Hey Blog World - what's shakin'? I'm going to level with you guys,
this letter isn't scathing. But I've been thinking about this article
for the past few weeks and I've got a lot to say on the matter. So here
we go with Number 33 - Rebecca Novick, you don't make my blood boil (and
I won't argue with everything you have to say), but I disagree with
you. Here's why.
For those of you in the arts world (or friends with someone who is on Facebook) probably at least saw the article, "
Please, Don't Start a Theater Company! Next-Generation Arts Institutions and Alternative Career Paths."
It's a solid read for anyone looking pursue a career in the arts, and
an even more important read for those who are thinking about starting a
company. And the first time I read it, the title really threw me off - I
was a little angry at it. Reading it a second time proved that I agreed
with a lot of what Novick has to say about why the model of, "Yep,
we're going to start a company and then get famous and then make a
living doing this" doesn't work. But, speaking as someone on the other
side... someone who recently disbanded her company, I can honestly say
that I do not regret a thing, and starting
The CoLab is one of the most formative things I could have done as a young artist in Boston.
2009
was a terrible year to graduate. Really effing awful. But in all of the
research I've done on "graduating into the recession" and all of the
advice that's out there on the interwebs, no one is giving advice for
the theatre major. (Well, except for maybe Ms. Novick.) And why would
they? We graduate with the idea that we will be working some sort of
"survival job," waiting tables or answering phones, something to pay our
bills while we fulfill our dreams nights and weekends. We are the weird
girl in the office that looks haggard and awful for a full week every
few months with our only excuse being the mysterious phrase, "I'm in
tech."
Let's break down the article. The first section of
the essay, "What could we build instead?" urges artists to consider
different models of theatre companies with different "organizational
structures." She gives a few examples of companies that pay their actors
to do administrative tasks and other companies that are able to fund
themselves by getting grants for specific small projects. Well, that's
great, but to even get to that level you have to start somewhere, and
that means getting experience! (Which she later says, is exactly what
she got out of starting her own company in her twenties.) And I'll tell
you, there aren't too many organizations who want to PAY someone who
graduated three weeks previously with a Bachelor's in Acting to work in
the arts world. Sure, there are plenty of box office jobs that pay
$8/hour (who can subsist on $8/hr?!) and plenty of unpaid internships,
but as someone who had to pay her own rent, neither of those things were
going to cut it during my first year out. So when one of my friends
suggested we start our own company, I said sure, let's do it. I can do
it on my time, at my own speed, and I can actually work on the type of
theatre I'm interested in. And off we went.
The second
section of the article actually describes some of what we did at The
CoLab. We set ourselves up with specific goals and didn't plan our
second one until we were sure we could accomplish the first. When we
first produced
play. in 2010, we were putting up ensemble-devised
work, which literally no one else in Boston was doing. We took things
one step at a time until the company started to grow larger than
ourselves - we needed more money, more time, more manpower and it was
going to take a lot to acquire all of these things. And we didn't have
it in us to keep going (and accomplish all of the individual things we
wanted) - so, we went out with a bang, and this momentum has carried
each of us into the next phase of our lives. (Read our goodbye blog
here.)
Novick encourages that we operate this way, and not under the title
"company" with a specific infrastructure and five year plan, but I say,
having that is important. It ties everyone in to one specific goal, even
if at it's basis, the goal is "to produce art."
But, it's not the inception that matters the most - it is the drive to push forward.
To create. To produce. To
know that in a world where they tell us the arts are dying - new groups
are springing forward, and saying, "yes, we believe this can work." The
final section of the essay asks that the change to support paid
fellowships and apprenticeships for actors, playwrights, producers, etc.
starts with the larger companies. Yep. Agreed. But, I've heard a number
of companies
talk the talk, without walking the walk. As Novick says, "It's discouraging that the holy grail of a living wage from satisfying
artistic work, attainable for only a few in the current system, doesn't
look too much more likely in these newer models."
And I
agree -- it is sad. And I recently attained a job that will pay me to
work in the theatre, but I'm convinced I would not have gotten my foot
in the door if it wasn't for The CoLab. Because it is that drive that
proves to these larger, more established companies, that yes, this
person is worth investing in. Look what they started at 22 years old.
And maybe all of these thoughts make me a dreamer or an idealist, but
I'm proud of that. Because as a wise man said to me recently, "I like
this. I don't want to become jaded." "You will at some point," I
replied. And it's true, we all lose some naivete the longer we stay in
the business. But then that same wise man replied, "I just like to
play." And that made me realize - that is what we said at one of our
first CoLab meetings - "Let's start a company so we can play." So, until
we are able to transition into this phase of trickle down support from
large to small, I think we've got to keep listening to a different wise
man, "The play's the thing." Yeah, starting a theatre company is naive
in many ways (and stupid in many others), but not starting it would have
been the biggest mistake I ever made.
So, here's to an
underfunded, overpopulated, we're-spread-too-thin world of theatre. And
the next generation of artists to keep it going. Because, Ms. Novick, no
matter how misguided our attempts may be, that desire to start
ourselves off on our own two feet, the ability to figure out how to fund
a play, the audacity (to quote an equally "naive" woman) to throw eight
actors on stage in a church hall and call it a show, and the passion to
say, "This is my work. I built this from the ground up" is what is
driving this so-called dying movement in America. And I'm damn proud to
be part of it.
Here's to the next company to start and fail. Because it we don't
fall down, we'll never figure out how to climb a little higher the next
time.
And scene.
E
