Interview: Jessica Bird Beza of BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL at Playwrights Foundation Uplifts the Work of a Diverse Array of Theater Makers

Pulitzer Prize winners Paula Vogel, Katori Hall, Annie Baker and Sam Shepard are just four of the many celebrated playwrights whose work was developed in the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF), one of the nation's oldest and most successful new play development programs. Established in 1976 and currently led by Playwrights Foundation's Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza, BAPF has a stellar track record of discovering original and distinctive new voices in the theater, investing in the development of their work, and launching storied careers.

This year's BAPF runs July 16-25, and features ten readings of five very different new works, including Jaisey Bates' Real Time remix, a selection of short works in which four storytellers crisscross paths across dimensions; Miyoko Conley's Human Museum, a wildly imaginative drama depicting a future where a human museum is curated by robots; Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin's Tiger Beat, a coming of age story about pop stardom in the 2000s; Sam Hamashima's Supposed Home, a time-bending anime adventure investigating the lasting effects of the Japanese American Concentration Camps; and Johnny G. Lloyd's The Problem with Magic, Is:, a magical exploration of family, gentrification, and a spell gone wrong.

The casts for BAPF's livestreamed readings include acclaimed actors such as TV/film actor and theatre mainstay Emily Kuroda, known for her role as Mrs. Kim in "Gilmore Girls," as well as Bay Area theatre veterans such as Halili Knox, Tasi Alabastro, Keiko Shimosato Carreiro and Michael Ray Wisely. To purchase streaming access or learn more about the festival, including two in-person gatherings on Sundays July 18th and 25th and other related events, visit playwrightsfoundation.org or call 415-626-2176.

I recently caught up with Jessica Bird Beza from her home in Hercules, California to talk about the festival. She has enjoyed quite an extensive career in a variety of roles at theaters across the country, including serving as Associate Director on the Broadway smash Come From Away. Speaking with her, what comes shining through is her passion for supporting playwrights and uplifting their work. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

What's been the most challenging part of putting together this year's festival?

Last year was my first festival at Playwrights Foundation and as you can imagine, the challenge was doing our first-ever online festival. This year the challenge is producing a hybrid festival and what that looks like. The readings and rehearsals are all online, but we are innovating in-person community and bringing people together. We've brought the playwrights to San Francisco and we're having some in-person events where for an invited audience with our artists we're having watch parties at the theater. So this year we're balancing the in-person aspects and the online experience for the first time ever, and that's exciting and also challenging.

I've found these challenges are also opportunities to continue to grow and expand, but I think that's the world a lot of us are in now, as it's starting to become safe to come back in person, but also wanting to keep the online community. I mean, we had twice as many people see the festival last year than in years past. It was such great exposure for the playwrights, and we had over 225 theater professionals that joined us last year, from all over. So we're wanting to keep that accessibility in having the festival online, but also wanting to have in-person community as well, because there is potential for that now.

So the readings are online, but on each Sunday we are hosting an in-person, outdoor kind of mixer event, where people can gather and meet the artists and have conversations with one another. And we're encouraging folks to host their own watch parties. It doesn't have to be just one person sitting at their computer, you know, but maybe have a couple of friends over to watch.

You received over 750 submissions this year. How did you go about narrowing that down to the 5 plays you are actually going to present?

We start in September and select the plays in April, so it's about a 7-month process, and it's very community-centered and collaborative. We have over 150 readers who volunteer to read the scripts. We had 755 scripts, and in the initial process with our national committee readers the scripts get read twice by two different readers so it's not just one person's opinion that makes the decision on whether something moves forward or not. So that's like 1500 reads that our team is organizing, and also creating a community amongst the readers. We have a Slack channel and Zoom calls where they can ask questions and have conversations. And then our national committee readers help our literary team narrow down to the 135 semi-finalists.

Then we start a little different process with a new community of readers, which we call our literary council, which is comprised of 20 Bay Area artists, who then help us over two months read the semi-finalists and narrow those down to the finalists, and then continue conversations as we narrow down to the five that are selected.

It's very different than at a producing organization where it's mainly the staff and artistic director who selects. For us it really is listening to the readers, who then become advocates for the plays, and us having conversations with them after reading the plays ourselves, and sometimes we're advocating for particular playwrights that we've read, and having collective conversations as a community of readers and hearing a variety of perspectives. What are different playwrights' voices that we want to be uplifting, who are the playwrights that need this opportunity and are ready for it, and who are writing stories that are innovating who stories are about and also how they're being written, innovating the form? We're looking for playwrights to support who are writing something we maybe haven't heard before.

I feel like so many theater companies over this past year or so of racial reckoning have been scrambling to find plays written by folks from underrepresented communities. BAPF is presenting a really diverse lineup this year. How did you achieve that diversity of content and representation?

The mission of Playwrights Foundation and the history of Bay Area Playwrights Festival has been about uplifting a diversity of playwrights, and I think that can be defined in multiple ways, from race to gender to economic status and access. We even talk about who has an MFA and who doesn't, making sure there's diversity within the group because that's about access to education and opportunity. And even diversity of where people are, like local versus other cities. So we really bring together all of those into conversation when we're selecting the plays. And I think demographics are actually a really helpful marker for us of "Are we creating equity in the process?" So there are a lot of questions we ask playwrights in our application, around self-identified race and ethnicity, but also gender and age and where are they in their career. And we really use those in our decision-making process of "Are we creating opportunities for under-represented identities?" Which takes a lot of time and care, you know? It's about the play, but it's also about the playwright and who is being uplifted in the process.

With that many submissions, you're obviously telling people "no" much more often than you're telling them "yes." Do you have any sort of blanket advice or words of wisdom for the vast majority of folks whose plays were not chosen?

In the process and in the application experience, even for playwrights who don't move forward, we try very much to center our playwrights in our communication. We involve them in our community in some way, even beyond just those that are selected in the five. And what that looks like is communicating to people more frequently throughout the process, because that application process is so long that sometimes playwrights are sitting there waiting for like four or five months to even hear what happened. We also invite all of our playwrights who have applied the following year. Or if they're not applying again, do they want to be a reader instead, (1) because we really like to have playwrights for readers who are part of that community, and (2) because it's a huge learning experience to see what the selection process looks like behind the scenes.

You're a woman in a leadership position in theatre, which is unfortunately still more the exception than the rule. I'm curious to know what your path was to getting to where you are now.

Graduating from college, I was I knew I wanted to be a director and/or run a theater someday so I wanted to understand how all of the pieces work. I've had a very diverse background. I've done stage management, I've worked in production with like props and lighting, I have been a casting director and a director. In those first few years out of college, I was like I really want to do these fellowships and just understand how things work behind the scenes. Then I carved out a path being predominantly a producer and director. I always tell folks, "No matter what you're doing, even if you're making the coffee, do it to the best of your ability." Because there's something about if someone is able to do the small tasks, people then start to trust you with bigger and bigger tasks.

I have a deep history in theater in San Diego, and sometimes when I'm talking to my interns it's like "I started out and interned at The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego Rep, and five years later was producing and directing in various capacities at those theaters because of the relationships that I made." I went from being Associate Producer at La Jolla Playhouse and then was assisting on Come From Away. Those relationships then followed that show to Broadway.

You served as Associate Director on Come From Away. What exactly did that role entail?

We were in five cities before New York, and so as Associate Director, I'm really an extension of the director, like helping keep track of changes or decisions, or working with the writers on the script as we're moving from production to production, or sometimes helping communicate notes that the director has, and being their right-hand person in a way. On Broadway after it opened, and this happened in a couple other cities where I stayed after opening, the director left and I would work with stage management and help the show keep its original integrity. So I would watch the show each week, give actors notes, work with and train the understudies, working with the Associate Choreographer.

Are you still involved with Come From Away?

I am not. I was involved with it for like three years. I worked with it for eight months after it opened on Broadway, and then I came back to regional theater. I very much missed being part of a community, also being with my partner, and missed working in the regional theater and doing what I am now, being able to work with multiple artists on different projects. After three years of working on the same show with a lot of the same people, I was ready to expand and kind of go back to some of my roots. That experience definitely helps me even do my job better now, like I understand some of the commercial side of theater and also the regional, non-profit side of theater when I'm working with playwrights.

I think Come From Away is a shining example of how to develop a commercial success through the regional theater process. When I saw it on Broadway, I felt like it showed the benefit of a lot of work over a long period of time. Every moment and transition just felt so well thought-out and emotionally justified.

Yeah, there is a genuine heart to that show.

And that's not an easy thing to maintain as a show moves to bigger venues with higher stakes. Did you ever have producers offering to throw money at you if only you'd make the show bigger or heighten its drama to make it more like a standard Broadway hit?

I think the producers knew what the show was [from the beginning]. I mean, they were on the journey from the very first city in La Jolla. Shows have to find the right producers that won't try to make the show something it's not. I think most of the commercial process is not playwright- or artist-centered, but Come From Away was one that was very centered around the artists who were creating it.

Is working as an assistant/associate director a good stepping stone to becoming a director, or is there ever a worry that you'll get pigeon-holed in the assistant/associate role?

I think assistant and associate positions are how you can learn the craft. I've done many of them over my career, and watching and learning from different directors is like the best master class on directing, you know? But you also develop relationships and it's been through getting to know some of those directors, and then they know me and my work and recommend me for things to other people. I think this business is a lot about connections. So for my path it's been kind of instrumental in me becoming a director. And I think it's learning on the job. I've learned what to do and also I've learned what not to do, working on multiple projects as an assistant. [laughs]

Is there an example you can share of something you learned not to do?

Umm... that may get me in trouble.... [laughs]

I'm not trying to get you to divulge anything you're not comfortable talking about. [laughs]

I mean, I've been in some spaces that are very collaborative, which is more of how I want to work, and then there are some spaces that have been more like dictator-type spaces, or not listening to the artists in the same way, or actors not feeling fully comfortable to speak up. So - really learning how do you create a room where people feel safe and able to bring their full selves to the table.

I think it's also gone to some of the lessons I'm learning now, like running an organization and remembering when I was Number 2 in other places, and what made me feel like I could fully participate and what didn't. And how do you create a culture, even within your own organization, that allows people to be able to participate and be fully present?

This past year and a half has been difficult for pretty much everybody in every field, and making theater these days is certainly challenging. That said, what is the most fun part of your job right now?

Honestly, the most fun part of my job, that I always look forward to, is when I'm just having conversations with playwrights. To me that is the heart of what we do. Playwrights Foundation also has a resident playwright program where we have one-on-one conversations. Or when alumni reach out to me and say, "Hey, I want to run something by you." Or when I receive a phone call from someone that they have exciting news about an opportunity that they got, or a play that Playwrights Foundation supported is now moving on somewhere else.

The most exciting part of my job is just getting to create relationships with playwrights where they feel like they have someone in their corner supporting them. I love seeing when they're able to thrive, even in these challenging times. Some of that is just being on the phone when people are having a difficult time, even though that's hard. I think that basis of relationship is what leads us to good work. And so, yeah, the playwrights themselves are the best part of my job.

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