With conVERGEnce, Verge Theater Company Imagines a More Equitable Theater Industry

A play ends. The lights come on. Spectators gather their belongings. And then, a crew member brings several chairs onstage, and the actors and director come walking out. 

Shit, you think. Can I get out of here without anyone noticing?

You’ve just entered a talkback — the post-play discussion that you never asked for, but nonetheless keeps happening. 

Tessa Bryant has worked on multiple programming teams and has orchestrated many such after-show discussions. “Talkbacks are almost universally terrible,” Bryant says. She doesn’t blame the programmers, the actors or the play. “The format doesn’t give people much, and I think it’s because we weren’t able to focus on those topics.”

“Those topics” include social issues that are often kept outside the place where art happens — like inclusion and accessibility, sexism and racism. Bryant wanted to create space for actors and directors to discuss how real-world social problems play out onstage and in the boardrooms of arts institutions, but it’s tough to shoehorn a weighty topic like racism or homophobia into a 20-minute Q&A. 

As a board member of the small but mighty Verge Theater Company, Bryant has found an opportunity to scratch that itch. With conVERGEnce, Bryant hosts online participatory workshops in which theater makers and community members can envision a more equitable theater industry in Nashville. Bryant tested the idea last year with three events that focused on anti-racism, reimagining arts institutions and creating new works as a path forward. Featuring local theater makers like Shawn Whitsell, Jon Royal and Cynthia Harris, conVERGEnce has brought national discussions home. 

In June, a group of more than 300 theater makers of color formed the group We See You, White American Theater and published a letter excoriating the industry for inequitable practices and pervasive racial bias. The letter — which was signed by Billy Porter, Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis and hundreds of others — was followed up by a 29-page document of demands including mandatory anti-racism training, eliminating the standard six-day rehearsal week, transparency in fundraising and much more.

“As artists,” says Bryant, “we should be at the forefront of social progress, and in Nashville it does not always feel that way. I saw a need in myself and in people I was working with, especially white artists, that we could really benefit from getting together, sitting for a couple hours and coming up with actionable solutions while being connected to some artists and thinkers and community organizers we didn’t know before.”

The next session will take place on March 15 and focus on making theater more accessible, both financially and for people with disabilities. “A lot of theaters have produced amazing virtual work and made their work more financially accessible during the pandemic,” says Bryant, “so this conversation will be about harnessing that energy to make our theaters more accessible after COVID-19 is no longer a piece of the puzzle.” Lisa Troi Thomas of Chicago’s Steep Theatre will facilitate, and panelists include Nashville Disability Justice Collective co-founder Beth Thielman and Kindling Arts Festival artistic director Daniel Jones.

Following that, April’s session will be focused on fatphobia in casting and behind the scenes; June’s will cover hetero- and cisnormativy in regional theater; and July’s session will look again at how theater makers can radically reimagine their institutions. Later in the year, conVERGEnce will dig into intimacy choreography and consent, unpaid internships and training paywalls, and more. 

“Not all sessions will be around anti-racism,” says Bryant, “but anti-racist policies and practices will be a recurring theme. … You can’t really solve any other problems without it. … You cannot address sexism or homophobia without addressing racism, because racism is so central to our ideas in America about masculinity and male dominance and heteronormativity. All of those things are connected. A lot of people talk about [social issues] and say, ‘Oh you can’t forget race.’ But you kind of have to start with race.”

Verge co-artistic director Alicia Haymer hopes that people who have the power to make change happen in their own businesses and theaters will show up. “A lot of times with talks like this,” says Haymer, “it feels like you’re preaching to the choir, which is why I’m thankful that Tessa has decided to get even more nuanced and specific in the topics that we cover. … I hope for more opportunities for people to be taught something that hasn’t even crossed their minds.” 

Will the people running Nashville’s professional theater institutions show up to this new style of talkback? That remains to be seen. But Bryant is hopeful. “I’m thrilled if five people show up,” she says. “Five people having a conversation can change things, even in a small way.”