Winding Down (or some approximation thereof)
Ash and I met yesterday for a two hour catch up and debrief after the October run of “In Their Footsteps” at the Bronx Music Hall. The first hour we were just, like, oh hi hello how are you? We are people? The second hour was a deeper strategy session about the successes and shortcomings of the show, IVP’s 2026 season (and beyond), and how we’re going to pay for it all.
Pictured: Harry and Kate as they wrapped production on their short film, Halpate. October 2025.
Technically, it was our wind down meeting: a ritual we do after every production. Like all rituals, in some ways, it felt luxurious. Especially coming off of a grueling, three month production schedule that involved rehearsing, building out the show, an intensive advertising campaign filled with digital advertisements, PR management, and extensive special interest outreach; not to mention that the show dovetailed on grant application season; and also both Ash and I have day jobs; and also also I executive produced and starred in my production company’s short film, Halpate; oh, and also I’m 29 weeks pregnant. So yes, two hours of sitting and talking about art, strategy, and a creative career with my best friend, collaborator, and business partner felt nothing short of euphoric.
And it was, indeed, a celebration of a job immensely well done. The cast of “In Their Footsteps” was not only phenomenal in their roles, but established a sort of sisterhood that will endure after the show's end. Even with The Bronx Music Hall – a fantastic venue, btw – existing in a not super-accessible area, we managed to have a pretty stellar audience turnout. (One of our cast members' family even flew in from South Korea!) We received a rave review. And we got professional footage of, to date, perhaps the best iteration of the show.
Pictured: The Cast, AD and Director of In Their Footsteps (from left to right), Becca Jimenez, Eunji Lim, Esther Ayomide Akinsanya, Vianca Perez, Amanda Corbett, Alexandria Thomas and Ash Singer. October 2025.
But, like all theater, it is temporal in nature. Magic happens for a moment in time, you start to gain momentum, and then, like the Cinderella coach turning into a pumpkin at midnight, it’s gone. As an artist, you feel simultaneously fulfilled to the brim yet also woefully empty. What comes next? When can we do this again? Will we be able to do this again?
Hence, why every wind down meeting that Ash and I have turns into a brainstorming session about how we can keep moving forward. One of the subjects of our conversation was about “Lighting the Fuse,” a new IVP documentary work in-development about Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theatre Project. We had a reading of it on Hallie‘s birthday this past August. Next year, our 2026 grant applications, fundraising endeavors, and artistic intentions are set upon doing a workshop production of the show in Manhattan, followed by a staged radio play at the Bronx Music Hall. The radio play will be professionally recorded and mixed, making it ready to be syndicated and distributed on media platforms, much like our Gracie award-winning radio play of “In Their Footsteps.” We are applying for a major NEH grant in Spring 2026 to develop a podcast based on the Hallie Flanagan dramaturgical packet (expertly compiled and researched by Ash), radio play, and extensive interviews with theater makers across the country in celebration of the woman that started the regional theater movement. IVP has been foraying into the realm of immersive theater since “Nellie & the Women of Blackwell" in 2020. While we know it’s not necessarily possible to tour our productions across the country, we can create iterative assets that are inspired by the shows that not only illuminate women’s stories and history, but encourage attendance to the show itself. It’s a philosophy and strategy I’ve coined as immersive marketing.
Pictured: Kate and Ash hamming it up during Nellie & the Women of Blackwell rehearsal. Some things never change. Circa Winter 2019-2020.
Maybe this is the beauty of existing in a creative field. The winding down of one thing is the birth and generation of another. It’s something I’ve learned during pregnancy: to create something new requires constant attention and energy. I might not always be conscious of it, but my body is directing all of its resources to developing this new human being. I think as artists, we must do the same. Because to cease is counter to the processes of life.
