Cody Renard Richard, Tony Award-Winning Producer and Stage Manager

Monica Holt: Hey everyone. Welcome back. This is Monica Holt. In an industry that asks artists to be completely vulnerable every single night, what does it take to make that possible? What does it actually look like to build the kind of trust, safety, and community that lets people do their best work on stage? Today’s guest has spent his career with one hand on the technical side of some of Broadway’s most ambitious productions, and the other hand supporting the humans making those dreams come to life on stage. Cody Renard Richard is a production stage manager with 20 Broadway shows to his name. He’s also a Tony Award-winning producer, a Columbia professor, and the founder of a scholarship program that now has put nearly half a million dollars into the hands of the next generation of theater makers. Currently Cody’s keeping Ragtime running each night while spending the day getting Cats: The Jellicle Ball ready for its Broadway bow. And boy, does the country need both of these pieces of art right now. Cody and I had a great time talking about what it really means to run a Broadway show, what it costs to perform Ragtime the night after the 2024 election, and why he believes the most radical act of leadership is also the simplest one. Let’s dive in.

Cody Renard Richard, welcome to CI to Eye. Thank you so much for spending some of your very, very limited time with us this morning. I’m so happy to see you.

Cody Renard Richard: Of course. I’m so happy to be here.

Monica Holt: You are someone who has just been such a light in this industry as long as I have known you or even just been aware of you. Back at my former place of employment, you were there with Freestyle Love Supreme and our paths crossed and I was really hopeful that we’d get a chance to work together more. But that was right before COVID and everything kind of led us down different roads, but a lot of what I’ve been doing is just witnessing your spectacular leadership from all corners of your very multihyphenate artistic life. And so I’m just grateful to get a chance to spend a little more time with you. And to that end, I’d love to start at the very beginning, which is to ask: how did theater and arts first show up in your life?

Cody Renard Richard: How did it start? I was sort of placed in the theater. I grew up essentially with animals. My entire family are cowboys and cowgirls. I was always outside on horses dealing with cows. And so the arts was not something that was big in my family and it was certainly not something that I had access to. But I like to say I was a troubled kid. I was a child who liked to talk back and I was a class clown and I was always in trouble. So my guidance counselor essentially told me I needed to pick up an extracurricular activity and they suggested the drama club and I joined and I acted in a play and I loved the attention and that’s kind of how it started. And then I was like, I want to keep doing this. So then I joined it in high school, but I had a teacher then who was like, you can’t keep getting in trouble if you’re going to be in my program. So she sort of shaped me and I was like, okay, great. I like this. This is fun. And that’s sort of how it came into my life. And it worked out.

Monica Holt: Well, lucky for all of us. Thank you. Shout outs to that teacher who saw the spark and knew how to help channel your energy, let’s say.

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Monica Holt: I think you’ve spoken before that it was your high school drama teacher that kind of saw in you a lot of traits of a great stage manager. What did it mean to you for an adult to be seeing you so clearly, if we look back and want to consider it that way, but to be seeing you so clearly at such a formative age?

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, I mean, anytime someone asked me about my journey, I speak about her. Her name is Carrie Wood and her husband is Brian Wood, and they co-led the department and he was sort of over the technical theater department and she oversaw everything else. But I think about it a lot now because now it means the world to me. I very much understand what that moment was. I think then it meant a lot, but I didn’t understand it. I was just like, oh, this person thinks I’m good. Great. It was more of someone pouring into you and that feels good, obviously, so you want to do right by them. She saw something special in me and she gave me responsibility and I was like, oh, I have to show up because this person believes in me. But I don’t think I put that into words. So now I understand how pivotal that moment was for me. At the time, I think I was just wanting to be seen and be appreciated. It is so powerful. We sometimes discount that one person who has changed our trajectory, but I think all it takes is one person to say, ‘Hey, I think you should do this,’ or ‘I really believe that you have this,’ and that could change their whole life. So I’m really indebted to her for sure.

Monica Holt: I think that’s so true. I can remember for me, I loved theater growing up and in high school, but I didn’t really know my place in it. And I was at a kind of pre-college theater program and I forget what class we were in. It was probably for auditioning or something. And I just started asking a lot of questions about, ‘Well, why would you think that this person would be good for that role?’ and ‘How do you see approaching x, y, z monologue in this situation?’ And that teacher looked at me and was like, are you sure you want to act? Are you sure you don’t want to be an agent or behind the scenes helping cast? And I was like —

Cody Renard Richard: And you’re like, what is that?

Monica Holt: Those are jobs. Interesting. Exactly. Do you remember or looking back, can you see what it was about the way that you were working or the way that you were thinking that had your teacher see you in this kind of, oh, maybe stage management is a vocation that you should be learning about or exploring?

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, I was an only child, so I did a lot of things on my own and I had cousins around me, but I was always the one taking charge and I was always the one being like, let’s do this. So I think she saw that. She saw that I was a natural born leader, someone who had incentive to want to gather people. And that has been something that has played out through my entire life. I’m a nurturer of community. I bring people together. I make people feel good. And not being able to name that at a young age, but looking back and realizing that that’s kind of been my superpower in a way. It was never something I had to work towards. It was just something that I had. So I think that was probably one of the things that she really saw.

Monica Holt: And if I may, I think that really radiates out from you. I think you’ve found a way to really make good use of that in terms of not just showing people about corners of the industry that they might not be aware of, but bringing folks along with you, which is such an important piece I think particularly for the folks who are creating what the next generation of theater-making looks like. I’m curious what your first Broadway show was.

Cody Renard Richard: So the first time I saw a Broadway show in New York City [it] was Avenue Q. I was in college, so I came to the city and I was enamored. It was my first trip here and I saw that show and I was like, oh wow, people actually do this. I knew that they did, but it finally made it real for me. And that was the thing that I was like, okay, I’m going to do this.

Monica Holt: Did — Looking at the playbill, was stage management clearly the thing at that moment in college? Were you also thinking about that?

Cody Renard Richard: So I was kind of just going through college studying stage management and not fully understanding that I could have a career in it. I was like, I’ll do this thing and then I’ll, maybe I’ll work in a theater or — It was fun. It was never like, ‘I’m going to be a stage manager,’ until I took my first trip to New York and I was flipping through the playbill and I was like, oh, people do this on Broadway. And obviously they do, but it was never made clear to me and I saw it and looked at my friend who I was sitting next to and I was like, my name’s going to be in here one day. And she was like, okay. And I was like, I’m serious. And then from that moment on, every decision that I made about my career was intentional about me working on Broadway.

Monica Holt: Well, and I think what we’re getting to here is the clarity of purpose that you had in that moment I think probably fed the drive because you have any number of great stories about the importance of just asking. You don’t get what you don’t ask for, so you might as well send the cold email, follow your gut, reach out for help.

Cody Renard Richard: Absolutely. This is actually a really good story. So I graduated high school and I was getting ready to go to college, and I was like, I have to get an internship before I go to college. I’m going to be behind. I don’t want to go to this college and be the only one who hasn’t stage managed for real. So I got an internship at the Alley Theatre in Houston. I was essentially like a stage management PA intern. And I worked with this woman named Sara Mills, who unfortunately just passed away, but she was this amazing, amazing stage manager and we hit it off. So I go to school and then I started taking trips to New York on my spring break and fall breaks, and I would post about it on Facebook. And when — I graduated college in 2010, and I was working in St. Louis, and I get an email from Sara who I had not spoken to in almost three or four years, and she was like, are you still in New York?

I’m coming into town with this Cirque du Soleil show at Madison Square Garden and I’m looking for a stage manager. I know it’s been so long, but I just remember the joy and grace that you had in the space and I think you would be perfect for this team. And the contract started in October and the show that I was doing in St. Louis ran through October. So immediately I lied and I was like, yeah, of course I’m in New York. Of course I would love to do this. So I moved to New York with Cirque not knowing what it was about to be, probably kind of definitely underqualified for it, but…

Monica Holt: Fake it ’til you feel it.

Cody Renard Richard: Exactly. And that’s what I did, and that’s been a part of my journey. I ask for what I want, I say yes to the impossible because you never know where it’s going to lead. And that show taught me so much and I’m so grateful that I took a leap and was just like, yeah, I can do that. So that’s kind of been like being fearless and asking because what’s the alternative? You pass it up because you want to stay in the place that you are. So I think about that story a lot because that’s been like the catalyst for why I asked for things. You never know what’s on the other side of it.

Monica Holt: I think it’s so good to hear that because for folks starting out, I think there can be this hesitancy to reach out or to go for it. The fear of the unknown. And I think you’re such a brilliant case of how you move past that fear and just keep asking and keep going because as you said, you never know what’s going to be through or on the other side.

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah. I remember being young and I was relentless with how I emailed people. Anytime a show was announced, anytime I would see something I was remotely interested in, I would email them and sometimes people would respond and sometimes people didn’t. And I learned very quickly to not take it personal. If I sent maybe 200 emails, maybe 50 or 40 people have responded. So the ratio of that can be daunting, but you have to put yourself out there.

Monica Holt: So many good lessons in what you just said, including — just to name it a little more — pay attention to what’s happening in the field so that when you’re reaching out, you’re reaching out informed, too. Because if it’s going to be two out of 200, you want it to be clear who you are and why you’re asking.

Cody Renard Richard: Absolutely.

Monica Holt: I realize because the audience for this podcast also includes lots of folks who work on the more administrative side of the business, would you just explain a little bit about the work of stage management? Right? Again, you do many things, but when you are the production stage manager for a show, how would you explain that job to someone who’s never seen what happens backstage?

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah. I mean, we are in the weeds making the thing. And that’s what I love the most about my job is that we are the leader of the space. We help set the tone along with the director. We do the schedule, we coordinate the technical aspects of the show in terms of where things go, where things are preset, how things move on and off. We call the show, which — when the show is in performance, we call all the cues that you see happen. So anytime a light changes or anytime a piece of scenery moves, we help rehearse the cast. So while the director is giving them blocking, we sort of support the director in that to making sure that people understand where they need to be and how they get from point A to point B and where they find certain things. There’s a lot of conflict management, there’s a lot of dealing with interpersonal things with people. I have relationships with the managing director, folks on the admin side, as well as the cast and the designers and the crew and the front of house staff, like anybody who is working on the production. At some point I have to interact with them. So in a way, we’re like a therapist, we’re a pilot, we’re a cheerleader, we’re a secretary. So there’s a lot that goes into it in this part to really put it in a box, but we are the people who keep the show running.

Monica Holt: Yes, I mean, definitely keeping the show afloat while sometimes still building it while also, as you say, managing the pieces with so many outside constituencies. Just so much knowledge and information that you are the keeper and caretaker of. I would imagine also you are at the core of the trust and emotional safety of every environment you walk into, sometimes really time-pressured. How do you build that sense of trust that’s needed for a community like a Broadway show to really work and keep running?

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, absolutely. I’m so glad you brought that up. I love that component of stage managing and also it’s sort of built into how I lead from day one. I try to tell people who I am and what they can expect from me, and in return I ask them, this is what I expect from you, and we should work hard to meet each other there. I understand that trust is something that is earned and not given from the beginning, but in order for me to do my job, I have to trust you and you have to trust me. So I try to lay out how I work so people understand that I have their backs, that I’m looking out for them. And yes, there are all of these rules, and yes, there are all of these benchmarks, timelines that we have to hit, but along the way you have to feel safe so you can be successful for us to hit those benchmarks.

And if at any point along the way you feel like you’re not being heard or taken care of or seen in your fullness, let me know so we can figure out how to make that happen. And sometimes it’s successful and sometimes it’s not. And sometimes it’s about the business and we have to figure out how to just do the business. But I really try to make sure that humanity is on the forefront. I’m very fortunate now, and I say this all the time, that I don’t care to work with anybody whose values don’t align with mine anymore, especially when I’m creating a musical or creating any type of artistic or theatrical piece. And I say that because in the arts we ask people to bring their humanity to the room. We ask people to be so vulnerable. And if we’re doing that, I don’t want to be in a space with people who are assholes. I don’t want to be in a space with people who don’t value humans. I don’t want to be in those situations. And I have, when I first started out. You take the job that’s given, and I’ve worked with people who weren’t nice and people who never learned my name, and I’m like, this is not how we collaborate. So now I’m very intentional about where I put my energy and what spaces I step into so I know that we’re all working towards a common goal.

Monica Holt: I’m so glad for you to name that. The No Assholes Rule of it all is something that I do feel like there is a really strong contingent of us who are maybe pulling up the folks behind us and making sure they’re in an environment that can maybe be even more positive than what any of us experience.

Cody Renard Richard: Absolutely.

Monica Holt: I’m grateful for you to name that. You have been in a stage management role for a litany of Broadway shows, the Tony Awards… but I would be remiss not to mention that you are with Ragtime right now on Broadway, which obviously has received such acclaim. We know this cast of folks and the whole company and creative team is doing something incredible in a moment in America that really called for it. And I’m interested in how it feels to be in that space right now with a show like Ragtime, but also technically taking a show that was at City Center a year ago and moving it to Broadway in this way, and how you think about resetting as part of the reunion of bringing the show back together.

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, Ragtime is such a special production and so many people have a connection to it. If you’re a theater nerd, you’ve been listening to this music forever. No matter the generation, you’ve heard some of these songs. And everyone — the first thing people say is, oh, I love that score. It’s just such an epic, beautiful score. And musicals are expensive, so people don’t necessarily do epic musicals anymore. So we rarely get this big sweeping grand thing on Broadway. And with Ragtime, it was such a magical experience. And there were two moments of it at City Center that are moments that I’ll never forget. First was the invited dress rehearsal. I was calling the show from out [at] front-of-house, which normally I’m backstage, but I was in the house. We were still sort of in the technical rehearsal process, so we were still building the show, but we invited maybe five or 600 people to come to the invited dress rehearsal before we opened to the public.

And I never felt energy like that in a space. And I think because we were on the precipice of the election and people knew what this show was about and people were coming and hoping to get some hope, the energy was so palpable. It was wild. And we did the opening number and it was only 500 people, but it felt like it was like 50,000 how loud it was. And it gave me — it was crazy. It was so crazy. So that was a moment at City Center. And then the other moment, and not to get crazy political, but we had to perform the show the night after the election, and that was one of the hardest days having to come to the theater. And it’s also like, we were talking about care a second ago. How do you provide space for people while you are trying to navigate the feelings of the results of the election and then having to step out on stage and do a show that is so politically charged as Ragtime?

Monica Holt: I’m getting chills just thinking about what you all had to go through that night.

Cody Renard Richard: It was honestly beautiful. It was cathartic for a lot of people. Hearing the cast say they looked out into the audience and just seeing so many people moved by what was happening, people who were shaking, it was such a wild experience. And it’s a reminder that art heals and art moves and art is needed and there’s space for art that makes a difference. It doesn’t all have to be the fluffy thing that makes you feel good. Sometimes art that makes you think can move you even more.

So it was really beautiful to be a part of that. None of us knew it was moving to Broadway, but none of us didn’t know it was moving to Broadway. You what I mean? There was — all roads pointed to: this thing was special and it needed to live on beyond these two weeks at City Center. So when they were talking about it, Lear, our director, called me being like, we’re moving. Can you make yourself available? And I was like, for this, yes.

This will be my last time doing Ragtime. It is such a hard show to do. It’s traumatic for Black people hearing those words, watching what happens. It’s a lot. And I do think the show is beautiful, and I do love the show and I’m so proud to be a part of it. I had to be a part of this production on Broadway, knowing how special it was at City Center, the cast, Lear, and also knowing that my DNA was a part of making it before — I needed to see it through, and I needed to help build what this needed to be. So it’s special and I don’t take the responsibility lightly. It’s amazing to be a part of something like that. So it’s been a beautiful, beautiful experience, but it’s a lot.

Monica Holt: Thank you. Thank you for the care that you and the whole company have given.

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, I mean it’s also like the power of community. When I’m not calling the show, I go into the vom and I watch the opening number and just to hear the eruption from the audience nightly… There’s never a night where the audience is not giving the company an extreme amount of love, and you don’t get that all the time.

Monica Holt: Well, now I just want to do a miniseries hearing you talk about every show that you’ve stage managed, but for the sake of telling a fuller and complete story, I do also want to talk about the fact that at a certain point you were continuously moving in the stage management lane, but that wasn’t the only lane you were working in. Do you remember, for instance, when did you start getting more curious about also working on the producing side?

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah, I really, I’m going to credit the pandemic to me expanding my interests. I think for so long I was so intentional about stage managing, and then it was about becoming the production stage manager, and then it was about doing bigger shows and doing this and doing that. And the pandemic allowed me to sit back and really understand what I Cody does as a stage manager, which means that I’m doing a lot of other things and not really naming that. And how do I capitalize on all these things that I do as a stage manager and where else does that manifest? What are my other dreams? What else? And as I was thinking about that, and it’s so interesting because you’re always in the right place and people are always looking out for you, say what you want and it comes back. I was thinking about this and just trying to figure out what I want to do.

And I got a call from a producer, his name is Cody, and he was coming on to produce Thoughts of a Colored Man, which was one of the first shows to come back from the pandemic as well. And he was like, your name keeps coming up. And everyone’s like, Cody should be a producer. Have you ever thought about it? Do you have time to talk to me about what this entails? I was like, of course, let’s talk. And we sort of talked about what all it meant to come on as a co-producer, and yes, it’s raising money, but also it’s working with the team in admin meetings and helping them figure out how to craft and put teams together and all of that. So he calls in a moment of discovery for me, and that sort of was the catalyst to do more. So that’s kind of how it started. Someone reached out and was like, these are the skills that we see in you. Is this something that you’re interested in? Much like my teacher in high school being like, these are the skills that I see in you. You need to do this.

Monica Holt: But you were open to it.

Cody Renard Richard: Absolutely.

Monica Holt: Right? That’s half the battle, being open to that. You, as we’ve talked about, you’ve always been really committed to opening doors for others. In 2020, you created the Cody Renard Richards Scholarship Program. What was stirring for you personally in that moment that compelled you to say, now’s when we launch?

Cody Renard Richard: So much was stirring for me. Grief, looking for hope, just having time to sit with my thoughts. It helped me put into perspective what was important for me. So that’s kind of how this program was birthed. For years, I knew I wanted to sponsor a student from my alma mater. I was going to give them a thousand dollars a semester and I was going to be their mentor, and that was going to be the thing that I wanted to do, and this is how I was going to give back. And because we had this time, I called my friend, I was like, this is the time I’m going to do it now because I need to feel active. I need to help someone. I need to be an impactful person in somebody’s life, I need to give… And she was like, well, you’ve never had an issue with dreaming big, so why are you stopping here?

Dream bigger. And I was like, okay, but she’s right. Everything I asked for is grand. So that’s when we started dreaming about this program. I was like, okay, well then it needs to be bigger than just one student. And then I called a friend of mine who was working at the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, and he was like, I would love to partner with you on this. And that’s really what kicked it off. I think about how when I first moved here and how I never saw a mentor that looked like me and how for the better part of eight years, I was usually the only Black stage manager on the team, or I was the only Black person in the room sometimes. So thinking back on those moments, I’m like, I want people to have someone to look to. I want people to understand that if I made it through this, you can. And I wanted to give people the resources that I didn’t have that I wish I had when I moved here. So that was the whole thing, is I want to give students who look like me and other students of color the access to this business that they traditionally would not get.

Monica Holt: Do you know how many students total you’ve had come through the program?

Cody Renard Richard: I do. We’re going into our sixth year, which is wild. And we’ve had 55 students come through the program. And in the first year, we gave out $1,500 and then the second year we gave out $4,000, and now we have committed to giving out 10 grand to each student. So each year we give out a hundred thousand dollars in scholarship money. So now we’re almost at 500 grand in what we’ve given out to students, which is insane.

The hope is that we continue to grow and maybe we can make more of an impact with them. But yeah, we give them the financial stipend, but we also work with them through the semesters. We do these online seminars where we talk about leadership and we talk about how to own their voice, and we talk about the things that they’re going through at their colleges when they are the only in a space. And it is really surprising sometimes when one student talks about something and another student goes, I dealt with that last year. This is what I did. And it’s also sad that these kids are having to go through these things, but it’s a reminder of why these spaces are important and it’s a reminder we have to talk about it, otherwise it won’t change.

I love getting to work with them. I love bringing them in and seeing how they interact with each other. I love that our program isn’t just about giving people a financial grant, it’s also about helping them become the best human they can and helping give them access to the industry.

Monica Holt: Absolutely. It’s not a secret, but it is still something that we need to continue talking openly about, the fact that there is such a lack of diversity in backstage roles. What do you think people inside the industry still don’t understand about where the real barriers exist?

Cody Renard Richard: I think people don’t stop and think about what’s happening around us enough. You step into a space and you’re already comfortable because everybody behind the table’s white. You don’t stop and look around that everybody in the space looks like you because you don’t have to think about that. So I think that just something as simple as that is that people don’t take the time to stop and think about like, oh, this place could do with a different perspective.

And just for barriers of entries is access. New York City — if you’re looking to come here, it’s such an expensive city. So first of all, you have to survive before you can even meet the people to help you thrive. So I think that it’s about taking a step back and just looking around and like, oh, maybe I should think about this differently and bring somebody else into this space

Monica Holt: And the space that we’re taking up ourselves —

Cody Renard Richard: Totally.

Monica Holt: — for those of us who find ourselves in the majority in those rooms. Yeah. If you could, say, talk to a young person today who doesn’t see a place for themselves in the theater, what would you want them to know?

Cody Renard Richard: Wow. I think I would just say that you can and you belong. Just because you don’t see yourself in it doesn’t mean that there’s not space for you. There are people like me and there are other people who are ready to welcome you into this space. So don’t be discouraged that it’s not happening at the pace that you want it to happen in. If you want it, it’s yours. Anything that we want in this life is ours. We just have to release the timeline. We have to work towards it. We have to name it and truly believe that it can happen for us. So I think to anyone who’s feeling discouraged or anyone who may be trying to step into this, just know that it can happen. Find your tribe to help you get through those moments when you feel like it’s not happening. But don’t lose faith. Just know that what is for you will come to you in the right time. We just have to be open — Again, we have to be open to it.

Monica Holt: Beautifully said. What is giving you hope or excitement about the future of live theater right now?

Cody Renard Richard: Well, a production of Cats that is about to happen on Broadway —

Monica Holt: Oh, can we talk about that maybe?

Cody Renard Richard: — is giving me so much hope because it is a historic production that’s happening.

Monica Holt: Yes.

Cody Renard Richard: Never in the history of Broadway has something like this been on the mainstream. I think it’s so brilliant what Bill Rauchand Zhailon Levingston, our directors — I say ‘our directors’ because I’m doing the show.

Monica Holt: There we are. That’s what we were waiting for. And for people who maybe didn’t get a chance to see it or hadn’t heard about it, can you explain what the production is?

Cody Renard Richard: Absolutely. So Cats is an iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and this production is called CATS: The Jellicle Ball. It’s the revival of the beloved production that everyone — a lot of people love, I should say. And they really flipped it on its head. They set it in the ballroom and it focuses on the culture of ballroom and how that culture works and is bringing folks in who have traditionally been excluded from the theater.

And it’s so interesting when you put a show like this in a different lens, how it becomes clearer to understand. They’re no longer kitty cats crawling around on their knees. They’re humans inhabiting this story. It brings the humanity out in a different way, and it is such a special production, and I hope everyone sees it and I hope everyone uplifts it.

I am particularly excited to be working on a show with a bunch of queer people. To have trans and non-binary and gender non-conforming people in the limelight on Broadway is not something that I’ve experienced. And when I had, they had to play a certain role or they had to not be themselves. You know what I mean? So this is asking people to really bring their humanity to the arts, and I’m really excited, and that really gives me hope because producers are taking risks. Producers and creatives are taking risks. You’re taking a beloved revival and you’re saying, well, let’s do it this way. Let’s not do it how it’s been done before and let’s really spin it. So I think people taking risks are giving me hope, and knowing that there is space for different types of art even on the mainstream.

Monica Holt: A great answer. I can’t wait to see it again. I think you’re right. It’s brilliant. It’s daring. It’s joyful. But also, I understood Cats for the first time.

Cody Renard Richard: Baby, I’m not even going to hold you — Cats was not the musical for me. I’ve seen it, but when I saw it downtown, I was like, oh, I get it. I love it.

Monica Holt: This makes sense!

Cody Renard Richard: But before, it never resonated with me. It wasn’t a thing. It just never hit for me until this production. And it’s so exciting that art can do that. Art transforms and becomes different things and at any point in your life it can mean something else. So I’m really excited that this production is doing that for you and it did that for me and hopefully so many others.

Monica Holt: Absolutely. Well, we are coming to the end of our most wonderful time together. We end each episode with a little bit of a quickfire questionnaire about culture. So we’re going to jump right in. What is one piece of culture right now that you’re currently obsessed with?

Cody Renard Richard: Olivia Dean. I am obsessed with her album, The Art of Loving. I’m obsessed, and she is like a warm hug. I’m just such a fan of her right now. I love what she did with Ticketmaster when they were reselling her tickets and she was like, this is crazy. I’m not charging that much for — I’m obsessed with who she is, and she seems like just such a young, down-to-earth, new pop star. So she’s definitely my cultural obsession right now.

Monica Holt: What a worthy one, a very worthy obsession. If you could go back in time, what live performance or event would you have wanted to attend?

Cody Renard Richard: Oh my God, this is so hard. I’m going to start with just theater because that’s —

Monica Holt: Narrow the scope. Understood.

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah. I mean, I wish I could have seen Patti LuPone in Evita. That’s a performance that I go back and watch on YouTube all the time. I wish I could have seen Heather Headley as Aida because that woman is otherworldly to me. No one does it like her. So those are the two that are popping up right now. And I’m so regretful that I didn’t get a chance to see Whitney Houston before she passed.

Monica Holt: Wow. God, I can’t even imagine.

Cody Renard Richard: Yeah.

Monica Holt: What is one free resource, which can be from any field, that you think everyone should check out?

Cody Renard Richard: There’s a theater directory called RISE Theatre Directory, which highlights a bunch of young artists of color who are looking to get into theatrical fields. And I think it is such a great directory. Anyone can sign up for it if you’re looking for a musician, if you’re looking for a director or a lighting designer or whatever. It really puts a lot of folks in this directory. So I think that’s a really great resource for people who are looking to diversify teams or just looking to find new talent.

Monica Holt: That’s great. Yeah, we’ll put that in the show notes too. And then our last question is your CI to Eye Moment. If you could broadcast one message to executive directors, leadership teams, staff, and boards of directors for thousands of arts organizations today, what would that message be?

Cody Renard Richard: I think the message that’s on my heart today would be to take the time to meet people who are making the thing that you are leading. I think as board members, as executive directors, as artistic directors, as managing directors, whatever the title may be, you got into this at some point because you were passionate about the arts or you got into whatever field you’re doing because you’re passionate about the thing that’s being made. And at some point we lost the plot of remembering who actually makes the thing. Because at the end of the day, the money does not make the thing, the money helps make the thing, but without the humans, the thing wouldn’t happen. So I would just implore people to show up a little bit more, show face, meet people, remind them that you’re human, remind us that you value the work that we’re doing. And I think that really goes a long way by learning people’s names and just stopping by and saying hello. It’s really those small things that make people feel valued.

Monica Holt: Thank you for that. I think everyone needs to hear that and take that to heart as we look ahead. I just want to thank you. It has been such a joy to spend time together. You are a gift for all of us, and the way that you speak with such clarity about our community and what we can achieve together is beautiful. So thank you again for the time.

Cody Renard Richard: Of course. This was such a fulfilling conversation. It’s so easy to talk to you. So I’m happy to be here anytime.

Monica Holt: Thank you for listening to CI to Eye. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please take a moment to rate us or leave a review. A nice comment goes a long way in helping other people discover the show. And if you haven’t already, click the subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. We’ve got some great episodes coming your way, and I wouldn’t want you to miss them. A huge thanks to our team behind the scenes, including Karen McConarty, Yeaye Stemn, Stephanie Medina, Jess Berube, and Rachel Purcell Fountain. Our music is by whoisuzo. Don’t forget to follow Capacity on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube for regular content to help you market smarter. You can also sign up for Capacity’s newsletter at capacityinteractive.com. And I hope you’ll reach out to us to let us know who you’d like to hear from next on CI to Eye. I’m Monica Holt. Thanks for listening.