We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laurie Jill Strickland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laurie Jill, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
I love what I do- developing and telling stories across mediums- helping others get their stories told.
One of the things I am most passionate about is telling stories about communities and people who we don’t often hear about in film, television, theatre, podcasts and literature. I also love to help small businesses and artists get the story of what they do and create out into the world to reach the hearts of those who need it most.
An example of this is a project I have been developing and have produced for many years called “Everyone’s Carol”. This is a very culturally diverse production of Charles Dickens much beloved classic “A Christmas Carol”.
We began in Harlem in 2011 and have performed the production all over the globe – it being centered around telling the story with a cast from varied cultures and backgrounds. We also have an accompanying Dickens education program where we teach kids in shelters all about Dickens being homeless as a boy and how writing saved his life. All of this to say one year we were teaching kids in a shelter in Hell’s Kitchen New York and a little boy we were working with was so inspired and touched to learn about Charles Dickens overcoming homelessness and poverty as a boy through his writing.
This young student was able to get his very first library card during that project because previously he had felt he was not worthy of going into the big NYPL on 5th avenue.
It was a true joy and honor to see him blossom and flourish and to see first hand that the arts can unite inspire and uplift us. This project also brought businesses and cultural organizations together through corporate sponsorships all centered around the word and the idea that everyone matters.
The arts can serve the underserved and make a difference in the world.
We can uplift others with out creativity and artistry.We can also create solvent, profitable projects that pay artists well and serve our audiences, sponsors, partners , business partners, and customers.
Over time we ended up working with the Dickens family in London on this project and it has been so moving, beautiful and inspiring to see how art and commerce can join forces to bring projects into the world to affect change while serving mission statements.
We have sold out every single performance we have ever had, have served audiences all over the globe with our main aim to truly be of service with what we do- that we deliver more love and service than the ticket prices- we are here to truly serve in all we do.
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.
Laurie Jill Strickland
Producer, Writer, Director, Actress
Laurie is an award winning professional film, television, and theatre writer/producer with over 17 years of professional experience creating and running shows.
Laurie is a passionate about storytelling in all forms and mediums. She writes, creates, develops compelling projects across mediums from film, television, literature, theatre and is the owner of Laurie’s Story Garden.
She has collaborated with so many wonderful artists, networks, companies on so many special projects over the years, some highlights include CBS, NBC, Cartoon Network, HBO, Pele Films, Wonder Films, Silver Sound Studios, Abingdon Theatre,
Alliance Theatre, Denver Center , Virginia Shakespeare Festival, British Arts Alliance to HRH of Burma, The Dickens Museum of London,The Dickens Family Foundation, Hyde Park Holiday Festival, United Nations Poetry Day, Michelle Obama Arts Coalition, to highlight a few. Complete show list available on request.
Her current theatrical production/adaptation , Everyone’s Carol, sponsored by Macy’s, has played to sold out audiences across the globe, in London, New York, France, Iceland, transforming and inspiring the hearts and souls of audiences by presenting the original classic text and humanitarian message of Charles Dickens’ much beloved “A Christmas Carol” through a culturally diverse, re imagined lens, starring Mr.Austin Pendleton as Scrooge.
It has been staged immersively at the London Dickens House Museum, Hyde Park Rose Garden, Morgan Library and Museum, New York Society Library, Salazar France Arts, Icelandic Dickens Festival, Abingdon Theatre, Irondale Theatre to name a few.
She is currently the executive/creative producer, writer of Journey of an Aesthete Podcast featuring host, Mitch Hampton on I Heart Radio, has numerous private clients she coaches on their stories, consults on numerous shows /scripts, has ghost written for and helped produce projects across film, television, theatre, literature, and new media.
Her commissioned performance poem, “Chrysalis” is being featured in the London celebration of the United Nations’ Day of the Girl Child.
She holds multiple degrees, including an MFA in writing, show running, acting, directing and writing from the National Theater Conservatory as well as, a BA in Theatre, Communications and Performance Studies, from Kennesaw State University, with an emphasis in classical theatre, show creation, writing, adapting literature for scripts, solo performance/storytelling.
In addition to her passion for performing, developing, running and creating shows, Ms. Strickland is a worldwide leader of educational outreach and humanitarian efforts in the arts through the lens of the works of Charles Dickens called “Your Stories Matter”.
Her mission is to tell stories that help heal, uplift, unite and transform the world.
One of the most wonderful things and her favorite things about producing is that you wear many hats on projects as you help develop them as they come to life!
Laurie is the recipient of numerous arts, grants , and humanities awards for her work in film, television, and theatre.
Some highlights include: Macy’s Artist Foundation Grant, Louise Bourgeois Artist Foundation, La Muse Writers and
Artists Foundation in France, Royal Burma Society Writing Award, Gehring Foundation, Underwood Foundation, Dickens Museum and The Michelle Obama leaders in the Arts award for her writing.
Laurie has been a writer since she could hold a pen and could make shows in her front yard! She is so grateful for her start in classical theatre companies that taught her so very much and all the writers rooms and projects she apprenticed with.
Laurie’s biggest honor is being mom to her fur son Chester the Story Dog!
Mission:
My passion is helping stories to be told.
I love to nurture them, develop them, help them grow.
For me, the story is always the heart and soul of any project whatever the medium.
I love to shepherd and shape stories into the worlds of television, film, theatre, literature, podcasts and have worked all over the globe with great clients with beautiful projects , doing just that.
As soon as I could hold a pencil , I wrote poems, told stories, read a hundred books a Summer and put on shows in my backyard.
Over the years my passion for storytelling would lead me to be to create handmade adoption books for clients, cookbooks, ghost write, help businesses write their copy and create their visuals, create/write original projects for film, television, theatre, adapt literature for stage and screen, you name it. If it about stories, it’s my thing.
Maybe you have a book idea, film idea, theatre project, website, memoir, show or want to create a legacy memory book for your family, the possibilities are endless.
We all have stories in our hearts we long to tell, what is yours and how can I help? My only aim is to be of service to the world through stories.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
I love this question- the most important thing I could say about this is I never ever use debt for business growth, for seeding my projects or personally. Not ever. Not a line of credit, not a credit card- no debt!
By not debting, in business or peronsonally, it makes me have to expand and grow relationships in innovative ways.
With my first large scale project/production, Everyone’s Carol, I initially used some savings I had ear marked to do a simple reading to see how the script landed with audiences. I was blessed to make that money back and from that solvent, small, start- Macy’s came on the show to sponsor it, private investors, some grants and I also did some crowdfunding to do a staging the next year.
From that staging, an investor sent me to London for a month to build UK connections and plant seeds for the future. That initial $700 capital in year one for a solvent concert reading where all the artists were paid blossomed into a show that ran for over 9 years, always sold out, always in the black with numerous revenue streams. We also partnered with wonderful businesses and major brands with whom we shared a mission with.
I wish I could impart my deep experience to artists and small businesses not to debt- to rather- start small with what you have , make what you can solvently and build relationships. Staying solvent in business means forging creative pathways to capital and revenue – it in a way forces one to build partnerships and sometimes go more slowly but to build on a solid foundation.
I had a mentor once who said” Visions for businesses without solvency is a hallucination” and for me, I find that to be so true.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I had known that there are so many wonderful artists who flourish financially as well as artistically. I wish I had known so much of this is built on internal attitudes and belief systems. Especially in the arts I think we are often in an old system that artists have to struggle and I now know firsthand that is not true.
Like anything- we may get to go slowly and cultivate, innovate but there is always a way to share your work, be paid well for it and have stability.
I also wish I had known there are 12 step meetings ( Underearners Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous) for artists that would help them nurture themselves spiritually, creatively and financially to build their work- their creative businesses on a solid, clear foundation.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
All photos: Laurie Jill Strickland