Interview: Marie Cisco Talks Cisco & Co. Productions, the Impact of the 'Theatres Not Speaking Out' List and More

Marie Cisco is a powerhouse in the theater industry, having worked at The National Black Theatre, The New Black Fest, The Lark, The Public Theater, Lee Daniels Entertainment and more, and was at the center of a national conversation this summer after creating the "Theatres Not Speaking Out" spreadsheet after the death of George Floyd.

Cisco is beginning a new venture, striking out on her own with Cisco & Co. Productions, LLC, where she will be putting the focus on cultivating and developing projects focused on Black and African culture, and uplifting female driven stories and characters.

Cisco recently produced an event for Broadway for Biden, and has multiple projects already in the works with her company, including commissioning millennial playwrights to dissect and discuss what theater could look like when it returns, and a venture with JAG productions and writer/director Stevie Walker-Webb called The The Black Joy Project.

We spoke with Marie Cisco about the creation of Cisco & Co. Productions, the impact of being at the center of a national conversation, and more.

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I would love to start by hearing about your work background, can you talk to me about the work you had done prior to launching this amazing new venture?

I worked at The National Black Theatre, I was a producing fellow there, and then I was directing a little bit independently, and then I was hired at The Public Theater as a line producer. And I worked at The Public for two years, mostly producing readings and works in development and ancillary events, and then transitioned into producing mainstage shows and met Lee Daniels while I was there. He came onboard as an enhancement producer for Ain't No Mo' and I had been thinking about transitioning into producing for film and TV at the time. And he was essentially like, "Come out to LA and work with me." So, I did. After two years I left The Public and went out to LA, and I worked with him on a few pilots and as a co-producer on a feature film that shot in Montreal this last winter. And then I came back to New York for a little bit and started working with the Apollo Theater as a new work development consultant with their commissioned artist. When coronavirus hit I went home to Atlanta in early March and everything went remote. So, I just decided to be there for a while.

It was a combination of "The world is ending, why not?" and seeing how quickly institutions were furloughing people and purging employees in a way, and out of necessity for the most part. But I was like, "I don't want to be dependent on an institution, or on somebody else to be employed. If things are going to get hard, I at least want to be in a space where I'm making work for myself and I'm owning that thing, and I'm in control of what's happening."

And when the protests and everything started, I was like, "It's really important that black artists have a space to create." Then all the testimonies started coming out about people telling their experiences in these predominantly white institutions, and how unsafe they felt, and the microaggressions from artists to administrators, and I said, "I want to create a space where artists can come and not have to deal with those things." So, it was kind of a combination of all of those things that led me to really dig in and figure out what I wanted to do and start that work.

You spoke to this just a moment ago, but it sounds like Cisco & Co. Productions was a product of everything going on currently.

It was, it definitely was. I had been wanting to launch it... I formed the LLC a year or two before while I was still at The Public. I knew I wanted to do it. I just was nervous, and was scared and was like, "Will I be able to do it?" There is a comfort and a safety when you are employed and you know every week you're going to get that check and you have those benefits. It's nice, it's safe, it's comfortable. But, with the climate of the world, I thought, "It's not okay to just be comfortable. It's not okay to just feel safe." And with everything crumbling it just felt like an opportunity to create the reality. There's all this unknown and uncertainty and everybody is like, "What's going to happen? What's theater going to look like?" And for me, instead of asking some mysterious person or persons and waiting for people to tell us what it's going to be, I said, "Well, I can create the reality that I want to live in as much as I have the capacity to do so."

It's not a moment to be timid, it's not a moment to be fearful, it's not a moment to be insecure, it's not a moment to have imposter syndrome, that's just not the moment we're living in as far as I'm concerned. So, I felt it was very necessary. I feel like I had the skills to do it, I feel like I have the relationships to do it, I know that there are artists that I want to work with, and so, it feels like I would be doing myself a disservice to not harness all of those things and figure out how to make this happen.

What are you hoping to achieve with Cisco & Co. Productions at this specific moment in time?

I know that since we've been in quarantine a lot of artists have been making work and exploring new ideas, and one of the things I'm really excited about is, because a lot of these artists haven't been commissioned by an institution or by someone, there isn't a constraint on what they're able to make. And so I've seen that a lot of artists are making [art] from a very free and authentic space that is very unapologetic. I'm excited to find those artists and to find those projects and put those into development because I think that they are going to land on us in a way that work hasn't before. Because at times, I think artists, especially black artists, will make work based on what audiences are asking for, what the institutions are doing, or if something hit, then you want to make the next hit, so what type of work is happening? And because we haven't been seeing work, and people haven't been commissioned, I think there's a freedom in how people are making, so I'm excited about that.

The mission is to produce stories that reflect the black and African diaspora, particularly focused in female driven stories, or female driven characters. There are legs of the company that I am in the process of building, and one is a development arm, so bringing in projects and developing them. And then a training arm, where people who are interested in producing or being a managing director, or writing, who don't want to go to grad school or don't have the funds to go to grad school, or don't have those relationships to get into those institutions that they want to work in, to create a mentorship and training program so that we can start to build a new class of those artists who want to build those skills. I am also interested in having a cohort of resident writers and directors, people that I love and jive with, who are in residence with the company and are constantly making work, and then having it be produced on a rotating schedule.

Cisco & Co. is launching with a few projects right up front - Post Covid Reimaginings: From the Mind of Millennials, The Black Joy Project, and a short film. Can you tell me about those?

Post-COVID Reimaginings is an anthology, which is something I've never put together. But, when coronavirus hit and there were a lot of articles and pieces coming out asking folks, "What's theater going to look like? What's going to happen to the performing arts world?" A lot of people who were being asked those questions were older, sort of elite artists, some of whom I think have been a part of the problem. And I was like, "I don't want to hear from them, I want to hear from millennials, millennials are going to be the ones who are starting to take over companies or start their own things and be the change we want to see in the landscape in the next years...Those are the people I want to hear from." So, I have about twenty-five confirmed black millennials, from actors to directors to choreographers to producers to art administrators, and I asked them to create essays or short stories or poems, any written work that reflects the world that they want to see or live in post-coronavirus, what the live performance world can or should look like post-COVID. So they are all in the process of writing and editing, and I also hired a visual artist to create a visual component for each reimagining.

The Black Joy Project is with JAG Productions, which is a production company run by Jarvis Green out of White River Junction, Vermont, and they commissioned Stevie-Walker Webb, and brought me in as a producer. Stevie had an idea to create a new methodology of making theater, making art, that is rooted in black culture and de-centers whiteness. And he wanted to bring eleven artists together to help him explore what this could look like, what this methodology could be. So, we brought eleven artists out to Vermont to a farm, and two filmmakers, and we basically all lived together for a month and did workshops and exercises, and Stevie was able to build his methodology from the work that happened on the farm, and the two filmmakers shot the entire experience. So we are going into post-production for the documentary aspect of it next month. And then there is still the methodology component that Stevie is working on that will come out at some point as well.

Then there is a short film I'm working on. I had a concept that's based on a sort of family story, and commissioned a writer to write that short film, and we actually wanted to shoot- before coronavirus- this summer, but now we've gone back into the planning process of when we're going to shoot. Shariffa Ali is on board as director, and I'm hoping to shoot that next summer.

What do you ultimately hope for your company long term?

Acquiring office space, we're producing inhouse, there's space for artists to work and be in residence in house. But also, something that's really important to me, especially after going to Vermont for a month, is providing spaces for black artists where they can rest and work. So finding a house or some sort of space that Cisco & Co. owns where we can send five to six artists at a time and they can just be in a house that's somewhere peaceful, and rest, and make work for two weeks or a month. That's something that's extremely ideal for me. That is further down the line, but hopefully not too far, so that's sort of a big project. Another big thing is, I'm based in New York, so figuring out where to be. I think that with the uncertainty of this world, especially with the remoteness of everything, you can kind of be wherever you want to be, at least for the time being. Is this retreat place somewhere in Atlanta, and then the office is here in New York? How can I expand the reach? Is the retreat based somewhere in the Midwest for those artists who are out in the Midwest? So, for me, it's not necessarily being bound to one place, it's thinking about how to expand the reach.

You made a huge impact over the summer by creating the "Theatres Not Speaking Out" spreadsheet after the death of George Floyd. What has it been like for you to be at the center of this massive, incredibly overdue and necessary conversation within the theater community?

It was interesting because I didn't at all think that that would be the impact of it, or that as many people would see it as they have. I wasn't expecting it, and I wasn't ready for it, but when the conversation continued to happen and I saw the impact it was making, I understood that it was really important, and so it's a double-edged sword. Because I hate that it was necessary, I hate that it's a thing. It was very frustrating to receive some of the backlash from theater-folk. And it was mostly out of fear and embarrassment of not wanting to be on it, and it was also being manifested in ways that was really cruel and nasty. So that was very disappointing. But I was also in a space where I didn't really care if people were mad or hurt, because the impact on the black community, having to see what's happening to your people, and experience it, I feel like [being on the list] it's nothing, like, you're name is on a spreadsheet. And yes, that has impact, but do better.

So, it's been very interesting because the conversations haven't stopped. I've been collaborating with folks, we are creating visuals based on the data from the spreadsheet, and so it's still an ongoing conversation. I think the impact is lasting and I am grateful for that, but also, the fact that this is something that had to happen, and that people were so unaware...it just seems like people are finding out for the first time that institutions are inherently racist, and can be, and that people of color have been experiencing this. It was shocking to me how shocked people were. But, we talk about white privilege, that's part of that privilege, right? Is the not knowing, or not having to know. It's been a very interesting ride, and there are times where I wanted to not have to deal with it, and I just want to make the work I want to make and not have to assume this role of troublemaker or activist, but I also know that it's necessary, and I don't take that lightly.

Is there anything that you would like to say to young BIPOC creators at this moment in time?

If you have an idea, don't wait for folks to say yes to you, say yes to yourself. I truly believe that any desire you have, any desire you have to do something good, can be manifested in this world, you just have to put in the work and believe in it, and keep doing it. I would say figure out what your specific values are and don't compromise those for anyone. And I would say that we are in a place where we can create the reality in the world that we want to live in to the best of our capacity, so always know that you don't have to bend or adhere to the world that's been created for you, you can challenge that and create something that makes more sense to you.

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For more information on Cisco & Co. Productions, visit: https://www.ciscoproductions.com/

*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.