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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's The Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:08] Robert Bannon: Well, welcome to The Roundtable, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon, and you're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeart, Spotify, wherever artists talk about art. You know, art is all over the country. Truly, when I left New York City, people said to me, where are you going? We are going to miss out on incredible art, and I realized that art, theater makers, people who change the fabric of our country and society and thought are all over this country. Sometimes, you know, I end my show saying there's more good than bad. There's more love than hate. There's more joy than sadness. We just have to find it because sometimes when we watch the news, we just feel like it's the apocalypse.

The world is over, and why are we keep going? Well, then I see people like Jay, and I see what they're doing over there at this incredible, in Vermont, you go to FlynnVT.org, and you can find more information on democracy and all of that fun stuff. The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts is putting on Women Plus on the Edge of Democracy, a collective portrait of a nation in doubt and transformation, and the one and only, the brainchild, the idea, the one who signs the checks and makes it happen. Jay Wahl, welcome to The Roundtable. I don't know if you sign checks, but in my head, that's what you do all day.

[1:14] Jay Wahl: I mean, I have to do a lot of logistics and planning and organization, and when I get to sign a check, I feel good about that because that means an artist is getting paid, and things are happening.

[1:24] Robert Bannon: See, I like that. Well, tell me a little bit, are you from Vermont?

[1:30] Jay Wahl: I am not. I am from Philadelphia.

[1:36] Robert Bannon: Okay. I was in Philadelphia last week.

[1:39] Jay Wahl: Oh.

[1:40] Robert Bannon: I had a cheese steak and everything.

[1:43] Jay Wahl: I mean, I don't think most Philadelphians eat those very often.

[1:48] Jay Wahl: I don't think so either. Can you imagine how we...

[1:50] Robert Bannon: Well, no, but I've been in Vermont for five years. I have the distinct pleasure and honor of leading the Flynn in Burlington. It's the largest arts organization in the state, and we serve communities across Vermont. Vermont's an exceedingly beautiful place. It's a very rural place. A lot of dirt roads covering mountains, and wherever people are, we want to bring them the arts. We want to make sure that, like oxygen, it's non-negotiable. It's something they have access to and is part of the fabric of their lives, and I get to do that here in beautiful Vermont. So although I'm a Philadelphian at heart, I'm now a Vermonter, and I'm really, really proud to be here.

[2:24] Robert Bannon: And before we get into this incredible project that you're doing, what is your official job?

[2:32] Jay Wahl: What is my job? God, we're not here long enough. No. I'm the Executive Director of the Flynn. The Flynn is a major arts organization. We run a large art deco theater in the heart of beautiful Burlington on Lake Champlain. We run programs in about 80% of the schools across the state. We take over football fields, and we turn them into performance spaces. We've performed on the beautiful waterfront looking at the Adirondack Mountains, most recently with Mavis Staples, where we had 5,000 people dancing with her. We do all sorts of things, and that's really what I get to do is I get to be of service to people in my community.

[3:07] Robert Bannon: So when you go, everybody, to FlynnVT.org, you'll be able to see, like, they have everybody coming up this fall from Ann Wilson of Heart to Samara Joy to Sesame Street to my friends over at All Things Equal. Like, you put on hundreds, literally hundreds of events every single year bringing art and the best artists and theater and newsmakers and changemakers to Vermont.

[3:29] Jay Wahl: That's, thank you. You should do my PR, because that's what we do.

[3:33] Robert Bannon: I'm chief.

[3:34] Jay Wahl: No, we do. We have some amazing artists that perform here, and it's extraordinary. In fact, tonight I have Angelique Kidjo performing. It's like the whole world comes to Vermont, but also we bring Vermont to the world, and that's sort of what this project is.

[3:51] Robert Bannon: She just got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and she's now with you all, and she's going to blow the house down, and you get all the people that turn me down for my show. So that's, I need to come to Vermont.

[4:01] Jay Wahl: That's funny to me.

[4:02] Robert Bannon: Just camp out under our marquee.

[4:04] Jay Wahl: With a microphone. I got it.

[4:06] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[4:07] Jay Wahl: I could do that.

[4:08] Robert Bannon: It's Robert on the Street here in Vermont.

[4:11] Jay Wahl: My whole career is based on Billy on the Street, so you get me in a nutshell, Jay. You're done, sold. So you came up with this idea, I'm assuming, or a group of people or you were, I don't know, cooking a grilled cheese in your house in Vermont and said, like, the world is ending. Women are going to save us. Playwrights are going to save us, and I think that we need to make a festival with 36 plus, that's a daunting number, and I'm going to get Oscar winners, Tony winners, superstar writers, people who have won every single award you can to do something special. Where did the idea come from? Where were you?

[4:46] Jay Wahl: Where was I? So I don't know where I was, but if you're like me, and you read the news sometimes, and you find yourself hiding under your bed, eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's, which is sometimes the most normal response to have at the moment, and you start to think, well, what can I do? And I often think if you're wondering what one person can do in a divided country, maybe you start by having a conversation. And so I started to think about how The Flynn could spark conversations, and so I reached out to the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, which is really one of the most prestigious playwriting prizes, period, in the English language, and they have been recognizing women playwrights for almost 50 years, and I said to them, hey, would it be cool if I invited your previous award winners to write a 10-minute play asking them about what they see as the state of democracy in America?

And there was a lot of discussion. They were like, you really want to do that? And I said, yeah. So they said, sure, we can reach out to playwrights, and I thought maybe six or seven of these amazing women, and you're right, there are Tony award winners, there's a Pulitzer Prize winner, there's everyone. And I thought six or seven might say yes, and I would do a show where we would invite people in Vermont to come together and listen to these women guide or provoke a conversation about democracy. And, well, 36 unbelievable, talented writers said yes, and I realized, oh, this is a thing, and we should publish a book. And then I thought, well, actually, with the scale and the importance of these writers and the urgency of the topic of understanding what democracy means and how we might have a conversation about that together, I thought, actually, could we offer these plays as an invitation across the country for everybody with their theater or library or school, but also maybe with their Girl Scout troop or their knitting bee or their rugby club?

Could they have a conversation about democracy? And so the writers all agree, not only would they write these 10-minute plays and we'd publish them in a book, but they would offer them without royalties or rights to anybody in this country who wanted to have a conversation about democracy with only one caveat, and that caveat was you can't charge for it. You have to invite people to the table free of charge, and we will sit and have a conversation. And so that's what Women on the Edge of Democracy is. It's an invitation to have a conversation, and why I'm excited to be here with you is I hope that if you're listening, you could host a conversation, and I don't know what that looks like. It could be part of your faith community. It could be part of your book club. It could be at your dining room table.

[7:27] Jay Wahl: So the playwrights include, for example, Heidi Schreck, who won the Tony for What the Constitution Means to Me, and her play talks about performing a Broadway hit about the Constitution when Ruth Bader Ginsburg comes to see her, and she starts to understand how one woman's voice through her story and the play she's written for this project really can change the country. And she talks about a woman named Elsie Parrish who sued for wages and went to the Supreme Court, and that's why we have minimum wage in this country. And that's one kind of play. On the other side, we have Bridget Carpenter, who wrote a play called Things I Worry About, where she just talks about all the fears and worries she has right now when she thinks about her life and her children and her neighbors, and that's another way to think about democracy.

The plays span a full gamut. We've invited people from across the spectrum of political backgrounds, of social backgrounds. We have a Canadian, we have an Irish playwright, we have Scottish, so we have non-American perspectives on what America's going through. And at the heart, this project is really just a springboard for you to have a conversation. We're hoping to have a conversation in all 50 states, at least one. We do have partners that have signed up in Alabama and Mississippi and Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, but these are big places, so lots of conversations could happen. And so what we're really, really asking is from October 23rd to November 3rd, which is the two weeks leading up to the midterms, wherever you are, the plays are free to access.

Take one, read it out loud, see what someone has to say. They're full of optimism, they're full of hope. There's a lot of challenging things in our country, but I think these women have really taken this idea to ask really big questions and bring us together.

[9:18] Robert Bannon: Jay, you know what I thought about is when I was reading about this, initially I thought, like, this is a really cool thing to do in Vermont, and then when I read the scope and brevity and the people you have, like, you've really taken the ball in your court and made a movement happen that a lot of people, I think, feel hopeless in these times. They feel like their vote doesn't count. They feel like, I don't have the time to go ring doorbells or make phone calls. I don't think it's effective. I don't know what to do. I've fought with my family members. I've gotten into social media battles about the world. I feel like I'm losing a battle. And you got me up with something that really brings community and people together to have a discussion and lead us to find commonality in some community, which I feel like sometimes is lacking. It's beautiful.

[9:58] Jay Wahl: It's, thank you, first of all. And I'm so grateful to the playwrights who are part of this. And the Susan Blackburn Prize for being such a partner. It's beautiful. And I don't know what's going to happen. It's messy. I mean, I don't know what conversations people have. I don't know what people will learn. I don't know what people share. And that's part of democracy. Everybody gets an opportunity to sit around a table and listen to each other and we work it out. And I love that I'm able to do this from a rural state and people in rural communities are having lots of conversation across this country about the nature of our democracy and what they'd like to see and what they have hopes for and how their children are feeling.

And I know because I grew up in Philadelphia that people in urban communities are too. And what I'm really hoping is this is some methodology that we begin the practice of conversation. We begin to exercise the practice, to practice the habits that democracy requires, which is first and foremost, listening to each other. And the voices of these women are a good place to start. And, but, you know, by all means, take one of the plays, take five of the plays, maybe read one, maybe you write one and you read them both. That's really up to you. But it's called Women on the Edge of Democracy.

[11:10] Jay Wahl: The website is democracy.flinvt.org, but really just Google it and sign up. You don't have to be a theatre company. You certainly can be. We have some major theatres going to do this, but you can really be anyone. And I'm just proud to be a part of it. I'm so grateful to everyone. I'm grateful to you and just people who are like, hey, we don't know what to do right now. We're all sort of hiding under the bed eating ice cream. So what might we do? It's like, well, here's an option. Here's something we can try. And I hope we learn from it. And then we'll try the next thing, whatever that is. Read the play and then go eat ice cream together is what I vote for that. That's my goal. I mean, we love our ice cream here in Vermont.

I know. There's nothing more Ben and Jerry's than Vermont. And that's Jerry Garcia for everybody works for me. Or Sarah Ruhl, Lynn Nottage, and so many other people. These are people who have major works, Broadway works, works that are done in theatres all around the world. Their work will be timeless. Now you'll get to see works that are brand new that they've given for nothing for you to do in your community, home, group, theatre, church, place of worship, whatever you do. And you'll be able to do that and then have a conversation. When people go to the website, they could click to participate. What happens when you participate? So if you want to click to participate, you'll tell us a little bit about what you're thinking and we'll give you access to the plays.

And then you can read them and say, hey, these three really speak to me. I'm going to do them with my soccer league. Great. And you can have actors or not. You can ask your mom to do it. Actually, mom would be a great choice, I think. And that's sort of where you start. We have a publishing partner. I'm really proud of that. So the book will be published. You'll be able to get it online or in a bookstore. So there's lots of ways you'll be able to access these plays, even if you're listening and you think, I'm not ready to host a conversation, but I would love to read the book and think about these topics as we get closer to the midterms. That will happen. Yeah. Gather October 23rd to November 3rd.

You and all around the entire country will be doing this. Ten minutes. No theatre experience is necessary. It does not have to be a whole big, you don't need lights and sets and theatre stage. You can have your backyard. You can, you know, serve some potato chips and salsa and a Diet Coke and celebrate and communicate. I mean, I find snacks help, you know. Everything.

[13:39] Robert Bannon: They help everything. And I don't, you know, I listen much better if I'm snacking. I can't be, I can't listen and be hungry. So when, Jay, what do you think is your goal when this is over? And not politically. I mean, yes, politically, we need to vote. Everybody needs to vote in the midterm, no matter where you are, no matter if you think your vote matters or doesn't. They're trying to take away your right to vote. They're trying to limit the vote around this country. So please go out and vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. What do you hope when the conversations are over and it leads to Election Day here in this country that people realize or come together in community to do what?

[14:19] Jay Wahl: Well, that's a great question. I mean, part of my hope is that a lot of different people will have exercised the most fundamental part of democracy, which is gathering and speaking and sharing. That's sort of the first habit we have to practice together, you know, and voting is critical. So I want to underline what you said. Absolutely. But what do I hope happens? Well, I hope people write back to me and say, hey, Jay, this was what mom said, or this is what I heard, or this is what I'm feeling, or this is what I want to hope for my son or my nephew or my cousin or whatever. I don't know what happens after the elections, but hopefully we will have all practiced our rights to democracy and we've had a lot of conversations, and then we'll figure it out together.

I mean, it seems like this is just one step in a long journey that we've been on in this nation. And I think the opportunity to let these playwrights, as you mentioned, Heidi Schreck, Sarah Ruhl, Lauren Gunderson, Beth Henley, Dale Orlander-Smith, A.K. Payne, I could go on, please go to the website. They're brilliant women. But these are women who have long chronicled what they see happening around them. That's what playwrights do. They observe human behavior and they share an observation about it. And we get to consider how do we talk to each other? How do we understand each other? How do we listen to each other? And honestly, that's the goal. Like, you know, if you could just have a little more empathy for some other perspective, I think we're all a little closer to being in the United States.

And what could be better than just going, oh, I heard something different. I heard a new perspective. Or I have felt like I haven't had the opportunity to speak my ideas and someone else listened to me and I feel heard. Wow. You know, I just need one person to have that experience. That's all I can do is make an invitation to someone else. And that's what I'm asking anyone who's listening to this to do, is to say, pull up a chair at a table, invite somebody to sit with you and try to have a conversation about your hopes for the state of our democracy. And these plays are a provocation in that direction. But by all means, if you've got your chips and salsa, that conversation goes where it wants to go and then share back what you learned. I love that. I really love that.

[16:33] Robert Bannon: When I went to acting school, my acting teacher, years before the current world we're living in, they said being an artist is a noble profession because it documents history. It's a protest. And years from now, these plays and the works that are being created as we go through these times will be performed on stages and screens and it will show the world what we went through and it will teach us lessons about what we've been through to hopefully, well, hopefully to not do them again. And I think the work of these incredible women and people who are making these plays and then the people who are organizing it like you and the people that are doing it, are really doing the work of giving speech and community and being able to be free enough to say what we want to say.

A real, real lesson in what this country and democracy is supposed to be about. Why did you make it all? Firstly, you don't have to be a woman to read the plays. Everybody, come on and read the plays. Men, women, people all over. Why women playwrights? Why was that important to you to make sure that they were the voices of these women and women from all over the world? Women from everywhere.

[17:37] Jay Wahl: Well, so our partnerships, I mentioned, started with a conversation I had with Leslie Zweikhaber, who's the executive director of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. And that's an organization that has been honoring women playwrights for almost 50 years. Women's voices are sort of systematically being silenced. So like, if I want to think about how to start a conversation in democracy, I want to listen to people and give them the opportunity who may not have had an opportunity to express their point of view. And I realize the irony of me saying that in this case, but, you know, listen to women is not a bad place to start any conversation. And these are extraordinarily talented people. So anybody can read the plays, anybody could perform the plays.

That's not what we're saying. We just started with women who have really thought deeply about the nature of humanity in our country right now and asked them to share a perspective as a way that that perspective might lead you to understand your own, someone else's, or help you further the next question you might ask. And that's why this matters.

[18:38] Robert Bannon: Love it. I'm a fan. I'm here. I want to read these plays. Everybody, you want to read them too. You want to do this. You've got to go to democracy.flinvt.org. You can check it out. The link will be below. If you're going to be in Vermont, you know you have to go to Flynn and you got to go see a show and see what they do up there in their gorgeous, beautiful theater and their programming that they do across this beautiful state. Go take a vacation and go up to Vermont. And then you may never leave. You may be like Jay, who just is there living in a tree. You don't want to leave. You're never going to want to leave. We are going to do, we're going to have a performance on October 23rd. We're going to do a premiere of all these plays. So if you do want to see all 36 of them, you can see them all in Vermont and check that out. But you know, there'll be one near you, I hope. And if not, host one.

[19:29] Jay Wahl: That's right. If not, host one. I want to come to Vermont. I don't, I've never been to Vermont, Jay.

[19:35] Jay Wahl: Well, you come stay with me. We'll, we'll go, not even just eat ice cream, but we'll look at mountains and take a hike. I'm going to take my husband and I'm going to meet you and yours and we're going to go take a hike.

[19:43] Robert Bannon: Yeah, I've never taken a hike really either.

[19:48] Jay Wahl: Well, we can get lost and then sing Ray out loud, you know, baby, where the hell is my husband? I'm in, I could do that. I'll definitely get lost. I joked that I would die camping if the McDonald's was a quarter of a mile away. I wouldn't know how to get there. I would starve to death out in the woods. I mean, so Vermont's funny because you're both always near a good hike and you're always near a good meal. And those things are always true.

[20:08] Robert Bannon: That sounds like my kind of place. So I'll see you in Vermont. I want to come see a show at the Flynn. I want to celebrate what you do. It's incredible that you bring art to everybody. And that's what the world is all about. And congratulations. My dog is eating my office, Jay, as you hear in the background. So don't mind my unprofessionalism. Don't get a puppy. It's a lot of work and just as much work as a husband. And what you're doing is really changing the climate and culture and you're giving people a voice and bringing community together. And I hope that this November we continue to fight for democracy and rights and following what this country is supposed to be about at the polls and on performing arts stages and books and more. Is this going to be a yearly thing?

[20:45] Jay Wahl: Maybe, maybe, kind of, sort of. Lord, I don't know. One day at a time.

[20:50] Robert Bannon: OK. All right. Fine, Jay. You know, Jay said before, I could be his PR, but Jay doesn't need PR. Jay is very good at this. Not that he should get rid of Aperture PR because they're wonderful. We don't want to get rid of them, but we want to keep Jay. Jay, you got this.

[21:05] Jay Wahl: You are too kind. I mean, you I've watched some of these shows at some of the people. I'm just so excited. I can't even believe I'm here with you. It's just too much.

[21:17] Robert Bannon: No. Well, we are here and my show is your show anytime, anytime we want to talk about what's going on in your theater.

[21:24] Jay Wahl: All right. Well, when you come to Vermont, we'll film a little Adventures in Vermont follow up and we can talk about democracy together as we take a hike. I mean, that would be its own show. That is a reality show of itself. We're going to read Sarah Ruhl on a hike with ice cream in Vermont. You know, just to describe a really perfect, perfect day. What's that? What's that song from Dear Evan Hansen? Yeah. Where he says where he's on the tree and then he falls down. This is it. No arm breaking, Jay. No, no, no, no, no. We're not going to do that. But we're going to we're going to fight the fight and we're going to have a good time while doing it. Thank you so much for being here. And congratulations. And my show is your show anytime.

[22:01] Jay Wahl: Thank you. I appreciate it.