6/4/2019 1 Comment PreperationI am so tremendously privileged—and just as excited—to be participating in Director's Lab North next week. The application package was a series of simple questions. Here is my response to one of them. I'm failing myself as someone who likes to think of himself as a maker of political theatre. But we must be critical in identifying what our work accomplishes and what our goals and our mandates really mean. I think also that to be either political or an artist means to never be satisfied. Well, shit.
In this time of seismic change around the world, is it our responsibility as theatre artists to promote change and if so, how? Yes and no. I’m sure I share the thought with most other contemporary practitioners that theatre, being so much work for so little money, should only be done if it is for something significantly bigger than ourselves. Of course, by the same equation, perhaps the less altruistic perspective is the only one that doesn’t shed artists away into poverty, day jobs, or other obscurities. We need accessible art who’s only goal is to be fun or moving or beautiful so that more people can share a language and cultural investment with more challenging, aesthetically progressive, and political work. However, across that spectrum, I have nearly zero room for narrative arguments that set out to support their communities’ existing perspectives. If we’re not always promoting change—okay. But we should never promote stasis. Theatre is alive and so should we be. This is how I dance around the question because, ultimately, what does it mean to promote change and how do we even know we’re doing it? I think theatre is a weaker catalyst for movement than we tell ourselves it is. That being said, emotional narratives told through connection create empathy. And, over a softer longer time, empathy is the only thing that really matters.
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6/21/2023 10:13:05 pm
At the Audition House, we have three spacious studios, two private waiting rooms, and a smaller one-to-one studio space. In addition, we also offer private access to our Rooftop and Courtyard areas.
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