S3E7: Mayah Lourdes Burke
In this episode, Hayley and Amy chat with multi-hyphenate Mayah Lourdes Burke, about creating equitable rehearsal spaces as an artivist, juggling hats as a multi-hyphenate, and how to build and nurture community in your theatrical work! Scroll down for episode notes and transcript!
Episode Notes
Hosts: Hayley Goldenberg and Amy Andrews
Guest: Mayah Lourdes Burke
Music: Chloe Geller
Episode Resources:
Guest Bio:
Mayah “My” Lourdes Burke (she/her) is a director, producer, vocalist, playwright, poet, and actor from NYC. Credits: 54 Below Sings Jessie J (Producer), 54 Below Celebrates Curvy Queens, 54 Below Goes to the Library, and A Year With Frog and Toad (Toad). Mayah was a Directing Observer for SDCF for the revival of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Her recent directing credits include The Pitfalls of Exaggerated Swagger by Cris Eli Blak, Motherless… by Cherise Kimoy, Good Grief: A Best Friend Play by Ngozi Anyanwu, We are Proud to Present… by Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy. Her original play, 4SZNS, had its first fully staged production at 2022 Frenzy Fest at El Barrio's Artspace in East Harlem, NYC. She is a Touring Company Member and Teaching Artist with IlluminArt Productions, an Artistic Coach with MTEAF, and a proud member of the Makers Ensemble. In 2022, Mayah received a Staten Island Youth Award for community contribution to Arts and Culture. She has a passion for encouraging and molding young minds through the power of Artivism and is a huge celebrator of the world of new works. Mayah is exceptionally grateful for the opportunity to be here and would love to give thanks to God and all the people who have supported her along the way.
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Episode Transcript
(Music)
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to the Women & Theatre Podcast! We're your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: …and Amy Andrews. Grab a cup of coffee and join us as we talk to people in the theatre industry about their experiences with womanhood.
Hayley: On the pod, we interview people with different gender identities, from different backgrounds, with varying levels of industry experience and professional roles.
Amy: Our goal is to build community and pool our collective wisdom to break down the barriers we continue to face.
(Music)
Amy: On today’s episode, we talk with multi-hyphenate Mayah Lourdes Burke. “My” is a director, producer, vocalist, playwright, poet, and actor from NYC. Her credits include: 54 Below sings Jessie J (Producer), 54 Below Celebrates Curvy Queens, 54 Below Goes to the Library, and A Year With Frog and Toad, in which she played Toad.
Mayah was a Directing Observer for SDCF for the revival of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Her recent directing credits include The Pitfalls of Exaggerated Swagger by Cris Eli Blak, Motherless… by Cherise Kimoy, Good Grief: A Best Friend Play by Ngozi Anyanwu, We are Proud to Present… by Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy. Her original play, 4SZNS, had its first fully staged production at 2022 Frenzy Fest at El Barrio's Artspace in East Harlem, NYC.
Mayah is a Touring Company Member and Teaching Artist with IlluminArt Productions, an Artistic Coach with MTEAF, and a proud member of the Makers Ensemble.
In 2022, Mayah received a Staten Island Youth Award for community contribution to Arts and Culture. She has a passion for encouraging and molding young minds through the power of Artivism and is a huge celebrator of the world of new works.
Hayley: Hello, beautiful people. We are here today with the brilliant multi-hyphenate Mayah Lourdes Burke. Mayah, would you be willing to share your pronouns with our listeners, and tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do in theater?
Mayah: Yeah, hi, everybody. My name is Mayah Lourdes Burke. I go by My. I am a director, producer, playwright, writer, poet, multi-hyphenate. I do a lot of different things. I'm super passionate about mental health. I'm super passionate about using whatever platform I become a leader in to uplift others. I know that a lot of people are trying to make the shift over into being really equitable in a lot of environments, and that's something that I'm super passionate about, no matter where I am, no matter what I'm doing.
Amy: Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to theatre in the first place and all the many, many hats you wear?
Mayah: Sure. So when I was like two and a half, my mom put me in dance classes. I always, always, always, loved performing onstage, I've been doing it since I was small. And then I went to college, and I was taking an acting class, and I had been doing a scene and my professor was like, “You know, you're kind of approaching the scene in, like, a director way.” And I was like, “Oh, director…that's kind of cool.” And then I took the directing class the following semester and I fell in love with it. So that's how I became a director. I finally found where I 100% fit in.
Hayley: My, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about some recent projects that you've had. I know that there's been a lot of exciting things going on, and I know that you have some things coming up too.
Mayah: Yeah, so maybe two weeks ago now, I produced 54 Sings: Jessie J at 54 Below. It was super important that we had an environment where we were uplifting a lot of people we're mentoring that wouldn't necessarily have this opportunity otherwise. And so that was what our cast was comprised of, which was super cool and really uplifting for everybody involved. I've done a couple of shows at 54 Below now, but that was super rewarding.
One of my favorite pieces that I've directed recently was The Pitfalls of Exaggerated Swagger by Cris Eli Blak. We just did a festival in Staten Island called The Ghostwriters Festival, which I also put together, which is really fun.
Amy: Tell us about it!
Mayah: You know, it's so funny - I have such bad imposter syndrome, I literally had to pull up my bio before this and look at it and be like, “What did I do again?”
Hayley: Honestly, I relate to that, though. Sometimes you need to, like, remind yourself of your accomplishments.
Mayah: 100%. But that was a really good project. Putting that festival together was really nice. It was a new works festival. Originally, it was supposed to be work around the five boroughs, but we did have people apply from Virginia and places like that. So it was really cool that we kind of got a widespread group of people. And we were able to record everything, give people their videos, and there was also a cabaret that bookended that festival as well. A lot of people from the community came out to it, and we had such a big turnout for the whole festival, so it was really awesome.
Hayley: Yay!
Amy: That's fantastic. You've told us a little bit about a creative mission of uplifting others. Can you talk a bit more about that and tell us about what it is that drives your work?
Mayah: For me, it's really important as a leader, that the people that you are leading feel like they can lead too. I don't think that it’s even exclusive to theatre, but I do think it works very well in the theatre aspect to be looking at people as total people. I feel like I've been in a lot of rooms where people don't operate that way. I've become the person that people will come to, to be like, “Tell me how you were able to get everybody to cooperate so well?”
I'm a teaching artist too, so I work with kids a lot. A lot of people don't think of kids as a marginalized group, but they are, because they don't have rights. They don't have the ability to speak up for themselves a lot of the time, just because of societal standards and because they can't vote. It's important that everybody has a voice, whether they're 5 or 50 or 100.
Hayley: Yeah. Mayah, I know that mental health advocacy is really important to you. Could you talk a little bit about how that plays into your work and your mission as well?
Mayah: Yeah. So I'm part of a company called IlluminArt Productions. It is a company that is focused on social-emotional wellness for kids. We work on plays that tour the schools in Staten Island. And we teach them about anti-bullying and mental health and respect and making friends and things like that. Our shows range from kindergarten to 12th grade. And we have a show that's for seniors that's about legacy.
In that job, we spend a lot of time talking about preventative measures, how we can teach kids about certain things so that they are not thrown off when they come up. We have a show about alcohol and drugs. We have a show about domestic violence. And like I said, we have a show about bullying. And I think that that work has really influenced how I see mental health, because I think that a lot of the teaching about it can happen so much younger than it does.
I think as adults, a lot of us are unlearning things that we wish we didn't learn the wrong way. With that work, we're able to give kids the tools earlier on so that they don't get into situations that will eventually mess up their mental health and, like, affect it. There's definitely things that we can't avoid, certain circumstances and things like that, that are just going to happen, because that's just how life is set up… But I think we should always be trying to do our best to give people a platform and space to understand and have empathy for each other. And again, it really does work in theatre, but it goes so far past theatre.
I like to say that I'm an artivist, I use art to do activism. So I hope that when people see any of the art that I do, that they feel changed and transformed in their lives, whether they're a theatregoer or not. Like, if they're just going to the office, and they're like, “I feel like I can talk to my coworker now because I saw this show,” that would be, like, such a big deal for me.
Hayley: I think people forget a lot of the time how small changes can impact the world in a great way. And I think that that's really prevalent in the work that you do. And I think that's beautiful.
Amy: Yeah, agreed. I think a lot of times theatre and the arts in general get pushed to the side, especially in education, and are seen as a luxury and not a necessity. But when you look at the social and emotional development that can come through theatre education, it's really empowering. Not just for kids, but for adults too.
Mayah: Yeah, I mean, I can't even express to you how many things I've learned from my students. I think just gathering in community in general, as long as you're open to learning and you're open to new ideas, you can always learn. You can learn from a 5-year-old, you can learn from a 7-year-old, you know.
Hayley: Oh, absolutely.
Amy: Absolutely. Let's dive into a chat about womanhood and identity. My, can you tell us about how womanhood shows up for you in your life, what it means for you, and if there are other aspects of your identity that intersect with that in ways that are meaningful to you, we'd love to hear about that too.
Mayah: Yeah. For directing and for producing, both of those are very male-dominated fields. And so, as a director and a producer, I definitely feel like womanhood has been…not a barrier, not in my head, but like in other people's heads. “Oh, she's a woman. So she's, you know, more sensitive or emotional.”
As a queer Black woman too, that's also something that really has me... I'll even say, like a little defensive in certain situations where I really want to be heard and I feel like I'm in environments where I’m not being heard, and it is because of how I look and my intersecting identities. My opinions aren't necessarily seen as anything except radical and floofy, if you will. I definitely know that I'm smart. I definitely know I'm very articulate. But I think that people will use those things and be impressed by how articulate I am. And it's like… What is that saying? You know what I mean?
Hayley: Yeah. Like, what did you expect?
Amy: Well, and if the focus is on “Oh, you're so articulate,” then that can keep people from hearing the actually articulate ideas that you're bringing to the table.
Hayley: Yeah. The useful things you're saying. Exactly.
Mayah:I think it is important, though, that we find leadership that is representative of who's in the room. When you put together a show and you're the director, and you're a queer Black woman, and your cast is queer Black people, but like, your producers are white men who are straight… Sometimes that doesn't translate the work well.
It's awesome to be able to do the work. It's awesome to get paid for the work, but how much of the intentions behind producers and higher-ups in the company is pandering, and how much of it is, like, authentic want? You can't control that, but these are things to think about.
Amy: Yeah.
Hayley: Yeah, even just speaking to the “audience that you want to receive the work” conversation. I think there are so many regional theatres right now that are inserting a slate of work from more diverse voices, and then not necessarily doing the work to actually bring those communities into the theatre.
It's creating this vicious cycle where it's like, "Ah, but these shows are not selling or not resonating with our audience." There's the piece of reaching out to the communities that you actually want to see in your theatre. There's the piece of training your audience that you already have to, like, receive that information. What kind of work are you doing to build bridges amongst the community you have with the community that you want to see?
Mayah: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Amy: Yeah. Mayah, you're doing a great job of creating spaces that you want to see in the world. It gives me hope to see both that you're able to create spaces that are what you want to see, and that you're seeing that spaces that you're not actively creating but are participating in are moving toward being more like the spaces you want to see.
Hayley: Yeah, you definitely inspire me with the way that you engage community. I really aspire to the way that you approach community in your work. It's awesome.
Amy: Can you talk about the importance of community in your work?
Mayah: Yeah, absolutely. There's no way that you can do a theatrical piece by yourself. Even if you have a production of, like, five people, you still have to work with other people. If we can all approach things from a team perspective, it's easier and more fulfilling to work in that way. You can attract more bees with honey than you can with vinegar, right? And so it's about being kind and being respectful with one another. And that community mindset is definitely a part of that, because if you approach a project like a dictatorship and you're just barking orders at people, people are not going to want to be there.
I think it's really important to be very process-oriented. When you're process-oriented, you're able to take everything day by day and breathe in what you're learning and breathe in what you're creating as a group. And that's only going to make your final product feel that much more true. And I think that that's what makes the final product reach more ears and eyes and have emotional impact on the audience. That's how you can be more active in the artivism aspect of that stuff. If you are able to actually get people to hear you and what you're saying, instead of just kind of performing and being very, like, “spectacle” about it, you know? And I think that community aspect is just very integral in that mind frame.
Hayley: Yeah, absolutely. Mayah, if you could take one aspect of the industry and change it, wave your magic wand today, what would you change?
Mayah: I think access. Like, in the conversation of equity versus equality - yes, we can give everybody the same thing, but there are people who need specific things. If I have one actor who lives all the way in the Bronx and I need them to come to Manhattan, like, maybe I can get them a MetroCard. And I feel like that would make a huge difference in how they show up in the room, because they'd be less stressed out about having to get to work.
Being a little bit more sensitive to what people are needing. Oh, a perfect example is, like, when the air quality was going all haywire that time last year, do we have the option to have a rehearsal via Zoom so that people don't have to go outside to travel to work? Or alternatively, do we have an option to be able to get everybody in a vehicle to be able to come to and from work if we still do have to rehearse? Being able to meet the needs of people as they come. To make sure that everybody has the ability to be here more than just being like, "Oh, yes, we're just going to give everybody a stipend." That stipend might look different for different people. One person will get 50 dollars and they can just be like, “Oh, yeah, I'll get lunch.” And that's cool. But the other person's 50 dollars might be spent on transportation, which is how they'll get there. And it might not be enough for the whole run.
I would love to see something that's like, “Here's a form. What are some things that you feel like you'll need?” And we'll try to meet them as best as possible. And they'll be different per person. And see what that looks like.
Hayley: You just proposed such a thoughtful, simple, not administratively taxing thing that theatres could do to make the work more accessible. Sometimes it's radical how simple solutions can be. I think a lot of times, folks get really caught up in like, "But how? But it's so big!"
Imagine if every director we knew, or every production team of every project that we know, did that for their team. Maybe they wouldn't be able to meet every need, but because there's an awareness of what the needs are, there's a way higher likelihood that those needs get met. It's kind of amazing, these small things that we can do to make the space more accessible.
Mayah: And I think, too, the community aspect of that is - okay, maybe we can't afford to pay everybody to get an Uber to and from work because our budget doesn't allow it. But have we looked at the addresses of all the actors? Maybe this one that drives is actually only a 3-minute drive away from this actor who doesn't drive. Maybe they could carpool and we could just ask.
Amy: And we talk about this a lot, Hayley, that these things often don't happen because they take time and they take someone owning the task –
Hayley: It's also like, the red tape! On every single show I do, I send out a thing to my actors beforehand and ask about access needs and things like that. A lot of directors I know do that. Especially the young, up-and-coming people. But when it comes to these big organizations, it's the red tape, the administrative effort. It's like, “This is how we've done it for such and such amount of time.” I love how solution-oriented you were immediately, Mayah, about like, “Here's an idea of how you actualize this.” These simple solutions are the way to go, you know?
Amy: Well, and what we've talked about, Hayley, is that, so often there are barriers of time and administrative effort and owning the work of looking through the form responses and seeing what the needs are and figuring out how to meet them. But doing that work ahead of time can actually create an environment in the room where things just flow more smoothly, and it can save time in the rehearsal process because everyone feels taken care of and their needs are met or at least listened to. That makes a big difference.
Hayley: It can also prevent simple things like lateness. If somebody's chronically late to rehearsal, if we knew ahead of time that that actor has a very hard commute and we could do something to prevent that, well, we just saved ourselves 15 minutes per rehearsal, potentially.
Amy: A lot of messy feelings too, on both sides, right?
Hayley: That too, yeah.
Mayah: Yeah, especially from the actor's perspective too, because sometimes people are chronically late but it's really just not their fault. If they have a super long commute… You can try as best as you can to leave super early and get there early and sit in a coffee shop… But like, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.
Hayley: Yeah, or if you have like a J-O-B, a day job beforehand, and have to get there.
Mayah: You know, like, you’re running from one job to your next rehearsal, or two different rehearsals in the same day, or something like that. I also think putting the onus on the actor to ask [for help] gets rid of accessibility, because sometimes people have anxiety or other disabilities that are like, “I don't feel comfortable asking,” or “I don't know these people that well. So, like, I might not want to ask that.” And then now I'm giving the wrong impression.
So if we're able to take that pressure off the actor for asking for their needs, but asking them, “Do you have needs?” It's also, like, super accessible to approach that from that avenue, because then they're able to see, like, “Oh, this person is open to finding out if I need anything.”
Hayley: Yeah, and like, valued as your whole self, like you were talking about earlier.
Amy: Talking about the importance of community, when we do theatrical projects, each project team is a new community. You may know some people from previous projects, but there is a bit of establishment of a community and the rules of the community that needs to be done at the beginning of every project. Creating a space where you're being proactive about saying, “Your needs are important and we want to hear them and we want to be able to meet them if we can.” We need more spaces like that.
Hayley: It would be great too, if production teams… It sort of works for the top-down too. We all could use a little bit of love and care. If that's extended also to leadership and throughout the production team, I think it would make a big difference for everybody.
Mayah: Yeah.
Amy: Mayah, you do, like, a million things, which is very cool. I would love to hear a bit about how you balance all the different hats that you wear in theatre, and then how that intersects with balancing also being a person in the world and all the responsibilities that brings with it.
Mayah: I would ideally love it if there was a space where I could do everything all the time, because I just love doing everything all the time. But I also know that there's definitely times where I'm just like, “Oh, I've got like six projects, let's take one of those off, because that's a lot. And let's maybe postpone some stuff, or ask a friend if they want to do this instead.” Because my eyes are bigger than my stomach. There'll be times where it's like I'm doing something so back to back to back to back, and then there's like three months of nothing and it's just like, “Oh.”
Hayley: Isn't that the weirdest feeling? Where you're like, “I've been running on the treadmill, and now I have nothing to do.” And then the imposter syndrome sets in and all the panic.
Mayah: Yeah, for real! And it's like, “Oh, why did I choose this career? I'm making no money. I have nothing to put my energy into.” And then I'm like, “Oh my god, wait. Okay, great. I got one thing. Oh my god, wait, no, I have seven things now.”
(Laughter)
Hayley: It's like burnout, emptiness, burnout, emptiness, and it just keeps going.
Mayah: Literally. I'll talk about the process when I have multiple hats in that one project... We've kind of touched on it a little bit, about like doing a lot of pre-planning before you get into the room. I try to do a lot of that early on.
I've written stuff that I've directed. As a director, I'm not changing any substantial things. I'll be very rigid about like, “Okay, I wrote this, I'm going to pretend that I'm not the author.” and then I'm going to like, just direct it.
Hayley: Try to interpret the work.
Mayah: Yeah. Interpret the work from like, past me. Actually act as if they're hats - not wear all the hats at once, but have a table full of hats and choose when I put them on and take them off.
If you can approach it in that way, you're putting a lot less pressure on yourself. If I was working anywhere else, this is how I would operate. Why wouldn't I treat myself with the same respect that I would be treated over here? People are like, “Oh, well, if your friend was doing it, what would you say to them?” I think about it in that way.
Hayley: That's really smart.
Mayah: Yeah, so that's how I'll say I balance that, when it's that situation. But sometimes the situation is - on Tuesday I'm teaching, and on Wednesday I'm directing, and then on Thursday I'm acting, and then Friday I'm writing, you know? And so then it's like, oh my goodness…
Hayley: What hat am I wearing today? On my table full of hats, what hat am I taking out into the world with me? On this subject of being a multi-hyphenate, do you feel pressure to pick a lane?
Mayah: I definitely do feel pressured to pick a lane. I feel a lot when I'm acting, people still see me as a director, so they ask me questions when I'm in the room with them like, “Oh, well, what do you think about…” I'm like, “Well, that's not my job right now.”
I did a lot of community theatre work learning how to do theatre. And once I started getting into the industry, it was hard for me because I felt like I definitely did have to pick a lane and have to be more specific with what I'm marketing myself as to get work. When I talk to people and I say I'm a multi-hyphenate, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot on a job because I'm talking about how I do all these things, but I also feel like…I don't want to only do one thing. I would get really bored.
Hayley: I feel like they only say that to women. I don't know who they is, like, the patriarchy, I don't know, the world. Cis white men are not told to pick a lane. They're like, “What a brilliant genius, they're doing so much.” (laughs)
Mayah: You're so right, though. That's true. But I've definitely experienced the glazing over. I'm like, “Oh yeah, I do a lot.” They're like, “Okay, that's nice. Which one do you do the most? If you had to pick one…”
It's giving bisexual erasure. As a bisexual, it's giving bisexual erasure. It's literally like, pick one. You have to pick one. Which one are you choosing?
Hayley: As a bisexual, I co-sign this.
Mayah: Yeah, like, it's messed up.
Hayley: You want to know what else it's giving? It's giving, "What's your real job?" Whenever you tell people you're an artist, and they go, “What do you actually do?” Why do we do this to each other in this space? Like, what is this? Why?
Mayah: You're so right. Yeah. You're so right.
Amy: Mayah, tell us what you love about being a multi-hyphenate. What's awesome about it?
Mayah: It's like, you can put all of the toppings on your ice cream sundae.
Amy: That's great.
Mayah: You can do whatever you want. I think what I really like about it is like, if seven of these people dropped out of my production, I could still do it. If it really came down to it, I know that my work will happen, and it will still be good. I can trust myself to get it done because I will be sad if it's not finished. So I know it'll be completed. I know it'll be the way I like it because I'm doing it.
But again, I'm very team-oriented, and I love being around other people because I don't know everything. But I'm also like a sponge of knowledge. I love learning new things. I've learned a lot just by listening and being in rooms. That's really what I like about being a multi-hyphenate.
As a director, it's helpful because I can see things from multiple perspectives. I'd be like, “Okay, so when I was the stage manager on this production, I didn't like when people said this to me. So maybe I won’t ask my stage manager to do that.”
I've been able to have a lot of empathy for people when I am a leader, because I've been in a lot of different seats and worn a lot of different hats, so I'm able to communicate better and, like I said, have empathy for them so that they can feel seen and heard and respected in the space that I'm in. Being a multi-hyphenate supports that.
Hayley: Oh yeah, definitely. Having that holistic understanding of what it is to do the work from many different angles is important and awesome. Yeah.
Amy: What is something that's not being talked about in theatrical spaces that you wish was?
Mayah: I think people's needs versus people's taking advantage… In our nicest spaces, people really want to give everybody's needs together. And then, like we said before, it's like, “Okay, well, if we can't do something, we can do like 75% of it.” That's good and we are also helping.
Sometimes we get in environments where people are like, "They didn't do that other 25%, so they suck." People are embarrassed to say that they didn't meet the needs of somebody.
Hayley: Yeah, I think that that's a really good point, Mayah. It works really well when everybody is showing up with the genuine best effort, genuine best intentions, and also benefit of the doubt, to a certain extent.
I think it comes down to community as opposed to individualism. My one need wasn't met, maybe, but like, the collective overall needs were met. Or are most of my needs being met? Is this something that I can have some flexibility on?
You were talking earlier about access. I thought about flexibility and how a lot of theatres are rooted in these very rigid systems. A lot of what comes with access is a need for flexible systems and a need for agility in the administrative aspect of things and in the production aspect of things. Which is hard when theatre is expensive and spaces are expensive and the real capitalist landscape that we are in, from a broader perspective, makes this challenging. But as much as possible, building spaces with that sort of flexibility built in is part of solving these things.
Amy: Yeah. And an opportunity for reflection too. Because I wonder if there was space for theatres and producing organizations to acknowledge, “Hey, we weren't able to meet all the needs of our community for this particular production.” If there could be like, an open dialogue between theatres and producing organizations…
Hayley: Transparency and accountability.
Amy: Yeah, like, “We weren't able to figure out this problem. Have you encountered it? How did you solve it?” And just kind of a sharing of resources in that way, I think, would be great.
Mayah: Yeah, this isn't really necessarily rooted in theatre, but in some of the film spaces that I've worked in, I've definitely noted people doing a post-mortem survey. What did you like? What didn't you like? What would you change? What would you keep? What did you need that you didn't get? What did you need that you did get? Having a general overall view of what happened.
Again, it takes the onus off of the actor, or anybody on production, to have to like, go advocate for yourself. If you have a survey, it's like, “I'm open to hearing your thoughts.” So I can use it to learn and grow as a director in the future, or as whatever I'm working on in the future.
Amy: Yeah. I wish people did post-mortems more, across the board in life and everything. It's such a helpful tool that's underused.
Hayley: Yeah, or like a check-in. I feel like also checking in throughout the process. We put a lot of emphasis in theatre on “How are we setting up the space?”, which is very important. And yeah, I think your point, Mayah, about “How are we leaving the space?” How are we “off-boarding”, so to speak?
And then what if we threw something in the middle, too? Let's check in with those community values that we established at the beginning. Let's check in with the needs. How is it going, genuinely? And then being able to have an open dialogue about that, and not be embarrassed about the things that aren't happening, but just address and figure out a solution.
Mayah: I love that, yeah. At my children's theatre job, we do check-ins literally every day.
Hayley: That's awesome.
Mayah: But when we check in with the adults, my artistic director – her name is Ariel, she's literally so awesome and one of my biggest mentors and inspirations – she pulls up a generator online. Sometimes the questions will be like, “If you were a dog, what breed of dog would you be?” “What type of weather are you feeling today?"
These questions are super introspective when you think about it. But at first, you're like, “Why am I doing this?” People are like, “Yeah, actually, I'm feeling like a beagle.” And then you come up with the reason why and it does make sense. It's low-key an acting exercise as well, but it's also formulated as a check-in, it kind of does two things at once…
Hayley: Efficiency - amazing.
Mayah: Yeah. And so I've tried to bring it into other spaces. Some spaces, our work is a little bit darker. I'll just genuinely be like, “How are you guys feeling?”
I also think it sets us up as a community in the room, so if somebody comes in and they're like, “Yeah, today I'm literally feeling terrible. I'll be a little bit irritated, probably, at the beginning, but I'll probably be fine later.” And then they might be just a little bit more closed off than normal, you can know it's not you personally they’re closed off to. They just had a bad morning, and they're closed off to the world. And that actually goes a long way!
Hayley: Oh, yeah.
Mayah: You might be interpreting people's body language as personal. And it's like, no, they're literally just having a bad day. That takes the pressure – again – off of each other to be like, “I have to show up as a million percent myself, even if I feel terrible.” And also, “This thing that's going on is not about me, so I don't have to feel a type of way about it because it actually has nothing to do with me.”
Hayley: I love that. Mayah, what is your version of success or your dream life or dream career? And what are you most proud of in your life and in your work?
Mayah: I would really love to own my own theatre building. Be able to choose what work goes in, and then I also could be talking to the people that are working on the work and really be super involved. I would love to have a space that I could also facilitate and also be a member of the room in and produce but be there for people in an active way, like all the things that we've talked about today.
The thing I'm the most proud of… My progress as a person. I've had bad things happen, I've written about them. But how I've been able to take what has happened to me and really use it and transform how I show up in the world as a person. What I've experienced didn't get me down, but it fueled the fire. When I see other people going through these things, I will either help or just give them the tools that they need to be able to advocate for themselves.
Like I said, giving the kids the tools that they need so that they can preventatively not let these things happen to them at all, to the best of their abilities. Be an ear for people, give people that resting place in me to have a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold if they need it. And just being able to be people's friend. Being able to let people know they're not alone. Taking what has happened to me and, instead of letting it defeat me, to be able to be strong and supportive for others now.
Hayley: I love that. Mayah, thank you so much for doing this with us.
Amy: I can't wait to come to your theatre space one day and see all the projects that are being created.
Hayley: Mayah, before we run, could you tell our listeners where they can find you on the interwebs?
Mayah: Yes, you can find me on Instagram @mayahlourdes. I'm so reachable by DMs there, so you will definitely be able to contact me if you need to. My email is burkemayah@gmail.com if you want to email me about anything. And yeah, I'm here and around. I'm in the New York City area, so if you're in New York, let's get coffee if you want. That would be really fun. Yeah. Yay.
Hayley: Get coffee with her, she's amazing!
Mayah: I just had the best time, so thank you.
(Music)
Hayley: Thank you for listening to the Women & Theatre Podcast. We’re your hosts, Hayley Goldenberg…
Amy: And Amy Andrews. If you like what you heard, subscribe and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen.
Hayley: You can also follow us on social @womenandtheatreproject to make sure you never miss an episode.
Amy: The music for this show is written by talented Women & Theatre community member Chloe Geller.
Hayley: Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time!
Amy: Bye!
