Today we’d like to introduce you to Daisy Tichenor.
Daisy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up with an improviser mother and a father who ran a traveling theatre company. I was touring as the little kid backstage hanging out in the dressing room with my family before I ever did theatre myself. One time the stage manager, a beloved member of my dad’s team, let me help handing out props during the show; I felt important and helpful and I loved that feeling. I live to be like the cool people I idolize, and I was lucky to go to a high school where driven students were putting on shows with their friends. I produced, directed, and acted in everything from Dickens and Shakespeare to reenactments of SNL sketches. It was there I worked on my first new work and found out that workshopping new plays AND producing classics is as simple as harnessing the power of a community that has a desire to do and a willingness to play. It wasn’t always easy, but it was mostly fun. I always look back at the chaos fondly. I like to think that having made mistakes running a production company in high school helps me run one well now. I’m infinitely grateful to the artists I learn from, and proud of the communities I grow with. These feelings continue to be true at USC.
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?
I count myself incredibly lucky, and especially now, grateful for my own health, my family’s health, and the way they’ve put my education first. They worked hard to put me in situations that would both challenge and support me. I used to be someone who did anything and everything out of sheer enjoyment and a stubborn refusal to pick one path/activity/interest. I’m grateful to my past self for pushing her limits while always putting my friends first. I had to find a balance there, and have appreciated the space college has given me to explore my art. And yet, I still gawk at people who know what they want. It’s taken me my whole life to find my voice, and I still have to tell myself I have something worth saying.
I truly credit my friends for supporting me during all the self doubt and long winters in New England. I owe my belief in myself to the women and artists around me. After one particularly challenging rehearsal process for a three person show, I’d begun to doubt my own abilities and felt unsuccessful. All it took was the laughter of my stage manager and friend considering my fears ridiculous to let the doubt melt away. She was what many people have been to me, and I try to be for other people, the pat on the back or squeeze of the hand everyone needs.
Coming into adulthood at this moment, with the onslaught of tragedy and corruption, and especially with the current threats to democracy and health posed by white supremacy and COVID-19, I’m happy I got to go through a youth colored by coming of age, finding my people, and learning about myself. There were plenty of fears and doubts, and will surely be more, but I find myself more concerned with the responsibility I have to prioritize fighting systemic problems within my community.
Please tell us about Brand New Theatre.
I run Brand New Theatre, an Independent Student Production company at USC that produces entirely student written work. In a typical, non-COVID year, we produce a festival of One Acts in the Fall and a full-length New Work in the Spring. Over my time with the company, we’ve grown into a year round resource for writers, accepting writing submissions and returning edits from our Literary team. From there, we offer most writers the opportunity to hear their finished scripts aloud by organizing a reading. We understand that the work moves forward when it meets other people. We’ve worked with pieces that began as the first attempt at a first scene and ended up fully realized and successful premieres. Our projects are student-driven and student executed – and we believe that making theatre should be as fun as it is chaotic – from the first read-through to the final bows. There’s no other god we serve besides the work. We embrace the risks of producing student-written plays, and we believe in the talent of this community.
Every member of our board thinks that the work is worth doing, and that the most growth will come from collaborating at every step of the way. Our board is a powerhouse group of artists dedicated to fostering a space where creation can and will flourish. If this pandemic has been a test, I’m more proud than ever of how BNT has stepped up. We came together right before school was sent online last spring and completed a two weeks tech process in three nights – giving our Full Length its premiere. That night was also the last true night of theatre any of us had before this began. I think about how none of our team even flinched when we decided to rush tech and open. Moving forward this Fall, and pivoting as best we can, we are producing a Fright Festival of new short films. We’ve never done something like it, but we’ve also never had to, and we’re already working on a similarly COVID safe film festival on a larger scale for the Spring. If there’s a group I feel confident can handle the curveballs this year has thrown, it’s BNT.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’m looking forward to navigating the world as a working artist. The dream, as it is for many, is to continue working on projects I’m passionate about with people I respect. I think the multi-hyphenate artist can offer their skills in myriad ways, and I hope to be able to continue writing, acting, directing, and producing. I hope that after this, people are eager for the catharsis of live theatre and gathering together. I’m looking forward to stopping climate change, creating an economy that values human lives and not property, and seeing a drastic change in the way this country operates. I’m looking forward to voting for AOC for President. Until then, I’m just working on being financially independent enough to get a dog. I think big changes are coming, they seem to never stop. I’m more focused on making sure I can handle them than I am on predicting what they will be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brandnewtheatreusc.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @Brandnewtheatre
- Facebook: @BrandNewTheatre
Image Credit:
Steven Vargas, Sevina Topalska
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