Dear Sonoma Valley, my Transcendence Family, and the Larger Arts Community,
It is my hope, that in telling my story, I can be part of a group effort to transform words into action within Transcendence Theatre Company for the benefit of its founders, its workers, and for our wonderful, warm, and loving communities — both our local community here in Sonoma County and our larger arts community worldwide. As Nikko Kimzin said, “This is not a call out but a call in.”
My work with Transcendence Theatre Company spanned from 2011–2015, including work in multiple roles and in many departments, and while I believe that the Artistic Director and Executive Director had and continue to have wonderful intentions, during my time there, I experienced the following:
1. A culture of toxic positivity
2. Leadership based in fear
3. A hostile work environment
Nikko Kimzin’s recent letter did not surprise me. In addition to being a hostile work environment for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), I found it to be hostile for working families and artists striving for a healthy work environment.
The beauty of the vision for Transcendence greatly inspired me and led me to completely transform my life and plant roots in Sonoma County. While living in Sonoma and working with Transcendence on a full-time basis, I began to see an unfortunate pattern. Consistently, the actions of the Artistic Director and Executive Director were in direct opposition to their words — the stated vision and values for the company.
THE VISION
My work with Transcendence dates back to the very first concert in Sonoma Valley on October 1, 2011. I had gone to college with the Executive Director and although I hadn’t met the Artistic Director during my time in New York, we made our Broadway debuts at roughly the same time and were a part of the same community.
Earlier in 2011, they came to see me in an immersive show in a Los Angeles nightclub, For The Record: Baz Luhrmann, and after the performance (and in the months after) they shared with me their vision of a holistic theatre company with three goals:
1) as a workplace, the company would reimagine artists’ relationship to their craft as a healthy and sustainable living,
2) as artists, we would be working toward mounting innovative productions of both established and new musicals, with the goal of becoming an incubator company for Broadway and winning the regional Tony Award, and
3) as a business, we would create a new model that would make the company a financially sustainable business and non-donor dependent. The musical reviews that have been presented by Transcendence for the last ten years were meant to be merely a budget-friendly starting off point.
Having achieved my childhood dreams on Broadway and experienced some of the destructive and unhealthy aspects of living and working as an entertainment industry professional, I was looking for a renewed sense of purpose. I was moved and inspired by their vision and wanted to be a part of building it. That first concert was an extraordinary and purposeful event. We helped save Jack London State Historic Park, which had been slated for closure. I made sure that the team knew that I was enthusiastically interested in continuing on the journey, whatever those next steps would be.
THE VALUES
In 2012, the 8 Core Values of Transcendence were specified as:
1. Go beyond the usual limits
2. Create “transcendence” through service
3. Commit to your own great health
4. Collaborate in a spirit of harmony towards the vision
5. Create a culture of discipline & adventure
6. Communicate with honesty, respect, & gratitude
7. Strive always for sustainability
8. Innovate & trailblaze
What I experienced instead was an unhealthy and unsustainable schedule and workload, a culture of toxic positivity damaging to my mental health, a leadership team unwilling or unable to collaborate, fear-driven leadership and policies, an inability or unwillingness by the leadership team to communicate, and a lack of innovation.
In 2012, I was offered the opportunity to come to Sonoma for the entire first season. It was roughly a dozen friends and performers doing everything before there were clearly defined roles. I worked in casting, marketing, promotion, graphic design, event planning, merchandise sales, and arts education. I schlepped gear in my pickup truck to events all over the county. I cleaned the Port-O-Potties before every show, then put on my gowns and sang under the stars. Generally, that’s what we all did that first season — we were a group of friends pushing ourselves hard and attempting to build something extraordinary together. It was a euphoric experience, but also unhealthy and unsustainable, and health and sustainability were stated company values, integral to the vision, and part of my motivation for being there. During my time with Transcendence, we often worked seven days a week and worked from early morning to late evening, often without adequate time to attend to our needs. As the 2012 season was ending, I realized this work was unsustainable. When I communicated this to the Executive Director, I was told this was not a problem, even though it is antithetical to their stated values and vision. He went on to say that he preferred to suck the marrow out of life, reframing my practical question about work/life balance as a philosophical difference of opinion.
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February 21, 2021 at 05:41AM
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Can a company that's abandoned its values and vision correct its course? - Sonoma County Gazette
"correct" - Google News
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