I believe live performance as creative expression is one of the most powerful builders of understanding, community, resistance, self-esteem, connection, and hope, and has the capacity to profoundly change its observers, often when they’re least expecting it.
During my many years staffing Rhode Island Teen Institute, a 5-day overnight leadership program, we would stage a talent show on our last night at the camp, and this is what inspired me to co-found the monthly Sweet Little Variety Show (SLVS) in 2010. I’ve produced over 150 well-attended shows since, never intending to be Providence’s best kept secret, but never reaching for a metaphorical megaphone. I’ve been the lone producer for seven years now, booking paid live acts — about seven per show, 5-25 minutes each — including musicians, comedians, dancers, poets, illusionists, performance artists, burlesque performers, filmmakers, storytellers, and more. I manage the door and finances, prep the host and sound engineer, interface with all venue staff, update our website and Facebook, and coordinate the run of show, all while appearing to be a gracious host serving free homemade cookies (thanks to my wife who bakes them).
The SLVS motto: “Since January 2010, the Sweet Little Variety Show has supported local musicians, poets, magicians, comedians, dancers, actors, filmmakers, and many more, as a monthly feminist, anti-racist, queer-positive, and body-positive cabaret.”
My WHY for the Variety Show has become more clear since November: provide space for a community of misfit artists to gather, experiment, thrive, and pretty much subvert S.C.W.A.A.M.P., though this class has inspired me to better connect with differently-abled performers and rekindle past connections with organizations servicing neurodivergent performers.
SLVS fully embraces Ken Robinson’s 3 guides to human flourishing: Diversity, Curiosity, and Creativity. It’s a place where creatives showcase their passions, premier new works, take risks, and workshop pieces. Dance instructors enroll students and make SLVS their recital. Playwrights test out scenes. Songs are debuted. Comics take some risks, and so on. There are some flops, but patrons know if they aren’t into something, wait 10 minutes for something completely different.
Performers are paid $20 and a drink ticket, so hopefully the night is not a financial loss for them. My modest earnings don’t amount to a part-time job, though financial sustainability and raising artist pay are goals. The beauty of this show is that there’s very little pressure on any one person to sell tickets; if everyone brings a couple people, we’ve got a decent house. While we’ve managed to maintain a crowd of regulars through 15 years, I sense stagnation and personal burn out on the horizon, but believe the show can reach a higher potential if new life is breathed in, particularly from younger performers and patrons.
Ostensibly this target audience prefers to find event information online in interactive, visual formats. A paper survey I conducted over a few shows in 2023 included multiple requests for an Instagram presence. The promotional aspect of producing does not come naturally to me, and I’m a literal, not visual, learner, with no graphic design experience, nor a decent camera phone, or time to spare. I’ve allowed my tech aversion to hinder SLVS’s ability to connect with people; it’s time I remove some distance and try to meet people where they’re at.
In identifying as a “techno-traditionalist” falling somewhere between “augmentation” and “modification” on the SAMR scale, I recognize my avoidance and skepticism toward new digital tools paints me a Prensky “digital immigrant.” To my surprise, this class has afforded me the time, support, and inspiration (Bogad, CURR 501 slide deck) needed to confront my reluctance to explore the digital tools that I’ve sensed could be game-changers for SLVS outreach.
First things first, I had to let go of my pride for never having had an Instagram account. I created an account. Check! I had contacted two collaborators to help gain access to the SLVS account that we’d been locked out of. (We’re also locked out of our X/Twitter, but will let that lie, for now.) After two-step authentication and resetting the password, I was in. We’ve got 343 followers. Maybe that’s good? I responded apologetically to messages long ignored. I updated the profile pic to the “new” logo someone designed years ago. Finally, I created a post — for an upcoming special event, but the ticket link was ridiculously long. I tried out Tiny URL, which was easy as pie, and pasted it into my first post. Done! I scrolled around, hearting this and that, and found that the algorithm presented me with a lot of masc drag. How curious!
In considering the question posed in class: What do I waste time doing? I thought of how many times I’ve recycled this one Canva graphic that a designer provided to serve as a Facebook event cover photo template (landscape orientation), and tried to configure it to different shapes unsuccessfully. I’m always wishing it would magically resize to 8.5” x 11” so I could print flyers. So in class, I explored many AI tools like ChatGPT, Pixlr, and Pokecut, and they all failed, either because I didn't have some other necessary software account, like InDesign, or what was produced was laughably distorted or incorrect. When Molly introduced Notebook LM, I tried it out, appreciating that you can control all of the source material the AI draws from. I dropped in one photo and a show lineup and prompted it to generate a flyer with a description. I refined my prompts, and this turned out somewhat better, but I couldn’t fix the image distortion, so I never rendered a usable product. This portion of my tool exploration didn’t result in a time-saver. Ah well! This is a problem for future me (or whomever I enlist to help).
Before this class I was utilizing only these free online tools for SLVS:
Google Workspace for the website (Blogger), email, Docs, Sheets, and Drive for photo/video storage;
MailChimp for a monthly newsletter to a list of 350+;
Facebook to create events and connect with 1100+ followers;
Venmo for non-cash ticket sales;
Canva - a Facebook cover design template; and
Youtube for pandemic pre-recorded-then-weaved-together online shows. (Strangely lucrative, but way too much work.)
In considering whether I could better utilize these tools, I decided most were working fine as is, but that I could get more out of Google. Way back, a volunteer set up the SLVS domain and website, and I never knew it was Blogger, or that Blogger was Google, until I came back to RIC in September and Lesley had me create a blog on the first day of class. Surprisingly, I was already logged in as SLVS! She mentioned the ability to add “gadgets,” but that went right over my head, and I never looked into what features could be changed. This semester, when Lesley mentioned the ability to add gadgets to our blogs, it got me thinking. I populated a Google Calendar with SLVS events (in dark mode since we’re trying new things), and, after some perseverance, was able to add a Google Calendar gadget so that site visitors can integrate SLVS events to their own Google Calendar.
I was also able to make a bunch of improvements to the website/blog. There was unnecessary information generated by features that I cleared out. Astonishingly, I correctly edited the html code(!) to fix misaligned elements — with help from Google and AI searches, of course.
We only get a few email sign ups on our paper email list kept at the door on show day. Inspired by Lesley’s “exit slips,” I created one for SLVS using a Google Form that collects emails (mandatory) and patron feedback (optional). Then I generated a QR code leading to the exit slip using QR Code Monkey (free and easy with no account) for table flyers. I’m willing to bet we’ll collect many more emails going forward. Maximizing Google Workspace felt like a great use of time!
My SLVS wish list was long and dusty when I started this class, and it felt great to actually tick off several items. To ensure I don’t lose momentum, this new list addresses some items from my brainstorm post:
Facebook: Make a Reel.
Instagram: Try out hashtags. (#pacing myself)
Hootsuite could help mitigate my social media aversion by allowing scheduled posts to multiple sites at once. Make an account. Test it out.
Flyers: either pay for Canva Pro or a human designer. Graphics can’t remain a roadblock.
Paid internship: Still on the table if they have graphic design skills!
Videos: Don’t wait too long to share the footage I just got back from the filmmaker!
Live streaming: Need to discuss this with filmmaker Jay.
Tourism: Submit events to online calendars like ProJo, Arts, Culture + Tourism, PVD & Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, etc. (like I used to).
Pursue connections with ProvSlam, RI Latino Arts, RI Black Storytellers, PVD Improv Guild, and differently-abled performers.
Artist communications: A Google Form might streamline the booking process, however, performers have personal communication preferences (texts, email, DMs) and unknown access to technology. “Meeting them where they are at” may mean I continue to chase down straggling information until show time, but it’s manageable.
Photography: Providing excellent photographs would be a major value add for performers and SLVS.
What else would add value for performers?
Maintain skepticism of AI. (Adding this one so I have something to check off.)
Keep community building at the heart of SLVS.
