Meet Joan O’Dwyer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joan O’Dwyer. She and her team share her story with us below.

Please kick things off for us with some background on Joan’s story.
Joan O’Dwyer received her MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin at the turn of the century, living in Blackrock with her then-14-year-old daughter. They whiled away many pleasant hours going to classes and the theatre, traveling, learning how to bang on the bodhran, and watching each other’s naturally curly hair pouff and spring in the unnatural Irish humidity.

When Joan returned to Tucson, she temporarily forewent (foregoed?) writing to become the artistic director and brawn behind wilde playhouse, a theatre/gourmet fast food/espresso wine bar at 135 E. Congress. People always asked her: Why theatre? Why now? What the heck? Wha’s happening, dude? Wazzup? Wherefore art thou?

Well, Joan should have answered those questions, because she came to find that the little theatre was ahead of its times, even though everything about it was terrific and life-changing for her. She returned to writing and acting. Elliott’s, a sweet little bar with cool owners, is at that location now.

In 2015 Whitney Morton Woodcock, Esther Almazán and she founded Something Something Theatre to present modern plays from the canon and re-imagined classics with a goal of better-than-parity for women playwrights. See you at the theatre!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As a fledgling non-profit, we’re hampered by not being able to pay our cast and crew what they deserve. In a town with a ton of community theatre and more springing up perhaps hourly (What time is it now, huh?), the competition among companies for contracted employees which is what casts and crews are fierce.

Learning how to advertise and all the markets to advertise in, plus finding the ones best for you and how much they charge and if their target markets are totally in line with yours or slightly skewed off plus learning how to use all the new apps and what they charge too is very challenging.

Tell us more about your organization.
​Our mission statement is Something Theatre is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that strives to produce at least a parity of women playwrights season after season and to feature non-traditional casting. Our productions are plays from the 21st century canon and re-imagined classics. Realizing that audiences are an important element of theatre, we’re dedicated to increasing the numbers of thoughtful theatre goers with productions that are intellectually, emotionally and fiscally accessible.

This year, our fifth, 100% of our plays (all five!) are written by women. Over the years 72% of our plays were by women playwrights. We’re the only company in Arizona committed to present more women identified playwrights than men, season after season. We cast women in men’s roles and vice versa. We reject age-ism if someone can do the role, that’s enough.

We give away a potential 70 FREE tickets every play though Act One Culture Pass and drawings at each of our performances for two free tickets to the next play, plus each cast and crew member has two comps to give to friends. We’ve been doing these three things all along.

This year we’re offering $5 tickets to teachers and students to all our plays…ANY DAY, ANY PLAY.

As artistic director, I am most proud of the plays we produce each season, most from the 21st century canon, almost all of which are new to Tucson, most of which have been produced elsewhere (Chicago, New York, Podunk) to critical acclaim. Many have won awards.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t know.

Pricing:

• $25 GA, $20 seniors/military, $15 preview Thursdays, $5 teachers/students, any day any play

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SomethingSomethingTheatre.com
• Phone: (520) 468=6111
• Email: Info@somethingsomethingtheatre.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somethingtucson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/somethingtucson/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/somethingtucson
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/something-something-theatre-tucson
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR46xqLbapYet3jV_eUCavA

Image Credit:
Chris Schmidt, Joan O’Dwyer, Whitney Woodcock, James Pack

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