Elena Velasco is a theatre artist whose work encompasses many aspects of performance, production, activism and education. She firmly believes that through a redefined actor-audience relationship and a “multilingual” approach to performance, theatre can be the catalyst for change in society and identifying intersections in humanity. During her 25 year career she has devoted her time equally between performance and residency work. She has taught theatre through the lens of community engagement and education throughout the DC metro area, with a focus on Title 1, immigrant and marginalized populations. Ms. Velasco is the Artistic Director and Co-founder of Convergence Theatre, a multidisciplinary performance collective that creates work centered on social justice. She is also an affiliated artist with Óyeme, Imagination Stage’s collaborative project that responds to the surge of refugee children fleeing violence from Central America who have arrived in Montgomery County. Her directing and choreography credits include Convergence Theatre, Synetic Theater, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Keegan Theatre, Imagination Stage, Mead Theatre Lab, Young Playwrights’ Theater, Capital Fringe, Source Theatre, Discovery Theater, Catholic University and the Kennedy Center’s New Visions New Voices Festival. She has choreographed for Avant Bard, Theatre J, Mosaic Theatre Company, Keegan Theatre and Catholic University. Ms. Velasco is a member of SAG, AFTRA, and AEA and has performed at the Kennedy Center, Theatre Alliance, Discovery Theatre, Imagination Stage, Signature Theatre STAGES, and in several films, commercials, and TV shows. She currently serves as the Co-Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and has provided consultation for EDIA in theatre programming for organizations such as Theatre Washington, Women’s Theatre Festival of North Carolina, Gandhi Brigade, and Southeastern Theatre Conference. Ms. Velasco is the theatre production coordinator and an assistant professor of theatre arts at Bowie State University.
Interview Questions:
Question #1 What would you say is your directing style?
Helena considers her style very collective and she likes to make the space equal for collaborators. She believes a horizontal structure is more encouraging for creativity of all people involved. She considers herself a devising collaborator, even more so when the projects she works on for 6 month to two years. Some examples of that, when working with actors is to come in with statements and universal questions, ask them to talk about the moment before instead of telling them what was the moment before. Another point Elena talked about was how to share her visions she has to help the communication and the aesthetic she sees, but also leaving room for others’ visions.
Question #2 What do you expect for the DMV theater after the pandemic?
Elena hopes that the community commits to a more diverse style of performances, greater acceptance, willingness to learn what is necessary. The idea of that already exists but not always there is a commitment to actually do it. She also expects a little of a step back, just like any progress in life, there is sometimes a backlash.
Question #3 If you were to pick between professional and academic theater to work with next season, which one would you choose and why?
She said Professional, because she networks her students into the professional world, and when she is just in the academic world it’s harder to connect those dots.
Question #4 How to use theater to discuss society problems?
Theater is ihanterly political, the human being is a political being. Elena says we can’t separate the two, so the real question becomes, how to discuss society problems effectively in the theatre?
She believes it by engaging the audience directly, a lot of theater lately the audience seats back and watches, instead of engaging. So she always asks the question: How to engage them? When she starts a new project. Can we have them participate on stage? Can we have a saying at the end asking them, what they are gonna do now in the world with that information/learning experience they just had?
Question #5 How to utilize theater performances to bring awareness to immigrant and marginalized populations?
Communities are formed by people that have the same background, or same experiences and struggles, and whoever is outside of that community may not fully understand these topics. So theatre has the duty of bringing awareness to that. Working with undocumented people in the USA, Elena learned how Americans have no idea how the visa processes work and it is not as simple as “go file for a visa” and everything else that comes with that. So showcasing the stories of the marginalized communities and honoring them is part of the process of accepting and understanding them.
Question #6 In the DMV area we have people from all over the world with different backgrounds, how to make a safe and creative space for everyone to collaborate together?
Recognizing that people have different backgrounds, and then start making safe spaces for people that have the same background, not to exclude anyone, but people tend to be more open and feel safe in spaces with people that share their struggles. Then after that we can open a bigger space bringing those little ones together.
Question #7 What is different about directing a show and choreographing for a show with another director?
Varies by director, Elena works horizontally and sometimes she has to work with directors that prefer a vertical structure. In that case she has to adapt to their vision and do her best to collaborate as much as she can without stepping on boundaries.
Question #8 Is there anything from your background or research that you feel specifically helped you to understand and be an advocate for immigrants and marginalized populations?
Yes for sure, Elena is the daughter of two Immigrants from Peru. Being inside of the community she could see and live through the challenges of her family and friends. She could see/understand what people don’t see or don’t talk about and why, and how hard it is sometimes to bring awareness to the communities. Elena does a lot of work with immigrants through their experience process, drama therapy, and more.
Question #9 What is the importance of teaching theater in public schools?
Not just theoretical theater but movement is very important. Children form their identity at home and at school, sometimes at school even more. Study of movement creates confident kids, it makes them trust their imagination, encourages them to take creative risks, teaches them empathy and mostly, teaches them to embrace your body and value their body, which is different than everyone else.
Question #10 How is the importance of having a broad background in theater and understanding about society minorities when building curriculums for theater courses?
Elena thinks that to build a good curriculum you need to cover all the disciplines of theater. You should be able to speak all the languages, technically (lights/sound etc) and humanly, meaning that you need to advocate for minorities and for that, you need the knowledge of what minorities mean and how we can help each one, because they have different challenges and needs.
Question #11 How important is it for you to have an intimacy director to work with in a theater performance?
It is important that anyone involved in a production be aware of intimacy, boundaries, and the ideal would be that everyone had knowledge of that so we maybe would not need a specific role for that. One thing that is challenging is to have the budget for an intimacy director, and the majority of the productions ended up not having them. With that, Elena encourages all the directors and actors to study and put in place practices for themselves and others when they see that there is a need for that.
Question #12 Is there anything that you learned throughout the years that every performance should have, but not always they do (because of budget or just not having the knowledge that it is needed)?
Intimacy director and marketing team.
Question #13 What is the importance of teaching kids Shakespeare in school?
Elena believes that Shakespare is very important for developing emotions and how to describe or deal with them. She thinks nowadays the schools lost a little bit of the reason why they teach Shakespare, it should be performed not read! It is a hidden language, and understanding, paraphrasing, following the rhythm etc, teaches a lot about our own emotions and life in general. How to analyze Shakespeare can help children to learn how to analyze bigger problems in life in the future.
Question #14 What is one thing (ritual/exercise/thought) that you always have in rehearsal that you think helps actors in their process?
Stretching and movement exercises in the beginning of the rehearsal. Connecting the breath with the body. Elena said she is a big yoga fan and she tries to incorporate some movements and exercises into her rehearsal process. Also she finds it helpful to give space to everybody for a check in, make sure everyone is in balance and present.
Question #15 What advice can you give to an aspiring director in the DMV area?
Do not wait to get hired to start your career. Create your own content, don’t be afraid of reaching out to people for help, go out to networking events, go watch master classes and meet people. Theater is all about the community.