office must be down here somewhere I
smell watermelon a conference room at
General Motors with Karen she just needs
a good at home when I was 12
those homosexuals are an abomination and
they gonna burn in hell for these sins
my underlying response to these
situations shock anger isolation
rejection but am I in the moment
response pullback quiet don’t say
anything later
share the experience with a family
friend or a confidant with whom I could
share my unbelievable shock and
hopefully get some acknowledgment my
name is Ron Simons and I’m a storyteller
in fact I created a company whose
mission is to develop financed produce
and share stories about communities that
deal with situations not unlike those we
seek to tell stories that will enable
when I came up in Detroit in an
automotive family I wondered what I was
gonna be when I grew up I went through a
lot of a lot of a lot of occupations I
was gonna be a priest I was gonna be a
doctor I was gonna be a veterinarian but
I worked really hard and I studied hard
and I graduated from Columbia University
right here in New York City with a
degree in computer science and during
that time it was a very tough market for
computer scientists but I had to get a
job because I was an only child from a
low-income family and the first to ever
graduate college I felt an intense
pressure to succeed
I became a mission-based focused
overachiever so I got this great job at
Hewlett Packard being a software
developer but unbeknownst to many
I’d also started my application at the
Yale School of Drama and I started my
application to the Yale School of Drama
because the deep down that’s what I
wanted to be I wanted to be an actor
even like going back to high school
where I had this you know star turn as
sharecropper number two and Finian’s
Rainbow I know I know I know but that’s
a story for another day so I didn’t
finish my application to Yale because
well one you know actors are not known
for having consistent paychecks and – it
was Yale I mean the number one acting
school in the country there was no way I
was getting into Yale so I accepted the
job if you love Packard and the next
week I get this call hi is this Ron
Simons yes it is hi this is Kathryn I’m
the head of Admissions at the Yale
School of Drama oh hi I’m calling
because as you may know the applications
deadline is past but we’d like to extend
the deadline for you wait what is she
saying I mean this caught me completely
off guard I mean I just got thrown into
chaos I started thinking oh my god does
this mean that I can actually get into
Yale so I got nervous and I did what I
do and I normally get nervous I started
talking so I was launched into this long
diatribe about being from this
low-income family and how my mother and
grandparents were elderly and need his
financial support and I was gonna be the
breadwinner and how HP just offered me
this job and I had accepted it and on
and on and on and on and on and as my
mouth was moving my brain and my
emotions were escalating an avalanche of
thoughts and feelings oh my god I think
she’s telling me I can get into Yale but
what would I tell HP I can’t afford to
go to Yale I get another student loan if
she offered me guaranteed admission and
after a while I realized that I stopped
talking the autopilot had left the
building and that’s when I heard her say
well I’m sure you’re gonna be very
successful I’m sorry you won’t be
joining the fall class but I wish you
all success and she hung up the phone
this was a pivotal moment in my life
because my brain told me that HP was the
right decision my intuition was
split-decision my collaborators I talked
to one person about my desires and
acting and applying to Yale and I should
have talked to more I should have told
them about my dreams and my desires but
not having done that I was left with my
own decision now a footnote I in fact
did take that job at Hewlett Packard I
did not call back Yale with a changed
heart but my intuition finally concluded
as I stated that a wall for what felt
like an hour and 15 minutes that one day
not that day but one day I’ll be an
actor and after what I thought was a
very successful career in computer
science I decided I needed to focus on
the second component of my Trinity
formula which was my intuition which
told me it was time to pursue my acting
dreams so I applied to got accepted and
went to and graduated from the
University of Washington professional
actor training program and at the tender
age of 41 I became an actor
unfortunately oh thank you that’s very
unfortunately after a few years I
started feeling that I really wasn’t
excited about the kind of roles that I
was auditioning for or the projects that
were being greenlit my first audition
for a television show was for a pimp the
second one a drug dealer and before I
went on stage here in New York in a
musical where I played a fat suicidal
black man I started asking myself where
I’ve overlooked now these the kind of
stories that I want to tell are these
the kind of roles that I want to see
promoted I realized that I could have
more impact in the world but not just
acting but producing and creating work
you know one of my first films that I
produced was called Dunhill Rove
it’s about a Puerto Rican dad who comes
home to philandering Dominican wife and
a teenage son who is transgender in this
was an untold story but the thing is is
the dads really responded to this story
because at its core it was the story of
a father and son we just chose to tell
the story of a family in crisis through
the
lens of a Puerto Rican dad and his son
who yearned to find his true gender
identity so what we did after we’ve
created that role was that then decided
we need to do this more often we need to
go out and tell all kinds of stories
that we felt could change the world that
could address the homophobia that I
experienced at home the racism that I
experienced at school as well as in the
work force the sexism that I had seen in
everywhere around the woman in the
places that I had visited and lived so
at the end of the day what we decided to
do was go beyond just film and plays and
television we decided that we were going
to expand our repertoire and that’s what
we do today right let’s go back to that
story of the executives at General
Motors in the conference room who felt
they knew what Karyn needed my my brain
told me that this was like very
inappropriate my intuition told me these
were not my kind of people but my
collaborators I didn’t talk to anyone in
that room and I wondered to this day
what might have happened if I had said
something what might those other men in
the room have said would they have been
outraged would have they been taken
aback would have they have been
embarrassed you know sometimes when we
face injustice we feel like we’re alone
but ultimately we’re not you know the
communication that we resist can close
the door for learning for growing for
healing newer generations are consuming
content in all kinds of ways young
people are learning life’s lessons
through YouTube talk shows where people
talk about their lives while tasting hot
wings stories are being told through the
blockchain through curriculum through
podcasts
the everything is evolving and we as
arts and entertainment professionals
have to evolve too we have to tell the
stories that will impact generations to
come see I use the shock and the pain
and the hurt and the embarrassment that
I experience to motivate me to tell
stories that I hope to change the world
now you’ve heard my tale what’s your
unique lens to a universal story you
don’t have to use my formula but figure
out a way to tell your story go beyond
your comfort zone and the circle of
people you know no matter what your
profession because by enabling
communication we enable the possibility
for change for growth for learning it
gives us the opportunity to share to
converse and believe in a better future
and at the end of the day it gives us
the power to change the world thank you
[Applause] [Music]