In its new, expanded space, the Sparks Center for Community & Culture had a busy and productive year, highlighted by successful partnerships with two outside organizations.
In addition to its daily function as a gathering place for USC’s diverse artistic community to connect, the light-filled room on the second floor of the Dick Wolf Drama Center hosted collaborative workshops developed with the Jay Shetty Certification School, an international organization providing personal and professional coaching. The center also initiated its first artist-in-residence program this academic year with TeAda Productions, a Los Angeles theatre company that centers the voices of immigrants and refugees.
The Jay Shetty Certification School collaboration involved several workshops for students, faculty, and staff designed to promote physical, social, and emotional health and well-being.
A highlight of the TeAda collaboration was last fall’s production of As You Like It, a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, featuring a cast and creative team that included six TeAda actors alongside SDA students and performers from three other local performing arts organizations – the Marshall Dance Company, Amazing Grace Conservatory and the 24th Street Theatre.
“We are constantly asking our student artists to crack open their sense of empathy, compassion and emotional intelligence,” said Anita Dashiell-Sparks, associate dean of community & culture and chair of performance. “We asked the Jay Shetty Certification School how we could integrate health and well-being to equip students to do this work and take care of themselves in the process.”
Dashiell-Sparks said producing artistic work with TeAda was a form of advocacy that also helped create a culture of caring within the community.
Culture and community are core missions of the center, which is named after Dashiell-Sparks and her husband, SDA Board of Councilors member Anthony Sparks, who holds a BFA in Theatre ’94, MA and PhD in American Studies & Ethnicity, has acted in theatre and is now a showrunner, executive producer and writer for television.
At the beginning of this academic year, the Jay Shetty Certification School held a workshop for first year SDA students addressing a common fear: imposter syndrome. It’s especially prevalent for students at a world-class university. They look around, and think it will only be a matter of time before they are found not to belong in the program.
Marcia Genjelian, head of brand at Jay Shetty Certification School, flew from London for the workshop. Other Jay Shetty Certification School colleagues came from Canada, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles.
“We understand the pressure that performing arts students face,” said Genjelian. “They put a character on, put a mask on and perform. Then later, they need to show up for themselves. When the mask is off, who is that person?”
During that visit, the organization also led a workshop dealing with emotional health issues for SDA faculty and staff.
On March 28, Jay Shetty Certification School personnel participated in SDA’s CommUNITY Day, leading a workshop for students titled “Finding Your Unique Path.” The Jay Shetty Certification School had never collaborated with an institution of higher education before, but is keen to continue its work with SDA, Genjelian said.
Dashiell-Sparks called the work with artist-in-residence TeAda Productions “innovative and necessary.” The As You Like It production, which she directed, was a musical adaptation by playwrights Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery, which imagined the Forest of Arden as a sanctuary space for those banished or exiled. Opening night was right before the November election, and closing night was right after the election. “It couldn’t have been more appropriately timed,” Sparks observed.
Jonny Chang, the marketing and local program manager for TeAda, was among the actors who participated in As You Like It. For some of the community actors, it marked their first Shakespeare experience. “It was a great exchange,” he said, “as we got to be a part of the production taking shape from first rehearsal through the final performance.” He said that TeAda community actors were impressed by and surprised to see the extent that SDA students had responsibility in all aspects of the production, including as producers and stage managers.
TeAda has returned to campus regularly, including during SDA CommUNITY Day, where it held workshops in the Sparks Center and had a reunion potluck with the As You Like It cast and crew.
Dashiell-Sparks said these collaborations won’t be the center’s last. Jay Shetty Certification School personnel will lead a third day of workshops next September, and creative work at SDA will continue to be shared with the community through artist-in-residence appointments in coming years.