wants to disorient us and wants to separate us and wants to say you do this and and you do that. But that was never the case. Like it it was never that like I would do the the institution stuff and Jeff would do the theater stuff or the stuff. We were always doing things together. she was as involved in the grant routing as I was in the LTC funding conversations. It was really important that we were there for each other because um I think when you're putting forth a project that is so deeply rooted in care, the way that you keep it um the way that you produce longevity is to have the same amount of care for the people making the work. So, this was as much about like the training space as it was about the model to make the training space, the the committee that we had together and how we were listening to each other and showing up for one another. Um, you can lose that because we're we're so much about making the space for the actors and making the space for the participants, but there was equally really a level led by Cynthia and Micah for all of us to be caring for each other as the makers of this space. And I'll just quickly say that the important thing also that is the hunger after graduation. >> So after after after the academy what happens after the academy um that was just um really astounding when the applications came in 132 and that there was a quick call too. So, so it was there's a lot of hunger to think about what happens afterwards. >> It was hunger for the next level. >> So, our thought is if we could we we're working on hopefully getting another grant that the next level being being folks who have a little bit more training because we weren't able to invite um those students. >> Sounds good. >> All right. So this is the audience participatory part of our section. All right. So actually before I get started I'm just curious uh raising hands um how many of you are teachers in at your institutions just professors. Okay great. How many of you have more than five Latino actors in your program? More than five. Great. More than 10. Great. Fantastic. All right. So just you know getting kind of a sense for us like who you're kind of working with but also to find out a little bit from you some questions about maybe a little bit of this format a little bit of um you know how how are students um brought into your institutions you know and and what access to like what we were just talking about monologues scene York plays, right? And theater history. I'm curious, is there anyone here that does teach um Latinx theater history at their institution? >> I do. >> Right. So, and just I kind of also proposing what would that what would that look like for you and and what do you think how that would benefit you? any I'm just going to first open it up to any questions, but I was just kind of curious about that questions. We weave it into our curriculum, so there's not an actual course, which is disheartening because when, as you mentioned before, they start to learn about history, their history, Latinx theater. Oh, some and then you see their trajectory start. But like you say, um, how do I get them to the next level and how do I get them the pathway to a professional career down this avenue, right? Because I work with Tajion in San Jose, but there's no housing, there's no travel there. So, how do we how do we make that pathway happen or an internship specifically, etc., etc.? >> Absolutely. I I'm also curious, how many of you have um been involved or directed plays that are from Latinx playrights? >> Okay. And yeah, so how has that experience been for you with your all your students? >> Um I it was a long time ago. I'm hungry for it. Um, my mother's side of the family um is largely Puerto Rican and um I grew up with this world that was in the intersection and um the play was about the Pino referendum in Argentina and how and I think about it all the time because somehow that world saved themselves from utter apocalypse by basically ousting a dictator. And um and I think about it now just because of the parallels, but um it was so delightful to be essentially I was in it. I was just directed in Spanish and um I always just feel also like the white girl and I'm always afraid to talk about it actually >> in a weird I feel like that even with my cousins >> even though we grew up very closely together but we don't see each other much anymore but like I don't you know I I was thrilled that Bad Buddy was going to Puerto Rico but I didn't even really talk to them about it that much weird because I don't want them to think that I'm like, "Oh, somebody's coming to Puerto Rico like that." It just I gets very self-conscious. >> But yeah, you know, I think you touch upon something that's, you know, very interesting that when we think about what Latinx people should look like. Um, this idea that there are a lot of blonde, blue-eyed, uh, you know, Latin people out there, right? We have this idea. I uh directed a play by Richard Hellison where it was about two uh mothers, two Latin, it's a short play, it's fantastic called um and one they were they both gave birth and one could only speak English and the other one could only speak Spanish, right? But I but I cast the one that could only speak Spanish as a blonde Argentinian woman, right? Right. And the one that could only speak English is a darker speak Columbombian woman. Right. And I remember the audience reaction was like, "Oh, that's so weird to us. We're not these ideas and these paradigms, these stereotypes that we've been taught that this is what you look like." And it's very interesting that we're still even internally feel. My name's Joanne. That does not sound. Okay. I put in the Maria in there in the middle for spice. Okay. So, it's it's crazy. When I came to Miami, the Miami Herald wrote, "The new direct director of the Romeo is Joan. With a name like that, we don't even know she can speak Spanish." That was the lit Miami Herald, right? >> So, I get it. But it's but it is a mix. We all look completely different here. And um and and there's Afro Latino representation as well. >> And something I didn't and and something I didn't mention before was um indigenous of course. Of course. >> Yes. Absolutely. But thank you for for sharing that. So also just in terms of I'm again curious in terms of what kind of community partnerships do you have with your organizations with maybe Latino uh organizations or groups? Is there any crossover? >> Yes. Um I can uh speak for uh our community of instructors that are that teach Latinx theater. they did or we did um Chavez Ravine >> and then the local businesses came out and also supported um uh the play um and also had we had a community story hour and because it took place in the community of Los Angeles. So that's something that we're always trying to build into the curriculum with our and and also just in terms of um outreach admissions, how many how many students audition for your programs or apply for your programs? How do you see that um coming into your institutions in terms of >> and what are the challenges these students that are watching? >> Yes. I can speak to that a little bit. Um, in terms of the partnerships, we have a theatrical Chelsea in Boston. Um, and I sent a email this past spring saying, "Hey, can we do a workshop on casting and like what you would like to hear um, in the casting room, if you have a play that's calling for a specific accent, what would you like to to hear?" And so, I think we're going to maybe get that off the ground. We're excited about that. Um, but in terms of recruitment, it it's it's been really interesting. So, I I'm I'm Brian, but I'm a No kid, if if anybody knows that reference. Um, so my my family did not, you know, grow up speaking Spanish because my grandfather came here in the 1930s and you didn't, you know, even though his name's Julio Rivera, you you don't you try to fit it, right? And so it didn't teach my my uh mother and my aunt and uncle Spanish and it's just come down from there. But I found it very important when I go to do audition outreach to uh offer that part of myself. And that was a really big shift for me because I don't like to offer that part of myself. I'm a white lady in the room for all intents and purposes. Um and I'm not trying to I don't want to be seen as like appropriating something that isn't mine. But I found that the kids really appreciate it and it's it it's like a very important piece to them and I think we've gotten I raised my hand for 10 plus Latina actors in our program. We have more than that. We have a lot of Latino students in my program. Um and we program our season accordingly. So I think we're doing a good job with that. But I think there is it what I'm hearing from you all and I do see this. It's important to have to elucidate any connection you might have to make folks feel like, oh, I'm going to be okay there. I'm going to be welcome there. Um, and I credit a a faculty member of color who's a dear friend of mine for saying like, you should you should talk about that. That's important. Um, but we also recruit a lot down in Miami at some of those schools there. I can't think of names of the schools, >> the high schools. >> Yes. I almost said ocean, but that's in California. Um, >> oh my gosh. >> Yeah. Like Miami is like new school. >> Yes, they do. New World. New school. >> Yeah. So, we've had students from that program every single year. And I think that's because they're going back and saying, "Hey, this is a decent program. You're going to be okay." Um, So that's that's been going well >> that you know that's interesting because um one of the students that's in the book I had to encourage her. She she applied for school in Chicago went through the audition process got all the way up to the audition and went I can't do it >> next year we're going to do it again. I'm going to hold your hand. We're going to do it again and you better show up because then the Latina Chaa comes out right and I'm like I want you to go do this audition and you'll be okay. Yeah, >> but my accent, I speak English with an accent. Will they will they connect with me? So, that's also one of the concerns I think of students entering programs that if they speak English with an accent, and it doesn't have to be Latino, it could be from any other culture of the fear of coming in with an accent, which is another um question um that I have. I just also want to kind of uh connect. My husband is, you know, ger German Germanic Australian, right? Um but he we he connect when we were in Miami, he connected with a Latino playwright and they co-wrote plays together. >> So there isn't there isn't this I don't want to the the question of appropriation is how can we combine forces, >> not just hey, you're over here and I'm over here, right? So, you know, again, the question of first of all, how do we deal with accents coming into the classroom? >> I I think I I want to going to touch in because this is sort of like it's a chapter 10 and 11 book. Um, I just had a conversation with an actor that I've known for a while and I'm not going to gender them. Um, and they graduated from a program with their masters in fine arts. uh didn't think that they didn't get cast in a Shakespeare project, although they saw all of their classmates get cast in a Shakespeare project because of their accent. Their faculty didn't believe that they deserved it. And the harm that was caused to this actor is so profound. I have invested a lot of time in nurturing this human being back to life and trying to strengthen their voice back to life. I'm a Fitz Morris certified teacher. I'm a Knight Thompson speech work teacher. I just finished my first year of certifying with Paty Rodenberg. And I can tell you with certainty that you do not need to sound a particular way to speak Shakespeare >> and the harm that this human has has undergone. We continue to do this. We continue to teach. Katherine likes to say teach what teach what you know. Teach what's in front of you. teach what you know. Well, many teachers are teaching what they know or the manners in which they were taught and those modes be are replicated and humans like the human I've been trying to nurture continue to be injured. We have participants who are asking us for participants from are asking us for support into auditioning into graduate programs. and wondering whether or not they need to shift their sound in order to audition. And if you can't enter spaces, if you ever recruit students and you're going to recruit students and say, "Come on in because I want you to be part of our program." You have to be allin. >> You have to be all in to train these human beings. >> And if we don't change the training, the industry won't change. Yeah. So, uh, the other thing that you touched on that I think is another part of the Corine is I'm not Latino enough. That is another really big component of the Latinx experience is um needing to fit into um a a particular gaze of of the other uh rather than being able to be fully oneself. And I really want to recommend that if you don't know the canon, if you don't know the Latinx playwrights that are out there, the work is incredible. It's incredible and it's universal and the stories are universal. such beautiful work. And and to this day when when students pick up the book and they start reading some of the the playrights that are out there and the stories that are there for them, it's it's illuminating. It's that just that alone just providing the the names of the playwrights and and the the uh one of the most exciting moments of the laboratorium was we brought in monologues and we just had I had them copied and we put them so instead of everybody drinking everybody was grabbing monologues and oh this one's really great and this one's really great. It was just a very exciting moment for everybody to just be handed that these big stacks of monologues that they could go through that just being provided that material was such deep fun. Can I can I see the book? >> If you you all work at institutions and so if you um would like to leave here and do something, I do this all the time, but you can do it too. If your institution does not have a physical copy of this book, you fill out a form and they'll buy it. If they say no, you go to their office and you tell them this needs to be in my library. >> We gave all the participants walked away with a copy >> in their goodie bags. What do you have the bag? So they we we created these little we want them to have resources. So, they walked away with the Latinx actor training book and either either Luis Valdez's book or Marisa Chas's book um the mythic myth and the actor uh and just lots of resources. We wanted them to be equipped nurtured minds as well as bodies. >> Yeah. >> I I want to add >> and then somebody over there as well. >> Oh, so sorry. Um uh so first of all, thank you like in the big thank you for your project and your commitment to this project. It is so important and I'm almost in tears myself in gratitude. Um I want to say that the monologue I want to pitch for the monologue book which I use in my acting one class which is um very broad. I actually um and it works really really well and they're not I don't I was one of the people who did not raise my hand for having more than I'm in Vermont. um and while students come from all over and we do have a good representation of Latino or Latina Latinx students um who are both United States or from other parts of the world. Um they are not necessarily acting students or theater people. they're there because they're, you know, they theater still and for many reasons doesn't feel like a viable um uh career path for those students in particular. And I know that uh you know, I've seen that in various institutions where I've been. But it it's great when they do come to the acting class and I'm able to, you know, not only use I've actually used the monologue book for for the whole class of which Latina students are a minority, very much a minority. Um I I in my in the in the theater in the the other way that the students are feel represented is in like you're talking about the playrights is in the contemporary Latinx playrights course that I'm so grateful to teach and where you see students arrive because like oh my goodness there's a literature there that you know and that it's both interesting to students who are non Latin but also Latin students and it's a way to kind of um if they're not necessarily interested in becoming actors at least to grow an appreciation for not not only Latin theater but theater at large and and I just I I just am grateful for the again what you said Joanne as well about making you know making sure that we offer this these access points to theater and particular kinds of theater making particular cultural theater um uh to students who are um both Latin and non-latin as we do with African-American drama as we do with Native American and First Nations drama But these are just all these are echoes of of gateways into making not only our academy more inclusive and making our students feel included in this in this work but also how we change the field and through the field how we change the reality of our world because it's this kind of this kind of work that is about being an antidote or being a response or being a resistance to the thing that you were talking about Micah the pain that you're feeling the pain that so many of us are feeling in this image that we have of this world of this government that is being um corrupted >> complicated questions. Um I really love this idea of change the uh training change the industry but I found at an institution where I worked the institution and the community the neighboring community has such a divide where even if students might feel other or minority in the in their college or university there may be a very rich community that they identify with or or don't feel welcome to come to the institution. >> Yes. >> Um so if you're talking about community engagement and and maybe um uh welcoming and including uh community members. Uh I have had a really hard time compensating those community members even through huge institutional grant programs because they they can't be compensated in the same way a faculty member can be compensated which feels like an academy problem >> um and an expert problem right so I just wonder if there's any um ideas about how to like because I think I think budgets are statement. Someone once said that to me and I think if we can compensate community members if they help it help students um uh not only feel representative but be repres representations like how do we how do we chip away that like town gown things first but then how do we also um quite sincerely value the the work that people from the community might be doing with any students in the academy regardless of how they identify So, so just to clarify, when you say compensate community members, what are you asking these community members to do? What what are they what are they coming in to do? >> Uh, so for example, at my former institution, they have pedigogy and action workshops and they have a community engagement pedigogy and action workshop. Any faculty member that's sharing any kind of expertise or experience gets a segment, >> right? >> And the community member gets lunch. >> Oh goodness. No. But it's an institutional obstacle. It's not. Do you see what I mean? Like I I feel like that's the other because I think that's kind of microcosm of how you change the industry. >> So I just don't know. And that's with like a melon brand. >> So I it so then they don't want some of the reason they don't want to come to the campus to even share their story, >> you know. And this is a a city in which like it's a sister city to Mexico. Like it's like there's there there are people there that there would be a reciprocal benefit I think >> but without without that value it becomes really difficult. >> So why could it why couldn't you offer that community member the same segment? >> I I have the same question. No, no. I mean, if you were if you were inviting a Broadway director to come in who's not in academia >> uh to to do a master class, you would you would, you know, uh you would give them their whatever their segment is to to come in and you would write that into the grant. If you're asking somebody who has a specific skill in the community, which is relatively the same thing, different context, right? Why isn't I'm I'm confused. >> Well, that is a challenge with the grant itself, you know, because I think, you know, that in the way that the grant is being funded in and sort of the allocated the funds because if it's supposed to be for everybody, clearly it's not happening. >> Correct. I mean, we have a middle grade in Vermont and holy cow, I wish that we I could do that and I can't. I can't do that because the the community that I work in uh and live in doesn't have like that kind of interest where they're not interested and don't have the resources to do theater. my goal. But anyhow, >> the point is that the Melon grant that I am able to access that is about community engagement um is is supposed to and does and might make sure it does pays the participants from the community a stipen to engage with the students. Um the I one I would recommend like see if you can find what the grant like proposes because there may be some shenanigans happening in which case your people who are overseeing and and and you know making the rules about how people get paid or don't get paid and I get it you know there's funds and da um but uh and sharing is probably a long word but some kind of way in which they're reading the grant and not adhering to the to what the grant says because Melon is all about community. Those Melon grants are all about community, you know, respecting community and creating engagement and then being reciprocal, you know, and and providing funding for the people who engage because that's the value there. Um the second thing might be as opposed to just maybe doing it yourself is if you have allies among your colleagues who also feel this outrage or frustration with the way that the funds are being you know distributed or allocated. Um the that you might find co cohesion among them to come to the people who are uh organizing and and distributing the funds or making the rules about how the funds get distributed and and petition for in a re-evaluation of how those funds were made. I mean, there's there's ways that you can just kind of go in maybe go to the source, go to Melon and go and I don't even like get your school in trouble, but go to Melon and look at what the grants themselves articulate and then, you know, use arm yourself to go to your people who are organizing funding and just say, "Look, what what you're doing is unconscionable and I cannot in good conscious and I want to bring these people. They are experts in their in what they do and they deserve to get funding and just I mean it's a it's a battle and I'm sorry but you know >> I just think it has to happen at the design level of the grant or or any or any gesture. >> Yeah. I think in the universities it comes down to paperwork and people not wanting to to do it and so then it becomes oh well we can't you get you you get the automatic we can't do that because um this form will have to be filled out and this will have to be for filled out and um um so there's ways to do it >> but it you're just going to have to be the squeaky wheel. >> Yeah. I I you know just so that in terms of systems that can be created for this. So at Syracuse stage we have a thing called artistic ambassadors >> and so these people now you as an artistic ambassador get all their paperwork done >> so that if in some random say oh I want to bring you in there's not this slew of paperwork to get you a check >> right um I work also you know with the indigenous communities uh upstate New York and hood same thing we do pay our you know artistic consultants if we're doing anything that is uh working with indigenous work. Um, so I think that finding again it's these loopholes that you want to try to find but maybe determine predetermine hey let's get some u community pillars who are my four five six community leaders that may be oh if I am you know we have uh a a Latinx or a Latino uh children's theater in Syracuse it's the oldest all Spanish language they they're doing Bernarda Not kidding. Last last year. >> They're 10. >> Oh, that's phenomenal. >> So, so I I if I'm connecting with them, I'm going to the the director of that program. And so if there's something that I want to do with anybody, he make I'm his he's and he's one of our artistic ambassadors, >> right? So same is with the Vietnamese community. We um work with um in the deaf community, you have ASL, but we have a lot of people from uh India and from uh you know, Nepal specifically. So there's Nepalese sign language, which is different from ASL. So we have uh Nepalese sign language interpreters. So how what are what are the niches in the community that you want to connect to? And I have a contact for the Nepoese community for the deaf nepoese community. Right. So but I think just I I hear what you're saying and and I think it's true. is kind of saying, well, this is what's right because at the end of the day, why are we doing theater? >> Right? I I hold back that why if it's if if we're not making the world better with the person s sitting across the room with us, how do we expect to change the world? So we have to kind of constantly remind people that in institutional systems sometimes the system is snuffing out the reason why we want to do this in the first place >> and we want to kind of shift that and change that. >> Yeah. And I think that's what Olga you were bringing up uh in terms of um our stories being told you know that the narrative has to change. Um, in order to change the narrative, we need more stories being told. >> Did you want to say something? >> Really, really briefly because I love the comment that you made about the paperwork. And one of the things that happened had to do with paperwork and the alternative then was gift cards. >> Yes. >> Which in community actually like gift cards to the supermarket. >> Hefty gift cards to the supermarket, but it makes a difference. And yes, it does delineate where you're going to spend that money, but it also means that your other money can be freed up to do other things like those. there's different workarounds uh to make things accessible and to provide people, you know, the remuneration that they deserve. >> Uh one of the I think the one of the best things that Micah ever taught me is that email doesn't work and anytime I ever had a problem, she was like, "Why don't you just go talk to them? I don't know if you're there. Why don't you just go talk to And so that so we had a really difficult time working with the grants. Um the the grant money we had but getting it where it needed to go to the people it needed to go to was very difficult. Um doing so allowed us to bring more participants. Uh which was great but it was really difficult. And something that was happening was like I was reading the grant funding strings, Micah was reading the grant funding strings, Jacine was reading, we were all reading it. It wasn't like one of us had was like we're going to handle this because it was really complicated. And um also um ask grad students to help you. Um I'm maybe being selfish because like I'm a grad student that was given this opportunity, but like so many of my my colleagues are just so hungry to like help with anything and really literally help for any reason. Um so confused. >> I I did say go you have to go knock on the door. I think there there were they're there after lunch. Go now. Go now. Go now. We were Go now. Go now. Don't have the door. >> I think somebody had a question. >> You had a question. The >> friend did. >> I do. I I we don't have a grad program in here. It's an agricultural school actually. Um uh but the grad union did so well. The faculty have organized the union now. Um but I would love to see and I'm wondering if this is maybe where Part of this laboratory though institute is going is creating graduate prep programs within institutions for >> so it's so interesting >> um in in the book in chapter one uh we Shantel detailed the first ever MFA program the Hispanic uh MFA program that existed at UC San Diego go >> and I personally had some contact with Dr. Jorge Weba who was the uh the head of that program because I actually drove to San Diego to audition for him. But the program was not taking students that year. They were taking students every other year or after the class would graduate and then the next one and so on so forth. So, but he was phenomenal and he gave me a lot of information and that was the only class and I wanted to know why it failed. So, I went to the archives and read a lot of the the correspondence back and forth, grabbed some of the archived things, gave them to Shantel, said, "Can we make something out of this to put in the book?" But what I learned from that is the fight for funds between the the program where Micah was at actually at the other was I was in the I was there during that time and um there were two programs parallel um the Latinx program and then the the actor training the La Hoya Playhouse at the University of California San Diego. So knowing what didn't work is really important >> so that we can build something that actually functions. Is there an institution that wants to house the laboratorio that the in the actto training institut into a master's or MFA program? Is there is is that the capacity? Is there capacity? I think certainly I don't necessarily think that our actors need to be isolated, right? Because now we're creating something where you're not with the rest of your other cohort. But there's some very value. There's a lot of value of at least having an entire entire year of an intensive training that grounds you in your culture. And then when you're really grounded in that culture, then you can go and transform into just about anything else because now you know who you really are. You've refined your voice. You you know you can do Shakespeare. You know you can do the classics. You know your strength in in your voice training. And now you can do just about anything else. >> Yeah, we are almost at time. So we have um I I want to say like she had her hand up. Yeah, you heard it. Yeah, >> this is just in the spirit of championing what you're doing. Um I think it's amazing and it brings a tear to my eye. Um, I was involved with a community project in Cabo San Lucas with their community center and we did a a collective painting and it was a absolutely beautiful experience. It was a flow state. We listened to music. It was over the span of three days and it wasn't theater but it that community center um is small but mighty and Cabo Lucas is a little bit like Puerto Rico for Mexico. It's a territory and I through the experience of me meeting them I just learned their their intersectionality was so powerful and they were really voicing it. Um and then the other one I keep thinking about is um bringing in adjacently Linda Ronstat because her whole career is I mean arcs into her Mexico album. It begins with her singing with her um family because all they did was sing together in Mexico >> and then she becomes probably one of the best singers of all time and but in a pop style and then her final is album was her Mexico album. The one after that was Freni. Yes. >> Yeah. because my father was the arranger composer for the entire thing. >> That's why I bring that into Bryce Santos into the room. >> Amazing. >> Wow. >> We we are at time. Uh there's one minute. Any last words from our panelists? >> I love your glutenree. >> Oh. All right. So, the gluten-free. So, this is my thing. You know, we build these we build these systems. You know, it's like gluten- free. You're you're building something gluten- free. And even folks who are not gluten free, I'm like, I think I want to go gluten-free. But then we build this whole buffet and then the folks who are gluten-free get to the table and there's no offerings. >> And I think that we often build systems that to build capacity for folks and it doesn't go to the folks that we're building capacity for. Um, so I I also started thinking how do I as an artist, as someone who's trying to empower other people, how do I fuel the community if I don't feel myself, right? I have to eat first, you know, and I can't continue to build gluten-free or buffets for people if I don't fuel myself first. So, I have I wonder for the teachers in the room, how are we refueling so that we can actually have the strength that we need and the capacity to serve everybody and can we truly serve the folks we need to eat the gluten-free first. >> I just want to thank everybody for being here and please reach out to us uh as resources. Um we there's there's a lot of knowledge at this table and a lot of knowledge in the field. Um, so I just want to invite you to reach out to us at any time and thank you to those of you that also share your stories and stuff because I think it really it really um speaks to the the need for these type of spaces. It's not just for the lat Latinos or just for people that are in a cultural silo, but it's for all of us so that we can show up authentically and fully ourselves in any space. >> Yeah. You're welcome. >> And follow the Instauto on Instagram. >> Yes. >> Thank you.