Starting in 2016, JAG Productions, a Black theater company based in the Upper Valley, hosted Theater on the Hill. It was a series of outdoor performances in Norwich.
The goal was to provide a space where Black and queer artists could share work that reflects and deconstructs racial, gender, sexuality and class hierarchies.
With JAG founder Jarvis Green at its helm, the theater company’s outdoor performances attracted large crowds and brought new donors to the company.
“Some of those kind of original visions of how this work can sort of be on this scale and in a very unlikely place — it confirmed the possibility,” Green said.
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But, like many not-for-profit theater companies in the U.S., support systems and financial scaffolding can change. In the past year, JAG lost its summer outdoor performance space and is back to raising money and partnering with smaller venues in the Upper Valley to put on its shows.
Now, after months of fundraising and planning, JAG has a new artist showcase series called JAG Underground, which debuts Saturday.
JAG Productions founder Jarvis Green spoke with Vermont Public’s Mary Williams Engisch about the series. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Williams Engisch: When the former Theater on the Hill space was no longer available, did you know that you wanted to regroup in some way?
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JAG Productions founder Jarvis Green
Jarvis Green: No, I didn’t. We were on the mountaintop, essentially. There was still like room to grow, but I was able to really see the appetite and also our potential. I’m a maximalist. So being able to be in that space with this grand stage, and having all of the space to gather people and food — it was definitely a fantasy that became a reality. When we got the news that they couldn’t host us anymore, and we don’t have any more information other than that, it was difficult. It was difficult.
Mary Williams Engisch: Well talk about this new program JAG Underground. Tell us what it is and what theatergoers can expect?
Jarvis Green: Yes, the not-for-profit theater is in serious trouble. There is so much strain on not-for-profit theaters, right now. The artistic director of the Long Wharf Theater, Jacob G. Padrón, they recently left their building after so many years. I think that there was like financial X,Y and Z’s, or whatever. Jacob’s idea was taking their work in the community, and partnering with spaces and stages.
That was kind of the inspiration for JAG Underground. JAG Underground was born out of this need for us to gather again. Also, to partner with venues across the Upper Valley to present our work. It doesn’t feel like it was created out of limitation. Although it was, there’s still a grandness.
Mary Williams Engisch: Jarvis, you created JAG Underground with this kind of different model —bringing in a new intimate style of theater into local Upper Valley venues. Tell us more about this season. What can we expect?
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Jarvis Green: There’s still a grandness about the artists that are coming to perform. They are very well versed, trained and have had extensive careers in commercial theaters. They have written and developed these personal stories and new work. I’m excited that I can give these artists a platfor while they’re still kind of balancing their artistic careers in the commercial theater, and have these kind of side projects that are in development in New York and other places. Now, they’re in a stage where they can say, “Hey, I’m ready to put this on its feet.”
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Tyrone Davis Jr. and director Henry Gottfried in Rehearsal for “The Lesson.”
JAG Productions
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Alex Joseph Grayson preforming his Cabaret, “Why Have I Never Heard Of You,” at 54 Below. He will be performing this piece in this season JAG Underground.
Bjorn Bolinder 2021 / JAG Productions
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Larry Owens of Emmy- Award winning Television show “Abbott Elementary” and Pulitzer-award winning Broadway Musical “Strange Loop.” His cabaret performance Sondheimia is a part of this season’s JAG Underground series.
JAG Productions
We’re starting with The Lesson, which is by Tyrone Davis, Jr. — a really incredible artist. He was in Waitress on Broadway, and he is actually in grad school right now to be sex educator.
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And he wrote this play about sex education, which was prompted from a teacher in New York. A child had asked a question about their body. Instead of the teacher giving a fluff answer — the teacher answered appropriately. The parents and teachers got up in arms about this response, and the teacher was fired for it.
Which is prompting us all to kind of ask these questions: What do you wish you were taught about sex? Or what do you wish you were taught in sex ed? He wrote this beautiful 60 minute play. It will be at the AVA Gallery for two nights.
Mary Williams Engisch: What do you hope JAG Underground grows into?
Jarvis Green: I think about Joe Papp a lot, the founder of the Public Theater in New York City. The city of New York gave the Public Theater and Joe Papp the current building that they’re in, on Astor Place — it’s a huge building — for $1 a year for 100 years. I think about what he did with that, and what is necessary to sustain.
I have this fantasy and dream that JAG will get a bone like Joe Papp did. The things that we could do if we had someone else, or something else to support our work. There’s already so many ideas and dreams, and I’ve laid them out and I look at them all the time. We need our community, our state to say, “No, let’s not just put it all on the company to do the work,” but seeing this work as something that the state, our community, really values and needs.
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The Lesson, written and performed by Tyrone Davis Jr. and directed by Henry Gottfried, will be performed April 20 at 7 p.m. and April 21 at 5 p.m. at AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, NH.
JAG Productions is an underwriter of Vermont Public.
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
HIGHGATE, Vt. (WCAX) – A Milton man was cited Thursday evening for running someone over and leaving the scene.
Vermont State Police say on the night of April 7th they received a report that 26-year-old Garret Gagne had been run over on Virginia Lane in Highgate.
When police arrived, the car that hit him had already left the scene. Gagne was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital, but his current condition is unknown.
After an investigation, police found that 30-year-old Connor Duquette was the one driving the car alleged to have hit Gagne.
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Duquette was cited with negligent operation with serious bodily injury resulting and leaving the scene of an accident. His court date is June 17th.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Do you need your teeth cleaned? Good luck getting an appointment any time soon. A lack of dental hygienists means some practices are not taking new patients and some say the shortage is the worst they’ve ever seen.
Chelsea Wells loves making people smile, but finding help to do so is like pulling teeth. “It’s a stress that you don’t realize, it’s just kind of always there,” Wells said. “That’s not good continuity of care.”
Wells is the only full-time hygienist at the UVM Medical Center’s oral and dental health facility. She says a second full-time position has been open for two years. “Right now, it’s just about patient care. Right now, people aren’t getting… I think we’re here looking out nine or 10 months,” Wells said.
The UVMMC dental office is currently not taking any new patients because of the hygienist shortage. Oftentimes, the dentists themselves need to do cleanings. “We believe that we’re really at a crisis level at this point in delivering and delivering oral health care,” said Dr. Justin Hurlburt, a UVMMC dentist president of the Vermont Dental Society.
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UVMMC’s office is known as a safety net facility for patients who have the highest need and often do not have private insurance or are on Medicaid. “We stopped taking new patients, which is which is scary for a safety net facility,” Hurlburt said. “A lot of dentists around town are doing hygiene now to try to keep up, to try to keep their practices going, and that takes away time from them being able to to do dentistry on their patients.”
The problem started during the pandemic. Hygienists either retired or left the profession and there were too few to fill the jobs. Wells says that’s because an oversaturation of hygienists a decade ago caused many new hygienists to leave the state. “There were a lot of people that in recent graduating classes, they didn’t stay here, they went elsewhere. So then, when all the people either retired or left the workforce, we didn’t have a lot of those new hygenists that we could pull from because they had moved elsewhere,” Wells said.
So how does the state bridge the gap? Vermont State University has the only dental hygiene school in the state. Usually, around 15 to 18 students graduate the program each year. Recently the program switched from two years to three years so they are graduating two classes of students. That means 34 students recently passed their clinical boards and are on their way to graduation, but that no students will graduate in the spring of 2025.
“We see these swings in the market every so often,” said VSU’s Heather Blair. “We were graduating hygienists that couldn’t find full time employment. They’d have to do two days in one practice, two days in another practice. And that was like that for a number of years. And now it’s shifted. It will shift again as we catch up.”
School officials say they don’t want to flood the market with hygienists again as it was pre-pandemic. However, dentists and hygienists we spoke to say they need help — stat. “We need to go to the grassroots and develop our own students here. And I don’t think we’re being successful at that right now,” Hurlburt said.
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The VSU program is also demanding. Many hygienists say it’s extremely difficult, which is why some students drop out. And when a student quits — even early into the education — the school cannot fill that spot because a new student would be too far behind.
“It takes a lot of study hours, a lot of reinforcement. You do have the support from the faculty as well. They’re not lying when they say it’s difficult, but I mean, I’m not a Mensa genius. I’m still in the program and I’m slated to graduate in May,” said Rita Veve, a graduating student.
Students are ready to go straight into a job after the program. Most students have jobs before even graduating. Many dental offices are also offering generous hiring bonuses on top of wages that can be upwards of $55 per hour or around $115,000 a year. “Right now, it’s a great time to be a hygienist because you can find employment in almost whatever setting you’re looking for,” Blair said.
In the meantime, dentists and existing hygienists will try to fill the gap in oral care. “We want to help everybody. we would help everybody if we could, but we just can’t.,” Hurlburt said.
Senator Peter Welch secured $5.9 million for the dental hygiene school, which will increase the number of students in the program, but that’s still several years down the line.
We live on a long, long dirt road. Cars go slow as the road can be a mess. Today I stopped as one of the neighbors drove by. We talked.
He is young, always lived here. One of the smartest people I know. Built his own house, runs an excavating business. Can fix anything. Our road is changing a bit – retirees moving in – like my wife and I. He commented – “Well, they don’t cost us anything.” I think he was referring to kids for the school system. But what I picked up on was the us/them orientation. “We” have lived here forever and “you/they” are the newcomers. Whenever I meet someone in Vermont they usually like to clarify that kind of distinction, “I have lived here for 90 years but I am not really a true Vermonter.” That kind of thing. You have to be born here to belong.
I do not mind being a “them.” But…
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Be mindful – maybe we come see each other as part of us.
Jon Heydenreich is pastor at Brattleboro’s Trinity Lutheran Church.
