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ELYSA GARDNER: Welcome to Stage Door Sessions, by Broadway Direct. In this podcast, we have in-depth conversations with Broadway’s brightest, bringing you what’s new, what’s noteworthy, and what’s coming next to a stage near you.
I’m your host Elysa Gardner, and this season we’ll be looking at how the Broadway community is coping in the wake of COVID-19. The coronavirus hit New York hard just as the 2019-20 season was reaching its busiest period for openings, and what was at first supposed to have been a pause of several weeks turned into what’s shaping up to more than a year hiatus. We’ll be speaking with some of the artists and insiders who have had to persevere after specific projects were delayed, and who have sought to keep connected to fans and to each other.
Our guest today is Amber Iman, an actor, singer, activist, and founding member of Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Founded in 2016, BAC’s mission is to build the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities to dismantle the systems that perpetuate racism through the power of storytelling and the leadership of people directly affected. The coalition unites artists with legal experts and community leaders to forge a lasting impact on policy issues including criminal justice reform, education equity, and immigration.
Since graduating magna cum laude from Howard University, with a BFA in musical theater, Amber has appeared on stages across the country. She made her Broadway debut as Nina Simone in Soul Doctor, winning a Clive Barnes Award for her performance. After earning more acclaim and the Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence playing Aldonza in Man of La Mancha at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., Amber returned to Broadway to perform in George C. Wolfe’s much-praised production of Shuffle Along, or The Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, and then landed her first national tour in the roles of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in Hamilton.
Other theater credits include Rent off-Broadway, Stick Fly at Arena Stage/Huntington Theater Company, Little Shop of Horrors at the Kennedy Center, Witness Uganda at the Annenberg Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, and August Wilson’s Radio Golf and Regina Taylor’s Oo-Bla-Dee at Two River Theater Company in Red Bank, New Jersey.
On-screen, Amber has been seen in HBO’s High Maintenance; she also wrote, executive produced, and starred in the short film Steve, which has won awards such as Best Comedy, Best Short, and Best Actress at various film festivals. And in addition to being a founding & board member at Broadway Advocacy Coalition, she is a founding member of Black Women on Broadway, a digital platform celebrating the rich legacy of Black women in theater.
Welcome, Amber, and thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing?
AMBER IMAN: I’m good, Elysa, thank you so much for having me.
ELYSA GARDNER: Good, you’re healthy, and all that?
AMBER IMAN: I am doing pretty well.
ELYSA GARDNER: Excellent, excellent. Good to hear. I believe you were appearing in Radio Golf when the COVID shutdown happened.
AMBER IMAN: I was.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah – I’ve been asking artists about what those first days and weeks were like, when there was so much uncertainty and few of us grasped how long and dire this period would be. Do you remember the first kinda of reactions and conversations you and your colleagues in the theater community had?
AMBER IMAN: Yeah, what’s funny is, I remember we opened on March 6, that was our opening night. And I remember, the first time I was kind of aware that something odd was happening was that nobody ate the food at the opening night party, which you know, in theatre, we’re always hungry, we’re eating everything. And that’s what was so interesting to me – people were like, “no, we aren’t eating, because of coronavirus.” And I was like, “okay…” But having been in tech, and previews, our ears aren’t always to the world. Like we kind of shut ourselves into a theatre for a week or so. So I remember after opening is when we started getting word from the box office that people were canceling tickets. And, in my mind I was like “oh, okay well, maybe we’ll make it to my birthday?” My birthday was March 16. And I was like, “Okay, well, if we’re going to close, maybe we’ll just do two weeks, and then we’ll take a month off or something, or a couple weeks, and we’ll finish it.” And I just remember March 12, is when we got our email. We had a two show day, and I remember we did a student matinee, and you know student matinees are early, you’re a little tired, but we had a lot of fun with that group of high schoolers. And I remember on dinner break, getting our closing notice, which was the weirdest thing. [laughs] I just remember being like, “…okay?” And we all came to the theatre and sat around and like had drinks, and then we were like “oh okay, I guess we’ll just go back to the housing and hang out..” and just never saw my cast again after that. [laughs] Just…
ELYSA GARDNER: Ah no.
AMBER IMAN: You know, just packed up and went back to New York. And just, began the weird… I don’t even know what it was, because we all thought it was going to be two weeks.
ELYSA GARDNER: Right.
AMBER IMAN: And here we are, preparing to be a year later, and still no work. It’s insane to me.
ELYSA GARDNER: The need for greater racial and social justice has gotten more attention during the pandemic, for a variety of reasons we can get into, but first I’d like to know about how Broadway Advocacy Coalition came about when it did. 2016 was obviously a big year in politics, with our first Black president completing two terms in office and an election that was bitterly contested and brought issues like racial justice and inequality to the forefront—even though Black Lives Matter and related issues had already been in focus on a national level. Did all that bigger-picture stuff figure into to forming the organization, in addition to concerns about inequity or lack of opportunity for artists of color in theater, specifically?
AMBER IMAN: Not originally. So before BAC was a thing, in 2016 I was doing Shuffle Along with two of my cofounders, Adrienne Warren and Britton Smith. And at the time, I saw on BroadwayWorld that a busload of actors were going down to Florida for the Pulse nightclub massacre. And I was really proud of the community for really mobilizing and doing something. And a lot of times when you’re in shows, you miss a lot of events, so I just Googled, “Broadway for Black Lives Matter,” because I was sure that all of these events had taken place that I had just missed. And I Googled, and nothing came up. And I was like, “Hm. That’s pretty on brand for Broadway. Not doing anything for Black lives.” So, the initial idea was not BAC at all, it was a one-night-only event called “Broadway for Black Lives Matter.” And we just wanted a moment where the community could come together to talk, to laugh, to sing, to cry, to listen, to learn – because at the time, I can’t even remember what Black men had just been killed, because there were so many. I don’t know if it was Alton Sterling, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner.. I don’t remember, but someone had just been killed. And I was just overwhelmed and angry that nothing was happening, that no one was doing anything. So, we mobilized for a one-night-only event that would just give us an opportunity to come together as a community, to learn what we can do as citizens – how we can have some kind of power, because you often feel hopeless in moments like this. And I was like, “I feel angry, I don’t know anything, I don’t know my rights, I don’t know what I can do.” So that was as far as we even imagined going. The fact that we pulled off an event in two weeks with no budget and no event planning experience that a thousand people showed up to and agreed to be our performers; Billy Porter, and Cynthia Erivo, Joshua Henry, just people came out of the woodworks because there had never been an event, for Broadway for Black Lives Matter. And after that event was successful, we were like “whew” okay, we’re done. And people were like, what’s next? And we were so confused [chuckles] there was no interest in doing anything next, but clearly there was something missing in our community. So I remember, Adrienne, Britton and I had a lunch a couple weeks after that event just to talk about the possibilities, and we were like “okay maybe we become an organization, maybe we become a nonprofit – with no nonprofit experience between the three of us. Adrienne always talks about [chuckles] how she got a 501c3 for dummies book.
ELYSA GARDNER: [laughs]
AMBER IMAN: Because we had no idea what we were doing. But, a lot of times in the community, you know, you have to be the change you want to see. So, the Broadway for Black Lives Matter event partnered us with Columbia University which gave us access to amazing people like Susan Sturm, and we just now had a relationship with lawyers and policymakers and so we all came to the table to try and figure out what BAC would be, and that’s how it was born. Really out of a need from our community, not us saying “this is what we want to do.” You know, which sometimes is great because the call from the community was so loud that we had no choice but to listen. So it was born out of frustration with the Broadway community for not doing anything for Black lives, frustration for Black artists going to work everyday feeling like we’re invisible, on top of what was happening politically, on top of the murders of Black men every day in our community. So that was really how BAC came to be.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah. And of course, this year, the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and others in recent months have brought these issues into sharper focus. And we’ve also seen a disproportionate percentage of people of color suffer and die from the coronavirus. Have these been galvanizing factors, in terms of underlining the urgency of your mission for the people you reach out to and work with?
AMBER IMAN: I think so. It’s galvanizing because of the pandemic and everyone’s at home listening. But it’s like, Black people, and artists have been doing this work for years. And you know, it’s just finally now other people have decided to take time to listen. But, I feel like we’ve been moving at the same speed, it’s just, a lot of people haven’t been listening. And I’m grateful for the pandemic because our outreach has been insane. You know, the first event that we put together, the three day conference back in June, was attended by over 5000 folks. Which of course, would not have been possible if the world had been spinning like it normally does. The fact that everyone was able to tune in and participate and really listen has been a blessing, because I think people are finally ready and willing to listen, and to learn, and to make changes, because we can’t go back to the way things happened before. Like, it’s a new day, it’s a new time, and I think our tolerance and our patience for putting up with foolishness has been at an all time low. So I’m kind of grateful for the pandemic for giving us this space, time and opportunity to really have a lot of necessary and difficult conversations.
ELYSA GARDNER: How do you go about forming and cultivating relationships with the leaders and experts that you work with in BAC? I’m sure a lot of it has been evolving organically, but maybe give us an example of how as a board member and a founding member you seek out collaborators or form partnerships and sustain engagement.
AMBER IMAN: I just think we look for people who are doing the work and have been doing the work. I think it’s important that we.. I feel like BAC, in the work that we’ve done over the past couple of years, people really respect our organization, and they reach out to us because I think we operate in a way that makes them feel.. I don’t like to tone police how people express themselves, you know what I’m saying? There’s a lot of anger and there’s a lot of passion and there’s a lot of hurt in our community. And I think BAC tries to make sure that people all feel welcome at the table. And feel like they will be seen, heard and affirmed. And I feel like people feel like they won’t be attacked, necessarily. I mean, we’re gonna speak truth and we’re gonna ask honest questions but I think we do our best to foster an environment where everyone feels welcome, and I think people really respond to that. So people reach out to us all the time, wanting to work with us, wanting to fundraise for us, wanting to be partners, wanting to just do stuff for BAC because they see that we’re doing the work. And I think in general, we try to listen to everyone, we try to make space for everyone. You know, it’s a small organization, we don’t have a crew of over 40 people – I think it’s a solid 12 of us who do the work with BAC, so we have to be gentle with ourselves, because we’ve been doing this work for four years and now all of a sudden, there are hundreds of emails and calls and texts because people want to suddenly be a part of doing the work. Which is, you know, it’s a lot for a small organization of artists who are battling unemployment and trying to figure out how we’re going to eat and pay our bills. So I think what we do is just try to stay open, we try, if we can, to take every email, every call, every text. We make space for the people who hop into our DMs and are just looking to be a part of our organization. I don’t think it’s a very complicated thing, I think it’s just taking things one day at a time, one email at a time. The great part of what we’ve been doing is coalition building situation where we call all of the Broadway organizations that have been working to the table and say “Hey, Broadway Serves, you need to know about Bold Women. Bold Women, you need to know about Broadway for Racial Justice.” So that when these calls and emails come in, sometimes it’s like you know what, the work that you’re doing doesn’t necessarily align with BAC but we know three other organizations that you should reach out to. So I think that’s part of our relationship building, is not only fostering like who can work with BAC, but like how can we spread the love around because there are so many different organizations that are doing work for Broadway and advocacy and artists that people don’t know about. We foster relationships with organizations that we feel like, “oh we have a common theme, a common mission. We can partner together to be stronger.” But also, it’s like passing the baton to other organizations who are also doing the work. So that’s pretty much how it goes, it’s just a bunch of artists doing our best. [laughs] Really is! It’s a bunch of us fielding calls and emails. It’s a huge balancing act. It’s a lot of meetings, a lot of Zooms, a lot of emails but, I think we’re doing pretty good.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah. I spoke with an actor and singer recently who said she worries about whether pledges to make change are performative—if maybe some people and organizations and corporations particularly, are talking the talk, but may not be ready for, or even aware of, the challenges that real progress demands…
AMBER IMAN: Absolutely.
ELYSA GARDNER: …Have you been encouraged, generally, by how the theater community has responded? I’ve noticed there’s been lots of activity on social media and theater companies announcing programs and appointing staff to promote diversity, but has it been enough?
AMBER IMAN: You know, that’s such a great question and it’s so hard. Because the whole situation, honestly, is really disappointing and discouraging for Black artists. Because what it shows is that, y’all could’ve been doing this the whole time.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah.
AMBER IMAN: You could’ve been hiring people to do these jobs, you could’ve been hiring black people, people of color, you could’ve been focusing on outreach, there was nothing stopping you this whole time. And, at this point, we don’t know people’s intentions, we don’t know their hearts. A lot of people are just throwing money at the problem. A lot of people are signing a lot of big checks. A lot of people are doing social media pledges, and taking very cute selfies…
ELYSA GARDNER: [chuckles]
AMBER IMAN: And there’s no way to ever know if people are doing this out of the kindness in their hearts, because they listen and change, or because they just don’t want to get caught and called out. That’s the really unfortunate part of all of this, is everyday you look on Playbill and suddenly this big theatre company has hired a Black person to be an Associate artistic, and it’s like, you could’ve done that five years ago. So none of it feels authentic and genuine, if I’m being honest. It all feels performative. However, we have to start somewhere. And I think if we start opening these spaces up, and including more Black and artists of color in the conversations, We just have to cross our fingers and pray and close our eyes and hope that slowly but surely change will start to happen. It’s also why I am a huge believer in artists who are Black and of color coming together and creating their own work. There’s a part of me that’s like, we want to make sure all spaces are safe and equitable. If any young Black girl, twelve years old, has her eyes on Broadway, and she wants to work on Broadway someday, I believe we have to start doing this work now. We have to start rebuilding these organizations, tearing them down and rebuilding their infrastructures, because racism and misogyny and sexism is built into the foundations of all of these institutions and organizations. So I believe that’s part of our job, is to tear down this mess and build it from scratch, and build it on truth and honesty and inclusion and equity, of course. And then, artists of color and Black people need to pool their resources and build their own. People are often waiting on producers and “the green light” and the money. So, we have to start pooling our resources to support Black artists and artists of color who have shows they are ready to throw up on a stage. That just need the right funding, that just need the right eyes and the right support. So I believe it’s a two-way street. Because we’ll never know. We’ll never know if people have really had a change of heart. So we do our best to help them make their spaces more equitable, and then we go over here and we do our own stuff, we create our own work, because that is what’s most important. What’s most important is us, telling our own stories, with our own people, with our own money [chuckles], with our own families and friends. That’s the way we make sure that real change happens, I believe.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah. Well, that’s a pretty good segue to my next question, I wanted to ask you to tell us a bit about Black Women On Broadway. This, I believe, is an Instagram account you conceived, and started it a few months ago with the playwright Jocelyn Bioh and actor Danielle Brooks, and you launched with a Black Women in Theater Appreciation Day in late June, that featured some pretty starry names, among them Audra McDonald. How do you and Jocelyn and Danielle manage the account together, and create and curate material for it?
AMBER IMAN: Yeah, so this… COVID kind of turned things upside down. This was not actually how Black Women on Broadway was supposed to launch.
ELYSA GARDNER: Uh-huh.
AMBER IMAN: Essence, for the past thirteen years, has hosted the Essence Black Women Hollywood Brunch. And, for thirteen years I watched so jealously as all these beautiful Black women gathered in Hollywood once a year to just celebrate being Black and excellent. And we were always waiting, like “maybe they’ll come over and do it for Broadway. Maybe there’ll be an Essence Black Women of Hollywood brunch kind of situation.” And after all these years of watching, we were like Hmm. Guess we’ve got to do it ourselves. So our original idea, what we were planning to do before COVID hit, was launch our organization with the Black Women in Broadway brunch. And we had a 1,3,5 year plan laid out, because our organization, which is what it is going to grow to be, is founded on community, access and education. It’s just… Black women are amazing, and we want to gather as many Black women as we can to start creating a stronger sense of community because that’s, a lot of times, is what’s missing. We see each other at auditions, and we pass each other on the street, but to really get to sit down with other Black women and communicate, and collaborate, and create together doesn’t really happen. We also wanted to create opportunities for scholarship and mentorship because it’s about lifting as we climb, it’s about women who are seasoned and are veterans who are reaching back to kids who are in high school and college to start bridging that gap. Having conversations, learning from each other. So that was the whole idea, then COVID hit. And we were like “Oh god, what do we do?” [chuckles] Because before COVID, we had been talking with sponsors and looking for venues for our first brunch. And then I was like you know what? COVID, I think, has presented us a great opportunity to maybe build backwards. Maybe we take this time to establish our online presence, to build up our Instagram page, to start hosting events, to start giving Black women who are now spread out all over the country, a way to, via Zoom, via webinar, to start coming together and creating community and networking, just giving us opportunities to come together and just talk to each other, because that’s what we don’t do. So the idea to build BWOB as a digital platform, was kind of a spur of the moment response to COVID kind of ruining our plans. But the idea of just wanting it to be a place where you can just go and scroll and see Black women who work in theatre all over the world. From regional, to community, to Broadway, Off-Broadway, girls who are in high school, we just wanted a collection of faces and bodies so that Black women can start seeing themselves, because representation matters. Because we can do so much more than be Celie and Effie, because we have so many talents and skills, like I love that we decided to highlight stage managers, and people who play in the pit, and dressers, and wig designers, and just Black women can see that you can do so much. And that the first event, was just like we want to do something. We want to find a way to answer the calls of the community because I don’t believe in what I call creating in a vacuum. Before we plan any event, I always text 15 Black women and say, what do you need? What are you missing? What would you like to see more of? And that’s how we plan the first event, because Black women were like “we have no financial literacy,” “I don’t know anything about money management.” I was like well great, let’s have a financial 101 seminar. And someone was like “well now all of our auditions are self tapes.” Great, let’s have a self-tape webinar. It was just about listening to what the women in the community needed and responding. And that’s how we planned our first event, and the response has been overwhelming. We haven’t been an account for six months and we have over 6000 followers. The support is incredible. It’s brought so much joy. Jocelyn and Danielle and I, we have a group thread, where we are just.. we talk constantly and plan constantly, we all have access to the password for the IG account, so we post. You know, I’ll say something like “This is so and so’s birthday!” so I’ll take over and post, or Jocelyn will say “this is an event coming up!” We pass literally the baton back and forth. There are days where I wake up and I don’t know who posted, I’m just glad somebody did.
ELYSA GARDNER: [laughs]
AMBER IMAN: You know, we share because Danielle is a new mom, she’s planning a wedding, Jocelyn is writing seventeen thousand things, I’m doing a million things, but we find the way somehow to juggle and balance, and it’s really teamwork making the dream work. I’m so grateful for Danielle and Jocelyn and how they just pour into me, and they always have ideas, and we just really work together to make it happen.
ELYSA GARDNER: How and when do you remember first becoming involved in activism? You speak about it with such excitement, and you’ve clearly found spiritual sisters, and brothers I’m sure. Is that something you’ve always seen as part of your plan, activism, or was there a pivotal event or discovery or learning experience?
AMBER IMAN: No, I feel like most black artists are forced into artivism by just a need, just because. You know it’s, you see things happening, and you kind of just get sick and tired of the same stuff happening over and over, and you just get tired of feeling tired, and powerless, and hopeless. I’m born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, so very close to my parents who of course were involved in civil rights, and I remember as a kid, you know, going to Martin Luther King Jr’s house, and my mother was a member of SCLC, and the NAACP, so I think it’s kind of always been in my blood. Even stuff like Girl Scouts, that kind of teaches you awareness for your community and gives you an opportunity to make changes. Even as far back, I remember my mom taking me to feed the homeless when I was a kid. We were just always doing stuff in the community to help better the community, and I don’t think it was a part of the plan, it’s just how I was raised.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah.
AMBER IMAN: And after Broadway being a dream, I guess, for so many.. you get to Broadway and realize its not all it’s cracked out to be. And realize that a lot of people are silenced or ignored and invisible. And there’s just something in you that’s just like I can’t stand by and watch this. Like I don’t think I could sleep well at night or look at myself in the mirror, knowing that my colleagues and my peers are not feeling safe in their workplace, and are not feeling like their voices are being heard. So, I think it just came out of a time of like, “Yeah, I can’t stand by any longer, something’s gotta happen.” And I’ll figure it out as I go. I really think that’s kind of what the plan has been.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah, and does your activism inform the choices you make as an artist? I’m sure it must have an impact…
AMBER IMAN: Absolutely, yeah. I can’t say yes to projects that don’t feed or serve or challenge me. It’s very hard. You get a breakdown and you look at the creative team, and you’re like “this is a room of white people, and that makes no sense.” It affects who you say yes to, it affects who you say no to. There’s certain people who, the way that they operate in the Broadway community, I don’t want to be aligned with them, and a lot of the advocacy work has granted me access to rooms with some of these very high powered people and producers and I’m like, “yikes.” It’s just, I don’t want to work with this because it won’t make me feel good about myself. As a woman, as a human, as an artist, as a citizen, so yeah. It kind of narrows the pool of work [chuckles] I can do, but you know, I’d rather be able to sleep well at night, honestly, than just be collecting a check from somebody who doesn’t have visions or who doesn’t have views that align with mine. So yeah, it’s all a sacrifice, but at the end of the day, I just sleep better. I really do.
ELYSA GARDNER: And you’re a writer as well as an actress, so that certainly could provide a forum for addressing the issues and concerns that have propelled your activism as well. Do you see that, do you see writing becoming a more integral part of your career, as busy as you’ve been with acting roles?
AMBER IMAN: That’s a good question – Writing… Again, I don’t plan much, as you can probably tell.
ELYSA GARDNER: [laughs]
AMBER IMAN: Things just happen that propel me..
ELYSA GARDNER: You don’t have time to plan, it doesn’t sound like!
AMBER IMAN: [laughs] I feel like Nemo. I’m just in the ocean and if a current comes, I’m just like “okay, here we are!”
ELYSA GARDNER: [laughs]
AMBER IMAN: [laughs] That’s a lot of what it feels like. I did not start out to be a writer. I was doing a show that was… it was glitzy and glamoury and golden, and on the inside I was just depressed and I was just in a low place in my life, doing work that didn’t challenge me or feed me. And, I was like how can I take more control over my life and my narrative? Because, as artists, 90% of our lives is waiting. Waiting on somebody to call me, waiting on my agent to give me an audition or a callback, waiting on a producer to decide to do this show in this season, and it was like, wow, whether I eat or not is determined by… not me. [chuckles]
ELYSA GARDNER: Mhmm.
AMBER IMAN: And the older you get, it’s like “I don’t want this to be the rest of my life.” And I had been in New York for seven years and never done TV and film, and I was like maybe I really suck at TV and film? So I wrote my first short as honestly an experiment to see if I sucked on camera, really. It was not to be a filmmaker, it was not to win awards, it was just like an experiment – a very expensive experiment.
ELYSA GARDNER: [chuckles] I’ll bet.
AMBER IMAN: And I had a friend who listened to my idea for my short and was like “No no no, we’re going to produce this, because you need someone to walk you through this.” There’s a surge right now of black women in Hollywood or in theatre who have ideas and just need somebody behind them to guide them. So, Steve, my short, was an experiment that has turned into a huge blessing. Out of nowhere has won Best Comedy, Best Actor, and Audience Choice Awards just happened this weekend, we’ve been accepted into over 20 film festivals, and it kind of just changed the game for me, it kind of opened my eyes to the fact that I can do more than one thing. You know, when you go to school for theatre they teach you how to be an actor, they teach you how to audition well, but they don’t really teach you how to cope in the world, like how to really be an artist. And so, writing has kind of just opened my mind to the fact that “Oh I can write an album of music, I can write a children’s book. I can develop a TV show.” So it’s kind of been like therapy for me in a way. But also just a way to diversify my portfolio and diversify my mind. If Corona[virus] has given me anything, it is time and space and opportunity to really try, to just experiment with, you know – the stakes are low, nobody knows I’m writing things anyways, so I’m just in my apartment, just trying things. So it’s really been more for my spirit and my soul. It’s just opened me up to new possibilities and has given me more power and control over my own life and narrative. So I’m really excited just what can possibly happen if I just allow myself to try.
ELYSA GARDNER: Yeah, well sounds like it’s going pretty well so far, like you do not suck, in fact… [laughs]
AMBER IMAN: [laughs] Thank you!
ELYSA GARDNER: I don’t think that four years ago, when Broadway Advocacy Coalition was formed, anyone could have predicted how fraught, as fraught as things were then, how fraught this current year would be in terms of politics, in terms of COVID.
AMBER IMAN: Mhmm.
ELYSA GARDNER: Before you leave us, Amber, I want to ask, with so much division and so many things just so uncertain right now—in theater, in politics, in race relations, in public health—how do you stay focused and optimistic, if you do stay optimistic – you sound optimistic!
AMBER IMAN: [laughs] You know, COVID has really helped me to really strengthen my support system. I think leaning on family and friends has kept me going, getting out of bed in the morning. It’s really taught me how important it is to surround myself with people I love, who love me back, who there’s mutual respect and support. Who I can say “I just really need to not be alone today, can I come sit on your couch.” Like I think it’s those little things that have helped keep me going. It’s being gentle with myself, it’s eating well and trying to exercise. Like it’s really kind of those simple self-care things that have kept me optimistic. Kind of turning off Broadway for a minute, you know not looking at Playbill and BroadwayWorld every day. Just focusing on like the people in my life, because at the end of the day that’s what really matters, is family and friends, it’s friendships, it’s relationships. Those are the things that, when I’m unemployed, when I have no job, when I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills, they keep me alive, they keep me going, so I’m really grateful for my support system, I’m really grateful for my family. When March 12 hit, I went home to Atlanta to be with my family, I’ve been there since then, I only came to New York mid-September to kind of prepare my apartment to sublet it for winter. So just being able to go back home to Atlanta, Georgia and be with my family, and drive my Jeep in the country and roll in the grass, like that’s what’s kind of kept me going, so I’m really grateful for family and friends during this time.
ELYSA GARDNER: Well, I think we all are right now.
AMBER IMAN: Yeah!
ELYSA GARDNER: Well thank you so much for joining us, Amber, and continued good luck with all the great work that you’re doing on many different fronts. And we hope to see you back on stage soon, also!
AMBER IMAN: Me too! [laughs]
ELYSA GARDNER: You can learn more about Broadway Advocacy Coalition by visiting bwayadvocacycoalition.org, and you can follow Black Women on Broadway on Instagram at @blackwomenonbroadway.
And for all things Broadway, and to find tickets to your next show, visit BroadwayDirect.com. This podcast is produced by Broadway Direct and the Nederlander Organization with Iris Chan, Erin Porvaznik-Wagner, and hosted and produced by me, Elysa Gardner. Thank you for listening, and remember, it’s Only Intermission and we look forward to seeing you again on Broadway.
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