BWW Interviews: The Playhouse's Daniel Quintero Talks About Youth Outreach and the Launch of 'The Tribe'

The Playhouse in San Antonio is redefining youth outreach with The Tribe, a new and exciting network of young artists that engages new theatre audiences, promotes artistic expression in the community, and fosters San Antonio's next generation of artists. Membership into The Tribe is open to all high school and college students in San Antonio.

Daniel Quintero, Intern at The Playhouse and Founding Member of The Tribe, recently chatted with us about this exciting new venture.

For more information on The Tribe, please visit http://www.theplayhousesa.org/?q=tribe

BWW: Thank you so much, Daniel, for taking the time to speak with me today. I'm really excited to hear about what's going on at The Playhouse. I've been hearing about The Tribe and I guess we'll start off with that. What exactly is The Tribe?

DQ: When I came on in April as an Intern and assistant to Asia Ciaravino, The Playhouse's President and CEO, Asia expressed that for The Playhouse and all local theater companies in general, it's difficult to attract younger audiences. That 13-25 year old demographic is very challenging to attract. Going to see theater can sometimes feel inaccessible to them. So that was the situation. How can we get teenagers and young adults to come see theater? Asia and I started bouncing ideas off each other about how we could create a system in which theater seems more accessible to teens. We did some research and looked at big, top regional theaters across the country like the Steppenwolf and the Guthrie and some other amazing, incredible institutions of theater. One thing we saw was that some theaters have what's called the Youth Arts Council which is typically about 15 students who lead discussions on art and get to see shows around town and score affordable tickets. I liked parts of that, but I wanted to create something that was our own. One day, Asia threw out the word "Tribe" because to her tribe meant community and a certain sense of organicness. What that turned into is a network of high school and college age students which engages youth into theater, and that means many different things. The Tribe participates in exclusive events. For example, at our launch event, The Tribe got to meet Molly Cox, the director of The Playhouse's production of Ragtime, and went out into the area around the Empire Theatre, took pictures with people, passed out flyers for Ragtime, and asked people about local theatre. That was called "Tribing." We have lots of other events planned as well. We are going to go to the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts before it's actually finished and take a hard-hat tour and "tribe" the area by taking pictures with people and spread the word. Any student can join The Tribe and we want it to be an inclusive network that grows and grows. We want to offer young artists and theater enthusiasts to go to exclusive events, see shows for free, and give them a sense of belonging to a group that is passionate about theater. We also want to give everyone a great networking and volunteering opportunity.

BWW: So this launched pretty recently then.

DQ: Yes. We launched on Sunday, July 28th at the student matinee of Ragtime.

BWW: Wow! I was at that performance, and I saw all of these kids in Tribe t-shirts, and I have to say it was so well-organized I thought you had been doing this for a long time.

DQ: No that was the first, well we call them "Happenings." That was the first Tribe Happening, and those people will be the founding members of The Tribe, and we had kids from all over the San Antonio area that participated in that event.

BWW: How many people are in The Tribe right now?

DQ: We're at about 15 members right now, but in the upcoming weeks we'll be introducing an interest form where people can go to our website and voice their interest in The Tribe. To become part of The Tribe is a two-step process. It's really simple. The first step is to make some sort of donation to The Playhouse. It can literally be a dollar. It's really so that Tribe members feel the pride of being a donor to a non-profit that they care about. And the cost of running The Playhouse can not be made up from ticket sales. We depend so much on our donors, and it's so powerful to our youth to invest financially and mentally into something they're passionate about. Step two is to bring five new patrons to a show at The Playhouse. Once you do those two steps, you're a member of The Tribe and get invited to these special events and all the perks that come with membership.

BWW: That sounds like so much fun! So what's the age range of The Tribe members?

DQ: I think the youngest are in their sophomore year in high school and we have some that are rising seniors. I don't think we have any freshmen right now, and I think we don't have any college age students yet.

BWW: So all members are high school students at the moment?

DQ: Yes. I'm actually starting my senior year in high school at the moment.

BWW: That's incredible, and I wish there was something like this when I was in high school.

DQ: Exactly. I want to leave this behind for San Antonio. I love sitting around and talking about art with people. I can't express how much I love art, and I want more people to be a part of that. I want this to be an institution in San Antonio, and I think San Antonio needs it.

BWW: Are most of the members of The Tribe students that are involved in arts and drama and theater in their school or are they people from other walks of life that happen to like theater?

DQ: I want to attract both sides. I want to shed the idea that art is an elitist, fancy-pants thing because it's not and it shouldn't be. I want to include the passionate artist and the person who just likes going to see theater because that person is just as important as the first. But right now, I believe all of The Tribe members are artists in some way. We have designers and make-up artists and actors as well.

BWW: What do they think of the experience so far?

DQ: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. It was so fun to just run around Downtown San Antonio with people your age, take pictures with strangers, and tell them about this awesome show which we all got to see for free. It was so much fun. People in the community are really excited about this, too. An organization like this is kind of unprecedented.

BWW: Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun and a lot of proactive about creating a new audience for the arts. So what are some of the next happenings for The Tribe?

DQ: Well, we're doing that event at the Tobin Center where we'll take a hard-hat tour. I also want The Tribe to have a presence in the lobby before every show at The Playhouse. I want this young and welcoming energy to flood everything we do at the theatre. I've also been thinking about doing gallery showings in The Playhouse lobby for local teen artists because who doesn't want their art to be seen by people?

BWW: Yeah, and that lobby is beautiful. That would be a great venue for an art showcase.

DQ: Oh yeah. And I want to take the shows that The Playhouse is doing next season and I want to do public readings out in the community. Really, The Playhouse is so much bigger than the building that it's in. I want to do impromptu play readings out in the community and just spread the gospel of theatre.

BWW: So it sounds like The Tribe is really something that The Playhouse wants to continue for the long haul.

DQ: Yes. The Playhouse is very excited about this, and we want it to become an institution of young art in the city.

BWW: That's great, because a lot of theater organizations don't reach out to younger patrons as much as they could.

DQ: Exactly. If you look at most local theater and their audiences, you'll notice that they're older, and if we don't reach out to the young person who's never seen a play before, we will die out. That's the sad truth of it. We need to reach out to people, and if we don't, we're not thriving as an artistic community. We're not giving back.

BWW: Well thank you so much for your time, and I wish you and The Playhouse all the best with The Tribe.

DQ: Thank you so much!

For more information on The Tribe, please visit http://www.theplayhousesa.org/?q=tribe

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