This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:06] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's theater podcast, bringing you backstage and behind the scenes with the stars, creators, and industry leaders making theater in new ways during the pandemic.

[0:16] Gordon Cox: I'm your host, Gordon Cox.

[0:18] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking with two of the artists behind a new initiative that sees two companies, one in Milwaukee and one in New York, teaming up for an upcoming slate of work that brings theater talent to new forms, including a movie, a web series, an audio play, a documentary, and more.

[0:35] Gordon Cox: The New Group Offstage is the COVID-era innovation from the off-Broadway company The New Group, presented in association with Milwaukee's No Studios, incorporating everything from Waiting for Godot with Ethan Hawke and John Leguizamo to an episodic web series by playwright Danye R. Love, a new musical starring Brandon Victor Dixon, a Chekhov-inspired mockumentary starring Edie Falco, and the latest outing starring Drag Character Lipsinka, directed by Chloe Seveny.

[1:03] Gordon Cox: Joining me today to talk about the season are the founder of No Studios, John Ridley, also the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Twelve Years a Slave, and longtime New Group Artistic Director, Scott Elliott.

[1:14] Gordon Cox: Hi John and Scott, thanks for joining me.

[1:17] John Ridley: Hey Gordon, thanks for having us.

[1:19] Scott Elliott: Hey Gordon.

[1:20] Gordon Cox: Before we talk about the work that the two of you have coming up together, I wonder if we could first start talking about the companies that the two of you are here representing. John, I wonder if we could start with you, just because I know a lot of people will know your work from Twelve Years a Slave or American Crime, but they um don't know as much about well to start. How much has theater been a part of uh what you do before this?

[1:44] John Ridley: Um none. Um before I did this. Um a lot of that, you know, I think there are two stories, and I'll start with the first part and I'll just talk a little bit about the organization that we have.

[1:55] John Ridley: So I'm originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is um Milwaukee is a great city, city of my birth. My parents still live there. Our younger sister lives there with her family. Um the tragedy of Milwaukee is that by real metrics, not by opinion or feeling, it is perhaps the most segregated city in America. Um just not uh a lot of integration between blacks and whites, um just a real sense, even where redlining no longer exists, that just certain folks, you know, are certain demographics belong in one part of town, another demographic in another part of town, and not a lot of mixing.

[2:42] John Ridley: So um subsequent to Twelve Years a Slave, obviously that was um at least at that time a very high water mark professionally speaking. And my older sister, Lisa, who's worked in business and finance for years, decades, approached me and said, you know, this is a great moment professionally for me, but what do you do with it? Um it's a great moment that is replicated year after year. And unless you're Meryl Streep or Denzel Washington, you know, it's kind of a one and done in your life. And she really pushed me to try to do something that encompassed what I do, which is work in the arts, but is really pro-positive and was built on the concept of trying to bring people together around the communal experience and one that you have in film when you go out to the theater or dance when you go to a uh dance performance or certainly theater.

[3:37] John Ridley: And um, we've had good success. You know, we cannot obviously alone change everything that's happening in Milwaukee, but as a business and as an organization that is pro-positive, even with the pandemic and in some ways, in spite or despite the pandemic, we've really been able to thrive. So there was that an organization built on bringing communities together and really elevating in particular artists from um traditionally marginalized backgrounds.

[4:06] Scott Elliott: Right.

[4:06] John Ridley: And then this is a good idea. This is No Studios we're talking about. Sorry, we I don't know if we said the name of the studio.

[4:11] John Ridley: It's called No Studios. Say the name of it. And yes, that's what evolved conceptually became No Studios, which has a physical presence and was meant to have a physical presence in Milwaukee. But with the pandemic, um, like so many people, we started to pivot to online, and as painful and as tragic as the pandemic has been, and there are no two ways about it, but within that, um, we were actually surprisingly able to thrive and um create a platform for people who um did not have access to platforms, did not have access to money or the tools or the infrastructure. And again, even in a very challenging and frankly heartbreaking situation, we've been able to serve the communities that we wanted to serve.

[5:00] John Ridley: So, in that, knowing what our mission was and knowing how our mission evolved, you know, uh to the second part of your question, how much theater have I been involved with in my life? And that, you know, has essentially been none other than the opportunity to meet Scott, and that's a whole other much longer story.

[5:17] John Ridley: Yeah, but I'm gonna say very quickly. Um, you know, prior to however other people may think of me in terms of um professional success, you know, Scott made a bet on me and made a bet on a piece of material that was very close to my heart, and close to my heart because of um its artistry, because of the potency that it dealt with issues of race, of the humor of the biting satire, which just you know, year by year, you know, people, their capacities for satire just diminish. And I'm talking, you know, artistic, intelligent, thoughtful people are just like, oh, well, you can't, you know, let's not talk about that. We can't talk about it in those ways. Well, Scott was not that guy.

[6:01] John Ridley: So that was my introduction to theater. That was my introduction to a particular individual and the kind of individual that Scott represents who just remains fearless and art is about art, and reaching people is about reaching people, and not provoking people for the sake of provoking people. Oh, we're just gonna say things to you know, anger people. But Scott is, you know, one of those people who believes in art and believes that art has to push boundaries and has to inspire and has to upset and it has to disrupt a little bit, certainly has to entertain, but if that's all you're doing is entertaining, you know, um, you know, bears on bicycles are entertaining, right? Um, but it doesn't necessarily, you know, move things around.

[6:44] John Ridley: So Scott had, and this will feed back into to what we're talking about together, but Scott had already started working on these really interesting, challenging, you know, moderately budgeted, um, experimental pieces of art that he wanted to try to platform. And he was just talking about it one day. It wasn't pitching me, it wasn't like, oh, looking for partners, I'm looking for folks to underwrite. But to me, knowing Scott, knowing his capacities, knowing what he wanted to accomplish as a uh presenter of really unique art I I was just like how can I be involved? How can I help with the bet that you placed on me, bet on you and then you bet on other interesting artists and that's how No Studios in the New Group sort of came together with this idea of can we support small moderately budgeted projects with either established artists who will potentially draw an art audience or emerging artists who deserve to have their works supported and that's what we're trying to do with our collaboration.

[7:54] Scott Elliott: Right. And so whereas No Studios launched what a couple years ago?

[7:54] John Ridley: Yeah, two years was two years last October so October of 2020 was two years.

[8:08] Scott Elliott: Right yeah so whereas No Studios has been around for just a couple years Scott uh the New Group has been around for uh is it 25 now is that what?

[8:08] John Ridley: 25 years.

[8:08] Scott Elliott: 25 years yeah um yeah tell us a little bit about for people who aren't familiar with the New Group what uh what does the New Group do and uh how are you well you know for up until this pandemic we've been a nonprofit theater company and we've been producing as you know plays for 25 years and have always uh you know we're an artist based company we're artist driven you know I'm an artist and all the people that we have in you know we we we like to empower people to be able to do the work that they want to do um within the confines of our our little home, our little place.

[8:54] Scott Elliott: And uh yeah, and then you know, when the pandemic hit, uh, you know, it just became about like how do we continue to do what we're doing, but you know, quite possibly in a different way. And so, you know, luckily I have some friends who were encouraging me to sort of, you know, branch out and and experiment with different things. And so, you know, we came up with this new arm of the company called the New Group Offstage. I mean, I really think now it should be called the New Group Studios because it really is uh we're making films, you know, these little films.

[9:30] Scott Elliott: But um, I mean, I call them little, but they're they're not really little. I don't know, they just keep, you know, every day is a different journey because it is new and it almost feels like, you know, when I started the company 25 years ago and we were doing our first plays, it sort of has the same sort of energy and excitement. And uh except right now, you know, I'm much more connected. So I'm able to get people like John Ridley and you know, uh, you know, Frank Marshall has joined us, you know, as an executive producer and you know, just the sort of talent that has sort of come around to sort of be involved in it.

[10:02] Scott Elliott: And um, and it's really the talent, it's really the artists who encouraged me to uh you know, branch out to to explore and figure out a way to turn this uh disaster into a positive. And um, you know, and John and I have been working, as you probably know on a uh a show as he had said, uh Black No More than we've been working on several years, and we've become quite quite close as a result of it, um, as as you can when you're working on these sorts of things.

[10:33] Gordon Cox: Sorry, how long have you uh have you both been working on that project?

[10:35] John Ridley: Oh, yeah.

[10:36] John Ridley: Five years.

[10:37] Scott Elliott: Okay.

[10:37] John Ridley: Yeah, five years.

[10:38] John Ridley: Yeah, I mean, it would have been closed by now, you know, because it was supposed to go up less.

[10:38] Scott Elliott: Right.

[10:38] John Ridley: It was supposed to go up last fall. Uh, you know, it's gonna be our first sort of big show out of the box when we're able to sort of do that again.

[10:53] Scott Elliott: Um Scott just loves working with me so much.

[10:56] John Ridley: He refuses to put the show up because he never wants it to close.

[10:59] Scott Elliott: Well, that's exactly right, John. Well, now I have you on this stuff.

[11:02] Scott Elliott: So there's no, you know, you there's no escaping you. But you know, it really, it really, it really was uh it was so it really I have to say it sounds corny, but it was so heartwarming when John said, Look, I want to be involved with this stuff that he was, you know, he was inspired to sort of come on. And he's come on, you know, both as an ally and as a financier for these projects.

[11:24] Scott Elliott: And um, and that gave me a lot of confidence. It's just like these sorts of things, because you know, when you're doing something new, like you're going, you know, you're you're shifting focus for a while from a theater company to a theater company who produces films that are sort of you know theater based, but they're films, they're not theater. You know, it's it's it isn't theater. There's nothing about it that's theater, um, other than some of the topics, you know, and some of the pieces that we're working on. But they're really films.

[11:52] Scott Elliott: Yeah, and um, and to have the support of John and Frank and some other friends who have just um, you know, sort of helped me keep the engine going and helped help give me the boost of confidence that I needed to sort of try this. And it is a grand experiment.

[12:06] John Ridley: It's a it's quite a grand experiment.

[12:09] Scott Elliott: But you know, I'm hoping that you know these projects will roll out for the next year and a half or so, and we'll see how it goes.

[12:15] Gordon Cox: Right. Well, let's talk about uh one of the first ones that uh you have coming up, uh, which is this the one that's about to go into production, it sounds like is this Waiting for Godot that you have uh that you're working on. Tell us a little bit about that and what that will look like.

[12:29] Scott Elliott: Oh yeah, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about it.

[12:30] Scott Elliott: So um, you know, back in July, before I was even thinking of um of doing this, or I was trying to think of like what the hell else I gonna do. Um, you know, Ethan Hawke called me up and he was like, Look, who you've worked with many times before, we should say.

[12:44] Scott Elliott: Yeah, yeah. We've worked together. We're we're we're brothers. And so we uh we, you know, he called me up and he was like, you know, because he's also on the board of the of my theater company and he's you know, he's quite protective of me. And he called me up and said, uh, read Waiting for Godot.

[12:57] Scott Elliott: And I was like, Waiting for Godot? Like I was like, really? And he was like, Yeah, just read it. So I read it and I had an experience when I was when and when I read it in the moment. Obviously, you know, uh I wasn't at my home. We we went away for the summer to sort of get out of New York for a while. And it was very lonely and weird. And um, and I read it and it struck me in such a way that I had never I had never understood the play the way I understood it in this moment.

[13:22] Scott Elliott: And so Ethan and I were talking about like what should we do? And we were thinking about it, and then we asked John Leguizamo to come on board. And this was back in July, and we started to read it, you know. Uh, and then we added Tariq Trotter and Wally Shawn, and we just kept reading it and working on it and thinking about it. And then when this notion about, you know, what are we gonna do came up, I thought, well, maybe we should try to make a film of Waiting for Godot and see what happens.

[13:47] Scott Elliott: You know, but then of course, you know, I realized that you know, the Beckett Estate, they're pretty challenging and they don't they don't really allow it. And I guess I I believe that in in the will it says no films, but because of this uh this moment in time, they allowed us to do it. And so I figured that there was something about about that and all the people that came around that sort of inspired me to do it. And so it's crazy. Uh we're starting, we're gonna film it starting on February fourth, but we're doing it, you know based on you know this particular moment in time because the play really does work at this particular moment in time it it works with people not together it's because there's so much about the play that's about isolation and it has all those post apocalyptic themes in it and loneliness and waiting for nothing or waiting for something um and it just sort of all made sense and so what we're doing is we're uh well uh Derek McLean has designed sets for everybody's home they're being installed in people's homes beginning actually Monday um you know we have an incredible, you know, cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau who's a a brilliant um, you know, great cinematographer and great editor and just sort of an A-list team has come together around it and uh yeah we're gonna be filming it and everybody is separate but it's not meant to it's meant to be separate it's not gonna have any sort of thing where you know we're trying to make it seem like people are together but it's really about people connecting in sort of this way.

[15:16] Scott Elliott: You know we're doing it with you know we're not it's not it's it it's sort of like we talk about it like Zoom is its world but we're not shooting it like Zoom. We're shooting it with like you know the best cameras and the best technical stuff. And so it's it's gonna be this film and it's gonna and it's been it's been really exciting I have to say I don't want to jinx it but it's been one of those things that's sort of gotten me through uh just emotionally you know being able to sort of meet with my friends work on this interesting play um that I have grown to love. I mean, when I first, when Ethan first called me up, I was like, I I never saw myself directing Beckett. It just didn't seem in my world. But then when I got into it, I was so into it and it just spoke to me in so many personal ways. And so that's how we're doing it. It sounds crazy, but I think it might be sort of interesting. But we'll see.

[16:07] Gordon Cox: And how uh John, how are you involved in in things like this and and the other shows? Are you sort of a consulting producer or what what's the um how do you two talk to each other as these projects are going on?

[16:19] John Ridley: Yeah, you know, I mean ultimately I I really want to be involved in every way that is in in whatever way is most helpful to these projects, you know, independently. So as Scott mentioned, you know, I I came in and and and um wanted to support financially, which is always ironically the easiest thing to do sometimes is just write a check, whether in art or politics. You know, sometimes it's just um good advice or or hopefully good advice or counsel, you know, having done films, having worked around budgets. Sometimes it's connecting Scott with people to look at a budget or come up with um some kind of a template that he could work with. For me it's really an opportunity to support at a slightly larger level.

You know, it's not like I can go into a studio in Hollywood and say, oh I want to you know support one of your films. You know whatever I could possibly give to a 200 million dollar movie is not going to make much difference. I certainly don't have anything to educate people in Hollywood about um most of them know what they're doing and they're very capable people. So to me what's really exciting about this is because everything that Scott is doing is just a little bit different. It's not any one thing in particular. And everything needs sort of a particular, it's kind of a mission impossible skill set. You need the one person who's good at that, and the one person is good at that.

[17:42] Scott Elliott: That's right. That's a good way of putting it into that. Um, you come together and it's like, well, I don't know this or this, but I'm really good at that. And you get four or five people together, and all of a sudden, well, you you can do these kinds of things. And I think the other thing is that very sincerely, there's a different kind of open-mindedness that's required. And for me, what's exciting about it is taking a lot of the very pro forma ways of um of engaging in entertainment that you do in Hollywood. You know, if even in the world of streaming in the modern world, it's still, you know, Netflix is no longer an experimental company. Or, you know, HBO, they do great work, and yes, they take chances, but you know, a chance at HBO is still different than the kind of chances that Scott is going to take, or that one could take at a particular price point.

And knowing that, you know, you don't have to get millions of people to watch something, but with Ethan and Wally Sean and Tariq, you you're going to get an eclectic group of people to watch that show. And if it's 150 or 200, yes, if that's a multi-million dollar production, that's a disaster. But at a very streamlined production to get people to watch it, or to get people later to go, oh my God, I saw this really weird, interesting version of Godot, and it's up on this site, and maybe they watch it a month from now, maybe they watch it three months from now. Um that kind of carry-through has a different quality than, you know, yes, Netflix, those programs will be up for months and years, but they they want, you know, their metric is still tied to, you know, plus threes or plus sevens, or or how much buzz can we get in a in a relatively short window.

So it it's just again kind of going back to what art is you know aspirationally all about, which is just a bunch of really crazy people trying some crazy stuff. And I'm, you know, for me, the to be able to support that in any way, shape, or form has real, you know, significant value for me at this point, where you know, I love what I do, I love working for big companies, but you know, it's there's a sameness to it. And I don't want to say I'm bored with that because I'm very fortunate to work in that space. But, you know, if you don't feel like you could fall off a high wire, you know, what are you really doing? Um, and this feels like a little high wire-ish. You know, maybe it's only five feet off the ground and you're not gonna break your legs, but it's still like, yeah, we're doing something different.

And I really appreciate the opportunity to try to do things that are not standard, and to be able to do them with Scott and the artist that he knows. And he knows really, really interesting committed artists.

[20:36] Gordon Cox: I'll have more with John and Scott right after the break.

[20:46] Gordon Cox: And now here's more with John Ridley and Scott Elliott. John, you mentioned price point, which brings up the idea of how how will people watch these this show, you know, waiting for Godot. I'm gonna call it a show because it's a play in my head. Um how do how will people watch that project and how will and like how will they access all these projects on the new group offstage uh slate?

[21:06] Scott Elliott: Oh, there it's gonna be um on our new group off stage uh page on our website, it's gonna be accessed. And um you can access it. I mean, and um, you know, and project by project, I don't know. They're all gonna they, you know, they might take on different on different um, you know, different types of distribution. In the case of Godot, it's our first one. So I'm pretty protective of it in a way, and I want to make sure that it gets out there in a way that we want it to get out there. Um, but you know, maybe we'll do one down the road that we'll put on some other site, you know. Um, I think it all just depends. I mean, we have this one big project that we're working on. Uh, this was sort of what I did for love, it's called it's like a documentary and a film, and that's a very big project.

And so that's gonna be, you know, funded in a more Hollywood sort of style. And uh, and that project is you know, bigger than all of the other projects. And so that's gonna have a different sort of distribution. And so I guess that like as experiments go, I'm taking it a you know a day at a time and just sort of seeing like what happens, how it goes. It's pretty exciting to think about it that way after producing seasonal theater for 25 years. It's a very, very different and sort of it's refreshing. And it's gotten me, it's kept me, I don't know, afloat emotionally. Just that notion of, you know, every day it's like different, it's a different problem, it's a different excitement, it's a different person coming around.

It it just it it's quite joyful. And so um, so anyway, so that's how people can watch Godot. They can watch it on our website. And will that be pay per view or yes, it'll be pay-per-view. Yes. I mean, we are selling, we are selling these things called access, you know, backstage or I don't can't remember what it's called, access passes. We're selling them so you can buy for a very, you know, for a quite a small fee, uh, all of the projects that we're doing. You you'll you could have access to them, and we're sort of um uh working, you know, we're working on uh on that and how that is all gonna work. But yes, you can watch Waiting for Godot just by buying it, you know, a one-shot thing.

[23:14] Gordon Cox: Right. And I imagine that uh you you know you have a community of subscribers who've been following your theater for years and years that you can uh you can see.

[23:22] Scott Elliott: Yeah, I mean, yes, the access, that's like for the access passes. But you know, interestingly enough, I'm finding that like you know, the subscription model seems like it might be, I don't know. Um, and maybe this is a time for us to sort of look at that and figure out how do we make I mean one of the things, and John sort of touched on this, but one of the one of the goals of of these projects is to sort of make it accessible, you know, to make it more accessible for people and you know, uh to make theater more accessible. Like I'm hoping that people around the world will watch Waiting for Godot. Um, and that when they come into New York, they might be interested in checking out one of our shows live.

You know, like I'm hoping I'm trying to figure out a way to sort of, you know, to do good, to do good for the company, to do good for John's company, to sort of do good, you know, and to just make it make make people happy, I guess you could say, you know, in in some in some way, to sort of you know making by making it accessible or by making this sort of work accessible.

[24:18] Gordon Cox: Yeah. And uh John, I imagine there's a community around no studios that who you can sort of talk about this work with and kind of spread the spread the word with.

[24:27] John Ridley: Yeah, we've been very fortunate. I mean, we've really been able to build uh a significant online community, and part of that is is largely uh not just in Milwaukee, where which is you know our focus, but in this shift to more online and streaming, again, that everybody is is doing. And I'm just talking about a very fundamental space like like we're talking right now on a uh a small um prosumer digital platform where now we work in conjunction with um universities, we work with nonprofits. You know, there were so many organizations out there that are looking for content that don't necessarily have the capacity to build out content on a regular basis, but want to be involved in art in conversations.

You know, one of the things with no studios, uh again, and being very pro-positive and very community-oriented, you know, we do things like social justice summits, we do things like um community and policing and real conversations, not just proselytizing, not just you know, straight up advocacy, but how do we engage people and how do we have these conversations? And we really look for, and I hate to use the word because I feel like it's one of those, you know, I know every word is invented, but this is a word, you know, the intersectionality, you know. You you take a very mundane word and you add a couple of things. What is art and advocacy, um, art and community, where do they intersect? And in those spaces, um, you you one would be surprised how many people or how many organizations have a real interest, but don't have either the time, don't want to spend the money, can't spend the money, um, in in some ways uh are a nonprofits.

Every dollar that they raise, they have to be very careful about where it goes. So to just have this content. And for us, you know, like everybody else, it ends up being more about eyeballs and metrics early on than um profits per se. And every one of these things that we create, you know, we own at the end of the day. So you may start out with 10 or 15 things that are 20 minutes or half hour, or uh at a at a certain baseline in terms of production qualities or the abilities to produce them, but suddenly, you know, you end up with 15 or 20 different things that are of interest, and you can have them. And again, you know, Ethan Hawke, uh Tariq, Wallace together, you know, uh to have uh keep leaving out John Leguizamo, don't let go of that.

I'm sorry, yeah. You know, these are all of a sudden people where uh folks are that they they have a certain marquee value. And when they're doing interesting things, I do believe that there are people who are going to tune in and watch. But again, at this price point, for me, it it really is about an investment in Scott and a larger investment in communities. So it's not like we got to come out of the gate in something like um Quibi, and I don't mean to to you know get on. You know, hundreds of millions, uh, but there's not really, you know, there's no room for error as we see. And again, I'm not picking on the folks who got into it. It's certainly, you know, they could raise the money, they um have resumes that are deep in success.

They have an idea that had, you know, it had a differentiating factor. So they had as good a shot as anybody, but at that price point and at that burn through, you know, the margin for errors we saw was was was tight. Was tight. And this, you know, it's not really a margin for error because it's we're just we're doing stuff.

[28:25] John Ridley: Yeah. That's all we're doing is stuff. And you know, I'm not giving anything away.

[28:27] Scott Elliott: I mean, I am giving something away by saying, you know, we're also talking about possibly starting our own streaming service or an art streaming service where our work can live and we can control it. Like that's really a, you know, sort of a thing that I think John and I both hold dear is being able to sort of control our work. And yeah.

[28:48] Scott Elliott: And in terms of these projects in this first, let's call it a season for New Group Offstage, how did these projects evolve? Were any of these things that you were thinking about for the stage and then the pandemic made impossible and they shifted, or like a web series that I imagine started as a web, like the idea was to write it as a web series as what I think?

[29:10] John Ridley: Yeah, no, um, I would say that we were gonna do The Seagull on stage, Thomas Bradshaw's The Seagull on Stage, which is what I did for, yeah.

[29:17] Scott Elliott: Yeah, that's become a whole other thing.

[29:20] John Ridley: Yeah. Um, and then there's a piece that we're doing that's an audio play, Bernard's Daughter, that we're gonna be doing with, like for instance, I made a deal with Audible on that. And so, you know, and so because they have a really great way of sort of getting that sort of work out and also, you know, that it's just not normally what we do, but um, you know, like and by having partners like that, like Audible and John and Frank, it just helps, it just helps make the work, you know, blossom in different ways. It makes it, it makes a lot of it possible, you know, in ways that it seems sort of abstract to me.

[30:00] Scott Elliott: But no, I would say Godot, Lip Synca, Richard Thomas's talk, singing heads, you know, they are all they were all made for this. Like, we know it was like I called a bunch of people that I a Danye Love's web series.

[30:17] John Ridley: Right.

[30:18] Scott Elliott: Um, I called everybody, these, you know, a group of people that I thought, you know, would be interested in possibly going on an experimental journey, because of course it is an experiment, you know, and you have to have a certain personality to be able to go on an experimental journey like this. And I just sort of said, like, let's, you know, you know, would you be interested in participating in this? And everybody said yes, which was exciting.

[30:40] Scott Elliott: And really a lot of the pieces, you know, and this piece, The Dinner that we're working on with Morren Adams and Brandon Victor Dixon, you know, um that's a that that was birthed out of the Black Lives Matter movement, you know. Um that that's another sort of interesting experiment, and that essentially um I told Brandon and Warren that and another producer, Sharifa Ali, that essentially they are taking over my job for that project.

[31:11] Scott Elliott: In essence, you're coming into the new group, the new group is I'm making the new group accessible to you, I'm making everybody at the new group, our funding accessible to you, and you make your thing. And so they all have different sort of points of view that are sort of in a way responding to this moment.

[31:26] John Ridley: Right, right, yeah, yeah.

[31:28] Scott Elliott: And how do you both imagine the things you have learned and the things you were doing in this time carrying over to a time when things are back to normal, when, for instance, we can all go see a new group play in a theater again, or, you know, John, you've got No Studios back in its facility and all that stuff? What how do you think of what you're learning now as things that you will carry on from beyond this?

[31:59] John Ridley: Um, okay I'll go after you.

[32:02] John Ridley: I, you know, for me, I really hope that we can find ways to I don't want the communal experience to go away. And that's I think a lot of fear for many people is that emerging artists, the emerging arts groups, you know, it can they make it through this pandemic. We don't know how long it will be before people legitimately feel safe to be in, you know, just even sizable groups, you know. Uh you think about, you know, small theater back in the day, 99 seats, you know, would would any of us feel safe being in a 99-seat theater?

[32:36] John Ridley: And you know, theater, unfortunately, a lot of the folk right, I shouldn't say unfortunate well, unfortunately, in the sense that I wish everybody went to more theater, but a lot of it is driven by older individuals who go and and are they gonna feel safe? So my hope is that when the communal experience returns, um, first and foremost, I hope that it does, that what we do doesn't um supplant the communal experience, but in it enhances it so that if there are um plays or shows or things that we do live, particularly at No Studios, that we have a better capacity to capture those experiences, to archive those experiences, to add to those experiences.

[33:19] John Ridley: The same way in a great criterion disc, um, you know, you you get the interviews, you get the um deconstructions of things that were going, you know, anatomies of a scene or things like that. Um can we have conversations with some of the artists? You know, one of the things that we do in at No Studios is we have a dance fest, or we did have a dance fest.

[33:39] John Ridley: Um, I love seeing dance in any form, but seeing it live is just one of the greatest pleasures there is. But for the people who can't attend dance fests, can we do highlights? Can we do interviews? Can we do um workshops and put those online for people to see them? So I hope with both what we do at No Studios and what we can do with um No Studios in the new group is that we are finding ways to enhance live experiences rather than supplant live experiences, because I more than anything, I want to support and see and have us and have audiences return to the thrill and the excitement of being together with other people and how that enhances art because I really believe there's no substitute for enjoying art with others.

[34:27] Scott Elliott: Yeah.

[34:27] Scott Elliott: Yeah.

[34:29] Scott Elliott: I don't know how I can follow that, John. That was a really good answer.

[34:32] Scott Elliott: I mean, I will say I agree, obviously, John and I are aligned on all of these things, but uh, you know, I'm hoping that like that all of the work that we're doing on this new venture um is going to continue in some way. That it's not going to replace, like what John says, it will enhance.

[34:53] Scott Elliott: Like I possibly will be able to figure out ways to sort of, you know, show our shows, even the live ones, um, to other communities that can access them. And um, and also I really do think that there is something about the theater artists that we're working with in film right now that is it's exciting. It's it's giving people different opportunities. It's giving giving uh artists a different way to stretch.

[35:26] Scott Elliott: Um I mean, of course, Waiting for Godot is a very strange experience because it is our pandemic piece, you know, uh these things are gonna roll out through 2022. You know, we're not, we're not, you know, I'm not in any rush. I want to take it slowly and do it right. And then at the end of when we when we get through all of these projects, we'll look at it and say, you know, what did we learn? What how can we do it better?

[35:49] Scott Elliott: And uh and my hope is that the new group live and the new group off stage will exist together.

[35:57] John Ridley: Right.

[35:57] Scott Elliott: Yeah.

[35:58] John Ridley: And speaking of Waiting for Godot, what's the timeline for release on that? Do you know yet in terms of when you think it'll be completed and out there?

[36:05] Scott Elliott: Well, I'm hoping that it's gonna be out in the world toward the end of April, beginning of May. If it's done sooner, that's the cool thing. It's like we don't have to wait for somebody to tell us when we can release it. Like I want to make sure that it's done, that we have the opportunity to market it properly, you know, that we have the opportunity to get the word out so the most people can see it. And then I'm hoping end of April is what we're sort of shooting for right now.

[36:29] Scott Elliott: I mean, we just added some time on, I didn't even tell John this onto our post for our color correction and things like that. That, you know, everything's a budget question, but you know, we really want it to be amazing, you know, and to look amazing. And so we've added some a little bit of extra time onto our post.

[36:44] Scott Elliott: Um, but yeah, so I'm hoping end of April.

[36:47] John Ridley: Yeah.

[36:48] John Ridley: And uh John, for both of you, what uh what about this stage project that uh you guys have been working on that uh what that will be the first show out of the gate when you when you're all back in the theater?

[36:59] Scott Elliott: When I mean I sort of take that back. The first thing that we're gonna be doing is The Fever, Wally Shawn's piece.

[37:05] John Ridley: Oh yeah, that we're gonna be doing uh well, we're also we're doing that also with uh the sponsorship of Audible at some point. But that's gonna be uh, you know, uh that's that's a piece that I think can live in a, you know, in a in a pandemic world, even uh even quite possibly outdoors.

[37:24] Scott Elliott: Right.

[37:24] Scott Elliott: But but but it's a solo show, isn't it?

[37:26] John Ridley: It's a solo show?

[37:27] Scott Elliott: Isn't it no one person?

[37:28] John Ridley: Yeah, okay, yeah.

[37:29] John Ridley: Yeah, it's a solo show.

[37:31] John Ridley: Um and and as far as Black No More goes, um, I'm thinking that probably um the hope is that at this time next year it will have just opened.

[37:43] Scott Elliott: Great.

[37:45] John Ridley: I mean that I mean it seems like that's the that seems the I mean it seems I don't want to do anything where obviously where we started and have to stop. You know, because that that's of course a terrible thing. It's very expensive to do that as we know from London and all that sort of thing.

[37:59] John Ridley: But um, but yeah, I'm imagining that quite possibly we'll see Black No More starting previews right after New Year's um next year if everything goes well.

[38:10] Scott Elliott: But I don't know, I don't I don't have the vaccine yet, but uh um okay, last question, John.

[38:17] John Ridley: What working on this theater piece on Black No More, what what have you learned working on theater and in the form of theater that you are now using in all the other work that you do on screen?

[38:30] John Ridley: I would say that I've probably acquired a higher degree of appreciation for true collaboration. And um, you know, in in film and television, there's certainly a lot of collaboration, but it tends to be driven by on the TV side the writer, executive, producer, showrunner, and on the film side, the director.

[38:53] John Ridley: And there's collaboration, but people really fold in around what the director wants in a film or what the showrunner wants on a TV show. And in theater, the specificity of folks' job requirements is just so high. You know, the choreographer is the choreographer, and there's just no two ways about it.

[39:16] John Ridley: And you know, at least for me as a writer, um, you know, there's very little that I can comment on on the choreography, a, because we have an amazing choreographer, but B because it's just it hits you emotionally. And yeah, you may have to trim or cut, or you know, we mean more dancing or less dancing, but it it's just it's just what the choreographer is doing is singular. Same with the music and what Tariq is doing, same with what the ensemble is doing and just how they interact and where they interact and what they do.

[39:44] John Ridley: And certainly Scott as a producer and a director has a great understanding of that. But you know, Scott is the latitude that he gives. You know, it's not like he comes in and in the morning, you know, dictates it's gotta be like this, it's gotta be like that. You guys go back and fix it. It really is about sitting around and everyone being um given a certain amount of latitude within our spaces and and a great deal of support, but but also the belief that we're adults and can work as a unit and and support what we do best, but also understand what those other departments really need.

[40:20] John Ridley: And that no one is is is is marginalized, no one is overly elevated, um, egos are in check, and that everybody is worth the star of the show is the show. You know, the actors, you know, different than a TV show. We respect them. We cannot do it without them, but they have almost as much equal weight as the ensemble, um, as as the choreographer, as as the writer.

[40:44] John Ridley: Um, you know, it it's it's very there's very much a sense of equality, but a very much a sense of empowerment, very much a sense of respect for what everyone does, and it's just different than how things work in film, how things work in TV. In some ways, maybe it has to be different, but for me personally, going back to your question, um, the heart of your question is I have a greater sense of what can happen when you do allow for a little bit more freedom for all individuals, but also making sure that you know, taking that back to film and television, that there's also that degree of respect.

[41:22] John Ridley: You know, they, you know, not just I respect them, but they've got to respect everybody else and their abilities and how everyone functions as a whole creative unit.

[41:32] Scott Elliott: Well, I look forward to seeing collaborations from both of you in the very near future, whatever you've got coming up, Waiting for Godot and beyond. Um so thank you both.

[41:42] Scott Elliott: Thanks for talking to me.

[41:43] John Ridley: Thanks, John.

[41:44] Scott Elliott: Thanks, Scott.

[41:46] John Ridley: Thank you.

[41:46] Scott Elliott: Absolutely, thank you.

[41:52] Scott Elliott: That was John Ridley and Scott Elliott, two of the producers and creators of the upcoming New Group Offstage slate of work.

[41:59] Gordon Cox: If you like what you're hearing on this and other episodes of Stagecraft, I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It really helps us grow our audience of folks who love theater as much as you and I do. Or tell a friend. You can find past episodes of Stagecraft, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts and on all the other pod places, including Spotify and on the Broadway Podcast Network, which is another great place to find more theater for your ears.

[42:24] Gordon Cox: I'll be back in two weeks with another new episode. Until then, find me on Twitter at GCOXVariety. Thanks for listening, and see you soon.