Conversations with Tanya White

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanya White

Hi Tanya, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I moved to the Los Angeles in 2001 with, my then, eight year old child. What brought me here was a desire to write for television. I didn’t have any connections or even a handle on what writing for television meant, but I loved the medium and set about learning and getting a foothold in the business. I worked for the now defunct NATPE, met some beautiful people, took a lot of classes and raised my child. My theater background served me well and I continued to write and perform in storytelling shows around the city. I started working with Santa Monica Repertory Theater as part of WAVE FEST, short plays about the history of Santa Monica, and became the Artistic Director of the company in 2019.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t describe the road as smooth, but it was scenic. I definitely came up against some challenges, both personal and professional. At one point our family faced housing insecurity and had to rely on close friends for support. I was fired from a good paying job which ended up being the best thing that could have happened. Through all of it, it was art and creativity that kept me centered and focused. I got my Masters degree in creative writingI started doing a lot of storytelling shows in Los Angeles as well as teaching, acting and writing and I started working with Santa Monica Repertory, Theater which has been a creative home for eight years.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Working as an artistic director is about focusing the conversations we want to explore as a company. We produce meaningful plays and events that reflect what matters to our community. Santa Monica Rep is ensemble driven, so all of our programming is dependent on the capacity of company members. That means curating a season, or what we’re going to do in any given year, changes. It’s exciting. Myself and the managing director are responsible for grant-writing and we have a director of education that coordinates with schools to bring theater to the classroom. It’s definitely a team effort. Santa Monica Repertory Theater is known for bringing high-quality professional work that’s grounded in the Santa Monica community. I’m most proud of our last playreading festival, plays written and directed by women, that we produced in association with Highways Performance space. It was a great collaboration and set the ground work for us to cultivate more relationships in the Santa Monica community.

What’s next?
We are celebrating our fifteenth year creating theater in Santa Monica. We’re looking forward to our reading series this summer and we plan to start teaching classes for adults, both professional artists and community members with an interest in acting. Everything we produce is free to attend with a suggested donation, so money is never a barrier for people to attend the theater, of course programming still costs money to produce and we are ramping up our fundraising this year. We’ve got great momentum and our goal is to produce a three event season, classes and more collaboration with other arts organizations in the city.

Pricing:

• Free with suggested donation

Contact Info:

• Website: https://santamonicarep.org
• Instagram: @santamonicarep
• Facebook: santamonicarep

Image Credits
personal photo – Halline Overby