Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of Rhode Island entrepreneurs. To get a sense of the issues they face, Providence Business News is following 15 people through a 12-week business planning course for Latino entrepreneurs at the R.I. Small Business Development Center. This is the 11th article in the series.
Francis Parra has been the driving force behind ECAS Theater, the state’s only Latino theater group, since 1997.
She says the empowerment of theater is what keeps her going as she runs the volunteer-based group in addition to working full-time as a kindergarten teacher at the International Institute Charter School in Pawtucket.
Theater is a necessary form of expression in every culture, Parra said. When she moved to Providence in 1996, there was no theater group performing in Spanish. That’s why she co-founded the Educational Center for the Arts and Sciences.
Since forming ECAS and establishing the ECAS Theater, Parra said, she has watched the actors rediscover themselves. Some are mothers, now working in factories, who used to act before moving to the United States.
Parra herself was an actor in the Dominican Republic before she moved to California in 1993. She studied acting under Germana Quintana, a well-known theater director in the Dominican Republic.
Parra doesn’t act much anymore. But she and the volunteers who keep the enterprise running want to take ECAS Theater to the next level – finding a permanent venue for its productions, which draw 300 to 400 people on average.
“We know there is a demand,” she said. “I need to prove this is going to be a good business.”
Taking the R.I. Small Business Development Center’s Primer Paso 12-week business planning course, Parra said, has helped her understand how to formulate a business model and make financial projections for ECAS Theater.
Now she is applying for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, with help from the Rhode Island Foundation, so ECAS Theater can apply for grants that will help the organization afford to rent a permanent location.
Before taking the class, which the SBDC teaches in Spanish, to reach out to Latino entrepreneurs, Parra had thought she would have to hire a consultant to create the strategic plan for the 501(c)(3) application. It would have cost $3,000, she said.
“[This course] has completely changed my outlook,” Parra said. “I think it’s better if we do our own strategic plan, because we know what we want to do. We know what happened at each play, what made us successful.”
Tomas Avila, an SBDC business counselor and the course facilitator for Primer Paso, said it is not unusual for people running a nonprofit to apply for 501(c)(3) status while taking the course.
“They might have the idea, but because they aren’t used to planning, they don’t pursue it,” Avila said. “Once they take the class, they get used to the planning. Then the light bulb goes off and they say, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ ”
Parra said her main goal is to turn the theater into a nonprofit that can support itself through a combination of subscriber-type memberships and grants.
ECAS Theater now performs six to seven weekends per year, usually in March, she said, but could do more performances if it had its own space.
The average play costs $8,000, she said, and is funded through private donations from the Rhode Island Foundation, Citizens Bank and small Latino-owned businesses.
Parra’s second goal is to build income for the theater through drama classes for youth.
Over the past nine years, through ECAS, she has taught drama sporadically in Spanish to 6- to 14-year-olds who otherwise might not be exposed to the art form because they lack English skills. She said she wants to make the class a permanent offering because she has seen how it changed the lives of her students. One is now studying film in Los Angeles.
“It is inspiration for them,” Parra said. “Theater is going to be with them for the rest of their lives.”
