Theater as Social Enterprise

Economic life could not have looked more bleak for residents of Colquitt, a southwest Georgia town in early 1991. Many residents lost their jobs after a sewing factory and five family businesses shut down. But Colquitt residents refused to wave a white flag. The non-profit Colquitt/Miller County Arts Council jump-started an effort to resurrect the town’s financial dignity by instituting a profit-generating theater venture.

Thus was born Swamp Gravy, an ever-changing original play based on the real-life stories of Colquitt-area residents and adapted for the stage by a local playwright. “We’ve had some strong leaders in this town who refused to let Colquitt become a statistic,” says Jennifer Traywick, the council’s executive director. “It’s been our mission statement from the beginning that (Swamp Gravy) was to raise economic development, sustain itself and Colquitt and empower individuals in the process.”

But Colquitt had another problem to address as well: racism. The railroad tracks literally dissected the town into two racial groups: African-Americans live on what’s been called the “bottom”, with whites in the “top”. It was the belief of community members Joy Jinks and Richard Geer that community theater could feasibly be a means through which the town’s economic and racial problems could be addressed. Jinks favored a theatrical effort celebrating local history and flavor; Geer envisioned it being ongoing – with a new script and original music written each year.

As a result Swamp Gravy made its debut in 1992. The nationally-renowned theatrical effort is now dubbed the “Official Folk Life Play of Georgia”. Arts council board members were somewhat reticent about its ability to achieve its goal before launching the play, however. Members decided to take the risk nonetheless.

Traywick doesn’t believe that Swamp Gravy is the panacea to solve all of the town’s racial problems. “But I think there’s a better working relationship because you are together as a team (onstage),” she says. “Both groups come to the theater not knowing exactly what to do, so they’re learning together. Everybody is required to be there during rehearsals and do their part.”

The theater becomes a level playing field, Traywick says.“That makes a difference,” she points out. “It doesn’t matter what color you are, what age you are – even the children are held to the same responsibilities of the adults.”

When people first gathered on stage together, healing began to take place through respect for each other’s stories, says Traywick. “This is about our town and our people; when you tell a story, you have to put everything else aside to give respect to that story and to the people who told it and that takes time and effort,” she says.

The original plays reflect a cornucopia of true town stories, encompassing the stories of fiery Baptist preachers to hunting and fishing expeditions to family tales and firefighters’ challenges. During the first year, an elementary school auditorium was the site for Jinks’ and Geer’s first produced sketches. Two years later, the play was moved into Cotton Hall, a former cotton warehouse abandoned following the destruction of the area’s cotton crops by boll weevils. It had to that point been used as a dirt-floor storage facility for old junk cars and other items.

Geer envisioned the site’s potential for a theater. “It’s located right off the town square and the whole town pitched in - including prison laborers - and cleaned out the warehouse, piece by piece, raising money to pay for it as they went along. They got a concrete floor, air-conditioning, and plumbing,” notes Traywick. The 9,000 square foot Cotton Hall is now considered a state-of-the-art theater.

Swamp Gravy is so successful that it draws 40,000 tourists to the town each year – some from as far away as Virginia and Mississippi - which is 10 times Colquitt’s population. It is the city’s fifth-largest employer. The stage has become a “great place for social interaction” between groups of people, Traywick says. “They come from different family backgrounds and financial backgrounds, but they all come together for a common purpose, which is to do Swamp Gravy for the town.”

The volunteer cast of 100 includes a high school principal, business owners, police officers, firefighters, teachers, doctors, nurses. The cast has ranged in age from infants to the elderly. The 20 full-time and 40 part-time staff members are paid and work in administration, finance, box office and secretarial in all of the Colquitt/Miller County Arts Council endeavors.

Swamp Gravy has spun off other businesses in town, such as the Tarrer Inn – a bed and breakfast and restaurant – and a retail store, Market on the Square, a mini-mall of vendors of antiques, arts and crafts. All accounting for those endeavors is run through the arts council.

Additionally, the operation includes the New Life Learning Center, an after-school and summer children’s theater center. “It’s a very unique organization to have,” Traywick notes. “A restaurant, a hotel, a children’s art center, a retail store and a theater.” The Colquitt/Miller County Arts Council had depended upon grants and volunteers until after Swamp Gravy began, when the first staff member was hired.

“Swamp Gravy is the engine that keeps everything else running - people come into town, eat in your restaurant, shop in your shops, there’s a place for your kids to go after school - all those things come together to make it work,” Traywick says.

The art council’s budget is $2.2 million and 90 percent of the revenues go back into the town through paying staff, purchasing theater supplies and supporting its other businesses, Traywick says.

The arts council continues to get grants as well. The U.S. Department of Education this year provided about $314,000 a year to run the children’s theater program in the last of a five-year grant as the program now becomes self-sustaining through its fee-based services. It recently became licensed as a day care center and thus receives child care funding. The Georgia Department of Human Resources gives the program grant money for the children’s after-school program.

However, Swamp Gravy enables the arts council to rely mostly on earned income. Earned income from all of the Swamp Gravy-related endeavors ranges from 60 to 70 percent annually of the $2.2 million budget, of which approximately $200,000 comes directly from Swamp Gravy.

While there is some corporate sponsorship – the Coca-Cola Company, for example, donated money to help renovate Cotton Hall and Georgia Power has provided funding as well - it does not affect the productions Swamp Gravy chooses to mount, says Traywick.

Swamp Gravy is performed twice yearly for two months total. To utilize Cotton Hall throughout other months, the arts council brings in professional shows- such as ‘A Southern Christmas Carol’ and ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ - with paid actors.

“You can wear out your volunteers in a town of 2,000,” Traywick points out. “They spend four to five months a year in practice and rehearsal, so asking them to do another couple of months can be pretty exhausting.” Nonetheless, theater-goers have not expressed a preference for professional shows over the volunteer Swamp Gravy productions, as is evidenced by Swamp Gravy’s continued success. Perhaps it’s because Swamp Gravy touches people at their core beliefs on how each person affect another’s life - onstage according to a script as well as offstage, Traywick notes.

Other than the financial benefits Swamp Gravy has brought to Colquitt, the theater production has had more far-reaching effects: the once-bitter racism that tore the two racial groups apart has been replaced by empathy and understanding through their cooperative work onstage. And it’s not just racism that’s being addressed, but other biases as well.

Case in point: Swamp Gravy’s stage was not wheelchair-accessible, yet one cast member was in a wheelchair. “She always had to be on the bottom floor of the stage,” says Traywick. “This year, the play was written so she could make it to the top of the stage. A temporary ramp was built for her to get to the top of the stage in hopes that we could get a permanent ramp.”

That cast member’s experience symbolizes the struggles many people have in their own lives, Traywick says. “They may not be in a wheelchair, but they have other challenges in life,” she says. “But I think (other cast members) have empathy for her, knowing how important it is to be at the top of the stage. The story in the play is her story: it’s not necessarily to get to the top of the stage, but to get somewhere that she had never been able to get to before. She does that in the play and I think it was a real eye opener for the cast.”

Other divergent groups that have been brought together on stage through Swamp Gravy are men and women, the young and the elderly, those of financial means and those with few. “It’s important that all stories are told, not just one group of stories,” says Traywick. “The characters are of all races and backgrounds and they have an importance to the play. That gives people ownership of their story and being able to share that with other people, they want to be involved in that process.

“Many of the people in the play give their own stories – it’s a collaboration,” she adds. “They have their characters and it goes along with black, white, young, old. It’s important for the young people to be able to tell their stories also so that they feel a part of the process. They are our future, so we want to make sure that they feel open enough to tell their stories.”

Indeed, “swamp gravy” is a local term used to describe a dish created from the drippings after frying fish, into which a variety of ingredients are added, such as tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and whatever else is on hand. Traywick says everyone is accepted for a part in the cast, despite the fact that there are try-outs. “We have a joke that if you put a mirror under their nose and it fogs up, they’re in the play,” Traywick quips. “Anyone who wants to participate is incorporated. If a child is too small to have a speaking part, we’ll have him doing something on the set.”

Through the process, locals have learned much about high-quality theater. The arts council allocates some funding to pay professional directors, playwrights and choreographers to work with the volunteer cast. Swamp Gravy has not only spun off its own endeavors, but others that – while not related to the organization through finances or management – are joined to Swamp Gravy through its purpose.

One such endeavor is the Henny Penny Video/Television Production Company, also based in Colquitt. It’s a non-profit organization that trains disenfranchised youth in various sectors of the video/film/television industry. It has the largest sound stage in the tri-state area of Georgia, Florida and Alabama and is in the process of filming its first movie.

“Some of the people involved with Swamp Gravy always encourage people to move here; we’ve become an arts magnet. Henny Penny Video/Television Production Company is a spin-off of community people developing their own business. This little town has a lot of heart and spirit and they’ll make it work,” says Traywick.

As for Swamp Gravy, it’s not always easy to get 100 volunteers willing to give their time – and their passion - to be on the same page, says Traywick. “You’ve got to have strong leadership to help move those folks in the right direction, have some structure in place and have professionals deal with it,” she notes. “Sometimes it’s easier for an outsider to give you a suggestion than it is for one of your own.”

Traywick concedes that there is a learning curve in a non-profit arts council operating a for-profit theater venture. “We’re not making big oodles of money, but we are holding our own,” she says. “In the future, we hope to make a larger profit. It’s a real challenge to keep up those businesses when Swamp Gravy is not going on - that was one of the reasons for incorporating the professional productions.

“Also, when Swamp Gravy started in the beginning, it was so hard to get tickets,” Traywick says. “It got to the point where people wouldn’t even try anymore. By having things at Cotton Hall all the time, people are getting the message we have tickets to more things.” Swamp Gravy’s model is so successful it has attracted the attention of researchers at the Center for Creative Community Development (C3D) at Williams College who have analyzed the economic impact on Miller County of the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council, which includes Swamp Gravy, the Tarrer Inn, and after-school educational programs.

They found that the expenditures of the Arts Council - combined with the impact of visitors to Swamp Gravy performances - resulted in an economic boost for the local economy of $3.1 million in 2005. The researchers noted that Swamp Gravy has been central to the Arts Council’s mission to unite the community while strengthening the economy through community involvement and empowerment.

The collection of oral histories from the local community that are incorporated into Swamp Gravy performances and the success of Swamp Gravy itself provide a shared experience and a positive, multicultural identity for the town. Further details are available from http://www.c-3-d.org/ .

Traywick figures for every person who buys a ticket to Swamp Gravy, the town generates $50 to $100 in total revenues through that person eating, filling their tanks with gas and shopping. The arts council also sells Swamp Gravy-related material, such as T-shirts and mugs, on its Internet site.

And the cast tours for a charge as well, performing for other groups such as the Georgia Bar Association as well as having had the honor of performing at the Centennial Park during the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and also at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. “That’s one of the benefits the cast has - they have opportunities they may not otherwise have,” Traywick says. “Some of the kids – and adults - have never been out of Colquitt. For them to be able to go to Savannah and stay in the nicest hotel and eat in the nicest restaurant or go to Washington is a great experience for them. Most of them have never seen anything higher than a two story building and for them to be able to go out is great.”

The Swamp Gravy model – a non-profit arts council spinning off a for-profit theater with affiliated businesses to augment revenues – can be replicated elsewhere.
For a consulting fee, the Swamp Gravy Institute has taught its model in communities from El Paso, Texas to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Training is offered in such areas as aesthetics, cross-cultural communications, partnerships, undoing racism, and personal growth through an artistic endeavor.

The Swamp Gravy cast also has been invited to Japan by the Institute of Cultural Affairs. Swamp Gravy got its own start through financial assistance from its state arts council, the Georgia Council for the Arts, as the National Endowment for the Arts.
“We’re always checking with other theaters: How do you do this and that?” says Traywick. “We’ve gone through a lot of trial and error because there is no other project quite like this.”

For more information, contact (229) 758-5450.