We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Casey Jane a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Casey 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?

Every project has provided some helpful lesson to keep me on the path of improving my skills. I can flash back to many “Aha!” moments that leveled-up my self-awareness, or projects that tugged at my heartstrings more than most.

The project I’m working on currently is one of the more meaningful projects I’ve done in recent years. My friend, local playwright Shea Ketchum, wrote a story called “GULAG GIRLS” that follows a period of time in the lives of 7 female prisoners sharing a cell in a Russian GULAG prison. My production company, Rising Tide, is co-producing the play with Shea for the 2024 KC Fringe Fest, and I also get to play the character of “Anna,” an imprisoned actress attempting to inspire her fellow prisoners to perform a play for the rest of the camp.

The experience has been wildly fulfilling. Creating a show about female empowerment with an incredible team of empowering individuals has filled my artist’s heart to the brim, right at a time when I needed it most. Recently, I suffered a traumatic knee dislocation that’s led me to walk with a cane for an indefinite amount of time. While the production process for “GULAG GIRLS” coincided with my recovery process, my teammates supported me in writing the cane into the script so I could go on as Anna (since it fit right into the abusive prison setting).

The themes of the show have been healing, throughout a difficult personal and political year. The script creates a controlled explosion of grief, sisterhood, hope, betrayal, and courage, and we do it all with precisely practiced Russian accents. I’m deeply proud of this show — to be part of its leadership team; for the representation given to walking with a cane at age 34, among other things; and to be playing alongside some of the best actors in the city.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been acting for as long as I can remember, and I started producing in 2018 with my company, Rising Tide Productions. My work with Rising Tide has led me to directing and writing, creating and editing videos, and developing a keen philosophy on team leadership and collaboration that guides my moral compass when embarking on creative endeavors. I don’t view leadership as a power to wield over others, coming from an industry climate that too often allows for toxic standards to take precedent. If folks trust me or Rising Tide with their time and talent, it’s my responsibility to meet their standards with integrity and respect. And if folks don’t meet my standard of integrity, I tend to not work with them again.

Outside of my work with Rising Tide, I’m a freelance actor and marketer with a long resume in KC. I’m highly skilled with accents and have experience in a range of genres, and I love tackling meaty roles in drama or comedy. Occasionally, I sing with a brassy alto, well-suited for karaoke or the occasional pop-up bar. I’m also a remote transcriber, content creator & video editor, and customer service rep. I’m passionate about communication, emotional intelligence, anti-bullying, accessibility, and putting on a damn good show with the best teammates possible. I like to think I’m a fairly clever rebel, who can usually push the boundaries just enough to get my point across and maybe shift the zeitgeist just a tad, like all artists hope to do.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Give. Us. MONEY. Money money money (for P&R fans, “money pleeaaz”). Pay artists, commission artists, invest in artists. Robin Hood doing his thang, trickling down from point A to point B.

Art thrives on donors, sponsorship, patronage. The rich giving to the poor. Some of the best art that’s not being circulated is lost due to extreme poverty levels in our country, and inaccessibility to resources. Being able to produce your own work as an artist often comes down to money and accessibility, and we all know that living as a freelance artist in this society means sacrificing creative time for money-earning time way more than we’d wish to.

Performing artists in particular live and die by the number of butts in seats, so to say. Balancing the crushing hustle with the creative flow is often a devastating contradiction to the driving soul behind passionate artists. I have so many ideas I want to create, and such limited time and resources to do them with. Funding the arts more and more can aid the stress of so many administrative tasks, fundraising, and development that have to happen behind the scenes before we can even get to showtime.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I feel most rewarded in my work when I understand that my personal touch makes a difference to others. When I uplift people in my orbit, I uplift myself as well. “Art” is a beautiful noise that means many things to different people, and being able to authentically express my version of art, and when it shifts someone emotionally, is an extremely powerful and humbling spiritual experience that I’m so grateful to have.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bit.ly/caseyjanekc
• Instagram: @scogbot
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/risingtideproductionskc
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@caseyjanekc
• Other: bit.ly/risingtidekc
  bit.ly/gulaggirls

Image Credits

Headshot by Brian Paulette