WAM is delighted to welcome Talya Kingston as our Associate Artistic Director. She was kind enough to sit down for this blog interview very early in her tenure to give the WAMily a chance to know more about her and the talents and enthusiasm she brings to WAM.
WAM THEATRE: How did you first fall in love with the theatre?
TALYA KINGSTON: My mother used to take me to the theatre when I was young. I grew up in Leeds, in the North of England, around civic art galleries, opera, ballet and a fabulous regional theatre called the West Yorkshire Playhouse. I loved the transformational magic of dressing up and being together in a darkened room watching a world unfold around us. Oh, and in England, you get little tubs of ice cream at the intermission to eat in your seat through the second act – that was a big draw too!
WAM: What shape has your journey in theatre work taken?
TALYA: I was originally trained as a stage manager and that gave me a technical understanding of the mechanics of theatrical production. After college, I moved to San Francisco and worked for five years coordinating the educational programs at The New Conservatory Theatre Center. We toured plays that dealt with subjects like HIV prevention, drug awareness, body image, and homophobia, to schools, community centers and juvenile facilities throughout Northern California. I gained a keen awareness of audience and how to engage different audiences in productive post-performance dialogue. When I moved to the East Coast I became the Education Director at Hartford Stage, and that’s where I really developed a passion for teaching, directing and dramaturgy. After my son was born, I started graduate school and pursued an MFA in dramaturgy at UMass, Amherst. I love the shape shifting and enveloping nature of dramaturgy: how sometimes I’m working intensively with a playwright on the development of a new script, other times I’m researching images to immerse the designers and directors in another historical time and place and then there are the amazing audience conversations where together we discover new dimensions to the staged stories. Finally, I spent the past decade as a visiting professor at Hampshire College, teaching courses in theatre history, playwriting and dramaturgy and exploring political and feminist theatre with brave, radical young people.
WAM: When did you first learn about WAM?
TALYA: I think I first heard about WAM Theatre through Gwen Tunnicliffe (WAM’s amazing Philanthropy and Outreach Coordinator). Gwen and I worked together five years ago on a production called The Lonely Soldier Project, an immersive performance of testimony by female US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the women at Soldier On! – a recent WAM beneficiary. I also had friends who participated in the Berkshire Women’s Leadership Summit that WAM led last year and came back buzzing and inspired by Kristen and the other speakers. I was looking to move back from academia into professional theatre and the WAM job just seemed like a perfect fit for my experience and interests.
WAM: What attracted you to work with us?
TALYA: I love the double philanthropy! I think it’s incredibly important to tell stories that place women as protagonists (instead of the default supporting roles: wife, mother, etc.) promoting the idea that women’s stories are for everyone to listen to and enjoy, and giving work to female artists. The same mission is central to WAM’s educational programming in the way that the Girl’s Ensemble gives young people the space and support to shape their own ideas into performance. On top of that WAM really backs up its mission by partnering with and giving a portion of its box office to women and girls organizations. At a time when it’s tempting to despair at all the injustice in the world, the WAM community (WAMily!) on-line and in the theatre really feels like it’s making a positive, visceral difference. That’s very attractive!
WAM: Your primary responsibilities are Fresh Takes and the Girls Ensemble. What are your immediate goals for those programs this year?
We are announcing our 2018 Fresh Takes Reading Series season in four weeks! [Editor’s Note: The Fresh Takes has been announced- click here to see what Talya programmed!] So my immediate goals are to line up some fantastic plays and match them with great directors and actors (watch this space). I’m inheriting a Girls Ensemble that has a strong mission and pedagogy with a fantastic team of teaching artists, so my initial goal is to learn from them, brainstorm together and find ways to maximize the program’s potential. We’re planning an intensive two-week summer program for the Girls Ensemble this July. We hope to attract back many of our alumni and also encourage new young people to join. The ensemble members will be paid a stipend to create a new devised work that will premiere at WAM’s gala.
WAM: What are your long-term goals for them?
[Editor’s Note: Talya had only been on the job for three weeks when she did this interview. She will have many exciting plans to announce in the coming weeks, and for years to come!]
TALYA: My long-term goals for WAM’s educational programs include solidifying our existing partnerships with schools and community centers to expand the reach of Girl’s Ensemble and beginning a series of professional development workshops for adult theatre artists. Our continued goal for Fresh Takes is to present the hottest new works by a diverse array of exciting female playwrights and to invigorate healthy debates on important issues.
WAM: What other work – paid and unpaid – do you do?
TALYA: I write plays. I’m a member of the Northampton Playwrights Lab and we will be producing a festival of our work in September. I also write long form theatre reviews and have written articles for Howlround. I teach theatre workshops and courses to college students. This Spring, I’m a guest artist at Mount Holyoke College Theatre Department, and for the past five years I have co-taught a summer UMass course at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.
WAM: What makes your heart sing?
TALYA: Long dog walks in the beautiful Western Massachusetts countryside (we recently lost our beloved Golden Retriever Samwise, and have been borrowing neighborhood dogs to walk with); Making my children laugh; Wandering around art galleries and book stores, Being understood in Spanish (¡estoy aprendiendo español!), and the magic moments when things come together in a rehearsal studio!
Talya with her children Cara and Ben
