Raymond O. Caldwell

Producing Artistic Director, Theater Alliance
Headshots of a man.
Photo by C. Stanley Photography
Music Credit: “NY” written and performed by Kosta T from the cd, Soul Sand, used courtesy of the Free Music Archive

<music up> Raymond O. Caldwell: I totally recognize that I am one of very few people of color who occupy this position. And I am very excited to use this platform as an opportunity to launch very specifically into those conversations. Jo Reed: That’s Raymond O. Caldwell. He’s been recently named producing artistic director at Theater Alliance. And this is Art Works, the weekly podcast produced at the National endowment for the Arts—I’m Josephine Reed. <music up> Theater Alliance has a long history in Washington DC—it began as a community theatre in the 1990s and transitioned to a professional company in the year 2000. It had been in an area of Northeast DC known as the H Street Corridor—which much like the rest of the city has undergone massive gentrification. Services increased, but so did prices and more crucially, so did the rent. Theater Alliance found itself without a home and in 2013, it accepted an invitation to become the resident theatre company of the Anacostia Playhouse. Now I think to understand Theater Alliance today, it’s important to understand the neighborhood of Anacostia. It’s an old community with deep roots and a historic downtown. It’s more than 92 percent African American, but Anacostia is also an underserved community, and geographically, it’s removed from the majority of DC. It sits on one side of the Anacostia River, while six of the eight DC wards sit on the other. And so Theater Alliance now looks to present work that both speaks to the Anacostia community and builds bridges to the larger metro area, which according to Raymond Caldwell, is in perfect sync with Theater Alliance’s mission. Raymond O. Caldwell: What we do at Theater Alliance—we produce socially-conscious, thought-provoking work that ultimately leads our community to dialog and positive dialog. That’s what we do, that’s what separates us from the other theatre companies here in Washington, DC. Jo Reed: Theater Alliance you’re in Anacostia. When you’re putting a season together, are you thinking about Anacostia? Are you thinking about DC, in general? How do you reconcile, collaborate or merge those two? Raymond O. Caldwell: That is really tricky, particularly because of our geographically location, right? And I have told this to our board and our staff. When I imagine what community is, I first think about Anacostia and Ward 8. That is the community then that we are serving, because that is where our company is located. I have been deeply, deeply inspired by the regional theatre movement and the development of the regional theatre movement. And, so, Zelda Fichandler of Arena Stage, when she founded Arena Stage said, “A regional theatre should respond to its community.” And, so, being so inspired by that very idea, the first community that I want to serve is Anacostia and Ward 8. But then I have to recognize the geographical location that I’m in. So, I think that I define that community also on this, like, three-tier system. And, so, first tier, Anacostia, Ward 8; the second tier is DC, Maryland, and Virginia, because I think this is a very special geographical location that I don’t think many other states ever really have to grapple with the politics of what it is to be two states and a district and all encompassing; and then the last tier that I think that I want to serve is the tier of new play development. I like to imagine what is it that unites the American voice and the American theatre? And I think a lot of that is found in the genre or the area of new play development. And, so, as I plan a season, I’m looking to serve those three tiers: Anacostia, DMV, and then the national new play network. Jo Reed: How would you describe your job as producing artistic director of Theater Alliance? Raymond O. Caldwell: Wow, that’s a— <laughs> It is an all-encompassing job. That’s what I’ll say. Jo Reed: Yeah, I bet it would be. <laughter> Raymond O. Caldwell: It is exciting. I am excited to be the producing artistic director. I think that being a producing artistic director asks you to not only plan the entirety of a season with your staff, but also begin visioning where the organization is right now and then where you want to take the company. And, so, I think that there is a lot that goes into that title. We also at Theater Alliance are an incredibly small staff. So, I actually as producing artistic director am the only full-time staff member. And then the company has four part-time staff members as well. And, so, we all work together to make the company go. Jo Reed: Well, this season you just started as the producing artistic director though you had been working here before— Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah, I’ve been with the company for a year. And, so, I helped plan this season. Jo Reed: So, you do three plays a year. Raymond O. Caldwell: We do. Jo Reed: Tell me your thinking about the three plays that you put on for this season. Raymond O. Caldwell: So, we start every season with a festival and this is our Word Becomes Action Festival. It’s an opportunity for us to preview new work and also present new work or work that often isn’t produced. And, so, I think that the Word Becomes Action Festival is really our launch into the season. And— Jo Reed: Is that what—I’m sorry. I don’t mean to interrupt. Raymond O. Caldwell: No worries. Jo Reed: Is that like a staged reading or is it fully produced? Raymond O. Caldwell: That’s a great question. So, during that festival we generally present two or three pieces. So, we actually will fully stage three pieces or present three pieces. And then, tied to that festival, are two or three new plays that are currently being worked on that we are in some way commissioning or creating space for. We love to be a place that creates space for artists to work and explore their ideas. It needs space—it needs an incubator. And, so, that festival really creates an incubation period for some of that work. And, some of that work, ultimately, has a goal of being seen in our seasons in the future. But that’s the place and space where we use the festival to, like, really build. And then present or preview ideas for the full season: What are the things or the questions that we are going to be exploring? And, so then this season we present or produce rather three shows. And each of those shows this season is asking a question or exploring a question in an unexpected way. So, this season we start with a show called The Events, and The Events is about a shooting at a church. But it doesn’t explore the standard question I think when we start thinking about a play with a shooting at a church. We begin getting very clear ideas in our minds about what that play can be about. And instead, what The Events is about is actually asks really provocative questions about how we, society, actually create space for the young men, and often times, the young white men who perpetrate these crimes. And, so, it’s really an investigation into how we find forgiveness. First, what created the space for that type of violence and, two, how we find forgiveness? So, we ask all of these provocative questions, because all of our shows end with a post-show conversation. And that is our bread and butter here at Theater Alliance. I think we facilitate incredibly positive conversations. So, that was our first show of the season, The Events. And from there we go onto a show, the show that I’m in rehearsal for right now, Blood at the Root by Dominique Morisseau. And I think that— Jo Reed: Who’s a MacArthur Fellow. Raymond O. Caldwell: A MacArthur Fellow, a MacArthur Genius, which I am so excited about. I am excited to be tackling her work, because I think what Dominique Morisseau does is she takes something like race and explores it three dimensionally. She doesn’t allow space for anyone to purely be villain or anyone purely to be victim. Instead we have to explore everyone’s humanity in a school, in a high school no less, where racial politics are really starting to bubble over and really beginning to intersect with ideas around gender and ideas around sexuality. And, so, I think what she really explores in the play is intersectionality and how we allow space for the Oppression Olympics to begin. I think sometimes when we think about marginalized communities and we come into a space and a place together to have conversation it becomes Oppression Olympics: Who’s the most oppressed? And I think what Dominique Morisseau so brilliantly paints in this world of these high school students is the idea that divided we then fall. And, so, how do we find the intersectionality of our cause and then all fight for one another’s cause in a really just beautiful way. And, so, again, it’s not a standard conversation. And, so, that’s show number two! <laughs> A very full season! Raymond O. Caldwell: And then our last show is a brilliant show. It’s a new play that we actually workshopped last year at our Word Becomes Action Festival. Jo Reed: Oh! Raymond O. Caldwell: Brilliant, one-woman show called Klytmnestra, and Klytmnestra is a re-telling of the Clytemnestra myth that’s set in the graveyard of black arts. And it’s an exploration of what it is to be a trans, black woman through the lens of the Klytmnestra narrative. And we’re so excited for that play. Jo Reed: Sounds fascinating. Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah! So, that is our season. And, again, the goal of our shows is never to answer questions. Instead, it’s to provoke conversation. And, so, in that conversation, what clarity then can we as a community find? Jo Reed: And do you find a lot of neighborhood people from Anacostia coming and coming to the theatre and staying and participating in the discussions? Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah, we find an intermingling. Right now—and I’ll be very honest and say I think that we aren’t having the representation from the community as strongly as we’d like. That’s not to say that we do not have community members that come out. A large majority of our community do come out, but I think that when I start imagining our audience—a lot of our audience are coming from across the river. And, so, I, as artistic director, am starting to ask myself some questions about how is it, why is it, that our neighborhood doesn’t come to the theatre? And, so, that is something that we as an organization are definitely working on and towards. I think that when we start examining people who have been disenfranchised from certain cultural institutions, like the theatre, we can’t expect, and I can’t expect as an artistic director and as a multicultural black artistic director, for me just because I am a black artistic director, for me to open the doors and suddenly the entire neighborhood is going to come. Jo Reed: Yeah, of course. Raymond O. Caldwell: I think that I have to examine the ways in which my community has been disenfranchised from this cultural institution and then how do I begin removing the barriers for entrance? And, so, a lot of my next season is exploring just those ideas: how we remove those barriers, so that we realize or come to the realization that the theatre space is all of our space, because it is—it is how we document our culture. And, so, that documentation is and for everyone. Jo Reed: Well, one thing I know that you do do is the Radical Neighborhood Initiative, which right on for you! <laughter> Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah! Jo Reed: So, explain what the Radical Neighborhood Initiative is. Raymond O. Caldwell: So, I love our Radical Neighboring Initiative, because— Jo Reed: Is it “neighboring” nor “neighborhood”? Raymond O. Caldwell: Neighboring. Jo Reed: Oh, sorry. Raymond O. Caldwell: And, no, no worries. And it’s about us identifying what is the barrier for entrance? So, we know that the barrier for entrance to theatre space is the price of a ticket. So, what we say is an hour before our show, any of our ticket stock that is left, you can come and you can literally name the price of the ticket. And I’ve been working in the box office and I’ve had people come and bring a quarter in. And I have printed a ticket and given it to them, because I think that it is about just removing that barrier of admission. And, so, we know that that’s a major barrier. And we found that that program actually brings in audiences not only within our neighborhood, but all over DC, Maryland, and Virginia. And, so, I think it’s a valuable and important program that we do. Jo Reed: Yeah. Tell me a little bit about you. You mentioned you were born in Germany. Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah. So, I was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. I grew up in Stuttgart. I moved to the United States to live with my biological father. My mother is German Filipino. My father’s African American. And, so, I always tell folk that I have a very unique American experience. I learned to be American very late in the game. <laughs> Jo Reed: How old were you when you came here? Raymond O. Caldwell: I moved to the United States for high school. And, so, this was a major transition for me. Jo Reed: What languages did you speak at home? Raymond O. Caldwell: So, my—we were living in an American installation. My mother teaches at an American school, but speaking both English and German. And, so, then made the sharp transition to English and Spanish when I moved to South Florida. Jo Reed: Of course! Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah, I came to the United States later. I went to college because my parents wanted me to go to an American university. I went to the University of Florida for undergrad and after that went out on tour for a while, did a couple of shows. I started out as an actor for a really long time. Jo Reed: What brought you into theatre? Did you grow up with theatre? What—how did the theatre bug enter your blood stream? <laughter> Raymond O. Caldwell: My mom always says that I loved my own imagination. And I could entertain myself for hours. And, so, I think that that love of playing pretend—there was a moment that I remember learning, like, “Wait, I can do this for a job?” And, so, I think that I’ve always imagined myself an artist. And, so, I think when I got to college I don’t even think my father believed that I was going to be a theatre major. He didn’t think that that was a viable career. And, so, I ended up getting other degrees as well! So, <laughs> I think eventually he started to realize—my whole family started to realize—because I’m the only person that really does theatre in my family, that is an artist. And I have a very big family—a large Filipino family, a large family in Germany, and a large black family and I’m the first person to be an artist. There was a moment that everyone agreed, like, “Okay, this is what Raymond is going to do.” <laughter> Raymond O. Caldwell: And, so, yeah, after being out on tour, after acting for a while, I realized that I wanted to create new work. I started realizing as a performer that I was being typecast. I was not getting the roles that I thought that I wanted, that I deserved. And I was interested in developing new work. I did a tour with Ntozake Shange and Ntozake—she was developing a really beautiful play called Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines. And I was with her on this—through this development process. I got so excited about developing new work. So, I ended up going to graduate school at Ohio State. The focus of the MFA there is in developing new work. And, so, I finished that MFA, and after that MFA moved to London for a while, lived there, and then eventually came to DC for a fellowship with Arena Stage. So, I was with Arena for a number of years, probably about six or seven seasons. And then I transferred over to Howard University where I’ve been a professor for a while. And then I came to Theater Alliance. And, so, that is, I supposed the trajectory. Jo Reed: I’ve noticed that you’ve travelled around the world doing theatre. You’ve—you’ve done theatre in India, in Europe—I mean, you’ve really— Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah. Jo Reed: —thrown a pretty wild net. And I wonder if you’ve noticed as you’ve done theatre in all those places, what’s universal about it, but what’s also culturally specific? Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah. I love that idea of the universality. I find that more than anything we have more in common in terms of our theatre practice than we do that separates us. And I think that everywhere I’ve been around the world, everyone does theater very differently, right? And have different traditions tied to theatre. But the one thing that we’re all there for is human connection. It’s the one thing that we can’t get from film and TV, the live storytelling that happens, and that connection that happens not only between the artist on stage and the audience, but the audience together as well, going through a shared journey. And, so, I think that’s also what’s been so beautiful. I think that what’s been really valuable and a really wonderful learning opportunity for me is seeing how different cultures express theatre. Jo Reed: Yeah. Raymond O. Caldwell: And that has tied in, I think, so beautifully even to my own aesthetic as an artist. I’ve done a lot of work in India and, so, classical Indian storytelling I’ve found so incredibly inspiring. While I was in Kiev, the street theatre that was happening down on the streets right before the major protests were—I was there right on the cusp of the revolution. And, so, it really just fascinating to see the energy of the street theatre that was happening there or even the tradition of German theatre. I love the avant-garde of German theatre. I love the specificity of German theatre. So, I feel like everywhere I go I take a piece of that culture with me and figure out how I then express that in my own aesthetic. Jo Reed: In America—which is so American. Raymond O. Caldwell: Which is so very American, right? Which is my American story as well. So, yeah, that’s always how I’ve seen the art. Jo Reed: Okay, this is a little bit of a segue, but you did street theatre in India? Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah! <laughs> Jo Reed: What did you do? This is so fascinating to me? What did you do? <laughter> Raymond O. Caldwell: This is one of my absolute favorite projects that I do. I’ll be going back again in March. So, I’ve been working with NGOs in India to develop theatre that explores gender violence that happens in India using classical Indian storytelling. So, when I was working with a number of these NGOs I started to realize that a number of the classical Indian stories that are celebrated and upheld actually have gender violence almost at the center and it’s normalized in classical storytelling. And, so, working with artists of all kinds—both street theatre, singers, puppeteers, dancers—NGOs brought a collection of artists together to begin re-examining those stories, re-telling those stories for a modern society and taking those stories then out into streets and literally performing them in villages. And what begins to happen is those villages, those societies, those small cultures begin to re-examine the narrative and really begin to understand how gender violence is ultimately normalized. I am a big fan of theater that literally turns to the audience that doesn’t answer anything, but provokes questions that move into conversation. And, so, that’s what a lot of that work is. Jo Reed: Oh, that’s fascinating. Because you are an artistic director and because you teach at Howard, I know you’ve had to think about this. What do you think is the most challenging part about acting? Raymond O. Caldwell: In terms of working with an actor, in terms— Jo Reed: In terms of when you were on the stage as an actor. Raymond O. Caldwell: Oh, yeah! You know, I think that not judging a character as you are developing a character is really difficult, right? I think that sometimes we as actors make snap choices, make snap decisions about who a person is. And I don’t think that that ever fully investigates the totality of who that is, because I think that human beings are complex. And I think that in the development of a character, you’re developing someone else’s subconscious mind all together. So, I think developing complex character, fully-realized character, and getting that character to stand in the truth is always the most difficult thing for an actor. Jo Reed: And what about as a director? What’s the most challenging piece of that? Raymond O. Caldwell: Honoring where actors are then in their process. I think as a former actor myself—I’m not going to say I’m a former actor. As an actor myself— Jo Reed: Yeah. Raymond O. Caldwell: —as well, I think that I understand the challenge at times working with a director, because while a director needs me to be at a certain point in my process, I might not have figured out all of the things that make this person click. And, so, having a director who is patient with that—so, one of the most difficult things for me as a director is having that type of restraint, having patience, recognizing where the actor will get, knowing that the actor ultimately will get there in choices, or transversely has made a choice that is not the choice that I imagined when I first sat down with the script. Jo Reed: Yeah. Raymond O. Caldwell: And, so, how does that then square with the totality of the play that I had seen in my head? I think that is a conundrum for sure. But it is a negotiation and I think that ultimately getting to that negotiation is the fun part. It’s why we all come to the room. Jo Reed: Well, I was going to ask you how you approach a play. Why don’t we take Blood at the Root since you are rehearsing it now and you very kindly let me sit in on a rehearsal. How do you approach that? Do you see other productions? Do you sit down and talk to the playwright? How do you get to the meat of what’s going on here? Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah, so, I have read—it’s so funny when we sat down to read the play for the first time as a full cast with designers, everyone in the room, it was probably the 200th time that I’ve read the script. I’ve just been reading it constantly. I read it first as a piece of literature. So, how do I stand on the outside and observe the story and experience the story? So, my process starts as examining as a piece of literature and then I think slowly moves into attempting to understand every single character. So, I’ve actually been in prep for the show—probably since last December. So, now I’ve had about a year with the script, sitting with it, thinking about it, and examining the story through the lens of all six characters, because it’s only in that way that I can imagine stepping into the role as the director. I need to understand the path or the track that each of these characters go. I in my own aesthetic am incredibly musically driven. It’s how I understand worlds. It’s even how I tell story. And, so, the next thing I do actually is I look for the soundtrack of that play. In my mind, what is the soundtrack for each of these characters, what is the sound of this world? And it’s in doing those two things that I think I start to then create. And then that creation really turns to then a real negotiation with the actors. Jo Reed: Yeah, because I was going to say, if you’ve been involved with the play for a year, I mean, you really must have an idea of the way you see this unfold in your mind and then, suddenly, who are these strangers? Raymond O. Caldwell: Right! <laughter> Raymond O. Caldwell: And then they come in and, you know, I—the cast that I have, I’m so excited by them. And I told them on the very first day, “You’re all in this room, because you all surprised me in the audition.” And that’s ultimately as a director what I’m looking for. I’m looking for an actor who takes the character somewhere where I never saw or imagined the character. Jo Reed: Ah, interesting. Raymond O. Caldwell: And, so, we’re always then looking to inspire one another. And, so, I am so happy that I chose a collection of actors that I find incredibly inspiring. They inspired me in the audition. And now that we’re in the rehearsal hall, they inspire me every time we’re in the room, because I keep learning more about the play. There is never a moment that I checked it off and was like, “Oh, I understand this play.” I understand more because of them and, in the next couple of weeks, as my designers then enter the room also to understanding even more because of them. And, that’s the beauty, I think, for me of this collaborative process. Jo Reed: We know the arts can revitalize—I don’t like the term “revitalize,” but it can revitalize communities. Raymond O. Caldwell: Mm-hm! Jo Reed: And theatres especially, because they bring in more people, more money, more creativity. Then there are the attendant services that spring up around theatres. But that’s often accompanied by gentrification. Raymond O. Caldwell: Indeed. Jo Reed: I’m sure you’ve thought about this and— Raymond O. Caldwell: Indeed. Jo Reed: —I just wonder what your thoughts are about that? Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah, I find it interesting when we start talking about gentrification, sometimes the conversation that wraps around gentrification are the negative ideas of gentrification: people losing their homes, cultures being lost. But when we start thinking about what gentrification actually is, it really means better schools, access to grocery stores, better roads. And, so, I want to say that the people in Anacostia who already live here want just that and they want to stay in their neighborhoods. And I am excited that Ward 8 specifically and Anacostia and the steering committee down here in Anacostia and the community that’s here are really rooted in not going the way of the other wards. And I’ve heard that said at a number of council meetings. And I’m really excited to be in Anacostia and doing my part as a theatre organization. And what I want to do and what I’m very interested in doing is getting other communities outside of Ward 8 or Anacostia to come in and see the beauty of this community. You don’t need to live here to enjoy the beauty of this community, right? But I think that coming here and knowing that this also is a community, this is a space that tells stories, and the stories that we tell are born of this community—that’s why you want to come down here. And, so, I think our goal as an organization is to help facilitate dialog between who is here and who is coming to visit here and who might be coming to move here. Because I will say that I, too, am coming—we just got a house, my partner and I right up the street, because I think it’s important for me to live in the community then that I serve. And, so, I think that our place, our function as an organization is to help bridge that and to teach our audiences whether they live in this community or whether they’re visiting this community how they can get involved in this community. So, every single one of our shows has nonprofit partners—nonprofit partners that ultimately in our post-show conversations introduce audiences to how they can serve. And that’s not just about giving back financially. You can give money, but you can also come to that nonprofit’s company and staple or file or—or, or, or. There are any number of things that I think people can do to give back. Jo Reed: People of color as artistic directors— Raymond O. Caldwell: Yeah. Jo Reed: —in DC—it should be said, DC is a big theatre community. It has grown enormously since I’ve moved here 20-some years ago. Raymond O. Caldwell: It is. It is not at all lost on me and I think that even in my time as a freelance director here, it was so fascinating to me that I as a director was always pigeon-held into hip-hop theatre or black theatre. So, those are the things that I was being asked to direct. Now, I think to a greater point, those are things that the DC theatre community saw me doing and assumed that “Oh, well, that is what Raymond does.” But I think that there often is an assumption made about people of color and their abilities and their interests. And I think that that can be very, very dangerous. I totally recognize that I am one of very few people of color who occupy this position. And I am very excited to use this platform as an opportunity to launch very specifically into those conversations when I imagine who Theater or what Theater Alliance is. Part of our name is building alliances, creating alliances. And, so, for us to create those alliances, sometimes we have to have those really hard conversations. This past Monday many of the theatre leaders from Washington DC were at the DC Theatre Summit held by theatreWashington. And it wasn’t lost on me that as I looked around the room, I was one of few faces of color. And I always have to ask myself, “Well, why? Why is that? Why has that become normalized?” And I think it always happens because we assume that diversity is something that just happens. We open up the doors and then diversity happens. Right? <laughs> And even in our most liberal spaces, I don’t want us to imagine that theatre spaces are these bastions of racism. But what have been normalized are racist ideas, the idea that, “Well, we opened up the door. We said anyone could come apply and then no one came.” Well, when you’ve been disenfranchising communities for so long just because you open the door doesn’t mean they’re going to come running. And, so, if you want diversity, you have to make diversity happen. You have to go out and seek that diversity out. Jo Reed: You work at it. Raymond O. Caldwell: And it is work. And a number of institutions— Jo Reed: It’s like a marriage! Raymond O. Caldwell: It is! Yeah, and a number of people don’t want to work on that marriage because that marriage is uncomfortable and asks us to have conversations about our own biases. And I think that we all have biases. But what we don’t want to confront particularly are these biases, because those are uncomfortable, those make us fallible, those remind us that we’re human. And I want to use Theater Alliance and the resources that we have here as an opportunity to begin addressing those gaps. We have developed an internship program in conjunction with Howard University to begin training administrators of color. That’s where it starts. That internship level even is where it begins. Jo Reed: And you knew this question was coming. <laughter> Jo Reed: Which is if you look seven years down the road, where would you like to see Theater Alliance? Raymond O. Caldwell: I would like to see Theater Alliance continuing to do the challenging work that it does creating the conversations that it does, but on a larger platform. I think that the work that we do, the conversations that we create, the space that we make is really quite beautiful. And I can only imagine that with more resources the larger the impact. And, so, seven years down the road I see us doing very impactful work on an even larger scale, breaking down the barriers of what we call a theatre space and engaging new audience members in conversations that they had no idea that they were going to start. Jo Reed: And that’s a great place to leave it. Raymond, thank you so much. I really appreciate you giving me your time when you have so much to do! Raymond O. Caldwell: Of course, thank you for having me! Jo Reed: Thank you. Not at all. <music up> Jo Reed: That is Raymond Caldwell. He is the producing artistic director at Theater Alliance. Blood at the Root runs at Theater Alliance from February 22nd through March 24th. You can get more information at TheaterAlliance.com. You’ve been listening to Art Works produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. Subscribe to Art Works wherever you get your podcast and leave us a rating on Apple—it helps people to find us. For the National Endowment for the Arts, I’m Josephine Reed. Thanks for listening. <music up>

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Raymond O. Caldwell recently stepped into the role of Producing Artistic Director at Theater Alliance-the resident company of the Anacostia Playhouse. Theater Alliance is a small company that produces socially-conscious and thought-provoking work that aims to lead its audience toward positive constructive dialogue. It also happens to be terrific theater—nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards in this season alone. In today’s podcast, Raymond Caldwell talks about what it takes to create good, meaningful theater that speaks both to the neighborhood and the larger DC community. He also takes us on a journey through his own experiences as an actor and director who has worked in locations from India to Kiev to Berlin...and how those experiences inform his work at Theater Alliance.