Meet Brenda Foley of The Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre in Tempe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brenda Foley.

Brenda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The story of The Bridge Initiative: In 2014, Tracy Liz Miller approached me and said she’d heard of a grant funding new art projects and would I be interested in going in on an application with her focused on amplifying female theatre artists? I agreed and we put together a pitch for The Bridge Initiative, saying we would hold a national contest for a new play, which would be the cornerstone event for two weeks of programming written by, directed by, and showcasing local female talent. We got a grant, did some fundraising, and within six months had presented our first play, “Anatomy of a Hug” by Kat Ramsburg, and organization was born.

We have since produced more than two dozen new play readings, including many world premieres, given four writers (Kira Rockwell, Alyson Mead, Susan Hansell, and Kat Ramsburg) development packages including casts, directors, dramaturgs, and public readings of their work, co-produced the regional premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s “The Revolutionists” at Tempe Center for the Arts where we are artists in residence and started an artist salon series produced and hosted by members of the community. In 2020, we are presenting our latest new play festival, developing a work called “Just Be” by trans non-binary playwright/director Maybe Stewart and producing our latest full production of “A Feminine Ending” by Sarah Treem.

My story: Son of a diplomat, I moved a fair amount as a child and my one constant across borders and language barriers was a ballet class and music. By high school, I was in ballet, choir, theatre troupes, and ultimately pursued a BFA in Musical Theatre at the University of Michigan. I moved to New York City after graduation and proceeded to work professionally in and out of the city for 14 years. I am married to clown/actor/director/educator Brian Foley who I met performing in summer stock theatre in the Catskills the summer after I graduated college. In 2011, when our daughter was 18 months old, we moved to Tempe for Brian to pursue his MFA in directing at ASU and our foot got caught in the door. In addition to serving as the producing artistic director for Bridge, locally I have performed with Arizona Theatre Company, A/C Theatre, iTheatre Collaborative, and others, as well as in indie films (including “Monsoon”, “Tombstone-Rashomon” directed by Alex Cox, “Pocketman & Cargoboy”) and a few commercials. I’m a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For me, a lot of the struggle has been the idea that I needed to fit into some kind of box, and not really understanding what that box is. I am a chameleon in all ways, with a diverse skillset on and offstage, and sometimes that means people don’t know what to do with me. So then I start to doubt myself, and it can be a vicious cycle. The older I get, the more my confidence grows. But I still suffer greatly when I lose out on a role I really hoped I could land, and I can spend full days in the fetal position licking my wounds before I feel able to put myself out there again.

I also struggle with fundraising. It is obviously a huge part of my “job” as an arts administrator, but I find it a challenge to ask for money.

Please tell us about The Bridge Initiative: Women+ in Theatre.
The Bridge Initiative specializes in amplifying women (and increasingly non-binary) theatre artists in the Phoenix valley, as well as others from across the country. We are known for hiring at least 50% women/non-binary artists in all of our offerings. And as we have worked to lift up underrepresented voices based on gender, we have realized that means also creating spaces for other non-majority stakeholders. These groups represent artists of color, different sizes, ages, and abilities.

We believe strongly that artists are professionals and deserve compensation so we have, from our inception, distinguished ourselves by paying those we work with at least a stipend for all publicly advertised work. (We have a few invite-only projects that are the exception). We pride ourselves on paying for people not things. Many theatre organizations in the valley at all levels from the community through those with million-dollar budgets spend the majority of their funds on sets and costumes and lighting equipment, etc. Bridge is the opposite; Our fully produced shows are selected in part because they have the potential to be produced beautifully without exorbitant production costs.

We are also developing a reputation for presenting quality work. Our standards are high and we want our audiences to know they can count on us to deliver.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
So many great ones but the first to come to mind was my best friend in sixth grade and I singing “Memory” in a church talent show, one of us wearing a light blue skirt/white blouse and the other a light blue blouse/white skirt, earnestly crooning, “I can smile at the old days, I was beautiful then,” at the age of 10 or 11. We had no idea how “wrong” that was which is why it was perfect.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bridgeinit.org
• Email: info@bridgeinit.org
• Instagram: bridge_init
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bridgeinit
• Twitter: InitBridge

Image Credit:
Brian Foley, Reg Madison

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