Faith-based housing and Dungeon Master improv theater

Seems like we're just looking out of time Seems like we don't know which way to turn Oh, we don't know, I know Seems like we don't know which way to go, no Oh, no You might think I'm a little selfish When I say, oh, my God loves me so You might think I'm foolishly how But I know, oh, my God, he's so, oh, because Seems like we're just looking out of time Oh, no Seems like we're just looking out of time Running Out of Time by Victor Allen Welcome to the Qumran Report. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson, and I'm in the studio with my co-host, Earlene Anthony. This week, we're going to be talking about housing and the faith-based community with Dr. Jill Shook, Anthony Manousas, and also we are fortunate to have the cast members Brad Philman, Courtney Crabb, Janae, Janae Kemper, Janae Kemper, and we're going to have a good time talking to them. about their excellent production that they have over at the Vortex every Sunday evening. But first, I would like to play a short clip from a student visit from Winona University last Wednesday, March the 20th, 2013, as part of the NCP Urban Service and Immersion Program, where they visit areas like Skid Row and other parts of Los Angeles. The clip is one minute and 58 seconds. Okay. Are we all talking? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is Melvin Ishmael Johnson with the Cone Brown Report. I'm here with some students from Winona University, and then I'm here, who am I here with? Emma. Steph. Kelly. Quinn. Haley. Katrina. Katrina, okay. Okay. Tell us, why are you here in Los Angeles? We're here to experience the culture of Los Angeles and see an area that none of us have been before. This is our spring break, so we're kind of doing some different service stuff and just seeing the city. We are on an alternative spring break, so we are here in this nice weather to do some service and hang out with the people here, so. Yeah, pretty much all that was said. We're also helping out at the Hope Street Children's Center every day. We're working with the students there. And we've learned a lot about a lot of different groups of people here that need to, awareness needs to be brought up about. Okay. And then you've also brought some hygiene kits out here, and you passed out a few of them. What are you going to do with the rest of them? Are you going to leave them for the Friday group? Yeah. Uh, uh, uh, tell us what your name and what your major is. My name's Emma Hornstein, and I'm an elementary education major. I'm Steph Brummer, and I am a social work major. I'm Kelly Bergman, and I'm also a social work major. I'm Quinn Hobbs, and I'm an elementary education major. I'm Haley, and I'm a biology major. I'm Katrina, and I'm also a biology major. Yeah. Okay, thank you very much from the students from Winona University, and that's in Minnesota, right? Yeah, so glad to have them out. This is Melvin Johnson, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, with the Coon Round Report. Thank you very much. Okay, that's students from Winona University that visited from Minnesota last Wednesday, March the 20th, 2013. Now, I'm delighted to have with us in the studio Dr. Jill Shook, the author of the book, Making Housing Happen, and Anthony Manousis, who contributed to some of the articles in the book. Jill and Anthony, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the Coon Round Report. Thank you, Melvin. Yes, thank you very much for inviting us. Now, before we get into discussing the book, can you tell us, tell our listening audience a little about your background? Well, I'm delighted to see these students coming out from that East Coast. I was a campus minister for seven years, and then I worked with Relief and Development, living in Mexico. Came back and got involved in Pasadena area, while I was at Lake Avenue Church. I thought, you know, we need to change the way this church operates. We need to begin to figure out what it means to love our neighbors. And so we came up with the idea of an afterschool program that would be mutually beneficial, where the people that were low income from the community could begin to have a meaningful part in the church, and the church could have a meaningful part in their life. And so in 1997, we started that program, and it was a very, very meaningful program. And we really poured our lives into mentoring and tutoring these kids. And some were graduating, but very few. The dropout rate pretty much stayed the same, 50% in that area. And until I started seeing families moved into an affordable housing complex. And it was called the Agape Court, faith-based. And in that housing complex, they had a wonderful program for families. They had a program for the students, an afterschool program. And so with that comprehensive approach where the parents were spending no more than a third of their income, they weren't stressed by having four or five jobs, and the kids finally had the attention they needed from their parents. It was the comprehensive approach that truly changed their lives. And we started seeing kids graduate. Oh, beautiful. So that's what got me involved in housing. And when I saw the vision of how this was helping, I had gone around the country to look at afterschool programs, how to improve what we were doing there at the church. And so I couldn't help but notice that many churches across the nation were also involved in building affordable housing. And I thought, you know, who's written about this? This is incredibly good news. It needs to be told. So that's how the book came about. Mm-hmm. Okay, let's talk about the book. With so many people here in Los Angeles losing their homes, foreclosure, affordable housing is needed. Can you talk about your book, Making Housing Happen? How did it develop? Well, I was at CCDA, Christian Community Development Association, back. And there was a gentleman named Bob Lupton, and I'd heard him speak so many times about his vision that he had for a prison in Atlantic that had sit there defunct since the early, actually mid-1800s. And no one knew what to do with it. At that point, it had been way overbuilt, built with steel-reinforced concrete with walls so thick that it couldn't be knocked down. And that's the type of building construction that gets stronger with time. So he leveraged his kind of social capital, he had a wonderful nonprofit doing after-school programs. And he was very known in the community, but he was able to garner the support of the architects throughout the whole community that typically would compete. And he brought them into that prison and wined and dined them with silver decanters and linen tablecloths and asked them, what can you envision here? And they were just so excited. They were envisioning how this could be made into beautiful, affordable housing. And shortly, they asked, well, what's your budget? And Bob Lupton said, well, I think I have 4,000. And that's when he challenged them. He says, you know, if we all put our resources together, even by the end of today, we could have $100,000 with your pro bono work. And that's exactly what they did. And within three weeks, they had a letterhead with all the top architects working together with all their general contractors. And they made gorgeous, affordable housing. So when I heard this story, I heard Bob Lupton tell this story so many times. And I asked him at CCDA, Christian Community Development Association. I said, Bob, have you ever published that? And he said, no, no. And I said, well, it absolutely needs to be written. And he says, I agree. So three weeks later, he had that all written up and sent to me. So with a name like Bob Lupton, it wasn't hard to get other beautiful, developed, affordable housing. It was hard to get other beautiful developers across the nation willing to contribute articles as well. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now, what are some of the faith-based solutions to the homeless, Rob? Well, that story I just told with Bob Lupton, he was a Presbyterian pastor, and he worked closely with Renny Scott, who was an Episcopal priest. And the church really got involved in that whole project. Um, another example that I'd like to talk about, especially in relationship to some of the homeless, is right here in Hollywood. There's a pastor of the church who at that time named Charles Sujeda. And he, he's a scientist as well as a pastor. And he was, he began a huge dinner every Sunday night. And, um, there was over 300 homeless coming to this dinner. And he, he began to, to, he wanted to apply the scientific method of some way of getting the homeless involved in helping to solve the, the crisis they were part of. And so he challenged them to come up with a list of questions. And they vetted the questions, and then they put that into a survey. And then they mobilized the homeless to go out, and they surveyed people throughout Hollywood, people who were near homeless or homeless. They came up with beautiful data and research. And that's what gave them the authority to be able to approach the city council. And at the city, the, it was Eric Garcetti that they sat down with. And Eric was so excited that they had come up with this hard data and research. And, and he agreed that he would supply the kind of housing that they came up with that was needed. They needed housing for males that were older. And that's exactly what they did. They came up with housing for Hollywood area for males. Okay. So that's one way. What, what another way that I just love that these homeless entrepreneurs, you know, researchers, because, because they, it gave them such credibility because they had done their homework. They were invited to the state capitol to be, to do a beautiful workshop in housing, at housing California. And it was there that these homeless people are providing this workshop and how they did their research and data. Another thing is that they set up booths. There was a $47 million bond issue that needed to be passed for the state of California. And all that money would be set aside for affordable housing and homeless. And they were at farmer's markets, at the Grove and that thing passed. And our state had $47 million that was going toward home affordable housing. But that's just one of many examples. There's one more I'd like to tell you about Melvin. And, and I just love this example because it fits so much with biblical, my understanding of the Bible and that's called the community land trust. And this is actually, where believe it or not, homeless families were moving from homelessness into home ownership. And, and it sounds impossible, but it really is, really happened. They were moving from tents and cars into owning their first home. And the way that happened is because of a community land trust where you separate the ownership of the land from the ownership of the house. And so in order to create this kind of, of opportunity, the state laws in Maine did not allow that type of home ownership. So this Catholic community in the middle of the state pulled together all their homeless folks that were staying in their five shelters, got them on buses and brought them to the state Capitol. And they changed the state legislation so that they were able then to build a community land trust. And because this Catholic community owned their entire, they owned a forest. So they were able to start a sawmill and they trained the homeless in jobs and how to prepare the wood and the lumber. They also did the site, the shingle siding. And so they were learning that. They had cabinetry workshops. And so the homeless were involved in every aspect of the building of these homes. So they were developing skills at the same time that they were helping to build their homes and keeping the costs so low that they were actually able to move from homelessness into home ownership. Now that is absolutely beautiful there. Let me just have you step back for one moment when you was talking about the Hollywood situation. And it's interesting, you was talking about the questions that they came up with the homeless themselves. Did they deal with the issue of homeless for single heads of the household like females? Or families or anything like that? Was that part of? You know, I don't, I haven't had a chance to look at the list of questions. I do know that their research came out that it was single older males at that time that were mostly in need of housing. And that's the type of housing they were able to build. But I do want to give you a really good example of helping families and how the faith community has helped with families. And that's a program called Family Promise. And it's a network of usually around 14 churches that have opened the doors of their church to allow homeless families to actually stay. It could be a church, it could be a mosque, it could be a synagogue, but they stay right in the walls of that house of worship for just one week. And then they rotate to the next church. And then they rotate to the next congregation and the next until 14 weeks, that same, they'll open their doors again. So it may be only four times a year that a congregation would be receiving these homeless families. But the beauty of this is that they go to a resource center. We've just opened our doors in the San Gabriel Valley area. We have churches and congregations from Altadena to Monterey Park that are involved in this. And in Rosemead, we have a resource center where a full-time director helps them find jobs and housing. So in our first year of full operation last year, we graduated 15 families that are now housed and employed, and we did this in a very short period of time, which is a really good statistic. There's 180 of these networks all around the nation that are operating in different cities, but it's just starting to come to California. Yes, and what's it called again? It's called Family Promise. Now that's beautiful. Family Promise. Because that's one of the biggest needs for the downtown recovery area, the Skid Row area. Families. Yeah, you see so many things. There is not a Family Promise in LA. And I really encourage the listeners to consider looking at ways that they can begin a network of congregations that would band together and begin to house homeless families. Yeah. Now it's just, and I'm gonna shoot this towards you, Anthony, because you're part of the interfaith group over there on Friday. Is this something that an interfaith group like that could spearhead in terms of getting that rolling? Exactly. Well, Family Promise is an interfaith network. And I think when people of different faiths work together, they can accomplish a whole lot more. To get it here in Los Angeles. Right. To get that particular program. Right. Here. What's the hold up in terms of getting something like that happening in Los Angeles? I think in many ways it's just a lack of awareness that this kind of program exists. It's just starting to come to California. It's the fourth network in California that has started. And the first one was only about two years ago. Okay. So it's so new to this area. And I think LA is right now, I think LA is ripe and ready for this kind of a program. They just need to know. They're in the process of developing one now in Torrance area. They just opened up one in the Burbank area and one in Orange County. And then we have ours in West San Gabriel Valley. So LA should be on target. And it's really a matter of catching the vision. Then they need to go. Just like when I started that after school program years ago, we visited after school programs throughout LA to learn the best practices. And what does it really take to have a successful program? That's what a group of people need to do. They need to visit those different family promise programs, interview the leaders, and begin to learn how to do this. Yeah. Because the thing that's always on my mind, when I look at the recovery zone downtown, the Skid Row area that they call the recovery zone, and they also call Los Angeles the homeless capital of the United States, which is not a good label to have. But the thing that always bothered me in the downtown area where you have quite a few, there's some churches down there. And people will have the tents around these churches, but on the inside, they're empty. You know, at the critical time in which people are sleeping. Can I give you an example? This is really powerful. In my book, I talk about how, how homeless families and individuals banded together and they actually moved into a church and shared resources. And it was so powerful. It made a huge statement. That's what they were wanting to do. They wanted to finally get it so big in the news that someone would hear about their plight and begin to do something. And it worked. It worked. There was a guy named Shane Claiborne that heard about these homeless families and that they were going to be kicked out. And he was kicked out of this church within a few days. And so he went around his campus there at St. David's Eastern College. And he had a bullhorn and he shouted out to the other students, Jesus is being kicked out of the church. And so he gathered up students and they all jumped in their cars and they ended up staying and living with these homeless families. And they did not kick him out in those three days. In fact, because there was so much media attention directed at these families that had moved into this church and because they were standing in solidarity and not letting them leave, even though the church said they wanted them to be kicked out, every one of those families ended up getting housed because people started getting involved and caring. And I want to say, I think the fact that they were people of faith, they were seminary students, probably helped give more moral credibility to what they were doing. Mm-hmm. I think the faith community has a lot of moral capital, the moral credibility that they can use in situations like this. Okay. Let's move on to the next question. Is it some of the other ways that faith-based congregations have assisted in creating affordable houses? Is it a few more you want me to... Well, yeah, I want to tell you about one in Chicago that I think is very powerful. It's called Lawndale Community Church. And in this situation, they had white, this is a black neighborhood, almost like 100%. And they had white people coming in and running their affordable housing programs of this church. And finally, they said, you know what? We need to prove to ourselves in our own community that we can do this. And so they found this building that was so beautiful, so dilapidated, but they began to envision this building becoming beautiful, top-rate affordable housing, luxury, beautiful, affordable housing. And so they decided that every single person involved in this entire process, the bank, that they would be black bankers, that they would have architects that were black, that they would have every step, the lawyers would be black, every single person in the entire process was someone of color. And because of that, the empowerment and the pride in that community was huge. And they learned the skills, and they are now developing affordable housing throughout the whole community. And they built this, this housing is just gorgeous. It's now called Lazarus, because they raised this from the dead. Great name. Now, how about, can you tell us about your experience in addressing the needs for affordable housing in Pasadena? But before we get into that, let me ask you about how can a faith-based organization work with the car to arts organizations? You know, it's... Like organizations like Brad, we'll be talking later on. Yeah, we've got some people here in the studio that I think really are doing some great work. I really believe in public art. I think it's just one of the most powerful ways that you can communicate. And... In the very first model I talk about in my book, it's through Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. And if anyone goes to Adams Morgan District in D.C., they're gonna see some of the most riveting public art that they have put right in front of their affordable housing. There's the model in Chicago. There's a Lutheran church that actually took their building and they put it up for collateral five times to buy big apartment buildings. And made them all affordable housing. Their recent project is they actually bought a hospital and adapted that into affordable housing. That hospital has beautiful public art everywhere. And it was really about empowering the youth in the neighborhood to be involved. All that art is designed by the youth. And it is gorgeous. And they have a cultural arts center right in the center of that beautiful affordable housing that was a hospital. So they do theater... They do theater. They do all kinds of cultural arts events there. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. I guess we get a chance to talk about that a little in details when I talk to Brad. Now, can you tell us about your experience in addressing the need for affordable housing in Pasadena? I would love to. And I'll tell you, it's been an uproar battle. But it's a battle that's worth fighting. Pasadena is a wonderful place. Pasadena is a wealthy community and a very low-income community. And so many people don't think of that low-end part. But it's got the biggest wage gap of any city in California. And I happen to live in the low-income part of the neighborhood, of the community. Me and my husband live there. And we've had the joy of seeing some policy shift. Early on, I was involved in helping shape the housing market. And I was involved in helping shape what's called the inclusionary housing ordinance. And that's exactly what it means. It's the opposite of exclusionary. So when you're in a wealthy community like that, it's very easy to exclude the poor. And so we came up with a policy that would begin to include. And so what this policy looks like, it's where 15% of all new housing, any developer that comes in and proposes housing, 15% of their housing has to be set aside as a policy. And that's the only way that we can get that policy to be set aside as affordable. And there's other ways they can do it. They can also pay a fee. But we want developers to build that housing. So since we crafted that law, there's now 480 units of affordable housing in Pasadena. And part of that percentage, or part of those 480 units, are part of what's called Westgate, which is just south of Old Town on DeLacy. And, and Del Mar. And what, it was so amazing. I just read in the newspaper one day about Westgate coming to town. They were proposing 800 units of affordable housing, not affordable housing, pardon me, 800 units of luxury housing. And I was, I was, I knew there had never been any housing development that big in the history of Pasadena. So I just called them on the phone. I got ahold of them. They were based in Irvine. And they were very happy to talk to someone from the community. Because they need to get all their conditional use permits passed. And so they sat down with me. And I just, I just asked them, I said, what's your plan? Are you going to pay the fee? Or are you going to build the units? And they said, well, we'll probably build the units. I said, well, are you going to build the units at the moderate income level, the low income level, or the very low income level? And they said, well, if we do build the units, it'll probably be the moderate. And I just said, you know, I know a lot of people. I would love to support you, but I really can't in this case. Not unless you go down to the lower income levels. And then I will get all kinds of churches out here to support you. So I said, let me hear what you decide. Let's get together in a couple of weeks. I met with them in two weeks. I couldn't believe it. They decided not just to do the 15% that was required. They went up to 20% of their units. And they decided not just to do the moderate or the low. They decided to do all various. And they decided to do all very low income. You know how many people we had that applied to go in those 97 units? Over 5,000. The need is huge. Yes. But we can do something about it. OK. Just a couple more questions. Because I would like for you to touch on the homeless veterans or affordable housing for veterans. But I also would like for you to define the term affordable housing. OK. OK. housing? When people say affordable housing, what are they talking about? They're talking about a certain economic bracket or what? You know that definitely affordable housing is actually in the state of California, every city is required to plan for sufficient housing for all income levels. Now that plan called the housing element is only a plan. They aren't required necessarily to implement the plan, but we're working hard to get the law changed. So in that plan, the way affordable housing is defined, especially I'm more familiar with the city of Pasadena and how it's defined, but it's very similar to other cities. You take the median income and what that means is that's the, you take all the incomes in the entire city and then you find the one in the middle and then everything's based on that middle income. And so let's just say, for example, the median income is 50,000. And so anywhere from 120% to 80% of that 50,000 is considered moderate income. And then anywhere from 80% to 50% is considered low income. Anywhere from 50% to 30% is considered very low. And so below that 30% of that median income, is considered extremely low. And so it's very hard to get the housing for the extremely low, but we're thankful we've been able to get some of that. And also, especially these 40, these 97 units of affordable housing for very low, just South of Old Town. Beautiful, beautiful. Before we go into our community calendar, can you touch a little on affordable housing for veterans or homeless, veterans? What's happening? Well, it's a good question. It's not something I'm as familiar with, but I could tell you a story. My husband and I, just before we got married, we were able, we got involved with, it was just before a wedding and we're on the streets and we're doing a homeless survey to find those that are dual diagnosed with multiple issues. And it was a lot of people who were trying to find people who were trying to find people who to find those that are dual diagnosed with multiple issues. And it was called the vulnerability index. So we wanted to find those that were maybe had blindness or some kind of mental, physical and addiction. We wanted the most difficult to house. And those were the ones we were looking for. We'd get up every morning for three days and be out with our clipboard and our flashlight looking for them from like five in the morning until like six. And, or maybe it was four, I think it was very early. And we met this wonderful vet and he was so charming. We ended up inviting him to come to our wedding. And he even said, may the angels of heaven, the harps of heaven play harps at your wedding. It was just amazing. But, we've stayed friends with him and we've been working with him. What this whole homeless survey was about is to house the most vulnerable. And it's a new model in our country called housing first. And what they found is that it's a lot more expensive to keep people on the street than to have them housed because of all the expenses that are incurred from going to the hospital, all the detox centers. And fire trucks, all that expense, it's actually cheaper to house the most vulnerable than it is to keep them on the street. So that year we had funding, we had vouchers and funding for, I think it was around 25, the first year that we actually got housed. And the next year, the focus was on homeless vets. And that year, I believe we had another 25 vouchers. So we've been working with homeless vets. That was a priority last year. So this is just one of many programs for homeless vets, but there needs to be many, many more. Okay. Can I add something to that? You're being a little modest because the story didn't end well, but Jill was involved a few years ago with an attempt to try to turn a former army base into housing for veterans under the law that's required that when an army base closes, they should provide housing for homeless vets. And this happened in Pasadena, in an army base in an upscale neighborhood. And Jill led a campaign to try to have the city honor the law. It wasn't successful. They weren't able to get housing for homeless vets because the city, that area really resisted. But I think listeners ought to know that is the law. And what Jill was successful in doing with people in the community, was getting habitat homes for moderate and lower income people in that area. It was what the city wanted to do was the developers wanted to use that land for upscale development, but at least it's gonna be available for lower income people. Mm-hmm. Okay. We're gonna come back later on for a little round table discussion. Dr. Jill Shook, thank you very much. Let's move into our community calendar, and then we'll come back. With our other in-studio guest, Mr. Brad Fieldman. He's gonna tell us about his improvisational theater over there at the Vortex, the great things that he's doing over there. Let's move into our community calendar. This is the community calendar for the month of March. The Veterans Community Theater Workshop will be held this coming Tuesday, March the 26th, from 5.30 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. It's free to veterans, as well as non-veterans. The workshop participants are currently working on writing individual stage plays, and also rehearsing the play, Nail Heads. The location is the Vortex, 2341 West Olympic Boulevard. This is near the corner of Santa Fe and Olympic, and the Metro Bus number 60 and 66, is the bus that connects the city of Santa Fe, and also gives a check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check check at the door and seating is limited. For information on this event contact Tanisha Webb 323-251-9022. The location is the Performance Corner 214 Hardy Street in Englewood. The Roots and Wings Project presents the world premiere of Tree of Fire. The playwright is Jesse Bliss and the producer is Peter Woods. Tree of Fire is about a magnolia tree catching fire in an aged women prison. The final performance are scheduled for this Friday March the 29th and Saturday March 30th at 8 p.m. and on Sunday March 31st the performance will be at 2 p.m. The location of this event is the Inner City Arts the Rosenthal Theater 720 Cola Street Los Angeles. For ticket information you can call 310-994-3167. And this is a note Drama Stage Community Outreach Program DCOP will host students from UCLA and Colorado on this coming Wednesday March the 27th at 10 30 a.m. Discussion will be about the homeless, distribution of hygiene kits, and the drama stage will perform excerpts from the stage play Nail Heads. The location of this will be the Central City Community Church of the Nazarene right at the corner of 6th and San Pedro. Upcoming guests on the Qumran Report Monday April the 1st will be Sunshine Williams and Pastor Susan Bowen. This is just a reminder if you have a community event that you would like announced on our show send the information to Drama Stage Community Outreach Program DCOP. Stage 1 at yahoo.com attention Earline Anthony and the call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now back to our host. Okay thank you Miss Earline Anthony. Now I would like to bring in our other in-studio guest Mr. Brad Philman and I'm going to ask him to introduce the two cast members that he brought with him. Courtney and Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Janai Jan who is a performer and the writer of the performance that you and Erlene came to see. Well, hi, I'm Courtney. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. So how about we tell you a bit about what Dungeon Master is. It is a live semi-improvisational stage show, and it's a comedy, and it's also interactive. We have a script, and we have sets, and we have actors, and we sort of know what's going to happen. But what we do is we add an interactive element to the show where audience members who come, they can dress up as a character, they can create their own characters, and they volunteer to actually come up on stage with us. Now, in our scripts, we write an adventure. There's a main character or a guide, and Janaya will tell us a bit more about that. And this guide has a quest to go on, something to find, something to achieve, and he or she needs help. So we call up audience members to form a team of actors and actors, and they form an adventuring party, and they get to come up on stage and throw a wrench into the works of everything that we have planned. They usually do, actually. And it's entirely up to the audience members how they want to solve our problems. How are we going to cross this bridge if there's a troll blocking our path? Or how are we going to fight these evil sharks that have attacked our ships? So they're really the stars of the show. Which is a really important component of what we do. It's really about empowering our audience and bringing people up and letting them kind of explore and play and develop skills that maybe they don't have a chance to do elsewhere. We're currently focusing a lot of our efforts as a performance troupe towards inner city arts where we're donating our ticket proceeds for this season. We are performing our next show on April 7th at the Vortex. And tickets are $10 if you come in costume, $12 if you're un-costumed. But we are going to be doing that. be donating to inner city arts. The reason that we're doing this is because we really feel strongly about the local community and also trying to bring arts to teens and young adults who don't necessarily have the opportunity to explore some of these types of art in the local community. I actually really love the idea of working with inner city. I grew up personally on the other side of the country, but still in the inner city and the arts programs are really integral in creating a sense of self and a sense of being and really empowering you to grow up and have like, not just strong morals, but a strong tie as a human being to the community around you. And working with Dungeon Master is really great with that because we as a theater troupe are also our own. We learn skills from each other, whether that be puppet building or costume making, choreography or scene work. We learn that from each other and then it's going to be really exciting to get to volunteer some of that time to teach children the skills that we ourselves have kind of begun to hone and really practice. So the entire project of Dungeon Master is a community effort. So it's really, really great to have our community and our kids together and to have our community on stage with us, to have our community helping us build, to create the community that really gets a fantasy setting. It's something where everyone can come and play, no matter what you look like, no matter what you do by day, you come into our show, you relax and you can put on a costume and you can just play. It's really, really fun. Yeah. Now let me ask you this, because, you know, I'm off into the theater myself, that's my thing. And I noticed that you had like 23, 24 cast members or something like that? I mean, if you count the people who help us with some of the backstage efforts, we have almost 30 people that are involved with our troupe. Yeah. Now, how do you, improvisational theater, which I love, how do you work that out in rehearsal? You start off with a textual script or just an idea? I'll let Jonea talk a little bit more about the script writing process. But what I will say is, is that we, I mean, this isn't a new thing. Dungeon Master has been in existence since 1983. Bruce A. Young, a veteran actor, created it. And it's now in its 30th year, which is really strange to think about it that way. But it's been in Los Angeles for 11 years. And it has been performing in various locations and has kind of organically grown into this, really wonderful thing. And I believe that all of us now are really excited to have it community-based and make it something where it's a volunteer army. Is it related to the game, the Dungeons and Dragons? We're not affiliated. Yeah. But we do play in a world of fantasy that builds on not just that tradition of Dungeons and Dragons, but also like the great fantasy traditions. You know, you have Octavia Butler, Lord of the Rings. We have... Yeah. Lots of fantasy worlds that we draw upon. As a writer, I actually co-wrote the second script with an amazing writing partner, Erin Whitland. The entire episode focused on Amazons. And a lot of the traditional ideas of what Amazons are, are nothing more than sexy women in bikinis with big swords. Metal bikinis. Metal bikinis, in fact. And that wasn't a tradition that we wanted to have. We wanted to draw upon. We wanted to draw upon the Dahomey African warrior women. We wanted to draw on Maori women. We wanted to draw on the rich tradition of women warriors that weren't just the novel fantasy idea. So when we work with a script, we think of what type of fantasy reality we would like to see in a toll, which is the land where everything is set. And then, you know, we make a sort of a flavor text. Things so where the entire audience will know where you're coming from, but it gives them the elasticity to move within that world. So they're able to construct their own ideas within the framework that we've provided. And then we let them go. And sometimes that bites us in the bum, but that's great. And that's sometimes the best when that happens. That's when our show is at its best. We love, actually, when they... We love when they end up taking over things. We love when they play their hardest. Yeah, yeah. Now, also, let me ask you this. I thought some of the sets and stuff looked like a loss. Okay, much better. I thought some of the sets was beautiful. Some of the props, the big monster that came out. Can you talk about who developed that? That's all Brad. Yeah. He's definitely... He's definitely taken charge of all that. So you got a background in stagecraft, too? I do. Yeah, I'm a professional prop fabricator. I don't... I actually live in the adjoining studio that adjoins with the Vortex. So I'm a resident. Oh, yeah. Oh, they're with Gates. Yeah, yeah. Well, the stuff that I develop, I work with the cast. I mean, really, those big pieces didn't come about just by my efforts. Again, it comes back to us being a community and really focusing our efforts as a group to create giant, three-person dragon puppets and things that move across stage to kind of create a magical environment. I mean, it's a lot of theater of the mind, but when we choose to do something big, we really try to blow some minds. Now, I know Jeremy and a lot of them, I know they would like to have a chance to come over there and see this great... So do you have any car tickets and stuff to... Absolutely. Okay, cool. Of course. Yes, Jeremy's more than welcome. And listen, anyone who's associated with Inner City Arts is always... The students of that organization are always free when they walk through our doors. And we really want to see the community grow in our current area. This is our first season at the Vortex, and we're still trying to get our feet. So anyone who wants to come out would be more than welcome. Yeah, because we also work with Inner City Arts. I was telling you about Jesse Bliss. Who have a play that's running now called Tree of Fire. Right. I've heard good things about this. Yes. And her husband, Peter Woods, who is the program director for the last bookstore over there. Great organization. Let me ask you this. What we was talking about earlier with all of the new development that's coming downtown and into the communities, what are your ideas on getting the culture art? To fit into this, to fit into the way they develop housing and affordable housing? One of the issues that Inner City Arts is dealing with is providing arts programs for students and kids who just don't have this in their schools anymore. And so I think it sort of ties into lower income housing is that the state's focused so much, okay, they need this education, they need math and science, arts. Well, they aren't so important. But I think anyone who's ever been in a community that's been in a community that's been in a community that's been involved in arts, knows how important it is in your own personal development and your self esteem. There's so many skills and talents that you find by just trying arts and students are happier. They tend to be better at math and have better social skills by being involved with music and theater and arts. I will actually say that when I don't have my dungeon master hat on, I'm actually a teacher. I'm not just a teacher. I will also say that... Oh, that's great. I am very deeply involved in the activist community within Los Angeles. And I know a lot about the arts in Los Angeles and its history, especially public art in Los Angeles. Los Angeles really spearheaded public art. I'm not sure if you're aware in the 70s and the 60s, as far as mural art and a lot of this was being done and it came from the youth, especially disempowered youth. And art is really the medium that sets you free. And to have that being cut, to have that being taken away from children is a true shame because you don't need money to create art. You don't need money to create theater. Everything we do with Dungeon Master, we put our time in and our effort in, but we don't really make a profit. We do it because we love it and because we love the community. Mm-hmm . And that's what art is. And with Inner City Arts, being able to contribute that way is community building, but it also helps to tie in with what children currently need. What do we need as basic human beings? We need housing and we need food. We need things to clothe ourselves, but we also need to nourish the soul. And that's what art does. It really nourishes the soul. And theater has been nourishing the soul of people for decades. Mm-hmm . For generations, for thousands of years. And when you try to make the link between affordable housing and arts and community-based theater, it's been holding hands for as long as you can believe, even when there's no one around to really promote it. Mm-hmm . Beautiful, beautiful. Let me ask you this now. You guys deal with what you call a season of seven episodes. Mm-hmm . Yeah. Is there episodes tied into, is there a theme that run through all seven episodes? Yeah, we do. I mean, we have themes and storylines that go across the entire season. The funny thing about Dungeon Master is we never perform the same show twice, I mean, with certain exceptions. But for the most part, we just keep moving forward and this world keeps developing. We live in a culture where youth are often exposed to video games and immersive entertainment that kind of shuts them away from society and keeps them from being interactive and involved with their environment. Mm-hmm . And certainly, this is something that we're trying to put out there as an interactive social environment where they can kind of grow not just their imaginations, but also their social skills and their artistic skills. Mm-hmm . I gotta say, before I discovered Dungeon Master, for three years I was a player. This is my first season being a cast member. I didn't really have a lot of friends in Los Angeles. Now, I'd been here for several years. I had a few work buddies. And then one of the cast members from Dungeon Master said, oh, you should come to the show. You would love it. And through that, I have made so many friends just in the cast, in the audience. I feel like I don't just have a work buddy. I have real friends now because of this community. And it's been such a wonderful experience. Okay. We love you, Courtney. Yes, we do. Aw, I love you guys. Hugs. Okay. All right. Now, let's wind down. One more thing before we move around to the closing comments. Yeah. Can you tell us a little about the— Yeah. —the upcoming episode, Sunday? Yes. We have an episode not this Sunday. It's actually April 7th. That's the next one? We usually run biweekly, yeah. Yes. So, we have another performance coming up, and it's a very conceptual piece. It's about doors, magical doors. That's all I know. That's all we can tell you. I could say more, but I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. To be honest, the way that our scripts go is we really want to give the player the chance to interact fully with that world. To piggyback on what Brad was saying, we would really like the player to have as much fun and to create the world with us so that it's really a collaborative process. So, we can give you the bare bones of what the show is about, but the show is created on stage in front of you. The people working on stage as crew, the people working on stage as actors and actresses, and the community members who do come up and play with us, we all create that right there in front of you. So, it's us creating theater right in front of your eyes. In fact, some of our audience members who have been regulars, they have these characters that come back all the time, and they've kind of become part of our world. If you would like to learn more about us, you can find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash Dungeon Master Show, as well as our main site, which is www.the-dungeonmaster.com. Okay, thank you. Let's move back over to Dr. Gio Shook for our closing comments. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Can you give all your contact information for individuals that want to get this great book, Making Housing Happen? And your closing comments, I guess we got about 25 or 30 seconds. Well, sure, I'd be delighted to share it. There's a number of ways you can get the book. My publisher is Wyth & Stock. You can go to their website. You can go to bookstores and have it ordered. I just had a book signing at Romans. I was signing at Romans about a month ago, and we sold out of the books. I was just so pleased. Okay. And so, you can also go on Amazon. Okay, thank you, Dr. Gio Shook, Ante Minousis, Brad Filmon, Courtney Crabb, Janaya Kemper. Thank you for being our guests on the Qumran Report. Please listen to past shows of the Qumran Report on iTunes, Facebook, and YouTube. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are watching the Qumran Report live live live live live live live live live live live skidrow.la. Thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report 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 the song that opened the show, Running Out of Time by Victor Allen. Running Out of Time Seems like we're just running out of time Seems like we're just running out of time Seems like we don't know which way to turn Oh, I don't know Seems like we don't know which way to go, no Oh, no You might think I knew but You might think Thank you.