Stage management and Bronzeville Festival with John Freeland Jr.

It's dark in the moon. Are we going to leave this town? And let what everybody said come true. I get up if you want to understand me. I get up if you really want to help me. I get up. I'm running to this land. I'm going to get up. If you get up for me. I get up if you want to understand me. I get up if you really want to help me. I get up. But in Jesus name. I'm going to get up. It's dark in the moon. Are we going to leave this town? And let what everybody said come true. Good for nothing they all figured. Just a boyish girl. My shit was a jigger. Now we going to stand for that. Oh is that really what you said? I'm your brother. I stand in your glory. I hope you don't mind. If I tell a whole story. Part of your system. I know you think you've come a long way. I know you think you've come a long way. As I walk the streets, you see it roll. You can see my hands ain't shaking. My legs ain't trembling. I turn the coin and keep it in trash. Look up at the streets. Darker than blue by Willis and Shante of Positive Light Minute. Lastly, Lastly, skitrow.la and hit Coon Round Report. This week on the Coon Round Report, we will spend the entire hour talking to John Freeland Jr. about the elements of stagecraft. John is the production stage manager for the upcoming performance at Bronzeville, which is part of the Bronzeville Festival. John's stage manager credit includes theater and music festivals and concert tours in the United States and Europe. He has also appeared as an actor in several stage films and TV projects. John has been a theater teaching artist with the unusual suspect theater company, the Outlaw Injustice, assisting youth in juvenile probation camps and middle schools to perform plays they have written. John is from Millertown, Connecticut, and he is a director of the and attended Wesleyan University. John, welcome to the Coon Round Report. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yes. We also have in the studio with us actor-activist Lee Shaw. Now, we also have on the line with us Judy Bowman. She's the development director for the Robey Theater Company, and she's going to tell us about the upcoming Bronzeville Festival, and I'll also ask John some questions. Judy, welcome to the Coon Round Report. Thank you, Melvin. Nice to be here. Yeah. Hello, Judy. Hi, John. Hi, Judy. Hello. Hi. How are you, Earlene? Hi. And we also got Lee in the studio with us, Judy. How you doing? Lee Shaw. How are you? Fine. Now, Judy, can you tell our listening audience about the upcoming Bronzeville Festival and explain what is Bronzeville? Well, sure. Bronzeville is actually a nickname that was given to Little Tokyo right here in Los Angeles for about three years. Four years. Between 1942 and 1945. It got the nickname, Little Tokyo got that nickname of Bronzeville. When blacks, primarily from the South, from Louisiana and from Texas, as the train came up from those two states and stopped in Los Angeles, blacks got off, found a place to stay in Little Tokyo that had been evacuated, really, because the Japanese-Americans were ordered out, and sent to internment camps. And so that area of Los Angeles became a refuge for blacks, and the nickname stuck because blacks started operating businesses there, started living there, and so the area turned bronze with black people. Mm-hmm. Now, can you talk a little about the Bronzeville Festival, who's behind that, and what it involves? Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. a supporter of the Robey Theatre Company for a number of years now. She's a graphic designer and artist. And so she got interested in the research about Bronzeville and that era during L.A.'s history. And she decided that she would combine some of her friends and some of her talents to create a festival that would give people an idea of what went on during that time. And she's developed an art show that features her own art, a multi-discipline exhibit of ceramics and sculpture and mixed media. And she's invited some of her educational friends and colleagues to do a seminar so that they would talk about the social significance of that era. And she's available. Of course, included the play that the Robey Theatre Company first commissioned back in 2009 to be a part of that. And she's also included some musicians and the Blue Whale Club in Little Tokyo. And so the symposium, the jazz concert, the play, and the artwork will combine to celebrate a cross-cultural time in Los Angeles that some people don't know. Including myself until we started the project a few years ago. I never knew about, just to give people an idea, a little bit of the cultural history and how the two ethnic groups sort of came together and supported each other. The symposium, what do that entail? Well, the symposium is a one-day event. It'll be free. It'll be downtown on Main Street at the Downtown Independent Theater. I can give your listeners the address if you like. Or, you know, I can direct them to a website where they can get the information if they don't have something to, you know, jot down the information now. Okay, either one would be fine. The L.A. Independent Downtown Theater is 251 South Main Street. And that's L.A. 90012. And there is parking on the street there or a parking garage at 233 South Main Street. Okay. Now, I know you've worked with John before. You're familiar with his work. Do you have a question or comments for John over here? Well, I guess I'm just always fascinated at what production stage managers really do. I know that John works hard. And I'm looking forward to, you know, hearing the rest of the show and finding out, you know, some of the things that have inspired him over the years and some of the things that he's done. And some of the things that he's had to pull out his duct tape to, you know, figure out how to make it through the run. So I'll leave it to John to, you know, fill in the blanks later on as you talk to him more. Okay, okay. Well, John, you want to comment to Judy? Yes, hi, Judy, again. Hey. Yeah, it's always a pleasure working with the Brophy Cedar Company. I think this is my 10th or 11th production with Brophy over the years. I think the first production was when Danny Glover did a piece at East West Players, a two-character piece called Johan. And I was the assistant stage manager on that. And then subsequently it turned into where we are now. I had the privilege of working on Levy Lee's and Simon's piece called For the Love of Freedom that dealt with the Haitian slave revolt of 1791. And that was a three-parter that part one was in 2001, part two was in 2002. And we did both of those at the Greenway Court Theatre. And part three was done in 2004 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 3, which also is now the home of Robey Theatre Company. And most people didn't know that. Most people didn't, you know, don't know that, you know, the Haitian story of the Haitian slave revolt against France slash Napoleon. And, you know, we did River Niger a couple years ago with Margaret Avery and Pity the Proud Ones. And we also did a play by Mr. Melvin Ishmael Johnson called The Emperor's Last Performance. The Emperor's Last Performance. The Emperor's Last Performance that Mr. Johnson wrote about. I didn't work on that production. I was supposed to, but there was a conflict in the schedule. So I didn't participate in that, but I did see it. It was absolutely wonderful. And so subsequently, a lot of productions with Robey and numerous other... That's a rich history. Yeah. You know, numerous, you know, Harry Lennox and his baseball piece that we did to call The Last Season. Uh-huh. At the Stage 52. I saw that before I even knew about Robey. Oh, okay. Okay. See, that goes... And that happened, actually, it opened the week that September 11th happened. Mm-hmm. It had a good run. Dwayne Perry was in that as well. And, yeah, so there's been numerous... The Reckoning by Kimber Henderson... That was... That comes out of the Robey Playwrights Workshop. Uh-huh. Like Mr. Johnson's play. Well, let me ask this. Judy, can you also comment a little on the event at the Accelerator School, the reading a couple weeks ago up there? Sure. Well, that was something pretty special. About 700 kids were able to see the play, not even previews, but really very preliminary stage readings. And I know that you and John Freeland, Jr. were both there to make that happen. And I've never seen anything really so exciting. It seems like it must have energized the actors and certainly the students, the middle and high school students were totally engaged. It was an experiment to see how something like that was going to work. We were lucky enough to have a school, a charter school, that had a theater and auditorium, but they weren't using currently because of some cuts in their budget. But that was able to function pretty well, at least from my point of view, from an audience member's point of view, as a forum for that staged reading. And so all the feedback that I've gotten from the CEO over there, the administrators, the teachers... I think that has been so, so positive. They had to go into final week right after you left over there for those three days, the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Not last week, but the week before, they had to go into finals. But they had a few days to discuss the play. And they're sending us the comments. They have so many comments from the students that I think it's going to be instructive for the students. And so I think that's going to be a great way for the teachers to get involved in future events like that, to take a play actually to a school and have the teachers figure out how they'd like to approach it, maybe using the historical facts involved or the literature aspects or whatever aspect of their academic curriculum that they'd like to enrich. One other thing before I have you give us some information about the program. Sure. I'm going to give you some information about tickets. Can you tell us where Kathy's gallery is located? Sure. It's LA Art Corps and it's the one downtown. There's one annex at the brewery. This is the one that's in Little Tokyo. And so it's called the LA Art Corps. And I can give you the address there as well for your listeners. It's 120 Judge John ISO. It's AISO is the last name. And that too is Los Angeles 90012. Okay. And she was one of the driving forces for putting this together, this festival? That's right. It was her idea to bring the four components together and all of the people that are necessary to make that happen. I was just going to say the gallery there is open from Wednesday through Friday. It's open from Wednesday to Sunday. So they're closed Monday and Tuesday. But they're open from 12 noon to 5, Wednesday through Sunday. Okay. And it's also on the first floor of where East West Players are located. They're the preeminent Asian American. They're the oldest Asian American theater company in the nation. And they do stupendous work there. That's where you did Johan, huh? Yes. Okay. Now, Judy, can you give us some ticket information and hopefully a couple of comp tickets for anybody that called in and want to ask Johan some questions? Well, we'd be happy to make comp tickets available for people that listen to the Qumran Report and that call in as you're talking more with Johan a little bit later. The ticket information is going to be at the Qumran website. It's going to be at OvationTix.com. It's O-V-A-T-I-O-N-T-I-X.com. Or they can go to the Robey Theatre Company. Robey is R-O-B-E-Y-T-H-E-A-R-D. I got it hooked up on theatre. T-H-E-A-T-R-E Company, all the way spelled out. C-O-M-P-A-N-Y.com. Okay. And they can buy their tickets online that way. Okay. Thank you, Judy, for calling in. We're looking forward to the run of Bronzeville. All right. And I look forward to seeing all of you there. Thanks, Melvin. Thank you, John. You're welcome. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you, Judy. Judy Bowman, the Development Director for the Robey Theatre Company. And we're back live in the studio with our guest, John Freeland. Judy Bowman. And we're back live in the studio with our guest, John Freeland, Jr., the Producing Production Stage Manager for the Robey Production of Bronzeville. Now, John, can you tell our listening audience, you told a little about yourself, but tell a little about yourself. How did you get off into theatre and into stagecraft and stage management? Well, growing up, I grew up in Connecticut and watching television on one channel we could get. And watching all those variety shows during that period and really doing the James Brown slide across the living room floor. My mom would talk about, stop doing that sort of thing and want to be in entertainment and that sort of thing. And so when I was in eighth grade, we had the Upward Bound program. And we'd go take kids in the inner city and take them up to the mountains somewhere for a weekend and whatever. Expose them to lions and tigers and bears and all that. And so there was a play that was going on. And one of the lead characters who was in the program was going on a program and couldn't do the play. So the teacher who was directing the play asked me to be in the play. And I wasn't a part of it at all. And I don't know what he saw in me. Whatever. playing i said okay and i learned the lines and you know basically i was a cop who ended up arresting santa claus for something and uh and but the response from the audience and the laughter and whatnot was kind of like oh this is interesting yeah what is this and and so there wasn't much after that um uh in high school it was i was mostly in the choir there was no theater program but there was something going on in the city um i think it was west side story something like that and i got involved and then it wasn't until i went to started going to community college uh that i got more involved in it and uh so it was basically acting that sort of thing and in community college i found myself directing plays which i had no idea what i was doing you know uh it just sort of happened and you know it's got more and more involved and then i went from the community college to wesleyan and uh where i really had a professor who was really you know nurturing and and whatnot and uh and and really helped me out and i watched and would go to all the rehearsals and get in productions and do things and i slowly started stage managing you know you know as well and uh but it was still mostly acting that kind of stuff so you sit around and observe people and watch and listen and ask questions when you know when it's you know you know appropriate to do so uh and then when i left school you know i instead of going to new york city i came out to los angeles you know and uh and was doing a lot of things and uh and i was doing a lot of things and doing a lot of theater and then it became more and then became more and more um you know stage management guys say what people don't know me and sitting by the phone waiting it's not you know it's not happening so but i like the process uh you know i like the process of seeing a piece which a lot of actors don't see you know when they come into the rehearsal process um they don't see how that has you know you know they don't they're not into production meetings you know they don't hear the conversations between the the line designer set designer video designer costume designer you know make a person direct as producers and whatnot as to you know how are you going to get this thing up you know and uh so being a stage manager the majority of the time i'm in involved in that process uh sometimes i'm hired just to come in after the rehearsal process and when it's the tech rehearsal which means that they're moving into the space and all those things are coming in the sound the lights the costumes are coming in and we're putting those elements those pieces together like a puzzle sometimes i'm hired just to do that so i don't go to rehearsals but i might go to a couple of them just to meet people and see you know what's going on and get a feel and vibe and whatnot and then when tech comes and i help coordinate that whole you know process you know with the director and etc so but i i like to see the behind the scenes because what you see on first day of rehearsal and what you see when the show opens it's two different things you know and um and see how actors grow and find their characters and you know how did the director you know gets what he or she needs you know to see and and and what the designers have been designing and those conversations about no where the door maybe should be staged left and not staged right well okay so when the actors go out that door like is there an escape for them to to move over uh you know like to get to the other side because there's no crossover because we're in a little 20 seat theater you know you know how they're gonna get to the other side you know so um theater uh for the most part is problem solving how do we do this how do we get this effect how do we do this because sometimes you don't have those big budgets like spider-man you know you know those 50 million dollar budgets you know you're working on you know way less so you have to be creative and find ways to make these things work and and and for the director to to bring to life the playwright's vision you know and uh and then if the playwright is around playwright is in you know the rehearsal process and actors have questions about you know lines and the script and structure that and playwright can answer those sort of things okay um i'm gonna have um miss earlene anton she's gonna read something about the um the art form of uh stage uh stage management uh first and then uh we'll come back and get into the discussion stage management is the practice of organizing and coordinating a theatrical production it encompassed a variety of activities including organizing the production and coordinating communication between various personnel between director and backstage crew or actors and production management stage management is a sub discipline of stage craft a stage manager is one who has overall responsibility for stage management and the smooth execution of a production stage management may be performed by an individual in small productions while larger production typically employ a stage management team consisting of a head stage manager or production stage manager and one or more assisting stage stage managers okay can you comment a little bit more on that um about the role of a stage manager yes uh coordinating all those entities um keeping the lines of communication because you are you know like the title is is stage management so you're managing the production so your responsibility is to assist in what the director is doing and what the production is doing and so and the director needs to see in the rehearsal and to assist in the communication between the designers and producers and the director and and the rest of the crew and the actors um and coordinating that um because once the show goes up a lot of times directors are gone they are off on other projects they go back to where they live or whatever they don't come to every performance so the stage manager must be able to do that so the stage manager must be able to do that so the stage manager must be able to do that so the stage manager must be able to do that so the to come in at the same time all the time. Sound cues must come in at the same time all the time. The actors have to wear the same costumes all the time. You know, the show has to start at a certain time. Set pieces have to move at a certain time if you're doing that sort of thing. So, and so when the director comes back three months later, the director has to see the exact same show that they left on opening night. Right? Nothing can change, you know? And so it's our job to maintain that, you know? And if we don't, then we're in trouble. Lee, we got Lee Shaw. He's also studying to be a stage manager over there with Drama Stage Goon Run. Do you have a question for John? Yeah. I noticed you said when you were talking earlier, you said you went to college. Well, I didn't go to college. So what would you, uh, what would you do? Suggest that I do to be effective as a stage manager? Uh, I would say to, to, if you can, uh, there's several theater companies around town. You know, there's Robey, there's a bunch of theater companies around town. You call folks up and say, Hey, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm getting into stage management game and I want to sit in and I want to observe, you know, or sit down with you after rehearsal at some point, you know, and have a conversation and ask questions and see. You know, and ask you questions about how do you do this? How do you do that? Um, I didn't necessarily go to school either for stage management. You know, I got into it, you know, through my professor who was doing a big production of mother courage and I ended up, you know, stage manager, but I, I, I would always go to rehearsals like when I was in plays and if, even if it wasn't my night to rehearse, I would still come to rehearsal and I would just sit there and observe, you know, and see how folks, you know, ran things. Um, so a lot of that is, is good. So, you know, you call me, you know, and say, Hey, you know, you can sit in on, on, on rehearsals and observe and, you know, you can ask me questions, call me up, you know, anytime. And, uh, uh, there are, um, of course, stage management, uh, programs out of USC, uh, UCLA, uh, you know, has stage manager programs and these young people coming out of those programs are coming out with, you know, stuff that I, you know, with all this technology now, they're incorporating that and to show you how your prompt book is supposed to be laid out properly in Canada. I do a lot of that, but I'm from the old school, you know, you know, and so, and so when, so when I work with young people like that, you know, I'm, I'm asking them questions. So how do you, how do you do that? How do you put that on? You know what I mean? So it's always a learning process, you know, and, and each production is different. Each production is different. Each production is different. Each production is laid out differently. And, uh, and, uh, you know, you got different personalities, you got different people, you have a different kind of play. You might be doing a Shakespeare play and it might be done in a traditional sense, or it might be Shakespeare that's done in modern day, you know, and they are all wearing feathers or something, you know, you know, you know, each production has its own, own way, uh, of, of, uh, you know, of it being constructed, but there is a foundation in there. Well, let me ask you this, John, and then I think Earline will ask you a question too. How much have computers and the internet changed the concept of, uh, the stage manager and theater? Oh, it's, it's, it's changed because, uh, when I started, um, there, there were no computerized light boards. Actually, I went to a school that had the first computerized light board in the nation, and this was in the seventies. And now they're all computerized. Um, and you can also do manual stuff on them, but basically you program cues into the board by numbers and you just punch a button and those lights change. So when you go to the theater, when you go to rock concerts now, all that is programmed. Lights moving and turning. You have one lighting instrument that has 300 colors in it, right? Or you can go from a wide, you know, spot to a narrow spot, right? That's all programmed into, you know, the board now. Uh, you know, coming up, I didn't have that. You had to do, you know, two, two scene thing and, you know, use a pencil to bring them all down, you know, but, you know, but now, but, you know, but now, you know, with, with, and now there's a lot more multimedia pieces now. So you're using a lot of videos or you're coming in there with a laptop and it has all your video, uh, stuff on it and your sound stuff on it. CDs are slowly being, uh, you know, you know, melting away. Yeah. They're being replaced. Like, like I said to a designer once not long ago, I said, so you, you know, you do your sounds on CDs and he looked at me like CDs, you know, you know, now we're doing it from computer where you just hit the space bar, right? And the sound happens, but it's all pro, but they have programmed that in, you know, and they program the phase, how fast the sound comes in, goes out, you know, if there's multiple layers of sound, so you might have a drone and then there's sound coming on top of that sound coming on top of that. And then another cue pulls it out. You know, so technology is really, it's really, and then when we're in rehearsal, we, we have to send a rehearsal reports, you know, or performance reports. So, you know, we sitting in rehearsals with our laptops or iPads or whatever, you know, and hopefully the theater has wifi, you know, some sort of internet access. Um, so we can do those reports and send them to who we need to send them to, you know, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's changed a lot. Uh, early and you have a question for John. I just have a question, um, to be a stage manager or get a job as a stage manager, do you need to like go to school, get a diploma, get a certificate or anything, or what do you really need to, if I walk in and say, I'm a stage manager, what credentials are, what do I need? You need, uh, it's always good to go to school. It's always good to get that education because that's, that is, you know, the training ground. That's always good. Uh, if not, you observe, uh, what's going on. You need patience, lots of patience because you're dealing with different types of personalities. So you're dealing with a cast of 10 people and directors and producers and designers and whatnot. You have to be diplomatic because stuff comes up. So you just can't be cussing folks out, you know, like this as a way of, you know, of, of, of handling this. And keeping a certain, uh, keeping a certain energy, you know, in the room, uh, patients being organized as much as possible because there is a lot of, you know, documentation, you know, that needs to occur. Um, and, um, you know, there's books on that, you know, got that, you know, off the internet, you know, there are stage management books, you know, to show you how to, you know, do certain things and, and, and, and talking to people and whatnot. But, but yeah, it's, it's, and, being that authority and everybody knows that, you know, they got to deal with you because you're helping to, you know, you know, run this sort of thing. So, so not only do I do theater, uh, as a stage manager, but I do theater. I mean, I do stage management, um, uh, uh, uh, live music, you know, and, and a lot of times that's like in a music festival where, where, you know, it might be two, three stages set up around, you know, grounds, whatever. And I'm responsible for one stage or the main stage. And my responsibility, is that when that band comes on and do their 45 minute set, right, I'm the one that tells them, okay, you can't do that next song because we have nine bands stacked up behind you. And, and, and the stage crew has to take instruments off, reset microphones and whatnot, you know, within a certain time limit. So I do anything live. Okay. Yeah. We're going to, uh, also, um, let me ask you this. Uh, how did you first come in contact with working with, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the director, Ben Guillory over at the road? Uh, I saw Ben was doing a production of, uh, of, uh, Robeson about Paul Robeson. Uh, and, you know, as an actor and, and, uh, this was many years ago and, and we met, we talked and that, and he called me about a production that he was doing, but I couldn't do it because I was busy doing something else. And then when For the Love of Freedom came up, you know, he called me, you know, you know, he always gives a rundown, like, what you're about to get into. You know what I mean? It's just like, hey, can you do it? You know, he, he let, you know, he tells you the parameters, you know, so, so, so you can make an educated decision, you know, about what it is, you know? And, uh, so yeah, we had a conversation. I said, oh yeah, that sounds like something I can do. And, um, but before that we were, uh, doing, uh, uh, a piece that Danny Glover was doing. And, uh, I knew the stage manager and folks, you know, a couple of folks at East West and, and he called me in for that. Um, he said, this is what we're doing. And then that led into the, um, you know, For the Love of Freedom and a bunch of other things. So, but yeah, so I met Ben when, you know, when he was, you know, acting during the stage piece and, and we just kind of kept in touch and he called me and said, you know. Okay. Uh, now let me ask you this. How can we get, uh, I know you work with the Unusual Suspects Theater Company over there with Jaws, where it's a lot of young people. How can we get more young people involved in the theater? Uh, very good question. Behind the scenes. Yeah. Very good question. Um, unfortunately in our school systems in this country, the first thing that is cut in schools are the arts. First thing, nothing else is cut. The arts are cut. Um, there, there seems to, uh, not be an, there's a lot of understanding that the arts are just as important as those subjects that those students are taking. It's just as important as taking math, science, history, sociology, because the arts incorporate all of those subjects. Uh, you know, if you, if you take dance, you got to deal with math. You deal with music, you got to deal with math. You got to count those beats, you know, you know, you know, you have to be able to, you know, to do that. If you're dealing with theater, you're, you're, you know, you're dealing with literature and you're dealing with history. Yeah. Right. You didn't, you know, so it's research, you know, it's, it's understanding. So, uh, uh, but that's the first thing that is cut. So therefore the students are, are, are losing out. So, so subsequently we have the unusual suspects. We have, um, uh, Virginia Avenue, uh, uh, uh, youth theater company in town. We have Ola, you know, here in town that's working, uh, you know, with youth. We have, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you know, in town. So we have to have these other entities that's coming in and getting these kids active to express themselves in a positive manner. And it's a major issue. And with the unusual suspects, what is different about the unusual suspects is that most of the youth are at risk and we work in probation camps in Juvenile Hall. You know, we also do high schools and middle schools. But we go into a probation camp where, you know, teenage boys are, you know, in there for six months, a year or so. And we go in there and say, gentlemen, in seven to 12 weeks, you're going to write a play. And they go, yeah, right, what's a play? They don't know what that is because they haven't been exposed to theater. So it's not like we're going in with the sheet music for Beethoven's Fifth and saying, hey, you see these little black dots on the page? You know, you're going to learn how to play that? We're coming in with nothing. And then out of improvisation, techniques and theater games, the play is developed from them. They basically own it because they are writing it. We help them structure it. And so they have some ownership of it, but it's their voice. And that's what's important that, you know, we say, how many people write? How many people write in journals? How many people write poetry? How many people write raps or whatever? Nobody can take that away from you. Nobody, you know. And it's also a creative expression. So if you feel like, you know, you feel a little angst and, you know, you know, go write something instead of punching somebody. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so it's very important at a very young age to get them involved with the arts. Yeah. Right. And what was great about the accelerated schools, you know, by reading Bronzeville to the kids who had a study guide before that, so they knew a little bit about it, is that these kids are being exposed by something that most have not seen, or heard before. And, or heard before. And that alone can trigger something, you know, either to investigate the subject more, investigate the art of acting, or the art of writing, because one of the writers, Aaron, you know, Woolfolk was there and he spoke in the Q&A. So it may encourage, you know, them to want to explore more history, you know, of the town that they live in. Or their community, or their family, or whatever. So you're planting the seed, you know, and that's the, I mean, that's the great thing about those, I don't know, how many kids came to this? 700. Over 700. Yeah, yeah. It was like over 700 kids over three days, you know. And you have no idea how you've inspired, you know, these young people to, so it's not about teaching them how to be actors and writers. It's about that these skills that they get, they can use in every aspect of their life. Okay. Yeah. All right then. Let's take a break for our Community Calendar, and then we come back with more of our discussion with John Freeland, Jr. This is the Community Calendar for the month of June. The next Veterans Community Theater Workshop will be held this Tuesday, June 11th, from 5.30 to 8 p.m. It's free to veterans and non-veterans. The workshop participants are currently working on individual stage plays and upcoming performances. The location is the Vortex 2341 East Olympic Boulevard. This is near the corner of Santa Fe and Olympic. And the Metro Bus No. 60 and 66 stops near or close to the corner. For more information on the workshop, you can call 213-737-7000. Or call 1-877-938-6587. Saturday, June 15th, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., OGN Service Associations presents the 10th Annual Skid Row Father's Day Affair, Juneteenth Celebration, and Birthday Tribute to Tupac. There will be live entertainment, vendors booth space available, games, prizes, fun, performances, and much, much more. The location of this annual event is Gladys Park. Gladys Park is located on 6th and Gladys. And we will have more information on the next Qumran Report where he will be our in-studio guest. The Roby Stater Company presents Bronzeville, the Bronzeville Project. When Lil' Tokio went bronze, Bronzeville was the first bronze project in the world. Learn how a little-known piece in the history of Los Angeles helped shape the city we have now. The stage play, Bronzeville, is written by Tim Toyama and Aaron Wolfert, directed by Ben Guillory. It will run from June 29th through July 21st. And the location is the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 South Spring Street. And for more information, you can contact the Los Angeles Theatre Center for ticket information, 213-489-7402. Upcoming guests on the Qumran Report, Monday, June 17th, will be OG Man. This is a reminder, if you have a community calendar event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to DRAMASTAGE1 at yahoo.com. Attention, Earline Anthony. The call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our host. Hey, thank you, Miss Earline Anthony. We're back live with John Freeland, Jr., Production Stage Manager for the production of Bronzeville. And I would like to read something from your book. I'd like to read something about the early history of stagecraft in America by Robert Edmund Jones. Miss Earline Anthony will read it. Robert Edmund Jones, December 12th, 1887 to November the 26th, 1954, was an American scenic lighting and costume designer. He is credited with incorporating the new stagecraft into the American drama. His design sought to integrate the scenic elements into the storytelling instead of having them stand separate and indifferent from the play's action. His visual style, often referred to as simplified realism, combined bold, vivid use of colors and simple, yet dramatic lighting. Born in Milton, New Hampshire, Jones attended Harvard University and graduated from the University of Michigan. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan, and graduated in 1910. Okay, that was Robert Edmund Jones, who would join Eugene O'Neill and Kenny McGowan and turn the Provincetown Players into the Provincetown Playwrights Theatre. And of course, Kenny McGowan would go to UCLA and set up the theatre and film department and really laid the foundation for stagecraft here in Los Angeles. McGowan Hall is named after him. And John, what I would like to ask you is how can the stage, and if you want to comment on that, feel free, but how can the stage manager experience and knowledge translate into other types of jobs away from the theatre? You mentioned a little of that when you were talking about concerts and stuff like that. You know, having a... That's a good question. You know, having a sense of what goes on in the workplace. You know, being aware of other departments, I think is quite helpful that you can take anyway with you. And you have to deal with many people, you know, on all levels, you know. And sometimes it's not face to face. Sometimes it's, you know, you have to do it by phone. You know, by phone and email. Like if you're taking a show on tour, you know, you have to communicate with the technical director of the theatre where the show is going. And make, you know, talking about, you know, like when the set's going to arrive. And the kind of things you're going to need prop wise, etc., etc., etc. You know, and so those are series of, you know, communication is also a thing. So you can take those skills and apply them in... Yeah. And apply them into any area, you know, or any other kind of job, I think. You know, it's management. And so management has to be aware of the whole, you know, thing. Okay. Can you talk a little about the importance of, about charting the daily rehearsal and getting information out to the production team? You talked a little about that. How important is that to the stage manager's process? Yes. During the rehearsals, the only people who are usually at every rehearsal is the actors, the director, the stage manager, and if there's an assistant stage manager. Those are the people who are the standard folks that come in. Other producers, designers don't always come to all the rehearsals. They may come in and sit in, you know. They may come in and sit in, you know, on Tuesday, but you don't see them for the next two weeks. So you develop a rehearsal report where that you, in the report, you say what went on in the rehearsal, and you break it down by departments. You know, what time the rehearsal started, what time it ended, who, you know, who attended, and what issues. Because the director might say in the middle of rehearsal, you know, the director might say... Mm-hmm. You know, the director might say... You know, I think over here we need a table downstage, right? We need a small wooden table. So then that goes into the report, and so the report is emailed to all the designers and the producers, and the set designer sees that and says, oh, okay. So if there's a question about it, the designer will call me or call the director and say, well, what kind of table are you talking about? Why do you want to put the table there? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You know, so... You know, so you're keeping everybody on the same page because everybody is not physically there at the rehearsal. And sometimes the distribution list, you know, it could be 15, 20 people that you're sending this out to. And then there's other things that come up in, you know, other problems or things. Or, you know, let them know about production, upcoming production meetings or fittings or photo calls, those kind of things. So everybody knows what's going on. Mm-hmm. So something just can't come up out of the blue because you put it in the report, you know, and it's been addressed, you know, that sort of thing. Okay. Yeah. Now, can you talk a little about the stage manager's job being a good training ground for directors? Yes, because you see the process. You see the director's process. You know, you see how they work a scene, you know, and the blocking and the movement of the scene. Because the blocking and the movement of the scene also, you know, gives way to what is going on in the play. So you might see something in one scene or hear something in a scene and nine scenes later that might be more embellished. Mm-hmm. You know, so like you see how things are structured and you see how things put. Mm-hmm. I... Because I have some directing experience, you know, like over the years. Mm-hmm. I use that in my stage management because I can kind of see where the director is going, you know. Mm-hmm. And sometimes I open my big mouth and say something to the director and say, well, you know, if they move over downstage right and they exit over there, then that will help when so-and-so comes in and then we won't have a clash or people fall, you know, or something like that. You know, I'm not trying to direct the play, but just trying to make things more, you know, simple, you know, that sort of thing. Mm-hmm. So I do... I personally use a director's job. Okay. Mm-hmm. And I think that's why there are a lot of stage managers who don't direct. Mm-hmm. You know, they might be more technical and they don't direct or they do direct and they're not as technical because there are also a lot of directors that are not technical people. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean, in terms of, you know, yeah, I want that lego right there, but, you know, they just want the light up. Mm-hmm. They don't care how you get it up. I just want the light up. I just want you to sound. Don't give me none of all that other stuff. I just want to see it in here, you know what I mean? And then, but, you know. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, it, yeah, it's very helpful. Give me none of all that other stuff. I just want to see it in here. You know what I mean? And then, but, you know. So, it, yeah, it's very helpful. You know, it's like an AD on a film set. You know, it's like a assistant director on a film set. You know, they help the director set up the shots. You know, and then you understand how camera works. You understand, you know, how those things, how those elements fit in. And that's the next thing I was going to ask you. How can working in a theater as a stage manager translate into working on a film crew as a stage manager? What are the differences and what are the similarities? Film is more technical. You know, you're dealing with camera. You're dealing with sound. You're dealing with, you know, people hitting their marks. And so, in a major motion picture, they shoot an eighth. An eighth of a page a day. In a major motion picture. Now, in the independent films, short films, they're shooting ten pages a day. Because they don't have that kind of budget. You know what I mean? And they can't hold actors for, you know, three months. But on these major films, they're shooting an eighth of a page a day. And that's a 12, 14-hour day. So, it could take them a whole week just to shoot one page in a week. Yeah. And also, like, you're shooting Master Shot on Tuesday. You're not going to get the close-ups in that scene with those same actors until next week. Mm-hmm. So, you have to remember what went on, you know. Now, how about the relationship between the actors and the stage manager and the theater as opposed to the relationship of the stage manager and the actors in film? The relationship? Yeah, in terms of... Whereas in theater, like you mentioned earlier, the stage manager might tell the director something in theater about a movement or something. In film, it's a little bit different. It's a little bit different. Yeah. In film, they're called the AD. You know, there's a first AD, there's a second AD. And there's a lot of paperwork that needs to be done. Everything is recorded. Everything is put down on paper. The AD also kind of, you know, will say, okay, you need to enter from over here. Like, this is the shot, you know. And, like, we need you to come in here. We need background slash atmosphere to move over here. So, they are doing a directorial sort of thing as well in establishing the shot. We sort of do that, too, in theater, you know, help, you know, because the actors will come to us and say, well, how am I going to get on stage? Because I got a costume change over here in Canaan, and, you know, and you can talk it out. And work it out. Yeah. Okay. Okay, John, we're winding down. Can you give us some... Already? Yeah. Already? It's almost over. Quick hour. Some of your closing comments and your contact information for those that want to get in contact with you to ask your question or either hire you for stage manager job. And your closing comments and contact information. Yeah. I can be reached. My email is J, as in the letter J, free, J-R at yahoo.com. Feel free to, you know, email me questions or you want to talk or, you know, give a job. You know, like any of that, I'll be happy to, you know, to talk with you and, you know, see what you're doing. And, you know... And often when I meet stage managers or people who want to do it, you know, I take their name. Because there's stuff that comes up, you know, and they need a stage manager. And I just go and, you know, I refer people all the time. You know what I mean? And, you know, I can't do all the jobs, don't want to do all the jobs. And we need... We're all in this thing together. So we need to share, you know. And that's really important. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for having me. John Freeland. Production stage. Stage manager for the upcoming production of Bronzeville, directed by Ben Guillory. Now, next week on the Cool Brown Report, we will have O.G. Mann and Ron Crockett from the 3-on-3 Basketball League celebrating their 10th annual Skid Row Father's Day and Juneteenth celebration and a birthday tribute to Tupac Shakur. I would like to extend a special thanks to... Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Cool Brown Report and from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, may the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. I leave you with a song that opened the show. Darker Than Blue by Willis and Shante. Hey. Darker than blue Are we gonna be around this town And let what I said come true Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. I get up, but in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up. If you get off of me, I get up. If you wanna understand me, I get up. If you really wanna help me, I get up. But in Jesus' name, I'm gonna get up. The people who are talking to me, probably gonna let it ride us down. And whatever we say, it comes true. Good for nothing, baby. The ship is a jigger. Now we gonna stand for that. Oh, is that really worth a sight? I'm your brother. As you stand in your glory, I hope you don't mind. And I'll tell a whole story. Part of your sister. I know you think you've come a long way.