UNO Documentary: Southern Rep

What: Southern Rep

Film by: UNO student Jackson Pierce

Editor’s Note: In this interview, Sacha Grandoit, artistic coordinator at Southern Rep Theatre, discusses the present and future of one of New Orleans’ most prominent theaters. The theater has faced major changes since having to close its doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but, as Grandoit discusses, there is little that can break the spirit of this local gem. 

[Read full transcript below]

Hi, my name is Sacha Grandoit and I am the artistic coordinator at Southern Rep Theatre. Recently, I moved from Los Angeles, California, where I received a Master’s in Acting, and I dabbled a little bit in playwriting as well. So, I’m also a writer and a producer and actor. The Southern Rep theater has been around in the City of New Orleans for about 30 years. It was known for hopping around all over the city of New Orleans until it recently found its home in what was once the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church, where now it is Southern Rep’s home. Part of our mission is to create new works for local artists that really reflect the diversity of New Orleans. 

Well, I think COVID has affected our organization, Southern Rep, in many ways that we’ve just been seeing most theater companies globally and nationally, we’ve had to shut our doors and really go back to the bare basics and we’ve had to let go of most of our staff unfortunately. Um, and like most theaters, you know, I– I think we are taking it day by day and we are figuring it out and some days we may have the answers, and, you know, like this disease, COVID, every day it changes. We are just having to take a step back and really redefine how it is that we can service our community. We were very active when giving back to our community, things like Care for Creatives, that’s care for artists, like mental health, yoga classes, free Zumba classes. It was something that we offered to our artists for self-care, and so not being able to do that, to be of service has been– been tough for us. If there was ever a moment in particular, referring to our Care for Creatives, for example, where artists do need mental check-ins and physical well-being check-ins, I would say now is the time but because we’re unable to meet in person, we’ve had to shut our doors to that. 

We’re very active on the arts ed aspect as well, in offering things for our families in our local community. We had a program called Second Saturdays where the second Saturday of every month we would offer snacks, uh, crafts, based on one of the stories that we would read to our young audiences. And these are programs that we offered for free.

[Music]

I think because of things like the Black Lives Matter movement or movements like the Black Lives Matter movement, there’s a lot of change, there’s a lot of taking a step back and learning how to redefine, in a way, the way that we work as an organization and reflect but, also, I think, at the same time, stay true to what our mission is

Pre-COVID, we were looking in the Spring to produce Chemin de Bayou by Pamela Davis Nolan, directed by Jarrell Hamilton in the Spring but, unfortunately, we, because of the unprecedented times that we are in, just have to unfortunately move that back and so, when we are able to meet, that’s definitely one of the first productions that we will produce because that is, again, from a local playwright and that is something that, um, Southern Rep has been known for in the past, is known for, is really creating new works by our local artists and giving them platforms to really go out elsewhere on a national level.