We recently connected with Blaire Baron and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Blaire thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Bringing Myself and Shakespeare along with me to a rural village in Botswana Bringing our non profit youth arts staff with me back to Africa to put on a show in 3 languages
Teaching at a bilingual international school in Mexico during Covid.
The act of showing up every day for hundreds of youth and children who – regardless of access, funding, location…. want to put on a play…..
in iambic pentameter

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a 4th Generation Los Angeleno who became a professional actor at age 20 in Hollywood. I had been onstage since I can remember. At 15, I became noticed by the Jesuits who ran a well known theatre department at Loyola High School and needed a Blanche Du Bois for their Streetcar Named Desire. Doing that play was considered scandalous at the time! The director, Michael Breault, was an envelope pusher and he’d come from the professional theatre world. It was just what I needed and I never looked back.

I graduated high school early and was on the road to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, when a curve ball hit me. I was adopted and that summer, I had sought out my biological mother. It wasn’t a good meeting and I left it traumatized and frozen. Instead of leaving for England, I joined a hippie cult, It would take me another three years to disentangle myself from that and re-calibrate what it is I’m doing on this planet.

Taking the crooked path set me a bit apart from my high school sisterhood at Marlborough. They were getting MFAs and Phd’s by now. I had moved to New York and found my way to serenity through writing plays and acting onstage and in New York’s multiple soap operas, while also becoming a private investigator by night. That is a whole other story. probably a book in fact.

I will jump ahead a few decades.

Somewhere inside acting professionally, raising a family and continuing to write, I cultivated a youth arts program called the Shakespeare Youth Festival.,

For over 18 years, we’ve served the communities of Mid City, Mid Wilshire, South L.A. and West Adams in the field of arts education, The Shakespeare Youth Festival, a nonprofit organization that brings Shakespeare to life for children and youth in underserved communities of LA and even Africa and Mexico.

My creative partner (Julia Walker Wyson) and I did it because we loved Shakespeare’s plays and we found that children from all backgrounds also loved Shakespeare’s plays – at least when they discovered Shakespeare on its feet! Our mission became our end result – to inspire, empower, and transform lives through the power of playmaking.

I found that my background in theatre, dramaturgy, and workshop development served well in collaboration with diverse and talented artists, educators, and community leaders.

As Artistic Director and Dramaturg of Shakespeare Youth Festival, for the past 18 years, I have been privileged to direct over 50 Shakespeare productions for young performers aged 5 to 18, in various languages and settings – from Los Angeles to Botswana to Mexico.

I am especially proud of our company and our players – they turn around and are coaching and directing themselves! We are honored to have been able to create and implement comprehensive arts programs for schools and community centers, integrating literacy, performing arts, and social-emotional learning.

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We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

NOTE: The Winter’s Tale experience.

Resilience in the theatre. Narrowing it down to one incident is a challenge. Every time we pull off a 2 hour Shakespeare production – given all the moving parts and the few resources we had to work with… we are in awe! There were many instances of resilience that was called for the first time I brought a program to Botswana, But I can’t say, “look at my resilience” because there was nothing to recover from or bounce back from. Everyone in the community made things magical and inspiring. The curious minds of the community served us all well. They tried everything, from Spolin games to Theatre of the Oppressed to yoga to Shakespeare. The only resilience required on my personal part was getting over arachnophobia. The spiders are large and they’re in every house!

Oh! Back in Los Angeles, there was a frightening low point that turned into a historical marker for our community! We had never gone through anything like this before and it was definitely a “show must go on” moment. We were about to open A Winter’s Tale with 15 teens. The actors playing the couple, Florizel and Perdita, had asked us if they could play the couple as two young women, instead of Florizel, a young man. We supported this idea and we send a communication to the extended community, which included all parents, that Florizel and Perdita were going to be a same sex couple. Two months later and opening day, I had posted a promotion for the play on our Facebook account, with the hashtag #LGBTQ.

Well there was a new player that year, we, I still don’t know how he found us but we were happy to have him because, though it was new ti him, he really loved the idea of acting Shakespeare. I’ll call him Leonard (because who is called Leonard?). Leonard’s father happened to see the post that day on our social media. He called me and said he is pulling his son from the show. “Leonard” will not be in any play that includes anything gay! I got this call one hour before opening, while at the 99 cent store up the street buying hair pins for the cast. I remember exactly where I was in the cosmetic aisle when I heard, “Why do you have to make Shakespeare gay!? Just do the plays!” I told Leonard’s dad what he was doing to his son was cruel and I told him to let Leonard know that we understand this is not his fault. He hung up.

I returned to the theatre, stuffing an anxiety attack. I had to be a leader for these kids, but I was terrified. We all sat down in the dressing room while I informed them that we lost Leonard. I had to tell them the reason. And that is what hurt.

After some group tears, we got into action. Within 20 minutes, Leonard’s 3 roles were divided up between the cast. In the meantime, the guy who was supposed to set up our risers was a no show. And then the sound system collapsed. And then, and then, and then….

We got someone to come last minute to set up the risers. The show opened. The actors seamlessly took on Leonard’s 3 roles. The sound wasn’t missed. The show had an incredible spark and energy to it that I couldn’t even describe. The actors had stepped into new shoes that day.

It was a new level to the meaning of “the show must go on”! None of us were the same after that.

Resilience is right.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

What can “society” do to best support creatives?

Practice going to local theatre. Not so much commercial theatre, which has become unaffordable to most of us. But support local theatre, galleries, libraries. Don’t let all your entertainment be Netflix and HBO. A society that doesn’t include the arts is doomed. Keep local theatre houses open, whatever it takes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blairebaron.com
• Instagram: @iamblairebaron
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealBlaireBaron
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaire-baron-245046105/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlaireBaron

Image Credits
Photos by: Kila Packett