“Take 5 is not good because Carnegie Mellon is using it. CMU is using because it is good.“—Angelica Perez-Johnston, Associate Dean for Engagement and Belonging, College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon, where Take 5 is part of the curriculum for all directing students.
“PerSIStence Theatre provided training in Huber’s TAKE 5 to our board members and staff in early 2023. Since that time, the TAKE 5 implementation has transformed our organization into a leader of best practices in our region – when artists and practitioners move on after working with us, they are expecting to be treated with similar levels of respect and accommodation in other arts workspaces, which is raising the bar for our industry as a whole.” – Jenn Deon, producing artistic director, PerSIStence Theatre, St. John’s, NL Canada
“Still using so many of these tools in every show I work on!“—Kristina McCloskey, freelance stage director and intimacy director
How many theater spaces have allowed you to bring your whole self?
If you’re in a space where you are hearing Everyone is replaceable*, or You’re not pretty enough to be an actor*, or If this show is not your only priority, you need to get your priorities straight*, or If you’re not suffering, it’s not art*, you know you are not truly welcomed, right?
What about practices that ostensibly allow for consent-based work, but guilt people out of exercising their “no”*?
Why don’t we teach directors, teachers, and other people in positions of power the health and safety implications of an artform where humans are the medium?
Why do we keep causing harm and closing doors, when we know it’s wrong?
We’re all trapped in a web of harm that we perpetuate because “that’s how we’ve always done things.” Costume designers, artistic directors, publicity folks—we’ve all bought into a toxic system. It’s time to cash out. But how?
* All things that I witnessed or experienced in theaters before I turned 25.
I’m on a mission to change our industry.
I have spent the past decade talking with mental health professionals, directors, stage managers, designers, and of course, actors. I’ve developed Take 5: a framework of basic principles and concrete tools.
I’m teaching workshops on Zoom and in person, to train leaders in a better paradigm for working with our collaborators. I also started Silk Moth Stage as a laboratory to test out and stretch the basic fundamentals of this framework that lets us do better work, faster, with more joy and less burnout.
I’ve shared Take 5 at the Shakespeare Theater Association’s international conference, at high school Thespian Festivals, and with the leadership of theaters large and small. I recently was interviewed on the Untamed Shrews podcast, where I was invited to share about how Take 5 applies to mental health inclusion.
Take 5 is now part of the required curriculum for undergraduate and graduate directing students at Carnegie Mellon University and is a core part of the practice at Island Shakespeare Festival, PerSIStence Theatre, and many others.
Are you ready to Take 5? Let’s talk.
Media Appearances
- Take 5 and Silk Moth Stage on the GreatGoodness podcast
- Take 5 on the Untamed Shrews podcast
- Radical Welcome on the Tumbleweed Pioneer podcast
Upcoming workshops
I don’t have any upcoming workshops scheduled at the moment.
To hear about future workshops and events, please subscribe to my mailing list.
Take 5 training can be adapted for your organization’s needs.
Depending how in-depth you want it to be and the size of your group, trainings can be 3-12 hours long. If your organization has specific challenges, I’m happy to prepare some customized content. Additionally, I offer consulting on things like audition announcements and intake forms (did you know these set the stage for a positive work experience? I was surprised, too!).
Reels:
I’m trying to be better at recording my thoughts, updates, responses to questions about Take 5, etc. You can find them all on my instagram, but I’m also going to post them here. I have so many that this page was becoming unusable – here’s a table of contents to find what you are looking for.
If you have a question that isn’t covered here, please let me know and I will try to address it!
Table of Contents for Reels
- Take 5
- P is for Proactive
- A is for Accessible
- U is for Unpack
- S is for Sequence (coming soon)
- E is for Evaluate
- For directors, teachers, and other leaders
- For designers
- For actors
- Radical Welcome (beyond Take 5)
- Mental Health
- Campus visit reports
The latest few posts from the feed:
