Client Success: Kat Evasco (Video)

My name is Kat Evasco, and I do various things in the community. I currently work as a production manager for Youth Speaks. I am also the Managing Director of an independent theatre company called Guerrilla Rep, and I’m also an artist. I’m a writer, performing artist, and standup comedian. I just finished premiering my first show called “Mommy Queerest” and I’m now working on my next project. So now kind of really pursuing my creative career in the same kind of spirit that I pursued my professional career as a production manager.

What I now know is that it actually helps so much that I have an Arts Administrative background, and that is something that I’m leveraging now in my career as an artist.

Well I think the main game changer is to look at my work as an artist, and develop that entrepreneurial spirit, and understand that the moment I decide to sell art or sell a ticket to the show that I’m in business. And so the main gamechanger for me is the paradigm shift to not just be an artist, but also be a business owner. I realize that I did not have all the answers, that I needed a thinking partner, that I needed someone else to help strategize my next moves with me, and kind of help me create pathways to the various goals that I have in life.

I think I chose coaching out of other options because I felt like it was a more personal way to approach my work. It’s not just on the business side, but I think life coaching has been more a holistic approach to my life, and that not just segmented into different areas that I’m working on right now.

The work that we did helped me realize that there are other opportunities out there that can actually help further push my career, and that’s where the focus of the work has been is developing a pathway or strategizing what next steps I have to take to take my creative work to the next level but also trying to figure out what it takes to live sustainably as an artist. Through the coaching work, I’ve learned a lot about marketing, and really I think the whole thing is marketing myself as an artist which has been a whole different journey on its own. It’s like first accepting the fact that I am an artist, and then believing in myself as an artist, and then going out there into the world and bringing my work out there.

“Mommy Queerest” is my first solo theatre project, and we just did the world premiere here in San Francisco at the EXIT theatre. The success of that show was very, very mind-blowing. We sold out the entire run, which was phenomenal, and we added three extension dates. And within the first week, we announced we sold those shows out. So to have a six-week run with 13 shows completely sell out is a huge success.

We are actually taking the show to Boston at the Theatre Offensive, and we also just got a call from the National Asian American Theatre Conference, and there’s a big chance we will be showcased in Philadelphia in October.

I think it would be a dishonor to yourself and to your craft as an artist if you didn’t pursue professional development opportunities or coaching that can reinforce your creative work through the business lens, through an entrepreneurial sense. I think it’s imperative to your career or the shelf life of your career as an artist. I think it’s a challenge for a lot of us to exercise that part of our brains, exercise that muscle. We’re always about trying to create, we just want to create. But the next phase is what happens when we create that work. Like where does it go, how does it get out there. And that’s the part that I think a lot of artists struggle with. We’re lucky that there are opportunities, and there are professional development coaching out there that allows us to take our game to the next level, and that is why I chose to go with Art of Hustle. To bring me to the next level not just as an artist, but as an arts professional.