We were lucky to catch up with Tami Kress recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Tami thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
The studio was just two years old when two professors from UNCG Department of Professions in Deafness approached me about doing an ASL shadowed production. I had never even heard of a shadowed production or had any understanding of how it would work. I really respected the women who asked me to consider it and I loved the inclusive concept of it, so I said yes. It has been a life changing decision for me and for the studio. In a shadowed production, the ASL interpreters are brought on to the stage and become part of the cast. They create the characters with the actors and help move the story forward. It is an amazing art form, and I am proud we do it at Studio 1!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Theatre has always been an integral part of my life. I was a theatre professor at Idaho State University before moving to North Carolina 16 years ago. I started Studio 1, with my good friend Tim Brown, because we saw the need for diversity in what was offered in the area. Studio 1 is a performing arts center located in Burlington, North Carolina inside Holly Hill Mall (yes there is live theatre inside a mall). We have our own 100 seat theatre and a classroom and costume shop and music studio and more. We do main stage shows, usually geared towards adults, youth stage, and projects produced by community members. We have an educational program, and we do weekly classes and master classes all year long. We do summer intensive camps for ages 7-18. We are very mission driven so we work to produce unique, positive, and empowering programs for all ages. We are a diverse community that loves to come together to create!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Covid was a crazy journey for all of us. We had to step back and reinvent how we created and how we delivered our final product. It was a journey where we had to constantly regroup and re-evaluate, but we came out on the other side a stronger and more resilient organization. We used any extra time we had to strengthen our organization by evaluating all of our paperwork and working on our costume inventory and our facility. Through it all we kept producing life theatre virtually and streamed. We were awarded the NCTC Outstanding Community Theatre for 2021. We feel like that is a reflection of our focus and dedication through all of that.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding part of doing what I do is bringing people together to create something larger than themselves. People involved in theatre have the amazing opportunity to spend time with like-minded, yet diverse individuals, to create something they couldn’t do on their own. With everything from actors to light designers, costumers, producers, tech crew and SO MUCH MORE, it takes many people to put on a production. And everyone involved has to make sacrifices to be involved; it takes time and patience and money to be involved in any production. Yet we come together and spend hours to create something together and then share it with our audiences at the end of the journey. It doesn’t get better than that!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.studio1online.org
- Instagram: @studio1.theatre
- Facebook: Studio 1
- Twitter: @studio 1hhm
- Youtube: Studio 1
Image Credits
We have the rights to all of these images