We recently connected with Ilana Lydia and have shared our conversation below.

Ilana, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

My mother suffered with COPD and Congestive Heart Failure, a combination which made her have great difficulty breathing or catching her breath. For the last 5 years of her life or so, my most common memory was of her draped over an outdoor trash can, trying to get enough air on her way from place A to place B. She was a very spiritual person, and it was ironic that so many of the meditations and exercises she performed focused on the breath.

I was away getting my Master’s in Theatre Arts (Directing) when she passed. My mind unhinged. They pulled me off my desk and put me on a gurney to take me to the local mental health facility. I was just at tech week for the show Fefu and Her Friends. My officemate and fellow director Sarah Jane Hardy took over the production and saw it safely through, although she was directing her own companion show at the time.

But this is just the beginning of the kindness that surrounded me then. She sat with me in my apartment when I returned and let me fall apart in a safe space. All the women involved in the production were stellar, pulling together and putting on a hell of a show. My dad traveled with me from Phoenix to Utah to see the final performance, when I was finally mobile again.

My department chair, Colin Johnson, allowed me to fold over my thesis, which was MFA performance-based, and turn it into an MA researched thesis so I could return home at the end of the year having graduated.

My roommate, Jessie Drollette, helped motivate me to go to classes to teach or learn, as was required, and not beat myself up if I couldn’t.

The folx at the local hospital held a grieving group which were present and immensely supportive.

This was one of the hardest chapters in my life, and so many different people came together to help me celebrate my mom and heal. I think before this time I would have prized intelligence or education as the highest trait in a person, but afterwards, hands down, I’ve felt that kindness defines people most. It is more uniquely human, and the world would be a cold place indeed if we did not have friends who showed it openly and freely in our times of need.

Ilana, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At B3 Theater, we produce new and under-performed works, giving a voice to local and world-wide playwrights. We feel at home in Phoenix, tipping our hats to Space 55, New Carpa Theater, Brelby, and other small local theaters. Much of our work is experimental, providing a needed alternative to the common fare of musicals and staid comedies. We value diverse voices, and are particularly drawn to telling the stories of females and female-identifying persons. Our company is headed by women, and often chooses to highlight work with interesting female characters.

I have always been a fan of theater and writing has brought me great solace. I remember when I was 11, I got to see a profoundly original version of Godspell directed by Randy West. I came out of the theater saying, “Wow! I really want to be a choreographer!” Of course, having two left feet, that dream didn’t come true, but I am happy to say that the essence of the wish found a home in my soul, and I’ve had the privilege of directing many different shows.

B3 has had some adventurous work. The first show I directed here was one I wrote called Dropping Johns, about a 1950s housewife who finds herself dressed in the costume of Cat Girl, and the forces of her mind which tear her apart. The play ends with the script stopping, but the actor going on to relate how she came to be who she is, and proudly exiting the theater into the real world, the character now unscripted and real.

We did an adaptation of Crime & Punishment by Bryant Mason called Empty Words which was highly metatheatrical, with Raskolnikov sensing the audience and Dostoevsky being channeled through the shady character Svidrigailov, urging him to take his life. The staging was in the round, and featured poster designs which said things like “2+2=5,” “OBEY” with the B being a heart symbol, and “Just Breathe” over a set of smoke stacks. Fusing the world of Dostoevsky with hints of Orwellian mind control, the show took on a delicious, sinister tone.

Last season we featured a piece by local playwright Paco Jose Madden called Herlandia, which was an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland. A group of male explorers (and one stow-away woman) encounter a civilization of all women. Madden brought the conflicts into modern times by including a same-sex relationship seen through Victorian eyes, as well as a truly disturbing villain who wants to subjugate all women, even if that means killing them.

Recently, we had our First Festival of Shorts for Youth, and one of the pieces, Scrabbled, was directed by Charlotte Strayhorne and written by South African artist Eli Osei. In it, he portrayed the bigotry which can grow even between friends in a country healing from Apartheid. Charlotte staged it in such a way that the door closing between former friends would reverberate a long time after the end of the play in our minds.

I couldn’t be more excited to share our current season’s offerings, as well as look towards what’s coming in the future. Next up, we have Scrambled Eggs by Jessica Marie Fisher and directed by Melissa Galvan, a terrifying yet funny work about the nature of gaslighting women to the point of forcing a lobotomy on them. After, we have John Perovich’s Water for Breakfast, a dark comedy about facing inner and outer demons, an adaptation of several classic Croatian folktales with a devilish, contemporary spin. And rounding out the season, we’ll be hosting the 5th Festival of Shorts with works chosen from around the globe. This year we’ll be featuring workshops on writing and directing shorts by Valley luminaries Ashley Naftule and B.J. Garrett.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think one universal rule that people who don’t create often may not realize is that you must do the work FIRST, and then the opportunities will follow. You have to jump into the abyss, then the world will catch you. If the creative life were a tarot card, I’d say it was the Fool, with one step forward into the unknown.

For example, at every step in a project you have to declare the thing exists before others will commit to it. I can’t tell an author, “Well, I may have a space to do your project” and expect to get anybody to respond. Instead, I have to will it to be. I make the offer to the author, then will the space into being. Or casting, as another example. I can’t say, “With Covid, we may or may not put on this production”–no one would ever commit–so I have to approach it as “We WILL be putting on this production, would you like to join us?”

Uncertainty is a creative person’s friend…

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

It’s quite simple. See each other’s stuff. Buy art. Go to concerts, plays, magic shows, readings. Talk about what you experience, good or bad. Give feedback. Spread the word!

We’re all in this together, and if you don’t engage with your community, your community will never support you back.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.b3theater.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/B3Phoenix
• Other: Email. Please contact me at [email protected]. Medium. medium.com/@ilanalydia11.

Image Credits
Gabe Escudero, Laura Durant, RC Contreras, Sara Wheatcroft, Isaac Salazar