Drama alumni reflect on their journey from actors to local business owners
On a quiet Monday evening when many restaurants and bars are closed to reset for the week ahead, a group of patrons are deep in conversation with the bartender at easytalk. “We’re open on Mondays because it’s the day off for many people in the arts and entertainment industry,” explains co-owner David Bowen (H.S. Drama ’11, B.F.A. Drama ’15). “This is an inclusive and safe space for them; for everyone.”
A self-described all-day beverage joint, easytalk is the brainchild of Bowen and his spouse, Madeline Fox (B.F.A. Drama ’15). The two met at UNCSA and lived and worked together in Macau (an autonomous region on the south coast of China) and New York City before returning to Winston-Salem and opening easytalk under their parent company, Ginger Fox Beverage. Their journey has been an exciting one, requiring skills cultivated as young artists at UNCSA and in the near-decade since graduation: creativity, passion and perseverance.
UNCSA Drama alumni and easytalk owners David Bowen and Madeline Fox. / Photo courtesy of Bowen and Fox
Global artistry
Like many of their peers, Bowen and Fox moved to New York City following graduation. Fox signed with an agent and began auditioning. Bowen reconnected with fellow Drama alumnus and Design & Production professor Chad Leslie, who was an artistic director for Franco Dragone’s water-based stage production “The House of Dancing Water.” Leslie invited him to audition for the show’s lead role. “A Cirque [du Soleil] style role is all I ever wanted,” says Bowen. It was a perfect fit and he soon found himself training to perform the show in Macau. Back in New York, Fox gained experience as a server that would later prove useful in her Ginger Fox Beverage pursuits. Soon, Fox joined him in Asia.
“We had been together as a couple since 2014 and had been cast in shows together before then,” explains Bowen. “We’ve spent the last decade unpacking our training together… how it applies to life and to our work.” Many of these deep conversations took place in bars. “We found ourselves [in Macau] during this really interesting and special moment,” he says, “and we decompressed and connected in these elaborate, award-winning bars.” The two fell in love with the storytelling aspect of hospitality: the high level of artistry and the attention to detail in both presentation and service.
Their stint in Asia offered Bowen and Fox a global perspective as artists and eventual business owners. “One day you’re sitting at a table alongside the billionaires because you’re one of the performers and therefore a guest of honor,” explains Fox. “And the next day you’re serving the same billionaires because that’s your catering job. Those experiences gave us a 360-degree view of the world and I found that to be incredibly valuable.”
Alumnus David Bowen performing in Macau / Photo: Maritza Melo Zambrano
According to Fox, it’s easy for artists to look down on “survival jobs” that pay bills while looking for new artistic pursuits. But there’s much to be gleaned from every experience, she says: “It’s easy to think I’m not a real person. I’m not working on my craft. I’m not doing my thing. But you have to take your craft and put it into the work you’re doing.” The two are not mutually exclusive. “We went through a lens shift in Macau,” adds Bowen. “It’s easy to view being successful as a performer as something that’s serving you, but we began to flip the lens around and consider how we can use our craft and our skills to provide a service for others.”
Turning toward hospitality
After a few years of working in Macau, the pair returned to New York City. While initially they planned to continue pursuing work as actors, it soon became clear that they were moving in another career direction. “We were getting more and more responsibility in our hospitality jobs,” recalls Fox. “Auditions became an annoyance because they were taking me away from where I was contributing to the world in hospitality.”
Bowen wasn’t sold as quickly. “I hated working in hospitality at first,” he admits. “I thought I was better than that, and I felt I had to pursue my art to make money. Maddie said to me, ‘have you tried being good at it?’” He began bartending and studying the art of craft cocktails while Fox ran a restaurant in Queens.
There’s a direct overlap in being a performer and being able to connect with another person [as a bartender]. You put your own needs and your own story outside of yourself.
David Bowen
As they grew more excited about their work in the hospitality industry, both Bowen and Fox were able to continue drawing from their training as actors. “You always hear that bartenders are like therapists or priests,” says Bowen. “But there’s a direct overlap in being a performer and being able to connect with another person [as a bartender]. You put your own needs and your own story outside of yourself. It’s about the other person.”
A calling in Carolina
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Fox and Bowen decided to leave the city and return to Winston-Salem. Their hospitality work continued, working virtually for a catering company as they shipped ready-to-drink cocktail mixes to New York and ran a bar program remotely from North Carolina. As the year closed, they hosted a pop-up event at NCMA Winston-Salem (formerly SECCA). “We began to see the opportunity here the longer we stayed,” says Bowen.” It’s a small world that led us from one place to another.”
“Village Juice was a big ‘yes’ moment for us,” explains Bowen of opening their first bar, Ginger Fox, in 2021. They shared a space on Fourth Street with the health-focused restaurant, operating in the evenings after Village Juice closed. “We were able to create a closed loop sustainable cocktail bar using the pulp from their daytime juicing in our evening cocktails.” At Ginger Fox, the pair begin hiring and mentoring UNCSA students, equipping them with soft skills in communications, networking and hospitality to serve them well after graduation.
“A lot of the work we do is for them, for the people we work with,” says Fox. “Mentoring our staff is very important to us, and we want to share with them that it’s not crazy to stick around after graduation and it’s not crazy to leave and come back, either.” Most importantly, she adds, “we remind them that it’s not about the cocktails in the same way that it’s not about the script, it’s about the story.”
easytalk
After a year and a half, Ginger Fox closed on Fourth Street and Bowen and Fox set their sights on the up-and-coming Walnut and Broad area of town near the UNCSA campus. They designed and built out the perfect space for their next bar concept: easytalk. Offering coffee by day and cocktails by night, the space opened in June 2023 and allows patrons to choose their own adventure — a phrase Bowen and Fox feel is overused but accurate. The easy side of the house features a rotating menu of eight cocktails that are high quality and simple to prepare. Espresso, cold brew and other coffee drinks are also available. The talk side of the house is a 10-seat drinking experience where your order is crafted based on a conversation with the bartender.
“There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance in the mixology world… we want to demystify that in a lot of ways,” says Fox of their desire to make the easy bar approachable for all. While the menu is simple, cutting edge and new techniques developed in-house are utilized behind the scenes to deliver the best drink. “At the end of the day, you don’t know that I’ve put 15 different ingredients in your drink,” she adds, smiling.
“We’re also still incredibly focused on our staff and on our mentorship and training opportunities,” Fox says. “And creating a safe space is important to us,” adds Bowen. “We have been fortunate to find many safe spaces in the theater world… we’re trying to bring that to our businesses.” And perhaps above all, Bowen and Fox endeavor to serve the community. “If we’re not serving the people who live and work in the surrounding neighborhoods, that’s a failure for us,” says Fox, noting that there aren’t many options for grabbing a cocktail after a show on the UNCSA campus. Indeed, in the year and a half since opening, easytalk has partnered with UNCSA several times; most recently creating a custom beverage inspired by the 2024 fall musical “Wild Party.” And their partnerships extend outside the Fighting Pickle family as well.
Bowen and Fox are excited to be working with Family Meal, a local business selling grab-and-go meals with fresh ingredients. “We care a lot about sustainability, and allowing Family Meal to use our kitchen space is a great way to execute that,” says Bowen. “Theater is an inherently collaborative model where we’re working together to share resources. Food and beverage isn’t often like that, so we are facilitating that change.” The sky's the limit for future collaborations, too. “We’d love to incorporate more entertainment in our space,” says Fox. “We know how much talent is in this city that people aren’t aware of.” She offers up play readings, experimental music nights, wine pairing dinners, drag shows and musical theater karaoke as ideas for the future.
At the end of the day, “easytalk is us,” says Fox. “It’s inspired by our travels, where we’ve lived and where we’ve worked… it’s a reflection of our story up to this point.” A story that will no doubt continue to evolve as Bowen, Fox and easytalk in turn inspire the stories of their guests and their community.
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December 13, 2024