The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Welcome to Syncreate, where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. Our goal is to demystify the creative process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative.
Creativity. It’s a word we throw around all the time, but what does it really mean? On the Syncreate Podcast, we share stories of the creative journey. We talk to changemakers, visionaries and everyday creatives working in a wide array of fields and disciplines. Our goal is to explore creativity in all its facets, and to gain a better understanding of the creative process – from imagination to innovation and everything in between.
The Syncreate Podcast is hosted by Melinda Rothouse, PhD. She helps individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life through coaching, consulting, workshops, retreats, and now, this podcast. She's written two books on creativity, including Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities (winner of a Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity and Innovation), with Charlotte Gullick. She's also a musician (singer-songwriter and bass player) and photographer based in Austin, Texas.
The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Episode 12: Creativity, Inclusivity and Community Theater with Sharanya Rao
Sharanya Rao is a leadership, team, and career coach with an emphasis on equity and inclusion. She’s also the Artistic Director of Leela - An Indian Community Theatre in Austin, Texas. Her current project, Anklets in the Boardroom, gives voice to South Asian women’s experiences in the workplace. Her project is a living example of creating in community, in service of positive social change, which is one of Syncreate’s core principles. Our conversation in this episode focuses on how she’s brought together a “confluence of passions” with her work in coaching, DEI, and theater, culminating in Anklets in the Boardroom.
Sharanya’s story demonstrates how one person, with a bit of inspiration, can create something new, unique, and impactful for the benefit of the wider community. Our Creativity Pro Tip at the end of the episode encourages us to reflect on how we can each bring our own unique passions together in a new way to create something that may benefit the wider world. For me, this podcast is a synthesis of my own interests in creativity, psychology, spirituality, public speaking, performance, and my personal network of creatives all over the world. So, what’s your passion project, and how could you bring it to life?
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced by Michael Osborne at 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Creative development and video production by Shuja Uddin and Devon Foster at Tishna Films. Artwork by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode, you might also like our conversations in Episode 5: Creative Global Citizenship with Screenwriter and Filmmaker Shuja Uddin, Episode 6: Gratitude, Gentleness, and Generosity with Mayela Padilla Manasjan and Episode 11: Leadership, Values, and Criminal Justice Reform with Attorney Dylan Hayre
Episode-specific hyperlinks:
Leela - An Indian Community Theatre
Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed
Book: The First, The Few, and The Only by Deepa Purushothaman
Book: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Show / permanent hyperlinks:
Melinda: Welcome to Syncreate, where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. Our goal is to demystify the creative process, and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative. I’m Melinda Rothouse, and I help individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life.
My guest today is Sharanya Rao. Sharanya is a coaching colleague of mine; we did our coach training together back in 2013, and we’ve been collaborators ever since. Originally from Singapore, Sharanya decided to become a coach after an initial career as an attorney. She currently works as a leadership, team, and career coach with an emphasis on equity and inclusion.
She is also the Artistic Director of Leela - An Indian Community Theatre in Austin. Her current theater project, Anklets in the Boardroom, gives voice to South Asian women’s experiences in the workplace. Her project is a living example of creating in community, in service of positive social change, which is one of Syncreate’s core principles. We recorded this conversation at my creative studio in Wimberley, Texas.
So, Sharanya, I'm so happy for you to be here with us today.
Sharanya: Thank you so much for the opportunity. It's so awesome to be here on your show.
Melinda: Oh, yay. Yeah, it's so great to see you. It's been a minute since we got to be together. So one of the things that made me inspired to reach out to you to come on the show, you recently posted on LinkedIn about this rare moment when we arrive at the confluence of our passions. And so this project that you're working on now kind of brings together your creative passions, your coaching work, your DEI work. I really perked up when I heard that, especially how you're bringing these things together. And I'm curious to hear more about those passions and how they're inspiring this project.
Sharanya: I want to start with my own reflection as a coach. You know, I've worked with so many clients on bringing their whole selves to work. And I really started thinking about, do I do that? Right? Do I bring all of my interests and passions together? And at the time, it was no. Theater was a big part of who I was and what I loved, and I wasn't finding a way to bring that together.
So I think this project feels magical for me because I really get to bring my whole self here. And what it does, it combines coaching and interactive theater on the theme of DEI. So Anklets in the Boardroom is an interactive theater project that amplifies South Asian women's voice and their experiences of discrimination in the workplace.
And how we want to do that is in two phases. The first phase is really getting in community with other women, collecting stories, having them share their experiences, recording that, with permission. And then the next phase is showcasing that in the community through participatory theater. Right. So I'm bringing my coaching skills in the first phase of organizing the story circles and really setting up a safe space, because this is a sensitive topic.
This is, you know, not something, you know, you may talk about at dinner or, you know, social gathering because there could be repercussions. And sometimes it's hard to talk about it at work, too. And so what we want to do is design that safe space where people can feel comfortable to share some of their experiences, and then also bring visibility, right? And, and allow people to feel heard.
Sometimes, you know, you may have shared a story with a friend, with a spouse, and they're questioning it. You know, they're like, “Are you sure that happened?” And you don't feel believed. You don't feel fully seen.
So this is a space where we design implicit trust, where your stories are going to be believed and we are there. We're fully present. We're engaged in active listening and we're designing confidentiality so that they feel comfortable. And I think it takes coaching skills to really design that space, right, where people can feel prepared to go deeper. And then also facilitate discussion, because the other, you know, in terms of our objectives, one is, you know, first and foremost to bring visibility and for people to be heard. And then also to create a village of women that can lean on each other, that they can connect with each other, and then they can also start to play with the dynamics of power. Learn from each other, right?
And coaching is a great tool to enable people and empower people. And then my theater background comes in the second phase. I'm a writer, director, and I think my sweet spot is really directing. And you know, I can't wait to stitch together the scenes to showcase that, right? And it's also a stretch for me in that this time it's going to engage people from the audience. So they're not passive, they're not a passive audience. They're actually going to participate in the show.
Melinda: Right, Ok, so there's so much to that. It's a very, it's a sort of complex, multi-phase project. So for people who maybe aren't as familiar with this type of community participatory theater, I know you're drawing on, you know, a few different particular influences, including Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. Can you share a little bit more about how some of these influences are coming together here?
Sharanya: Yes, absolutely. In terms of the background, I have a teaching diploma in speech and drama. And so when I entered grad school to do my Masters of Law in Dispute Resolution, one of the components was Theatre of the Oppressed. And it was a way that dealt with conflict resolution, right? It's where creativity really meets social impact. And so when, I took to it immediately, because I already had a background in theater and I was mind blown by, you know how we could weave in these different aspects, right? And then create social impact.
And so that's where I was first exposed to it. And I love the idea of, you know, Augusto Boal talks about not having just spectators, but spect-actors. And so it's it's about giving audience agency. Right, and helping them heal through that sense of agency. And when he took, you know, the sort of the origins of this is, when Brazil was in a lot of civil strife. He took to street theater to go to different villages right to try and build community, and have them showcase the oppressionand have them suggest change, right. So they would step into the theater and they would act out what the outcome should be, right, and create dialogue.
And so I loved that idea and I've sought to bring it in different ways, you know in the last ten years of coaching, and always just didn't find the right opportunity. And so when I came across the book, the best book, Deepa Purushothaman’s book, The First, The Few, and The Only, in the book, she talks about the power of community, and how to harness the power of community to create change. And she also talks about how women have, you know, over generations, always come together, right, and leaned on each other to create a safe space for change to happen, right?
And so this is something that that's there, that's a gift for us from our traditions, and how we can harness this. And I thought, my gosh, like, wouldn't it be cool to engage women, first in the storytelling? And then have them and others who, you know, maybe you know whether they're men or women, it doesn't matter, but have them be the agents of change, right? And experiment with that. Because when you think about it, from what we know about psychology, right? Like, you've been oppressed, if you don't have a somatic sense of what power is, then how do you embody that?
And even if you know better, you may not be doing better, because you just don't have the wiring. Your body doesn't know how to stand in power. And Augusto Boal’s work really gives that lab where people get to experiment with power. And really sort of get it in the bones of what that means. What does it look like? What do I say? What should I do? How should I stand? You know, and in all of those subtle things. And the hope is that when they stand in power when they experiment in in a lab like interactive theater, then they can take that into the workplace.
Melinda: Yeah. So it's a really embodied experience, right. People getting to step into that place of power, see what that feels like. And I just love the way that you're bringing together your creativity as a writer, you know, as a theater person with your creative work, for the benefit of the community. You know, one of the things that I find inspiring about your story, you know, you grew up in Singapore. In your bio, you describe yourself as a global citizen, and you've lived all over the world. And I'm just curious how these experiences have shaped your perspective, and both your creative and professional work.
Sharanya: I'm a third culture kid. So, born in India, raised in Singapore, moved to the U.S. in my young adulthood. And I have never been Indian enough, Singaporean enough, American enough, to fit in these boxes. And I have spent a lifetime of being an outsider. And that has always, you know, sparked in me, inspired in me, curiosity on how do people connect? How do they find common ground? You know, what do people say and do and how do they do it differently in order to connect?
And so, in grad school, I studied cross-cultural communication, because that felt like a very integral part of dispute resolution, right? Like, that's often where we come across conflict. Because we're coming from different maps altogether, right? And so there's, of course, there's a whole possibility of misunderstanding. And that's one way I think I brought it in, and I wrote a paper on, you know, the cultural vacuum in online dispute resolution. And I think I have been that voice. You know, sometimes the dissenting voice, sometimes like the odd voice in the room that questions, because I have a different lived experience, right?
So often like in trainings and workshops, when you know, people say, well, you know, this is the way to do it. I'll be the one to question that, like, does that land in this culture? Like, have you considered this culture? And so I think I bring in my lived experience. In a variety of different ways, in those space, in the learning space for sure.
And then, you know, in coaching, it's really been more subtle. I think what, what struck me was, learning about limiting beliefs, and how sometimes culture can inform your limiting beliefs. And, you know, I had to do some inner work, right, to unpack that for myself, so that I can then be with clients, especially, you know, people of color, women leaders, to help them unpack theirs.
Melinda: Yeah, and I think it's so important because,in creativity studies, for example, we know in team creativity and organizational creativity, it's so important to have a diverse array of perspectives because if everyone's thinking the same way, then you're not necessarily going to get to innovative solutions. But, diversity can also create conflict, right? So how do you navigate that in a way that people are able to communicate effectively?
Sharanya: Yeah. I think that's also what drove my interest in conflict resolution. And then now,in the DEI body of work, I think I really had to reflect on what's my contribution going to be. And my area of focus is going to be creating inclusive teams. Because you know, you talked about that, like when there is that psychological safety in a team, that's when you're going to see people perform to their fullest.
You cannot, I mean, leaders cannot, drive better performance if people don't feel a sense of belonging to the team or the workplace or they're not aligned and they don't feel seen or heard. And that's a number one contributor to, you know, employee burnout, having a low employee retention, high turnover. And so that feels like a basic building block of a team is having an inclusive space.
Melinda: I'm just thinking about some of the teams and organizations that I work with or that I hear about from clients and colleagues and just, often how little attention is being paid to that. Or there might be organizations that have inherently diverse teams. But they don't necessarily focus on communication and conflict mediation head on.
Sharanya: Yeah, and you know and designing systems of communication. In coach speak, we call this “designing the alliance.” Like how are we going to work together? How are we going to communicate, are often like omitted from the conversation, right? And so when I work with leaders, they're like, is this a thing you do? Like, is this something to talk about? And then I'm like, yes, absolutely. Yeah. Because you're assuming everybody's on the same page. And just given our diverse backgrounds, you may not be. It's important that if you want to get people on the same page, to start with that initial discussion, right, of how are we going to be together? And so that everybody does feel seen and heard
Melinda: Yeah, and I think along those same lines, you know, I think you know founders of startups or organizations, you know, they're so focused on the task at hand, or the product or service that they're developing, that they don't necessarily even think about like, how are we all going to work together? And then they turn to us as coaches at some point, because they're like, well, something's not really working here, but we're not quite sure what it is,
Sharanya: They come for troubleshooting, without realizing that there's actually a few steps back here. That, you know, if you had designed in the beginning, then when you get to this point, I mean, and conflict is inevitable.
Melinda: Of course.
Sharanya: It's inevitable, right? And so if you have a system in place, then you can have healthy conflict. It's, conflict isn't bad.
Melinda: Exactly. And I think helping people understand that it's okay to have difficult conversations. It's actually productive if you go about it in the right way. So, I want to go a little bit more into your own creative background. I know you got into writing and theater at a fairly early age. Tell us a little more about that.
Sharanya: Yeah, gosh. So I wrote, directed, and acted in my first play at 16, and you know, the topic was really dark, for that time anyway.It was about, um, child abuse. And so, you know, it was a topic that fascinated me andI felt a strong connection to in terms of the impact it had, right? The social impact aspect of it. and it inspired me to, to write this play.I think it took everybody by surprise, including myself, that, you know, I was able to delve into a topic like that at, you know, the age of 16. And it was like, you know, for a young, you know, I think it was like a young people's theater festival. But, you know, being on stage, directing, writing, it created a magic for me that, like, I could only experience on stage, right?
And then I was involved in theater, through acting. And then I mentioned that I also taught speech and drama. So I did workshops and, and programs for children. And then another defining moment came in, I think 2002, when I had, you know, a larger scale production. It was on spiritual unfoldment and it was called Yatra or Journey into the Unknown and it was based in spirituality, like it had its roots in Vedanta, and it also brought in my other sort of, you know, the other aspects of me, right? Like growing in Singapore and different themes. And so, it was really well received, and I remember when I, when I was writing it, and directing it, it was just a space of magic.
You know, I just, I can't even tell you. It was nothing that I ever experienced in anything that I did. And so I've always had a love for theater. And then when I moved to Austin, I really didn't find my groove here. I didn't resonate with some of the themes or the stories. I was also left with a feeling of like, you know, where's the space for our stories from our traditions from the South Asian community? Like, where do we go and tell our stories?
So I felt that there was a vacuum. And, you know, I mentioned that, like, I've never ever felt like I belonged in one place, and my strategy has always been to create belonging. Right, so where it wasn't there, I create it. And so that was when I decided that I really need to start Leela, and create a space where, you know, people just like me, right, who may have day jobs, and who may have pursued, or may have been told to pursue, their professional interests, right, but they had a whole creative side to them that wasn't getting an avenue for expression, that they could come together to collaborate and create productions.
So maybe it's one person who likes to write, one person who likes to direct, but, you know, could never write, you know, like, or, you know, some person who likes to write music, but, you know, doesn't want to act. But when we all come together in community, we can create a production. And that was when Leela was formed in 2012. It was also the time that I had my first kid. And that was, I think, a huge accountability for me. Because up until then, you know, I had been involved in theater and then took a hiatus and sort of came back to it. And that was when I decided that if I had to be in integrity with my child, and tell her to pursue her passions, I needed to model that.
Melinda: Yes. So I love how now you're bringing it all together, right? Your creative work, theater, your professional work. So what is your vision for Anklets in the Boardroom? Like, how do you see it unfolding ultimately? So you're bringing women together to tell their stories in these story circles. And then ultimately there will be some kind of performance production, that comes out of it.
Sharanya: Yeah. In the second phase, what we're going to do is take the stories and create scenes depicting these stories. Right. And in the first round, we'll showcase the stories as they are. And then in the second round, we'll showcase and give the audience the option to step in and intervene. And they can they can call, “Stop.” They can say, “Well, don't say this, like say something else.” They can replace characters, because that's when we want them to really play with like, what else could we do here? Like, what does power look like? So I think we're aiming for like an hour and a half production. Maybe longer.
I don't want that to completely limit what we can tell. The time limit. So, I think we're gonna see how the stories unfold. Have a rough idea of, you know, about an hour and a half production. Ultimately, I would like to take this everywhere. You know, we're capturing here one set of stories. We could do this every year. There'd be enough stories to tell, you know. We want to impact as many people as possible, right? And I'm really excited because I just got the news that the City of Austin is supporting us.
Melinda: Great! Congratulations.
Sharanya: Yes. I'm super excited. I'd love to take this, you know, to take this concept everywhere.
Melinda: So, if people want to get involved, how can they find you? And you're doing, as I understand, some story circles in person in Austin, but you're doing some virtually as well? So you don't have to be in the Austin area?
Sharanya: No, you don't have to be in the Austin area. Right now we have people from San Diego, from the Eastern time zone. So you absolutely do not need to be located in Austin. We are trying to see if there's an interest in doing an in-person circle. Cause I feel like, you know, you can build community more easily sometimes.
Melinda: There’s an intimacy to it.
Sharanya: There's an intimacy. So we're working on that. And then currently it's all virtual. They can send an email to austinleela@gmail.com.
Melinda: And that's L E E L A. Austin Leela.
Sharanya: Yes. austinleela@gmail. com. And/or send me an email, Sharanya@kindlelifecoaching.com.
Melinda: Okay. Yeah. And we'll definitely share those links with our audience when the episode comes out.
Sharanya: Yeah. Sounds good.
Melinda: Well. It's so wonderful having you here today and I'm curious, just by way of closing: What really inspires me about all of this again is, you know, how you're bringing together your own passions and bringing the community into this participatory interactive experience. You know, what advice would you have maybe for other people that are feeling inspired to kind of channel their own creativity to some greater purpose like this?
Sharanya: I would actually say creativity begins with purpose. You know, when you have a clear sense of who you are, what you want to do in this world, how you want to leave your mark, what you were born to do, I think the creativity just flows.
Oftentimes we maybe work the other way around. And try to do something creative. Which, you know, it is possible. It's not been my journey. My journey has always started with purpose. Again, even from when I started theater. When I was passionate about the impact of child abuse, it inspired creativity. Right? When I was inspired about spiritual unfoldment. Right. Spiritual transformation. It inspired another production. Right. I'm passionate about DEI. And it has inspired this. So creativity follows purpose.
Melinda: And then things have a way of taking on a life of their own. And I think for so many of us, it's a little bit about getting out of our own way and also kind of clearing out maybe those external societal expectations of what people think we should be doing with ourselves, but I think you know, finding purpose, finding your passion, and then there's this energy that comes out of it.
Sharanya: One of the books that I recently read gave me a lot of, gave me a lot of energy was Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. And it really helped me refocus on creativity. Because for a while, again, I had, you know, I had two young children, and then I was building my coaching practice, and I had left theater behind a little bit.
Melinda: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sharanya: You know? And after reading her book, it just landed for me that, if creativity is one of my values, then it has to be somewhere in my life.
Melinda: Yes.
Sharanya: I have to create space for it. And then I was like, well, how do I create space for it? I'm already a mom. I already, you know,
Melinda: Like, where do I put time in the day?
Sharanya: And the answer was, well, maybe creativity needs to be your work. You know, and it just landed for me how important it was and how I wasn't being fully myself if it wasn't present in my life, it wasn't honored. That is what led to, actually, really cleared the path for Anklets in the Boardroom, because I was like, oh, I can do this. Like this becomes my work. And so,it starts with, why am I here? What am I born to do? I'm born to do this work. And then you feel sort of the, the flood of creativity. And people start to speak to you. Books start to speak to you.
Melinda: Right, right. Everything starts kind of coming together in really interesting ways. Yeah. And I love this, and I mean, I think creativity always is about bringing something into being that didn't exist before and each of us has our own unique way of doing that and our own way of expressing ourselves. You know, only you can tell your story. Only you can bring your creativity together in this very particular way. And I think part of what we're trying to do in this show, in this podcast, is say that creativity doesn't look any one way. And we all have it and we can all utilize it to do great things in the world.
Sharanya: Yeah, it is as unique as we are.
Melinda: Exactly, right?
Sharanya: It is as unique as our fingerprints.
Melinda: Thank you so much. It’s wonderful to have you here.
Sharanya: Thank you for the opportunity.
Melinda: Something that really inspires me about Sharanya’s story and her work is this “confluence of passions,” that we talked about in the beginning of the episode. She’s found a way to combine her coaching, her DEI work, and her theater background into an interactive community theater experience focusing on positive social change. Anklets in the Boardroom demonstrates how one person, with a bit of inspiration, can create something new, unique, and impactful for the benefit of the wider community.
So, for our Creativity Pro Tip today, I encourage you to think about your own unique passions, and how you might weave them together in a new way to create something that may benefit the wider world. For me, this podcast is a synthesis of my own interests in creativity, psychology, spirituality, public speaking, performance, and my personal network of creatives all over the world. So what’s your passion project, and how could you bring it to life?
If you have an idea and you’re interested in my help, please reach out to me about 1x1 coaching, or join our Syncreate Six-Month Coaching Group starting in April of 2024. We’ll be guiding you through our Syncreate process to help bring a creative project to life. You can learn more at syncreate.org.
Thanks again to Sharanya Rao for the conversation. You can learn more about her and her work at kindlelifecoaching.com. We’ll provide a link in the show notes.
This episode was produced by Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios in Austin with production assistance by Christian Haigis. Follow Syncreate on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, where you can also find out more about all we do at Syncreate. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
