My Theatre Company

Fair warning this post has absolutely nothing to do with Senegal.  Ok now that that’s out of the way let’s talk about theatre.  One of my biggest concerns with joining the Peace Corps was how taking a two-year break from theatre would affect my career.  I’ve been keeping track of my friends and their professional progress over the past few months and a few days ago I randomly got really jealous.  In the throws of this mysterious bout of jealousy I voiced my career concerns on facebook.  That’s a bit of a euphemism.  I actually posted a pessimistic status update saying, “I wonder how far behind I’ll be after 2 years in the Peace Corps”.  My friends rightfully shot down this unwarranted pessimism and reminded me that I’m right where I need to be.  I couldn’t agree more.  That being said though I want to share my aspirations here so that, if nothing else, I can put them out of my head and focus on the task at hand.  Here we go:

Most of my theatre friends know that my overall goal is to start a theatre company of my own.  Few people though actually know the extent of my goals… they’re a little ambitious.  Looking at the theatre world today I see the best, most creative, and most valuable work coming not from Broadway or LA, but rather professional regional theatres around the country.  One of the best examples of this is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland Oregon.  This complex of three theatres offers a diverse season of professional shows in repertory so that on any given weekend you could see 5 different shows in one place for very reasonable prices.  This ability to see so much high caliber theatre in one place has made Ashland a tourist destination and as a result the town is flourishing.  America doesn’t need another actor trying to make it on Broadway or in LA, god knows there are too many already, but it does need more professional regional theatres, and that is what I am setting out to do. 

This is going to sound arrogant I know, but I don’t just want to make another professional regional theatre, I want to redefine altogether what regional theatre can be and its purpose and value in America.  I told you it was going to sound arrogant, but stay with me.  I am envisioning a theatre company that is completely unified with and nourishes its community artistically, culturally, financially, educationally, environmentally, and physically.  Let’s break that down:

• Artistically:  First and foremost this company needs to offer the highest caliber theatre possible.  It would produce a variety of works both classic and contemporary in repertory and would support the production of new plays through workshops and full fledged premiere productions.  This would ensure that even though the company is regional it would still be relevant to the rest of the theatre world and contribute to its evolution. 
• Culturally:  This company would truly be a part of its community with dedicated social areas such as a restaurant/ jazz lounge, coffee shop, book store, and beautiful outdoor areas.  It would be an open space for the community to gather regardless of that particular evening’s theatrical offerings.  Beyond simply a place to gather it would also be a place to investigate local issues by offering workshops in social community based theatre as a means to open forums of discussion on relevant issues in the community. 
• Financially: Too often theatres take from their communities financially through constant calls for donations.  This company would support its community financially by bringing in tourism and boosting the local economy. 
• Educationally: This company would offer extensive educational outreach programs such as youth theatre classes, free performances for local school children, small scale tours of performers to surrounding areas, and performance opportunities when available for local children and young adults. 
• Environmentally: Every theatre built by this company would be certified LEED Platinum and every show would strive to eliminate waste in all aspects of production.  For some reason the theatre world sees it fit to investigate the worlds problems and claim high moral authority while taking more than its fair share of world resources.  It is far from convenient or cheap to make sure that sets are recyclable and energy use is minimal, but we cannot pretend to be exempt from our obligation to reduce our carbon footprint just because we’re making “art”. 
• Physically: This company would literally feed the surrounding community through the implementation of a substantial organic rooftop farm.  This might sound indulgent and in no way theatrical, but what better way is there to connect with a community than to feed it?  The United States is arguably the most prosperous nation in the world, and yet there are people who cannot afford to provide proper nutrition to their families.  Beyond just this there is a crisis in America of centralized food markets that require unsustainable amounts of energy to produce and transport food.  America needs more locally produced organic food in order to feed future generations in a sustainable way. Food from this farm would be provided free of charge to local schools and low-income families, and of course to the restaurant/ jazz bar. 

This is not the model of traditional professional theatre and it will not be as profitable, but there is just something fundamentally right about theatre feeding its community so completely.  It harkens back to the reason that theatre exists in the first place, to bring communities together to try to understand the world just a little better.  The traditional model of professional theatre may investigate the world, but it doesn’t bring a community together.  I feel like I don’t deserve to make theatre if the only point is to make theatre.  There has to be something more, and this feels like something valuable. 

Like I said I’m a little ambitious, but here’s the real kicker.  I need probably between 20 and 40 MILLION dollars to build this complex of theatres.  So if you know any billionaires who are loose with their money, forward them this post ;-).  I don’t mean to be flippant.  In all seriousness I have a lot of work to do before I can even think about building a theatre.  Firstly I need to learn how to make some seriously good theatre and that probably means grad school.  All of this is for not if the theatre sucks.  I also need to find the right town to do it in and gather some pretty talented and dedicated technicians, designers, business people, actors, directors, stage managers and friends.  I think maybe I’m a little selfish with this project, because I want it all.  I want to be able to do professional theatre while living in one place and having a family, I want to be able to feel like I’m contributing to my community, and most of all I want to hang out with my friends.  Why do theatre with strangers when I can do it with my favorite people in the world?  Just sayin.  Steppenwolf did it, why can’t we?  Ok there are a million reasons why we cant, and maybe its impossible, but what good ever came from only doing things that are possible.  People said that it was impossible to dig Africa out of poverty but here we are.  Huh.  I guess this post is about Senegal too.  I honestly have no idea how this is going to happen, but its something that I can see dedicating my life to create.  I think it’s worth it.  There we go Universe, I put it out there, now mull it over for a few years and I’ll get back to you when I’m done here.  See you then!

Cheers,

Garrison 

P.S. Theatre 150X kids so at the end of the semester you’ll have a project where you have to write a manifesto of what you think theatre should be… take it seriously, you may try to make it happen for real some day.