Today we’d like to introduce you to L. Stephanie Tait.
Hi L. Stephanie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I feel like mine is a typical story of someone in the arts. My true talent is saying yes to wildly different opportunities, so when I’m told no, I’m able to pivot as quickly as other people decide to give up and sit down. I started ballet and acting at a young age, quickly rolling in singing, writing, and all other areas of theatre and film. As an actor, I kept being told no to the juicy parts- I was “too cute” or they wanted me as the romantic lead instead of letting me cut my teeth on roles typically reserved for men. So I started directing. And when I kept being paired with male producers who said no to my vision because they “couldn’t see it” I started producing. And when that felt stagnant I started my podcast, Sisters of Sci-Fi, to bring focus to the immense amount of science fiction written by female and non-binary authors, while also platforming female and non-binary science communicators. And while battling a massive flare-up and diagnosis of Lyme, after a lifetime of being ridiculed and ignored by the medical community, I pivoted again and reclaimed both theatre and performing my own writing by saying yes to directing King Lear for Dawn Alden’s Radically Miscast Shakespeare series with the Porters of Hellsgate, and introducing a narrative element to Sisters of Sci-Fi with my radio play, Earth Crew 2042, and various other science fiction works of mine. Which is how I am now in the middle of a beautiful run of my production of Coriolanus with Porters of Hellsgate- a wild, sharp look into the political and social upheavals we are facing today through a 400 year old play of an almost 2000 year retelling of an over 10,000 year old story. Where the names and places are different, but the power systems and struggles are the same.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I can hardly remember ever not being in intense physical pain or having to spend large chunks of time in doctor’s offices. My diagnosis of Lyme didn’t come until I was 40, but the Lyme itself had taken root by what they think was age 6. My career in ballet was robbed from me by my chronic illness by age 20, after a life-changing foot surgery and the arthritis I’d had since I was 10. Paired with this is the experience many non-cis-white-men will recognize: being told no, being typecast, being demeaned, and being overlooked for having the audacity of knowing my art and voice mattered. That I deserved to be heard and seen, and so did everyone else.
What I did have, though, that is more unique than it ever should be, was consistently supportive parents. Who not only came to every show and said yes to all of my crazy projects and ideas, but also sacrificed so much to make sure I could do it all and do it in a way that didn’t compromise myself, my values, or my work. I am also immeasurably lucky to have such an unfailingly encouraging and collaborative partner of the last 12 years.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
It’s hard to say what I specialize in because I suffer from the same thing that all creatives, especially in LA, suffer from- we learn to do it all and be good at it so we can make things work and get them done. My biggest love is writing and directing stories that are world-building through characters that function best outside social norms. I love playing with expectations by taking what we think we know and tilting it just enough to make us all question (because I question it every time I work on something) what it is we are feeding and buying into. Even with something silly like my Earth Crew 2042, which on the surface seems like a fun 1970s sci-fi story, but is actually about the default colonizer mindset of the three leads (Stephanie, Brian, and A13x1s). How when plopped into another galaxy, they resort to violence, entitlement, and a feeling of superiority. Just as A13x1s proudly exclaims with that horrifying American White Western idiom, “shoot first, ask questions later.” I have multitudes more to learn and unlearn and each project I work on helps me deepen that process.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Being truthful, here, my best mentors were those outside of the arts because they lacked the gatekeeper mindset towards the arts. This is why I came to lean so heavily into mentoring as much as I do because I know how much harder it can be without it.
My small involvement in humanitarian organizations gave me the chance to see the most beautiful parts of humanity in the face of unfathomable darkness and see the effects of Western imperialism firsthand. Those who gave me the chance to participate in those experiences and mentor me in those areas of work and research taught me to approach and understand the artistic process differently. My advice is to choose the unconventional. To look to other human experiences that will challenge your sense of self in a healthy way, in a supportive environment.
My mentors in the humanitarian sectors have given me what I needed to make what I want to create.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sistersofscifi.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verthandistudio/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lstait
- Other: https://www.lstait.com/
Image Credits
Sisters of Sci-Fi images and logo, photograph of myself, Dawn Alden, Ahkei Togun, Michelle Grey, Dennis Gersten, Julia Manis, Abhimanyu Katyal, Renée Torchio MacDonals at the Radically Miscast Reading of Twelfth Night, photograph of me with my camera, photograph of me on the Coriolanus Stage, my headshot, as well as Coriolanus Poster by Brian Carroll.
BTS photographs of the Coriolanus War Scene filming production by Sheryl Scott.
