'Theatre Corner' kicks off third season Thursday night

KPBS’ "Theatre Corner" kicks off its third season Thursday night. The interview series is dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion both on the stage and in the seats.

When michael taylor (who requested his name be lower case) was voted onto the board of the Old Globe Theatre in 2016, he wanted to address the fact that he was seeing only a handful of people that looked like him in the audience at shows. So he created a publication called "Theatre Corner" to highlight Black performers in order to make Black audiences aware that they were being represented on stage.

"The reason I did that is Barry Edelstein (the) artistic director — I credit him with putting more Black actors on the stage at the Old Globe. And these actors were just doing amazing things. I felt the Black community perhaps weren't aware of it. And so I decided to start interviewing the Black actors that performed there," taylor said. "My idea was that perhaps I could, in my own little effort to normalize the consideration of going to theater in the Black community, just like the consideration of going to a sporting event. This is just a normalized consideration. There's no second thought about it. And so this is the idea, just a little by little, seeing more and more of themselves involved in the theater through the actors that perform there."

Now "Theatre Corner" enters its third season as a TV series and has expanded its scope beyond just actors. The season opener highlights Stevie Agnew, director of lighting at the Old Globe and one of the few Black lighting directors in the industry.
 
"Stevie is actually quite a phenomenon," taylor enthused. "Because he's Black, he represents a culture and a people, and it's so rare, but he's such a sharp individual. That's why I'm extra excited about bringing him to 'Theatre Corner' this season. And it also speaks to the idea people just think of theater as actors, but there's so much that goes into a theater performance, and he speaks about his craft. People need to see themselves in nontraditional career choices. There just may be some young Black person who watches this interview and thought, 'I had no idea that that was even an option.' So if you don't have a network or a connection with someone in the theater, how would you even know that? So I think he's an inspiring individual."

With theaters feeling a more urgent push to increase diversity since 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement, change is not just about who you see on stage and who is creating the show we see. It is also about the people in administration running the organizations.

The second guest on the season opener is Julianna Crespo, the director of performing arts at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, which is also where the episode was shot.

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"She's of Hispanic heritage," taylor said. "She's another example that people are able to see themselves in a theater position that's not on stage performing. There are so many jobs that are behind the scenes, backstage professions, that at most theaters, it's lacking quite a bit in diversity. And so this is also an area that needs to be addressed. And I think this is something that the California Center for the Arts, they have a very unique program. It's kind of an apprenticeship program. They created a conservatory where they actually will bring in BIPOC individuals for these behind the scenes jobs."

Upcoming guests later this season will include Yolanda Franklin, executive artistic director at Common Ground Theater; American bass opera singer DeAndre Simmons; Kathryn Smith-McGlynn, an actor, professor, director, and producer, who lives in Escondido; and actor Marcus Henderson who people may recall from the film "Get Out."

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And just as a side note, taylor's first career and one he still maintains is as an archaeologist, but not exactly the Indiana Jones kind.
 
"It's not the romanticized version of archaeology," taylor said. "We're not in exotic places digging in Belize. It's more along the lines of compliance. So we keep clients, corporations, companies and individuals in compliance with cultural preservation laws that are on the books. With that, I get the honor of a mayor appointed board position on the Historic Resources Board for the city of San Diego."

But obviously taylor has a talent for digging into things and you can enjoy his exploration of American theater with "Theatre Corner."