Evangeline Stott is Statera's New Director of Creative Content

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New York-based painter, writer, and actor, Evangeline Stott, has been named Director of Creative Content, a newly formed role at StateraArts. At Statera, the work we promote and advocate for publicly is also the work we are doing internally. We are committed to creating pathways for women and non-binary people in the arts industry, and we are also committed to honoring the strength, passion, and vision of the many team members working within the organization.

For the past year and a half, Evangeline Stott has worked as Statera’s operations Assistant and her first encounters with Statera go all the way back to our first conference in 2015. In 2019, she was a key coordinator for the SWAN Day Calendar, author of many blog interviews, and support for forward-facing web maintenance. This newly formed position is a perfect syncronization of Stott’s talents and passion and Statera’s growth as a content creator in the gender parity movement.

In her new role, Stott will serve as community liaison, curator, and co-editor for the Statera Blog. (Did you see the new blog layout announced on Friday?) Stott will also oversee the Statera Community Calendar.

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Statera Arts: What lights you up?
Evangeline Stott: Human connection. That moment of “I see you” that happens either across the table from another person while chatting in a coffee shop, or in a giant room full of people all aligned in one purpose, experiencing radical presence. Traveling (I love even the laborious, mundane parts of going ANYWHERE). Cooking for friends (creating nourishment with my hands), the first big stroke of paint on a new canvas, collaboration, using my body and voice to storytell, cold weather, blue velvet, sequins, natural light, house plants, and the first big laugh after a long, hard cry. 

SA: What is your "WHY"? Meaning why do you do the work you do - your personal mission. 
ES: I am most in my purpose when I am challenging my own empathy and imagination, or when I am operating as a bridge between two people, two cultures, or two ideas. I love being an active agent inside of a collaborative environment. As a visual artist, I've been investigating the connective tissue in an individual's relationships: to self, to another, to community, to society, to family. What is it that ties us so strongly to another person, or place? What bonds?

SA: How is your "WHY" integrated with your work at Statera?
ES: I know that I have the power to foster empathy by putting my ear to the ground and finding stories to share that change the narrative of what it is to be a woman or non-binary artist. I believe in developing an environment wherein consistent community leads to the fortification of artistic, holistic lives and careers. Consistency is a big word for me in regards to the work I am doing with Statera. Vital communities only thrive with regular engagement and support. Saying “yes” to a leadership role in such a forward-facing part of the work we do at Statera can be intimidating at times. I help usher forward stories that are at the forefront of the revolution in many ways. Luckily, I'm not doing this alone! I feel beyond fortunate to be a part of this small and mighty organization here, wherein my heroes sit across the table from me and teach me so much.

SA: What is your vision for the work you do at Statera?
ES: Melinda Pfundstein stated in her opening remarks at StateraCon this last fall that "Balance is a verb, not a noun." That phrase is written all over my journal, in different entries, almost as if it's a new idea to me every time I write it. I aim for the blog to be a constant agent for balance. By yeilding the power of public access we have the power to share stories that we notice are missing from the cultural narrative, especially in regards to women and non-binary artists in the margins. 

Evangeline Stott painting in her studio.

I want the blog to live as an answer to helplessness; a space that feels as if it belongs to all of us, serves all of us. Our community should feel invited to leverage this space in a way that amplifies their voice and advances their work. We are re-narrating the story of women and non-binary folx in the arts, and we can't do it without you! If you have something you'd like to contribute to the blog, please reach out to me.

SA: Tell us about a mentor in your life. 
ES: Gosh, Melinda and Sarah Greenman have both mentored me in a big big way, trusting me, championing me, leading by incredible example. Melinda was the first woman I knew who created work that inspired me AND showed me how to be a fierce advocate and an incredibly intentional and graceful mother. She was the first woman I saw, doing what I wanted to do. Meredith Grundei has been a mentor to me, and such a friend in the devised theatre community as she’s listened for literal hours and shared her own experience in collaborative environments with me! My mother, who taught me how to how to walk the walk of friendship and community. It is not without reason that after she passed, over 800 people showed up for her celebration of life. Her best friend, Amanda Moore, who fearlessly runs Reigning Grace Ranch in Rio Verde, Az, and who showed me what it was to work hard as hell for the humans and creatures who you refuse to turn a blind eye to. I’ve looked up to her since she directed me in my first play at age 8, and I hear her voice in my head telling me that I "have the grit for this” whenever I’m tempted to give up on my dreams. Clearly, my life has been too full of incredible women to name just one!

SA: Any upcoming projects you'd like to share with the community?
ES: The theatre ensemble I co-founded last year, August Corps, had a huge year of running training sessions, collaboratively writing ECHO (a folk play based off of the myth of Echo and Narcissus), fundraising, building a studio and residency space on a farm in Alabama, and finally, performing ECHO in an underground cave for a small audience! It was absolutely wild! Now we are recharging and meditating on what it means to build a radical community of theatre artists and truly hold each other's feet to the fire artistically. We are tending to our soil. I am also developing a movement salon with Jens Rasmussen at The Bechdel Project, which I couldn't be more excited about. 

If you have something you'd like to contribute to the blog, please reach out and engage with Evangeline!

Meet the Statera Conference Team

You’ve been waiting all year and now Statera’s National Conference is only one week away! StateraCon is a place for collective healing and creative coalition building. This national gathering is focused on intersectional gender balance and our goal is to take positive action to bring women, gender-fluid, and non-binary artists and arts leaders into full and equal participation in the American Theatre. We still have open spots and late registration will remain open until we sell out.

We’re excited to introduce you to the people behind the scenes at StateraConIV.

Statera National Conference Chairs

First and foremost, we’d like to thank conference co-chairs Tracy Liz Miller (above left) and Jennifer Tuttle (above right) for their incredible work to make StateraCon a success.

We’d also like to thank our team of ambassador volunteers from City College of New York: Ashleigh Daley-Small, Emily Burstyn, Molly Wolff, Cassandre Nordgren, Alyssa Valdez, Grace Nevitt, Sam Walsh, Josie Harding, and Chamallie Singh. We’d also like to thank CCNY Departmental Administrator Tara Nachtigall.

CULTURE SHIFT AGENCY

Thank you to Marla Teyolia (above left) and Kavitha Rao (above right) of Culture Shift Agency, who are working side-by-side with Statera leadership to bring you a meaningful conference experience framed by moments of community ritual and collective healing. They are also facilitating a curated pre-convening hosted by StateraArts on Friday for arts leaders and change makers. Please visit the Culture Shift website to learn more about their practice and work.

Statera Team

We’re thrilled this year to have so many Statera Team members joining us at conference - each contributing in their own way as program directors, speakers, contributors, facilitators, and boots on the ground! Thank you (from top left to bottom right) National Mentorship Co-Directors Erika Haaland and Minita Gandhi, Statera Membership Director Vanessa Ballam, Operations Assistant Evangeline Stott, and Statera Ambassadors Chris Sanders, Vanessa DeSilvio, Kate St. Pierre, and Tiffany Denise Hobbs. And a huge thank you to Social Media Director Erika Vetter Fontana for her beautiful work coordinating PR for StateraConIV.

Statera Leadership

Thank you to our Executive Director Melinda Pfundstein, Development Coordinator Sabrina Cofield, and Operations Director Sarah Greenman for their leadership and vision.

Statera Advisory Board

Thank you to our incredible Advisory Board, (from left to right) Nancy Slitz, Marti Gobel, Sam White, Martha Richards, and Shelly Gaza for their support and guidance as we expand our impact and bring Statera’s National Conference to New York City.

Conference Partners

StateraCon cannot happen without the generous support and collaboration of our partners. Thank you to the Tecovas Foundation whose mission is to support systemic social change by ensuring change agents have access to the tools they need to scale, collaborate, and build capacity. Thank you to City College of New York Department of Theatre & Speech (CCNY) for hosting us on your beautiful campus. And thank you to the Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) for your partnership in developing family access initiatives that support the Statera community.

Learn more about conference >>>

See the full speaker line-up >>>

View the conference schedule >>>

Register for conference >>>

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Self-Injurious Behavior: an Interview with Playwright Jessica Cavanagh

International Support Women Artists Now/SWAN Day is fast approaching and the SWAN Day Calendar is filling up with some incredible events. One of these is Self-Injurious Behavior by Dallas-based actress and playwright Jessica Cavanagh. “Self-Injurious Behavior”, which had a hit workshop run at Theatre Three's Theatre Too! in 2018, will move to New York for a showcase at Urban Stages in April. The New York run, April 21-May 5, will feature the Dallas cast, and will again be directed by Marianne Galloway. Statera’s Operations Assistant, Evangeline Stott, reached out to Jessica to have a conversation about this powerful show and Jessica’s journey through motherhood, loss, and the process of writing an autobiographical play with the perfect ratio of truth to laughter.

Evangeline Stott: Tell me about your process while writing this piece. How long was the writing period?

Jessica Cavanagh: I take a four and a half hour drive to visit my son, Elijah, at his school one weekend per month, which I've been doing ever since we admitted him in the summer of 2012 when he was 12 years old. Driving away from him at the end of those visits has always been hard, but that first year, it was excruciating. I would drive, weep, pull over, get myself together, drive, weep, repeat. Then, one day, during the trip back to Dallas, I started thinking of a play about a divorced woman who recently admitted her autistic son to a group home and was now half-heartedly attempting to date (which was my current situation). On a whim, I recorded myself talking about some pretty intense feelings about my kid and birth and parenthood and imagined it as a really inappropriate over-share moment on a first date. That date doesn't actually happen in the play anymore, but the monologue is still there, almost verbatim. Looking back, it kind of provided the anchor for the piece from the beginning. What followed was a bunch of short bursts of inspiration spread out over nearly three years before a full draft came together, mainly because I couldn't spend more than a day or two focused on telling this story without sinking into a pretty gross pit. It was still so raw. Within a couple years, I'd lost my mom in a car accident, divorced my husband of fourteen years, and admitted my child into a group home because he couldn't stop hurting himself. I was just incredibly not okay. The first informal reading of the first full draft didn't occur until September of 2015.

ES: With this being such a vulnerable and personal story for you, did you share what you were writing with anyone along the way?

JC: After about the first year of random voice notes and writing, I asked a few close friends whom I knew I could trust and whose work I respected to look at the monologue and one early major scene (the toughest in the play, which is based on what I remembered as the worst day I'd ever had with my son). The responses I got really surprised me! People were stunned. Folks who had known me for a decade asked me if this was really true - if what I was writing had really been our lives. I think they were mortified and maybe even hurt to know that their friend had been struggling, and that due to my need to escape my life when I left my house and went to rehearsals or performances, I rarely shared the depths of what we were dealing with at home. And to this day, that's been the most consistent question from everyone who reads or sees the play; people I know, and people I don't: "Is this real?" That question is what made me realize this is bigger than me; this is a story that desperately needs to be told for the sake of every caregiver who sits at home with their loved one and fights despair. So, now I had a mission. And I've always done well with a mission!

Photo by Jeffrey Schmidt

 ES: Can you tell us a little bit about the title, "Self Injurious Behavior"?

 JC: The phrase "self-injurious behavior" is how doctors and therapists often refer to self-harm, so I heard it a lot over the years in dealing with Elijah. He would bang his head on the hardest, sharpest objects he could find, punch himself in the head with his fists, and bite his arms until he broke the skin, among other pretty horrific things. As I wrote the play the issue of guilt and the idea of punishing one's self for feeling as if you've failed your child and yourself is one that was immediately prevalent in the story and, in fact, became THE story. The connection between my son's self-harm and my emotional self-harm became really clear. We were both beating ourselves to death.

ES: What were your biggest challenges in the first stages of writing and developing "Self Injurious Behavior"?

JC: I think the biggest challenge was sitting down to do it. I had all these ideas swirling and I had a great NEED to get it all down on paper, but forcing myself to really sit with it and what that meant was just very hard. It never seemed like a good day for that, you know? When is it convenient to revisit the most painful moments of your life? Never, ever. Once I got started, though, I was fine. Until I wasn't, at which point I'd stop. It was always just that first move that killed.

ES: How did audiences respond to the production at Theatre Three? Have you had the opportunity to dialogue with any audience members with stories similar to yours?

JC: The responses from those audiences were really humbling. People would wait to talk afterwards and some just wanted to look into my eyes and say, "This is my life. Thank you for this," and I'd often end up crying and hugging a stranger - now friend - in the lobby. Even more common, though, were the people who said they had a nephew, grandchild, friend, etc., on the spectrum and they had no idea that this might be what their friends or family were dealing with (or they had a friend who was severely depressed) and they were so thankful to have their eyes opened. It became really clear to me early on in the run that while I had hoped the story would honor and be sort of a love offering to caregivers and anyone struggling with depression, the great thing is it was actually drawing back the curtain on their lives and promoting empathy in others. I felt like I got to actually watch empathy for these issues be born in some people, which was just...it doesn't really get any better than that, you know? Folks would come up afterwards and literally say, "Wow. I've been an asshole. Thank you. And thank you for making me laugh while I figured it out." (I actually think I turned a bunch of people on to Renaissance Faires, too, which gives me no end of nerd-joy!)

Photo by Jordan Fraker

ES: One of my favorite production images I've seen is that of you sitting among the toys and blankets with your son’s Peter Pan-like shadow over you. Can you tell us a little bit about Peter Pan, and the significance of him in this story?

JC: My kiddo is obsessed with all things Disney. He had a Peter Pan Halloween costume that he loved, and when he was 11-12, he looked a lot like a cross between Christopher Robin and Peter Pan. I still get mom heart-pangs whenever I see either of those characters anywhere (yeah, he's 19, leave me alone!)  It took me some time to settle on how closely I wanted the character of Benjamin to resemble Elijah in the play, but at the end of the day, I decided to keep things simple and tell the truth as much as possible, so I've given Benjamin an obsession with Peter Pan. And, as it turns out, there's just something really lovely and poignant about the parallels between a kid like Benjamin and the boy who never grows up. It felt really right for the play.

ES: Can you talk a bit about what its like to be a single mother and work in the theatre? Especially being a single mother of a child with special needs? What resources did you have or not have?

JC: Well, I was very lucky when my son was younger because my mom lived nearby, so, between her and a couple of sitters who were like family and knew Elijah and his routine and wouldn't flip out if he had a meltdown, I was able to cobble together a childcare team while I rehearsed. I was actually still married at that point, but my husband was in a band and traveled the majority of the time so it was almost always just Elijah and me. And I'll be honest, those years were mostly hell, and to this day, I have such admiration for the single moms I know in theatre who make it happen. Being with your kid all the time is hard. Being with your kid all the time when your kid is screaming and banging his head and never sleeps for longer than two hours at a time is actually dangerous. So, at the end of the day, theatre was my refuge and I did whatever I needed to do and bribed whatever sitter I needed to bribe in order to get where I needed to go. I think I subconsciously knew that it was the only thing keeping me (and subsequently, Elijah) alive, so I fought for it like it was life or death. But, of course, a boatload of guilt accompanied me every time I left the house, because, motherhood.

ES: What has it been like to play yourself on stage? How do you feel about doing so again this spring?

JC: It’s been different than I expected, thankfully! Super weird in some ways, for sure - mostly to do with the nauseating pre-show jitters every night which have nothing to do with being nervous about the acting and everything to do with knowing the audience is aware (if they read their playbill!) that this is my story and I really said and did many of these things. The fear of judgement was acute, especially when we first opened (I ran to the bathroom a whole lot, y'all.) But, thankfully, I've found that once I'm in character out on stage, it's really just like playing any other role. And Summer isn't one hundred percent me. Some pretty major details from my life were changed for the play (I have one wonderful sister, and I gave Summer two, for example, because I just liked the dynamic of three). So, that really helps separate Summer from myself a bit and gives me the freedom to approach her the same way I would anything else.

Photo by Jordan Fraker with Jennifer Kuenzer.

ES: What are you most looking forward to with this New York production of “Self Injurious Behavior"?

JC: It’s so big...this thought of bringing a thing to the NY market. Right now, I keep thinking about the first laugh. The first time I hear a NY audience laugh at something I wrote, I really might just happily drop dead. And I can't wait to look into the faces of my production team and cast mates (now family) on opening night and be excited dorks together! I feel so lucky to get to share this experience with such dear friends, some of whom have been with the play through years of development, such as Marianne Galloway, our director. The blood, sweat, and tears of so many people have been poured into creating this thing, so getting to bring it to NY together is truly a dream come true.

ES: How has being Elijah’s mom shaped you into who you are now? What insights have you made because of your role as his mother?

JC: Elijah has shaped me so completely that it's almost impossible to pinpoint how. I was twenty-four when he was born, so I was still growing up, myself. He shaped who I was becoming in a very real way. I don't like to think about who I was before he existed, not because I hate myself but because I think he made me infinitely better and I prefer that person. Watching him grow up and struggle against a cruel and terrifying world has made me appreciate goodness and kindness when I find it to a degree that I never did before, which in turn effects my personal relationships. It’s funny how when you learn to value kindness and unselfish love above all things, the toxic relationships in your life tend to stick out like a sore thumb and make your path pretty freakin' clear.

ES: Mentorship is at the core of StateraArts' mission. Can you tell us about your mentors and how they have guided you and your work?

JC: I feel like I've had seasonal mentors - people who cross my path at a certain point to guide me through a certain thing, be it spiritual or artistic. Lately I've felt the nudge to find a seasoned, female-identifying playwright and be her spongey sidekick, just soaking up all her wisdom. I had some wonderful guides as I put Self-Injurious Behavior together and I'm so incredibly grateful to them! The thing is, they're all men, and I'm feeling a strong urge to connect with other women right now, particularly in the professional realm. So, HEY, if Paula Vogel just happens to be reading this and feels like having a weird rando obsessively trail her (and almost definitely ask far too many questions about Indecent), I'm your girl, Paula! 

ES: And lastly, is there anything else you'd like the StateraArts community to know about you and your work? 

JC: I’ve rambled way too long already!! I'd rather take the opportunity to say how much I appreciate StateraArts and your mission, and your willingness to talk with a new girl about her thing. Y'all rock. Thanks for all you do!

Interested in attending a performance of “Self-Injurious Behavior” in NYC? You’ll find it on the 2019 SWAN Day Calendar HERE.

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About Jessica

Jessica Cavanagh is a Dallas-based theatre artist, voice talent, and writer whose work in the DFW area spans the past fifteen years. As an actor, she’s been recognized numerous times by the DFW Critics Forum as well as the Column Awards, including last season’s Critics Forum Award for her semi-autobiographical role in her play, Self-Injurious Behavior (Theatre Three). Selected regional acting work includes: Outside Mullingar, August: Osage County, Doubt, and The Glass Menagerie (all at WaterTower Theatre), Heisenberg (Theatre Three), Mr. Burns: a post-electric play (Stage West), ‘Night, Mother (Echo Theatre), and Port Twilight (Undermain). As a staff writer with Funimation Entertainment, she’s adapted hundreds of episodes of Japanese anime for an English-speaking audience and has also worked extensively as an actor in their English broadcast dubs, so you can hear her giddily voicing roles on Cartoon Network in shows such as Attack on Titan, One Piece, and My Hero Academia, and many others.

Statera Welcomes New Team Members

Thanks to our incredible community, 2018 was the most expansive and exciting year Statera has ever had. We fostered the national expansion of Statera Mentorship with the launch of 12 new regional chapters (and more coming). We hosted our third National Conference in Milwaukee, with touchstone addresses from theatre and film luminaries like Hana Sharif, Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway, Gail Barringer, and Nataki Garrett. We launched our free resource directory, which houses a treasure-trove of valuable information for emerging and established artists alike. And this January, Statera launched Statera Membership - a community for anyone interested in advancing their art careers through the lens of intersectional gender-parity. If it sounds like we’re tooting our own horn, we are! Its an exciting time and we owe it all to you! Thank you for supporting our mission.

We also want you to be the first to know that the Statera Team expanded in January. Please join us in welcoming our newest StateraArts team members!

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Vanessa DeSilvio

VANESSA DESILVIO (She/Her/Hers)

Vanessa DeSilvio joins StateraArts as part of our Ambassador team. She is a Dallas-based stage, commercial, and television actor and voice over artist. She speaks fluent Spanish as she was raised in a Venezuelan household and strongly identifies with being Latinx. She holds an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University, and has taught introduction to acting and speech and diction classes at SMU, University of North Texas, and KD Conservatory.

Statera Ambassadors are artist-activists with big ideas! They are Statera's creative brain trust. You will find our Ambassadors authoring posts on the Statera Blog, presenting at StateraCon, engaging as regional Mentorship Coordinators, and consulting on the development of Statera programming.

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TRACY LIZ MILLER (She/Her/Hers)

Tracy Liz Miller has joined the Statera team as Co-Chair of our National Conference in NYC. Tracy is the Co-founding Producing Artistic Director of The Bridge Initiative: Women in Theatre, previously Associate Producer Vermont Shakespeare Company. Tracy is proud to be teaching the next generation of theatre artists as Director of the Theatre Arts at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Arizona. This past summer, Tracy was a recipient of a professional development grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts along with an Emerging Director Scholarship from the Celebration Barn in Maine to attend their 11-day Devising Intensive. BFA Musical Theatre Performance Western Michigan University, MFA Acting Alabama Shakespeare Festival / U of A.

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Chris Sanders

CHRIS SANDERS (She/Her/They/Them)

We’re thrilled that Chris has joined StateraArts as an Ambassador. Chris is a singer, actor, educator, entrepreneur and teaches Theatre courses at UTD, in Richardson, TX. They are also a spokesperson for Susan G. Koman, and an Independent Consultant with Arbonne International.

Chris is also thrilled to have taken on the role of being the Head of Music Ministry with Activate Church. Activate is a place of Christian worship, geared towards entrepreneurs, based in Dallas, TX. Chris earned their BA in Theatre from Kean University and her MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University.

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NANCY SLITZ (She/Her/Hers)

Last month, Statera also welcomed Nancy Slitz as Chair of the StateraArts Advisory Board. Nancy has been a long-time supporter of the organization and has attended Statera’s conferences as both a presenter and a participant. Other board members include Sam White, Martha Richards, and Marti Gobel.

Nancy most recently served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Her career began in education, but quickly expanded to positions with IBM, Hammer Art Galleries in New York, and an executive search company where she placed lawyers in many of the prestigious Manhattan law firms. She helmed her own executive search firm, Slitz Search and has years of business experience and has been certified as a CPC: Professional Corporate/Small Business Coach. Nancy specializes in working with arts organizations.  We are honored that Nancy is joining Statera as Chair of the Advisory Board.

Nancy Slitz, Chair of the StateraArts Advisory Board

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EVANGELINE STOTT (She/Her/Hers)

Evangeline Stott is joining Statera as an Operations Assistant and is also working on SWAN Day coordination. Evangeline is an actor, painter, musician, and community builder. She obtained her BFA in Classical Acting from Southern Utah University and completed an acting fellowship with the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

An Arizona desert rat with an East Coast heart, Evangeline moved to NYC after college where she has immersed herself in the devised theatre community while performing in productions at Columbia University and August Corps.

Her paintings are both a direct expression of her lust for life and an exploration of empathy. They have been showcased and sold in Utah, Nevada, and New York.

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JENNIFER TUTTLE (She/Her/Hers)

Jennifer Tuttle is working with StateraArts as the National Conference Co-Chair and liaison with City College of New York (CCNY) where StateraConIV will be hosted.

Jennifer is a theatre artist and educator. As a director, her recent projects include: Immigration Stories for Culture Project’s Women Center Stage, An Incident at Peniel at Crossways Theatre, Much Ado Para Nada at Shakespeare in Detroit, and Macbeth at the City College of New York.

As an assistant professor at CCNY she teaches Acting, Directing, and Voice. She received her MFA in Theatre/Acting from the Hilberry Theatre at Wayne State University, and her Certification as a Teacher of the Michael Chekhov Technique from the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium, where she is an Associate Teacher. Jennifer has been a professional actor and director for over 20 years and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity.

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