With 30 years of experience as an actor, director, producer, arts administrator, and theatre arts educator, José Avilés takes the role as the new Director of Education at American Stage with a track record of success. That includes his time at the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where he was the Director of Education and Outreach, Taller Puertorriqueño, and former Education Associate at The Walnut Street Theatre.
American Stage invited me to conduct an interview with Avilés for this new magazine format to help you get to know him. Since he has such a deep background, I wanted to begin with what drew him to focus on education.
Jose Aviles:
Education actually sort of chose me. I was a director and an actor. That's how I started. Through that I actually realized that there weren't enough Latin actors in the city, or work for me actually as a Latin actor in Philadelphia. And so, I decided to create my own Latino theater company and through that, through directing, I actually then had to conjure people to come in and be actors for me. So I had to direct and teach at exactly the same time.
When another teacher was unable to teach Wilma's acting 101 class, Avilés was asked to step in.
Jose Aviles:
All of those students came back and started asking you about my class and from then on I was teaching and then through that, then started to create curriculum and programming.
Eden Lane:
So I love that you said you had to 'conjure up' people to act with you. Talk to me about the challenge of conjuring up actors to work with you.
Jose Aviles:
Yeah, so the type of plays required bilingual actors, and Latin characters who spoke in Spanish a lot of the time, so it was bilingual theater. Since that work wasn't really being produced in that city, there wasn't a pool of actors that I could choose from to produce the shows that I wanted to produce as well. So I had to actually have to find people off the streets, who were interested in acting and bring them in, and partner with community organizations like Taller Puertorriqueño, or other sort of cultural institutions in the city. So we had plenty of people interested, not enough people actually trained to actually be on a stage. So it was really about starting from the beginning with some folks, and really actually started to create a pool of actors in the city that people then started to pull from. So it was really exciting.
Eden Lane:
Tell me about what it was about coming to Tampa that drew you to American Stage when you saw that this position was open.
Jose Aviles:
I thought what a great opportunity actually. That work that I had begun in Philly was many, many moons ago, and since then, my mission has always been to bring equity, diversity inclusion, and access to the industry, to communities that don't have it. So that was sort of my mission. When I saw the job, the education director job at the American Stage I really was impressed by what they have sort of communicated out to the world in terms of equity, diversity, inclusion, and access, and all of the steps that they were taking to really, meaningfully, bring it into their world and into the work that they do and into the education work that we can potentially do. And so that's kinda what drew me, was the possibilities of what that could be, without resistance or pushback or any of that. That was super exciting to me.
Eden Lane:
Share with me some of the things that you hope you can bring right from the very first season.
Jose Aviles:
I think in terms of education, I would like to sort of create a deeper pool of diverse teaching artists. Meaning many people from all walks of life. So if we say, um, and, and different cultural backgrounds. That we are sort of a melting pot, mixing of many different perspectives that will come in, and be able to sort of influence their lesson planning or their curriculum with some of that. And reach other populations within St. Pete or beyond Tampa and see if we can conjure up more folks to come to us. Bring more kids and, and bring a sense of belonging to the space.
So it is a matter of representation and being in the room and making sure that all the kids sort of see themselves in the classroom, in leadership possibilities. It is really about communicating that to our youth and making sure that our youth know, Hey, this could be me. This Could potentially be a track for me. Even as little as five years old. I remember being a fourth grader in fourth grade and thinking that, oh my gosh, I can be that, you know, so that's in the hopes of what I would like to bring to the American Stage.
Aviles addressed how Arts Education offers more than just a professional track in the arts but also enchainment.
Jose Aviles:
Yeah, I definitely think it has a lot to do. And enrichment is actually the really underlining word, right? Yes, there will be students, uh, young and adult who will come in and sort of find this as a career track, but there are also, students are going to come to us and this is most of our population, will come to us and find new friends, find their people, find people with the same interests, but also using this sort of enrichment opportunity to create more empathetic people, more confident people, more self aware people. I think that's what our programming will bring to sort of the development of a young person. I think the same for adults. What we bring to them would be a matter of either professional development. or there will just be people who want to meet other people and love the art form and our appreciators of the art form. They'll come to see a show here at the American Sage. So that's what I think. We are able to present to our youth, to our parents and to our adults.
American Stage summer camp begins the first week of June and finishes the first week of August. The program is a full-day camp, Monday through Friday, from nine to three, with pre-care and after-care. Each camp lasts a week with sections for K through 2nd grade, 3rd grade through 5th grade, and 6th grade through 12th grade. The curriculum progresses each week from comedy, dance, puppetry, Disney classics, and more, culminating with heroes in the final week.
Jose Aviles:
At the end of each one of these weeks, we're able to actually do a little show for our parents and friends. So they get a chance to perform as well. I think they almost always come up with some of the best work and some of the best showcases. We're looking forward to kids having lots of fun, and that we're there with a lot of energy and to bring the arts to them.
Eden Lane:
What is the first hope you want to bring to life in the first season at American Stage as the director of education?
Jose Aviles:
My first hope is that I would like to expand and reach as many kids as possible, and to sort of expand out and really make sure that the message that Theater, Drama, The arts are for all, they're for everyone. And no matter what your economic background is, no matter what your cultural background is, you will see yourself at the American stage. And this is a place for you to come and visit because you belong here. I'm sort of approaching all of our programming that way.