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Homegoings
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Homegoings

From headliner to heartbreak: The theatre director who’s starting over

By Myra Flynn
Published August 14, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT

In 2015, theatre director Jarvis Antonio Green founded JAG Productions, a theatre company that served as an artistic sanctuary for Black creatives in American theatre. Last year after losing venues and revenue, JAG took a final bow and closed its curtains for good. Soon after, Jarvis suffered other losses and heartbreak in his personal life that led to him uprooting his home, his craft and in a lot of ways — his identity.

Homegoings is a show that invites you to eavesdrop on candid conversations with people who will challenge what you think you know, and YOU are welcome here. Follow the show here.

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Jarvis Green spent 15 years in Vermont creating theater centered around Black creatives and Black voices.
Photo: JAG Productions
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Graphic: Elodie Reed
Jarvis Green spent 15 years in Vermont creating theatre centered around Black creatives and Black voices.

Vermont is known for a lot of things: nature, maple syrup, Bernie Sanders, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream … but also its overwhelming whiteness. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Vermont is the second whitest state in America. Which is why it was so usual to start seeing productions like this in 2015 …

JAG Productions presented nights of outdoor theater in what they called Theater on the Hill in Norwich, Vermont.
JAG Productions
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Courtesy
JAG Productions presented nights of outdoor theatre in what they called Theatre on the Hill in Norwich, Vermont.

JAG Productions was a theatre company founded by Jarvis Antonio Green. Its mission was to quote: “Serve as an artistic sanctuary for Black creatives in American theatre.” The company put on an annual new playwrights festival, hosted workshops and outdoor theatre performances and offered a musical theatre lab, all with Black and queer artists who came up from New York and other parts of the country to present theatre in Vermont.

In 2016, JAG Productions produced the musical “Choir Boy.”
JAG Productions
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Courtesy
In 2016, JAG Productions produced the musical “Choir Boy.”

Over the past decade, Jarvis has been a huge part of the artistic revolution in the small state of Vermont. Which is why it devastated so many when in June of 2024, after an eight-year run, JAG closed its curtains, for good. In an emailed letter, Jarvis said that much like other theatre companies across the country, JAG was a victim of, “A model that increasingly proves unsustainable amid shifting societal support and financial pressures.”

“I was actually kind of shocked that no one fought harder for it to stay. And people were showing up and doing the thing because of me, not because of the cultural impact and being a very white town and needing and wanting something like this.” – Jarvis Green
Bjorn Bolinder - Find the Light Photography 2024
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Courtesy
“I was actually kind of shocked that no one fought harder for it to stay. And people were showing up and doing the thing because of me, not because of the cultural impact and being a very white town and needing and wanting something like this.” – Jarvis Green

At the time that his company closed, there was so much going on behind the scenes for Jarvis, and not just financially. While JAG was nearing its ending, so was his romantic relationship, and in many ways — his relationship to his craft as he’d always known it. Jarvis’ experience speaks to a reality that a lot of queer creatives of color face, that at any moment everything can fall apart.

What happens when the public perception of your work; thriving, vital and expansive… doesn’t match the reality of everything behind the scenes? What happens when you’re just one life shift away from things breaking? What does it look like to piece it all together again?

I think that my body is still kind of processing that time. Some days I wake up and my spirit is kind of like, 'What is it that I'm supposed to be doing right now?' You know? So letting go of tying all of that labor to my worth. Like, you can just get up and meander and live in your imagination. — Jarvis Green

Credits

This episode was hosted and reported by Myra Flynn with help from our associate producer James Stewart. Our producer/director is Mike Dunn and Aaron Edwards is our story editor. Myra composed the theme music with other music by Blue Dot Sessions. Elodie Reed is the graphic artist behind this episode’s Homegoings artist portrait.

Thank you for listening. You can see a video version of this episode on our YouTube Channel.

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Homegoings New England News Collaborative
Myra Flynn
Myra Flynn joined Vermont Public in March 2021 and is the Host and Executive Producer of Homegoings. Raised in Vermont, Myra Flynn is an accomplished musician who has come to know the lay of dirt-road land that much more intimately through touring both well-known and obscure stages all around the state and beyond. She also has experience as a teaching artist and wore many hats at the Burlington Free Press, including features reporter and correspondent, before her pursuits took her deep into the arts world. Prior to joining Vermont Public, Myra spent eight years in the Los Angeles music industry.
See stories by Myra Flynn