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Kevin's latest post on EveryTrail

Off the Beaten Path in San Diego's Balboa Park
Parts of Balboa Park that most San Diego natives don't know. Brought to you by a guide who grew up exploring the park.

The Making of Golden Hill Farmer's Market

If you lived Kevin Six's film Golden Hill Farmer's Market, you're going to love The Making of Golden Hill Farmer's Market even more.

 

Golden Hill Farmer's Market

Doushey Basket productions

presents

a film by Kevin Six

This time the Trees (the r and the e are silent) go to the Golden Hill Farmer's Market and meet all kinds of wonderful people.  But of course they are superior to all of them.  This is because they drive a Smart Car, film with a GoPro iHero and carry their free-trade produce in a sustainable (doushey) basket.

  

“No Child…” is worth the drive

Theatre Review By Kevin Six

 

(from left) Marc Amial Caro, John Rogers, Robert Malave, Lynae DePriest, Dempsey Davis, Bianca Ostojich, and Rebekah Ensley in InnerMission and Mesa College Theatre's production of "No Child...". Photo: Paul Savage

When you produce a play about teaching artists trying to make sense of arts and education, set in a school, and performed at a community college – with student actors yet – you’re asking a lot of an audience.  This much was asked of me tonight and, after my disclaimer that I am married to a member of the cast, I must say Mesa College and InnerMission Productions’ “No Child…” It’s worth the drive to Kearney Mesa. 

 

The play itself is short – less than an hour – but every second of it brings something new, touching and uplifting.  The story is real and often acted solo by the author, by Nilaja Sun.  Some day, I’d like to see her do this because the rapid-fire exchange of dialogue is an amazing feat and this cast of 16 was working overtime as it was. 

The play is narrated by Janitor Barron, in an extremely human and wizened portrayal by Rhys Green.  Barron paints the picture of a school and a class full of kids who have already been left behind when the national No Child Left Behind brings its show to Brooklyn.  Ms. Sun has been hired, through a department of education grant, to teach the worst of the worst kids a play.  Lynae DePriest pretty much lives the pain, and pathos of this poor artist with an impossible task, and manages to instill hope.  Another stand out in the cast is Justine Hince as the overwhelmed and finally consumed Ms. Tam.  Watching her go from hopeful to disenchanted, to giving up is worth the price of admission.

It is at this point that a reviewer would explain that this production was an educational collaboration with actual students playing the actual students and professionals playing the adults in a way to soften the blow that the kids were blown away by the pros.  But not so.  These kids are possessed of so much energy, talent and emotion (and so much control over them all) that it is hard to understand that they are just beginning their careers as actors.  The ensemble as a whole is even, competent and surefooted.

Standouts among the kids are Brandon Kelly as the angry young Jerome, Bianca Ostojich whose Shondrika can kill with a look, and Rebekah Ensley whose Cocoa puts hope into a much-too-common end to her high school studies.

The production team is also a combination of students and professionals and by-and-large they pull it off with nary a hitch.  Directors Carla Nell and Kym Pappas have managed to create a strong, powerful cast that is surprisingly even, even as the emotions trickle, flow and sometimes gush. The only thing wanting is more sound design.  There was too little musical accompaniment to follow up an excellent opening.

So what, you will think, wiping away tears, as the lights fade on an excellently-wrought “No Child…”  After all, as Janitor Barron says, “sometimes the most talented ones just slip through the cracks.”  All in all Mesa and InnerMission created an excellent production with an excellent use of student and professional actors, staff and technicians – and an excellent way to spend an evening.  Just give yourself time to find the college, the parking lot and the theatre – watch this video for information on where to park.

InnerMission Productions and Mesa College present “No Child” by Nilaja Sun at Mesa College’s A Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. through May 20.  Tickets range from $10-15 and are available at InnerMissionProductions.org or Mesa College’s Apolliad Theater, 7250 Mesa College Dr., San Diego, CA, 92111.  Building C-100 on this map.

Kevin's Op Ed Piece on Words Are Not Enough

Read the article here.

Kevin's Opinion on Jeff Smith's blog

Read the blog here.

Kirsten Fogle reviews Lifestages

No Child... listing in San Diego City Beat

See this show!

Once a day updates

I just set this blog to update to a Facebook and four Twitter accounts.  That's on top of my own Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Why would I do that?  It's good for me and the company who Tweets my feed because they trust my content and my feed is easy to get.

If you are reading this, I would love you to comment (on the blog, the various Facebook accounts or on Twitter) and let me know where you read this.

If you have any questions ,please e-mail or call.  Thanks!

 

Kevin

Giving my nonprofit arts education organization up for adoption

In 1999, I became the executive director of an arts education organization called San Diego Dance Institute. The organization began as the education outreach of a defunct dance presenting prganization.  I took the organization, re-branded it (as City Moves!), developed the board and raised a ton of money.  This was before No Child Left Behind, Energy Deregulation and the Tech Bubble burst.

After five years in the business, I was ready to quit.  A lot had happened, a lot of good had been done but the winds of change were coming and it was time to pilot the ship into a safe harbor and run for the hills.

This was just before whatever you want to call the economy we're in hit.  It was during No Child Left Behind and I was bringing after school dance programs to the kids who needed it most.  The problem with No Child Left Behind was that it meant that no child was left untested.  In the early 2000s there was money to burn.

Individuals, corporations, foundations and government agencies had more than they knew what to do with.  The California Arts Council had so much money that, during the year I sat on the funding panel, it gave every grant recipient exactly what it had asked for.  Before that time, arts organizations would be happy to receive a third of their government request.  And there were a lot of art programs for children.

The first funding problem I encountered was Energy Deregulation. California thought competition was good for the market and SDG&E thought that brown-outs, killing competition and raising rates was better.  High electricity rates killed business and the taxes that fund government grants. The California Arts Council went from funding 100% of requests to, well, they pretty much didn't exist when I got out of the arts education business in 2004.

So there went government money.  After that, the tech bubble burst and markets, which relied on over-inflated tech stocks started to weaken.  So there went foundation support (foundations are stock speculators who give away their capital gains and there wasn't much of that.  

The writing was on the wall and I was looking for a career change.  But I couldn't let the kids down.  In grant requests, I had told some true, touching stories about kids who found their power through after school dance programs; teachers who started to respect kids who had heretofore been troublemakers; kids who chose to be better citizens so as to be able to participate in their classes instead of doing detention, at least on Tuesdays.

So I put it out there that City Moves! was courting.  I needed a good family to adopt my organization.  I told my board of directors that I wanted a divorce, my management team that it wasn't their fault and put a group together to meet people and organizations.  I had trained a few remarkable (and more resilient) arts administrators so I went to them first.

After several first dates and a few seconds we met the organization that would marry the needs of my nonprofit with theirs.  Young Audiences.  The organization was intelligently and caringly run; it supported artists in school residencies and assemblies; and was looking to expand into the after school market.  After a great first date, we got our board members together.

It was really like meeting the parents.  Two board members from each organization met with the executive directors.  We hit it off. City Moves! went back to being an outreach program.  Young Audiences took my assistant on as the program director, our board joind their board, City Moves! dissolved, my name is mud in nonprofit arts fundraising circles but the kids still had something to look forward to after school on tuesdays.

My second career as a trapeze catcher and circus school administrator didn't work out (but the midlife crisis went off like gangbusters!). I became an actor and hooked up with InnerMission Productions.  They are producing No Child... a play about arts education in schools during No Child Left Behind and they're partnering eith Young Audiences to get the word out.  And I'm doing marketing.  Full circle.

See No Child...