Ep. 37: Championing women's voices, with Jenna Segal

Summary

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The Leadership Dance — Episode 37

Championing Women's Voices, with Jenna Segal
Host: Alissa Hsu Lynch | Date: March 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the dynamic career and mission of Jenna Segal—Emmy, Tony, and Clio award-winning producer and founder of Gatherer Enterprises—as she discusses her path from broadcast journalism to Broadway and her passionate commitment to amplifying women’s voices in arts and business. Host Alissa Hsu Lynch and Jenna Segal share personal stories about risk-taking, balancing ambition with authenticity, and reshaping history by elevating women's stories.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Early Influences and Career Beginnings

• Jenna's Roots (02:14–03:00)
  • Grew up in New Jersey, initially planning to become a corporate lawyer inspired by "LA Law."
  • Realized her love for fast-paced problem-solving environments during an internship at CNN, prompting a shift to media production.
  • Quote:
    “I realized how much I love being on my feet, how much I love being able to react and problem solve quickly. And producing really fit that for me.” – Jenna Segal (03:00)
• First Steps in Media (04:05–05:54)
  • Secured a CNN internship after a serendipitous meeting with Dana Bash.
  • Learned the value of structure and energy at CNN, then interned at a law firm before fully committing to media.
• MTV Era and Pioneering Moves (07:04–08:39)
  • Got her break at MTV by emailing her resume—one of the first to leverage digital (email) applications.
  • Produced pilots during MTV’s explosive creative period, then moved back east after 9/11.

Transition to Theater & Production

• Nickelodeon & Production Skills (08:46–11:11)
  • Produced interstitial shows like "You Pick Live," learning improvisation and live production skills.
  • Value of adaptability:
    “I learned a tremendous amount...they asked me to come over and be a line producer...then decided to leave and have my first child and I was going to retire, which you can see how well that went.” – Jenna (11:09)
• Entering Broadway (11:38–13:35)
  • Shifted to theater production while raising young children; produced "Gigi," which began at the Kennedy Center and eventually made it to Broadway starring Vanessa Hudgens.
  • Real-world timelines:
    “Eight to ten years is really typical [to produce a Broadway show]. And that was for something where the music was written.” – Jenna (13:12)

Advocacy for Women's Voices

• Empowering Women in the Arts (15:25–17:29)
  • Founded Gatherer Enterprises to prioritize female-led projects after observing the paucity of women in theatrical decision-making, especially when the majority of ticket buyers are women.
  • “I want at least one woman in a decision-making situation...when it’s something geared to women. My focus isn’t that I want no men, I just want at least one woman at the table.” – Jenna (22:46)
• Difference Between Tokenism and True Representation (24:28)
  • Asserts importance of visibility and entry points:
    “Having a woman’s name on a list...it’s at least a starting point for investigation. If women don’t exist in the history books...you need a place where someone like me is like, ‘Ooh, I never heard about this person before’ and has the curiosity to maybe want to rediscover them."

The 31 Women Project & Art Collecting

• Rediscovering Lost Histories (17:32–21:08)
  • The "31 Women" initiative—her privately built collection inspired by Peggy Guggenheim's pioneering 1943 women's exhibition.
  • Jenna’s office is in Peggy's former gallery; she actively tracks down art by the original 31 women featured.
  • “I’m also personally working on a book about my experience of collecting—a collector and really knowing nothing...Peggy says she became her own best expert, and I would say she really taught me how to allow myself to be my own best expert and be okay with saying that out loud.” – Jenna (21:12)

Leadership, Challenges, and Values

• Facing Criticism for Centering Women (31:31, 22:35)
  • Admits to facing negative reactions but defends the mission with clarity and personal conviction.
  • “My deciding to support women is not a judgment that you are deciding not to…it helps me sleep at night. Because entertainment is an extremely risky business...if I’m going to lose money, I want to know that one more woman’s name has moved forward.” – Jenna (23:09)
• Leadership Skills & Boundaries (28:03–30:22)
  • Shares her approach to leadership: honesty, kindness, and hard boundaries when projects exceed her capacity.
  • Mentions founding the Heidi Thomas Initiative to foster script development for women playwrights.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "Just do it. Just go for it." – Jenna Segal, on taking career risks (07:35)
• “We were doing this live talk show in a room...probably about the size of this studio right now, five days a week.” (09:33)
• “I love to have a plan. And I always know that plan is never going to work. So you have to be able to improvise when the structure doesn’t support what you’re looking to accomplish.” – Jenna (26:08)
• When asked about a production mishap:
  “There was a dressing room incident where...the dressing room [for a celebrity] was in shambles. And I improvised by grabbing my assistant and running to TJ Maxx and basically buying it out and redecorating it.” (27:12)
• “No regrets. I really feel that whether it’s my anxiety or my worry or whatever it was, it got me to where I am right now in my career. And where I am right now, it really feels like where I should be.” (32:49)

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Notable Timestamps

• 02:14 — Jenna on her childhood and career expectations
• 04:05 — CNN internship and early work ethic
• 07:35 — First big break at MTV
• 11:38 — Transition to Broadway producing
• 13:12 — Length of Broadway show production cycles
• 15:35 — Why elevating women’s stories matters
• 17:45 — The 31 Women project origins
• 21:12 — Lessons in collecting and self-teaching
• 22:35 — Handling criticism for women-centered focus
• 24:28 — The importance of writing women into history
• 28:03 — Leadership style and managing capacity
• 30:27 — The future of theater and arts
• 32:49 — Advice to her younger self, “No regrets.”

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Quickfire Round (25:18–27:04)

• Coffee or cocktail? “I can make it without the cocktail. I can’t make it without the morning coffee.”
• Broadway or off Broadway? “Broadway.”
• Woman artist to know now? “Shihota Chiharu...she does this unbelievable work with red string where she just transforms spaces.”
• Structure or improvisation? “Improvisation.”
• Describe yourself in one word: “Tenacious...and generous.” (Prompted by Alissa)
• Favorite music to dance to: “Definitely 80s and 90s alternative.”

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The Future of Theater (30:24–32:40)

• Predicts more rule-breaking, innovative formats (e.g., “Six,” “Hamilton”) as the industry responds to economic realities and creative opportunities.
• Notes the rising difficulty in the U.S. with production costs, especially due to healthcare, leading to more work originating abroad.

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Conclusion

Jenna Segal’s journey is a masterclass in courageous improvisation, purposeful advocacy, and steadfast dedication to women’s voices in the arts. By candidly sharing her path—from refusing to settle for the expected to assembling a game-changing art collection—she encourages listeners to claim space, take risks, and keep history inclusive. For listeners seeking inspiration to choreograph their own leadership dance, this episode provides both practical wisdom and lasting encouragement.

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Transcript

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[Jenna Siegel]

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[Jenna Siegel]

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[Jenna Siegel]

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[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Have you ever gotten a negative reaction to wanting to focus on women?

[Jenna Siegel]

Of course, Yes. I should probably say, period. My deciding to support women is not a judgment that you are deciding not to. It's just my model and it helps me sleep at night. Because entertainment is an extremely risky business. You can make money, you can lose money, but if I'm going to lose money, I want to know because that one more woman's name has moved forward and is on a list somewhere as having accomplished that thing. One of the big things is that women aren't written into history. If women don't exist in the history books, then in the future you need a place where someone like me is like, ooh, I never heard about this person before and has the curiosity to maybe wanna rediscover them.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. Hello and welcome to the Leadership Dance podcast where we explore the art of leadership with trailblazers in business and the arts. If you enjoy the show, subscribe, share and give it a five star review. And if you're listening to this episode right now, also check out our YouTube channel, Heladership Dance. I'm your host, Alisa sue lynch and today I'm joined by the amazing Jenna Siegel. Jenna is an Emmy, Tony and Clio award winning producer and impact investor. She is the founder and CEO of Gatherer Enterprises which emphasizes female led and targeted entertainment, sports and beverage investments. Welcome to the podcast, Jenna.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you so much for having me, Elisa.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

I'm so glad we could do it in person.

[Jenna Siegel]

Me too.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So jumping in, what was your childhood like and what did you dream of becoming when you were younger?

[Jenna Siegel]

Well, I grew up in New Jersey and I've been thinking a lot about how we say about New Jersey that only the strong survive. So I had a wonderful childhood. I have wonderful parents that are still alive and very involved in my life and my children's lives. And I was going to become a corporate lawyer.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

No way. I cannot picture this.

[Jenna Siegel]

No, no. I think LA Law was a really big show and I really enjoyed it at the time. And that was what I was gonna do and went to college and interned at a corporate law firm and quickly realized that was not my calling.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Okay, okay. What didn't you like about it?

[Jenna Siegel]

Before I had done that internship, I had worked at cnn, and I realized how much I love being on my feet, how much I love being able to react and problem solve quickly. And producing really fit that for me. Whereas law would have been a lot more at a desk, a lot more, you know, reading contracts, sitting and thinking, as opposed to being in constant motion. And I think when you say television version of a lawyer, they're in constant motion and all over and in a courtroom. But when you see the law profession in real life, it's a lot more running around like a maniac, like you do with production.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So I actually applied to law school. I got into law school my senior year of college, and. But then I ended up dancing.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yeah.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So I deferred my law school acceptance and I never went back, which I'm kind of glad. No offense to lawyers, but none taking.

[Jenna Siegel]

I'm not one.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Wasn't my calling either. Yeah. So you mentioned working at cnn. Tell me about that journey. How did you get into producing?

[Jenna Siegel]

So it was really one of those crazy experiences where I ran into Dana Bash, who is the anchor of cnn, who happened to go to GW as well, and. And I was with some girls who said, oh, there's Dana. Let's go say hi. And they asked what she was doing, and she said, oh, I'm a production assistant at cnn. And I said, you work at cnn? I would love to work at cnn. And she said, well, I need an intern.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Wow.

[Jenna Siegel]

And it just happened. You know, it was in the 90s, and interning then was. You would go in. Luckily, my school, George Washington University, gave credit for internships, and so I went and worked there 50 hours a week on the weekend shows, the weekend political talk shows.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

While you were taking classes?

[Jenna Siegel]

Yes, I took all my classes two days a week. And I actually found for me, my grades were better. My. I was much better able to have great structure because my time was so. So occupied and busy. And I think I was just so, so energized by being in the room where it was happening at that point in time. So when I left cnn, when I was finished with the internship, like I said, I went to work at a law firm. I also tried working at a company called Roll Call, which did literally just, like, you would find out what happened in Congress that day and, like, put it into a database. I was like, that's not for me either. And oddly, those were the paying jobs. Right. Cause they're a lot less sexy. And so instead, I did the jobs that I really enjoyed. But I would hostess at a restaurant a few nights a week for extra cash. And that was more. You know, that was pretty typical in college then.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. So what did you do after college, after cnn?

[Jenna Siegel]

Before I graduated? The last year I graduated, I was working full time at CNBC for a show called Equal Time, which was with Babe Buchanan and Stephanie Miller. And it was the only all women's or actually women kind of period political talk show on television. At the time, CNBC was still doing political talk shows, but what happened was that's when MSNBC got started. They decided to eliminate the political talk shows from CNBC and move them all to msnbc. And our show got canceled. So I worked for a few other places. And it was during the Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky scandal. And I said, you know what? I'm doing entertainment. I may as well do entertainment. Because that's really what it felt like. Like I was living in a live soap opera. And I got on a plane and went out to LA, and MTV was just starting up their 2,600 Colorado offices, which they were doing pilots and new series because Real World had become so successful. And Road Rules was in its first season. And we just did pilots, like pilots all the time, tons of them, for about four years. So they came out of that.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

That must have been an exciting time, because I remember it was amazing growing up. MTV was it?

[Jenna Siegel]

Yeah.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

You know that. That was what everybody watched after school. And that's where you got a lot of your entertainment news.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yes, MTV is. And the time I work there is still one of the great loves of my life.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

How did you get that job?

[Jenna Siegel]

I think the great theme probably of my career is just do it. Just go for it. And so I got the job because it was the beginning of the Internet. And I emailed my resume to human resources there, and probably everybody else was sending paper resumes on their. Nice. We used to do that. Needed to be, you know, sorted through at the mailroom. And I was one of the few who emailed it. And I got a call from Katherine Hauser, who wound up becoming the head of HR for Viacom, who I'm still in touch with. And she said, when are you coming in? And I said, I'll be there in a week. I was still living in D.C. and she said, okay, call us when you get here. And I called, and they said, come in tomorrow. And I went in the next day and I went to meet with three different producers. And they said, what show do you like best? And I said, well, I like this pilot group. And they said, you're hired. Start tomorrow.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Wow. Wow. And then you later worked at Viacom and Nickelodeon. How did you jump over to those?

[Jenna Siegel]

So I said MTV in LA for three years. I did the first show for Endemall, which was a lot of the variety shows today are produced by them. They were doing a pilot that MTV didn't pick up. And I decided it was time to move home. I didn't really know why, but I felt like I needed to be back on the East Coast. I left and went back and September 11th happened. And my plan prior to that was that I was going to apply to business school and try to not leave production. I knew I was going to do production, but more get into Management. And September 11th happened. That of course changed the whole world and calculus. And I happened to meet my husband at that point in time and we got married. I. I stayed in New York and I went and worked at Nickelodeon because they were starting up a live talk show called you'd pick live, where what they thought was gonna happen was commercials were no longer going to exist. And it's kind of funny now, 20 something years later, seeing, you know, everything that's old is new again, but that they didn't know how to take shows like, say, spongebob and just run them. Like the concept of just running them when there was a break and then just having the next one come on just felt strange at the time. So they were making what were called interstitial shows to put in the middle of the cartoons where there were supposed to be commercial breaks. And this show you pick Live wound up being incredibly successful. It was only 2 and a half minutes long where we would go live. Everyone from Adam Sandler, I'm trying to. Adam Levine, I think played there. And we were doing this live talk show in a room, honestly studio that was probably about the size of this studio right now, five days a week. And I learned a tremendous amount of. They asked me to come over and be what was called the line producer for a network called nicktoons, which was a digital cartoon network. And wound up going back to MTV again to go back to do pilots for a little bit. And then I decided that I was going to leave and have my first child and I was going to retire, which you can see how well that went.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Wow. So such great experience. And I think my favorite Nickelodeon show, if I'm correct, is Blue's Clues.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yes. Very fun.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yes. I watched that a lot. Or maybe it's my kids watch it. I can't remember, but I watched it with them.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yes. For sure. Blue's Clues was definitely one of the fun ones. I'm a Dora person myself.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Oh, yes. Dora the Explorer. Yes, I remember that, too. Yeah. So you took some time off. How much time off did you have?

[Jenna Siegel]

So it wound up only being two years, because about a year in to staying home with my first child, I met a couple who owned a theater, and I said, I have a dream. I've always wanted to produce Gigi on Broadway. And they said, well, that's not the kind of theater that we do. We do more experimental, but we know a lot of people will introduce you. And I really thought that this was something that I wasn't gonna do until probably I was, like, more my age now. My kids were leaving. But I think that backbone of just knowing how to produce came very naturally to me was like, well, if I just get the rights, then that'll be enough. Okay, well, if I just get this, then it'll be enough. And it was really the perfect combination of being able to keep a toe in and slowly move something across the finish line while being at home and raising my kids simultaneously. Cause I could, you know, do a call and, you know, go back to momming and really organize it and schedule it then. So it took about eight years. It wound up at the Kennedy center, and it starred Vanessa Hudgens. Yes. And we. It was an amazing ride. We moved, and then we moved to Broadway.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

That's amazing. Yeah. How long does a Broadway show usually take to produce and get on Broadway? Is that typical?

[Jenna Siegel]

It is very typical. So eight to 10 years is really typical. And that was for something where the music was written. So things that haven't been written can take even more than that. It's a very slow, laborious process that is, you know, equally thrilling and wonderful. Magic when it happens.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. So you've now produced a number of different theater projects or musicals.

[Jenna Siegel]

Sure.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Can you talk about some of those? What are some of your favorite ones?

[Jenna Siegel]

Right now, the two that are currently still running on Broadway are Hadestown, which I was amazing. Just saw that, which is an amazing show, and I'm glad you saw it. I always say it washes over you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Oh, my gosh. Everything about it. The music, the staging, the acting, the singing, the story.

[Jenna Siegel]

I'm so glad you feel that way.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. Everyone should go see it.

[Jenna Siegel]

Everyone should go See it and it really, it's like if you feel like you need just kind of that cleanse in life, it is one of those shows that I don't know anybody who walks out of it and just doesn't feel like they just took a giant deep breath and it's special. And the other one that I am not a producer on, but I'm an investor on is Six and Six to me is just utter magic. It's the six wives of Henry VIII set as if they are Spice Girls basically competing for who had it worse. It's hysterical. It's to me, the perfect show. It's 90 minutes, there's no intermission. The spouses love it as much as the women who go see it. The half the crowd now knows comes in and is singing all the words because it's so much fun. And that one I followed from its first run in Chicago and then it went to Boston. And I just kind of kept pestering the lead producer to let me invest in it until finally he was like, okay, okay, I'll give you a little piece of it. And I'm just, I'm very grateful to be a part of that show.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Amazing. Well, I'm definitely going to go see it.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yes. So Gatherer Enterprises, your company has been known for elevating women's stories. Why is this mission so personal to you?

[Jenna Siegel]

When I was doing Gigi, one of the things that I realized was that the majority of the shows that were around me had no female writers or directors and very few in the decision making capacity out some producers. But the way Broadway works is that really it's your director and your writer that have a lot of the influence in the way that the show was going. And it became important to me. When you have on any given year between 75 to 85% ticket buyers being women, that women be represented in the decision making of what was going on stage. That in a nutshell is, is what I decided to focus on. For years I the company has been called Seagull nyc. About a year ago, I changed it Together Enterprises because I really had only had the name Seagull nyc. Was my accountant was like, oh, Seagull NYC is available as an llc. And I was like, okay, great. And I never really like was looking to build something. I found that once I started getting into other things like film or YOLO, which is the investment I have in Mezcal Co. Or Angel City FC, which is the football club in Los Angeles, I was really gathering kind of Hunter Gatherer Wise things that were that I consider entertainment or entertainment adjacent and that I really wanted both a company name that relayed that, but that I also wanted it to not be about me. I wanted to gather more people to be working with me and pull them in doing the things that they did and the things that interested them so that we could grow and. And scale.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah, I love the name.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So talk to us about 31 women.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yes.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So as part of your enterprises that you are supporting, this is also adjacent, but a passion project of yours. Tell us more about it.

[Jenna Siegel]

Again, like this speaks to the entertainment piece. The exhibition by 31 women was the first ever all women's exhibition in the United States. That was held at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of this Century gallery, which happens to be my office now because I am obsessive. And it was curated by Duchamp and Max Ernst and Bill Barr and Peggy Guggenheim. I traveled in Europe as a college student. I studied in Spain and went to Italy to see the Peggy. What was called Peggy Guggenheim's home collection at the time. Now it's called the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. And I was just fascinated that I never really, not never really I had never heard of her before and that I found that very, very surprising that such an incredible woman who got so much art out, and not just art, but artists out of Europe before the Nazis came in. She shipped all the art that she bought on a single container ship, rolled up in rugs and labeled as housewares. And the collection today has been valued at over a billion dollars. And she also gave money to help save these artists who the Nazis had had labeled undesirables and got them to New York. So this, this street that my office is currently on and where this collection was was just filled with these European artists, painters, performing artists, you know, everything across the board. Tons of surrealist artists just wandering the streets and wandering and meeting the American artists and mixing with them. And as a result, American art from the 1950s began to explode because they were getting this, the real thing of the people, Rodin. And all those artists were living in New York and tutoring or teaching newer artists different techniques that they only would have seen in museums. But back to 31 women. I learned about this first ever all women's exhibition that I had never heard of. And they had chosen 31 women. And I, during COVID decided, I'm going to try to collect one work by each of these women. And it has grown to a collection of over 300 pieces of art and ephemera. I wish I could tell you I had stopped. I have not. It's very hard to stop. We did at Peggy's former gallery, a showing in 2023, and then it went in an independently curated version to Madrid and then to Lisbon. And it is now the larger collection is home, but there's now pieces all over the United States. One piece is going to the MoMA next month. There's work that's headed out to Italy and to Paris for next year.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Incredible.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yeah.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Is the exhibition going to be shown again? Where can people see it?

[Jenna Siegel]

So the exhibition hopefully will be shown again. I'm in the process of talking to a lot of different museums to decide what's next. And I'm also personally working on a book about my experience of collecting a collector and really knowing nothing, you know, starting from this blank slate of knowing. Knowing nothing about art collecting. And Peggy says she became her own best expert. And I would say that she really taught me how to allow myself to be my own best expert and be okay with saying that out loud.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

I love that, Jenna. And I feel like that's a theme throughout your career where you've just jumped into things and learned and then become an expert at this.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. And then promoting the work of others as well. It's just so generous.

[Jenna Siegel]

I think that's more important. The most important part to me is really lifting up other women to say, come on, you can do this. You, you know, you're interested in it. Why not you? Why does it have to be somebody else? Why is somebody else. How does this person know more than you do?

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Have you ever gotten a negative reaction to wanting to focus on women?

[Jenna Siegel]

Of course. Yes. I should probably say, period.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

How do you respond to that?

[Jenna Siegel]

Look, it's really. I think people have made it easy because you can see, how many boards can you go and look on where there's not a single woman on the board? My focus isn't that I want no men. I just want at least one woman in a decision making situation. So it's not that I need both a writer and director if I'm doing something with theater or doing something with film, to have both of them be women, but I want one person. I'm just looking for at least one. You know, at minimum there needs to be one woman. And it's especially, Especially when it's something that is geared to women. I don't think that it makes sense to have all men being the decision makers on women's storytelling. And that's just my focus. And I think that what I say, to your point, what happens when I get that reaction is I say, it's not a judgment. My deciding to support women is not a judgment that you are deciding not to or you're choosing not to make that a priority for you. It's just my model and it helps me sleep at night. Because entertainment is an extremely risky business. You can make money, you can lose money, but if I'm going to lose money, I'm going to. I want to know that one more woman's name has moved forward and is on a list somewhere as having accomplished that thing.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah.

[Jenna Siegel]

And I think that that is one of the big things is that women aren't written into history. So even collecting the 31 women, it was incredibly difficult to learn anything about these artists and try to find out who they were. And so it made it very impactful to me to understand that having a woman's name on a list, it's at least a starting point for investigation. Yeah. If we don't exist in the history books, if women don't exist in the history books, then in the future, when we're forgotten, when our humanity is forgotten, you need a place where someone like me, you know, is like, oh, I never heard about this person before and has the curiosity to maybe want to rediscover them.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. Well, really important work you're doing.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So we have some rapid fire questions that I didn't prepare you for. So just say whatever's top of mind. Coffee or cocktail?

[Jenna Siegel]

Coffee. Oh, that is really hard. Depends if it's morning or night. I'm going to stick with that.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

You can say both.

[Jenna Siegel]

I can make it without the cocktail. I can't make it without the morning coffee.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Broadway or off Broadway?

[Jenna Siegel]

Broadway.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Who's a woman artist that everyone should know right now.

[Jenna Siegel]

Shihota Chiharu. And I don't know if I'm pronouncing her name right, but she does this unbelievable work with red string where she just transforms spaces. And I just think it's the most incredible thing I've ever seen.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Structure or improvisation?

[Jenna Siegel]

Improvisation.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Okay. Why?

[Jenna Siegel]

I always say I love to have a plan. And I always know that plan is never going to work. So you have to be able to improvise when the structure doesn't support what you're looking to accomplish.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

What's one word your friends would use to describe you?

[Jenna Siegel]

I feel like I should just come up with that quickly, but.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Well, I'll give you one that I would describe you as. Generous.

[Jenna Siegel]

Oh, that's so nice. Thank you. As you said that? I was going to say tenacious.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

You can be both.

[Jenna Siegel]

Okay, thank you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

And your favorite song or type of music to dance to.

[Jenna Siegel]

Oh, my gosh. Definitely 80s and 90s alternative.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Okay. That's not what they play at the ABT parties.

[Jenna Siegel]

Didn't two years ago they did. It was really, really fun. Yes.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

All right, so what's a moment in a production when things went sideways and you had to improvise?

[Jenna Siegel]

This is like a super silly story, but just there was a dressing room incident where, you know, the dressing room that was supposed to be beautifully done for a celebrity that was coming in was pretty much in shambles. And I improvised by grabbing my assistant and running to TJ Maxx and basically buying it out and redecorating it. It's the first one that comes to mind of recent years.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Well, it's interesting because when we came into this studio, you immediately started redecorating.

[Jenna Siegel]

I love it. It's a bad habit. Sorry.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

No, not a bad habit. You're talented at it, so.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yes. What leadership skills do you rely on most in the artistic world?

[Jenna Siegel]

I try to be as kind as possible. I try to provide artists who come to me with honest feedback. And sometimes the feedback now more than anything has been, I don't have any more capacity. And that just has to be, you know, knowing when I cannot possibly as one human take on every single project that someone brings to me. Especially because so many women are coming to me who aren't getting the attention that they. They were hoping they would get in different places. So somebody tells them, oh, come talk to Jenna. That's what Jenna does. But I've had to be a little more self protective of my own time because I have three children and then a husband and parents. And so I have to be able to say say no sometimes. But also how I have dealt with that in theater in particular. We've funded two programs that we call the Heidi Thomas Initiative, which is named after one of my good friends, Heidi Thomas, who writes a show called Call the Midwife, and I think is just the most incredible example of what. What an artist in. In the entertainment field should strive to be. That is, the initiatives are both at Signature Theater in Arlington and at WP Theater that is in New York City. And they have the staffs and the capacity to be reading through scripts and helping develop scripts and doing that initial legwork that I don't really have the capability of doing on my own right now.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. I also feel sometimes guilty in saying no, but I do have to protect my time because we are very busy. And I also consider myself a generous person like you are. So there's a inclination to always say yes, and I struggle to say no sometimes, but.

[Jenna Siegel]

And you and I are doers. So if somebody asks us to do something, we're doing it. We're not doing it halfway. So I think there's no real in between.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

For people like us, it's important to prioritize.

[Jenna Siegel]

We're doing it. Yeah.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Where do you imagine theater going next?

[Jenna Siegel]

Wow. The way that we might think about what theater is. So how. You know, I know everyone's gonna use this as an example, but either with Sixx or with Hamilton, neither are a classical musical. So I just see a lot more breaking of the rules of, like, something that's not Oklahoma or even, you know, how we did Gigi, that there's gonna be a lot more, you know, out of the box thinking. I think a lot more plays because plays are less expensive to make. And this is already happening is that a lot is gonna come from London because it costs so much less to develop work in Europe because we don't have healthcare here. So anytime you have to produce something in the United States, you're paying into healthcare as a producer, it greatly increases the cost of doing the work. And in order to support the actors and the directors. And while, of course, course, everybody who is producing wants everyone to have that because we don't have universal healthcare, that part is not being taken care of by society in the way that it is in European countries. So I think there's going to be more that is developed there. And then once it's really solidifies, comes to the New York market or to the US Market after that.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. I agree. Just in general around performing arts, live arts, it has to evolve. It has to change. And I love that people are breaking the rules and trying new models because, you know, I've been reading Broadway shows are opening and then they're closing. You know, not everything is a Hadestown.

[Jenna Siegel]

Correct.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So unless we do something different, it seems like it is struggling.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yeah.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Which is a shame.

[Jenna Siegel]

Yes.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah.

[Jenna Siegel]

But it's still remarkable, honestly, because for every show that closes, there's three shows behind ready to come in. And everyone always thinks, when is that rub gonna. Where people start saying, I'm not funding this anymore. That hasn't happened yet, but I don't know. We'll see.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Yeah. So last question. What advice would you give to your younger self about navigating your career while staying true to yourself?

[Jenna Siegel]

I know this sounds like somebody's gonna have a really hard time with me saying this. I have no regrets. Yeah, I really feel that whether it's my anxiety or my worry or whatever it was, it got me to where I am right now in my career. And where I am right now, it really feels like where I should be. And I feel very, very fortunate. And so whatever I was telling myself then, which was probably just being a lucky girl who had a dad who gave her a lot of confidence and told her she was the best and just felt good about myself and felt that if I worked hard, that's what he would say. If you work hard, you can accomplish anything. And it's the motto that I've stuck with and still have. And I think that it was the right one. So, yeah, I would say that's the advice.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

That's great advice. And you have accomplished so much and so much more to come.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you. Yes.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

So it's been a joy to have this conversation with you today again. I'm so glad we could do it in person.

[Jenna Siegel]

Me too.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

And thank you for joining the podcast.

[Jenna Siegel]

Thank you so much for having me. It was so great to see you. Yes.

[Alisa Sue Lynch]

Like follow and share the Leadership Dance, where we explore how to choreograph the career of your dreams and chat with visionary leaders in business and the arts. Until next time, keep dancing.

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