Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah O’Connell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Sarah 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?
Each piece I develop as a Theatre Director and Creative Producer is a poetic experience crafted to communicate through collaborative action with an audience about the meaning we find in our relationships to others, and the worlds around us. When I turn my focus off-stage, I work as a Cultural Strategist to provide a vision for stakeholders on a mission, along with the process and partners for them to realize it. I love taking on projects that leverage the ingenuity and skills of local artists to solve seemingly “non-Arts” problems.
It was the honor of a lifetime to develop the “Create Our Recovery Concert Series” at vaccine centers during COVID closures; I was both the Artistic Director of my current company The Asylum Theatre, and the Executive Director of Henderson Symphony Orchestra at the time. In the earliest pandemic days, getting vaccinated at the convention centers involved a lot of hesitancy, long lines for patients, and longer days for the workers and national guard administering injections. A Fire Chief reached out to me asking if there was any way to make it more positive, At the time, entertainers who had been out of work for weeks due to social distancing found hope hard to come by. I saw a win-win if we could find a way to pay locals to perform for the public at the clinics. Working with the county and a small donation, we establish special safety protocols and booked string quartets for two days of performance. The successful pilot inspired a larger $50K donation from a private fund allowing us to hire over 100 Las Vegas artists from Rock, Pop, and Mariachi, to Classical, Jazz and Broadway to serenade the community for two months. People would sometimes make requests, some even planned their appointments around who might be playing. It wasn’t more than a couple of hours a session for the musicians, but it gave them a reason to believe and a chance to come together. i watched a newcomer join the Blues Society, people dancing with young kids, and tears of relief in the yes of performers who felt the thrill sharing their love with an audience again. I am humbled every time I think of those days and the power of compassion in all its forms.
That work has led me to a new collaborative project with the Nevada Department of Education and the Nevada Future of Learning Network called the Community Learning Fund. It is a revolutionary new initiative that funds partnerships between classrooms and off-campus learning experiences at museums, galleries, nonprofits, and local businesses. It’s a joy to help people find the answers they seek in each other.
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 believe the Arts are not a cause they are an industry, a tool for society; Culture is the legacy and reflection of our humanity. My mission as a Theatre professional is to empower individuals and strengthen community through collaborative projects, and the art of poetic expression. Theatre is the art of communal learning and storytelling; an inventive process informed by empathy, and guided by a shared purpose. We turn empty spaces into shared meeting places for hearts and minds to come together for comfort, education, and deliberation. Experienced Directors are specialists in creative leadership that can be applied to any sector looking to invent solutions. I earned my Masters degree in Theatre Directing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2000 after making may way from community college to a state university in the East Bay of Silicon Valley. My partner in life and our business, Axislights Inc, has been with me for most of it as a Lighting Designer specializing in live events including Rock and Roll tours and conventions working with diverse clientele; everyone from Fogerty and Queen, to US Presidents and pharmaceutical companies.
The Entertainment Lighting industry brought us to Las Vegas in 2002 where I became Artistic Director of The Asylum Theatre. The Asylum is a nonprofit company founded in 1997 as a haven for new work by contemporary theatre artists, bringing playwrights from around the world to collaborate with local performers, and opening channels for creative exchange. Our work, recognized and funded by grants from the NEA, has helped to establish our region as a critical home for new play development from around the globe, with several world premieres and emerging alumni now successful in the industry. Now, more than ever, the mission to connect and protect artists’ voices is a beacon of hope for those in vulnerable communities who celebrate democracy and the Arts as members of World English Speaking Theatre (WEST) Association, an international group led by the ProEnglish Theatre of Ukraine with The Asylum as a founding US partner.
Theatres are the People’s classroom when they are no longer in school; mastery is obtained through mentorship which makes forging links with Public Education important to provide access to training and appreciation for the Arts. I have taught as an adjunct at the College of Southern Nevada and the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the past 20 years, and became involved in research focused on the Creative Economy and Interdisciplinary innovation to understand the impact of technology on the Arts ecosystem. It is a pleasure to serve on the editorial board of a new peer reviewed journal published by the Associate of Arts Researchers (a2ru) called “Tradition-Innovations in Arts, Design, and Media Higher Education.” Our inaugural issue, recently unveiled at the “What’s Next” conference at Penn State, is focused on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Arts training and interdisciplinary exploration. We have a choice to make between a Dark Age of inequality and a Renaissance of human-centered innovation. It will take artistic minds to imagine and advance us into an age of sustainable, shared opportunity that is empowered and not oppressed by technology. Their work advocates for humanity; reflecting on who were are in the moment, offering insight from the past, and visions for the future.
It was advocacy that led me to found my creative consulting firm, Eat More Art LLC. In 2015, I established the Eat More Art Vegas platform promoting Southern Nevada’s local Arts, Culture, and Creative scene that thrives “beyond the neon.” What began as blog posts about local shows has grown into monthly Vegas Arts Table meetings, community action campaigns, and special programs. I have worked with government agencies, NGOs, and commercial companies as a creative producer, economic study coordinator, fundraiser, strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and program director to engage communities and leverage the skills of our Creative Workforce for win-win solutions.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Art is work. Art is research. Starving artists will not lead to an economy overflowing with the best ideas. The Arts provide the connection between public engagement and personal purpose. Creative professionals take an abstract idea from the inside, and then with skill form something tangible to express it on the outside. Everything human-made, including knowledge, is the product of an individual’s expressive practice, and creative partnership. Artists are experts who turn vision into reality through the mastery of innovation, collaboration, and craft which takes years of sweat equity to develop. They lead teams with empathy that produce work for commercial businesses, with nonprofits, as public servants, and to advance education. When leveraged instead of neglected, creative talents make enterprises successful, communities vibrant, and the social fabric strong. The potential for prosperity through creativity has never been fully realized because too many focus on their subjective taste for a particular creative product, rather than the value gained by supporting those engaged in the creative process.The Creative Economy is the future in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and it takes a lifetime to develop the best creative minds to help lead us in every community. A lot of time and money is wasted by making creatives prove their value in grant applications, rather than empowering them to add value to our economy with accelerators and development schemes. Pay artists for their work, consider the number of hours and materials to make it happen. Support Public Libraries and local arts and culture organizations, they create unity and economic mobility. Small arts nonprofits are impactful places to leverage your tax-free donations.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
By the time I graduated in the 1990s with my BA from a state school, I was told point blank by most not to bother applying to grad school because I was young, and a woman. There were only a handful of MFA Directing programs back then. Male-dominated, they only accepted 2 or 3 placements upon personal recommendation; one had to be at least 25 to have “lived enough to be ready”. At 22, I had already assisted my mentor on his Directing book, run a children’s theatre program, co-directed an international premier, and was working at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in the office and production. My obstacles for advancement were blatant and immoveable, so I did what actors do and said, “Yes, and” to the situation. I accepted it and made a choice to change the game. I looked into every Master’s Directing program in the world without an age restriction and was accepted by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. I earned my Master of Drama in Directing and returned to the United States at the age of 24. By the time I was 25 and had “lived enough” to apply in other’s eyes, I had already moved beyond it working as a freelancer, and running a Bay Area theatre company. Ironically, I know of several who used projects that I hired them for as references for grad school applications in the years that followed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eatmoreartvegas.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatmoreartvegas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatmoreartvegas
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-oconnell-eatmoreart/
- Other: Axislights Inc website: https://www.axislights.com/ The Asylum Theatre website: https://www.asylumtheatre.org/ Community Learning Fund website: https://www.nvfutureoflearning.org/community
Image Credits
All photos by Sarah O’Connell #1 Pictured: John Fogerty, Celebration Tour, Venetian Hotel, 2022. Lighting by Axislights Inc. #2 Pictured: Nevada Future of Learning Network, Party of the Future event, 2023. #3 Pictured: Timothy Cummings and Bree McCallum in “Scherzo” at The Asylum Theatre, 2022. #4 Pictured: Sarah O’Connell presenting Creative Economy research at UNLV College of Fine Arts