click to enlarge - Courtesy Of Rob Strong
- Director Dhira Rauch (left) and Jarvis Antonio Green rehearsing 'Every Brilliant Thing' in 2023
JAG Productions, the 8-year-old White River Junction and New York City-based company committed to developing and presenting the work of Black and queer theater artists, will close at the end of its season in June.
"Despite our successes, the broader crisis facing the arts has not spared
us," founder and producing artistic director Jarvis Antonio Green wrote in an
April 18 email to supporters. The nonprofit theater model "increasingly proves unsustainable amid shifting societal support and financial pressures," he continued. "JAG Productions, too, has felt the weight of these challenges, leading us to this juncture." The company will fold after the June 15 performance of
Sondheimia, a cabaret featuring musical theater actor Larry Owens.
In their own letter to supporters, company directors cited the difficulty of deciding to close JAG: "Nonetheless, we take solace and pride in the transformative impact of nearly a decade of work from JAG Productions."
"Nationally," the directors continued, "JAG has been on the vanguard of creating a more just, equitable, and inclusive theater landscape. Through the power of storytelling and the magic of the theater we have challenged the hierarchies of race, gender, class, and sexuality."
click to enlarge - Courtesy
- Jarvis Antonio Green
Green and board chair Jameson C. Davis declined to be interviewed, referring questions to the letters Green and the board released.*
In his letter, he said he plans to pursue a master of fine arts degree in directing, and he expressed pride in JAG's accomplishments and its legacy. "JAG — my initials, my identity — has been more than just a theatre company;" Green wrote, "it's been a testament to the power of Black Queer storytelling to foster love, inspiration, and joy."
Becoming an artistic director, he wrote, "was as unexpected as it was transformative."
The Anderson, S.C., native grew up singing with his family at home and in church. He studied classical voice at Anderson University, worked as an actor and moved to Vermont in 2011. After founding Barnard's
BarnArts Center for the Arts in 2012, Green became the first artistic director of the theater program at
Artistree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret.
"He has such a magnetism," Artistree founder and executive director Kathleen Dolan
told Seven Days last year. "He's got a lot of connective energy with people. His constant marveling at existence is kind of contagious."
With a $250,000 gift from Dolan, Green started JAG Productions in 2016, he wrote in his email: "This journey has been a fairy tale; it’s been fun, an incredible learning experience, and, undoubtedly, hard."
Over the years, the company has staged
Choir Boy, Fences, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill and
Next to Normal. Last year, Jarvis returned to acting to star in the one-person play
Every Brilliant Thing.
The company's festival, JAGfest, presented new works by Black playwrights, including
Blanks by Gethsemane Herron-Coward,
For The Love of Jazz by Raven Cassell,
The Last Day of Black History Month: A Conversation With a Naked Black Southern Lesbian by Maine "The Maine Attraction" Anders,
If This Be Sin by Kirya Traber,
Esai’s Table by Nathan Yungerberg and
Chasing Grace by Elizabeth Addison.
JAG Productions received the 2017 New England Theatre Conference Regional Award for Outstanding Achievement in the American Theater. Green was acknowledged in 2020 by the advocacy and networking nonprofit Native Son as a Black queer man who impacted the world. In 2022, he received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, which the Vermont Arts Council calls "the most distinguished recognition bestowed by the State of Vermont." (Green was a corecipient with visual artist Larry Bissonnette.)
JAG Productions had a $1.1 million budget in 2022, the year it received its first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, according to that year's annual report.
click to enlarge - Sarah Priestap
- Jarvis Antonio Green
"The closure of JAG is as much a celebration of our achievements as it is a reflection on the state of the arts," Green wrote to supporters. "It’s a deliberate choice, made with gratitude for the community that has supported us — artists, audiences, and allies who have been part of this incredible journey. Our legacy is not confined to physical space but lives on in the impact we’ve made, the conversations we’ve started, and the community we’ve built."
*Update, April 23, 1:30 p.m.: This story was updated to note that JAG Productions board chair Jameson C. Davis declined to be interviewed.