The below is the first of two meditations on theatre, one year on from in-person theatre virtually stopping around the globe. Many people pine to bring things “back to how they were”. I think we can do better.
I want for theatre.
I want it to spark, to make me think and reflect.
I want it to engage with the current world, but indirectly.
to reflect and adapt to our own engagement with physical spaces and landscapes.
I want to play.
I want plays that play.
I want live experiences that sing from the rooftop about our collective human experience.
I want collaborative environments and non-hierarchical structures. Environments where creators and audiences are on equal footing, where people can work or watch and feel comfortable, feel they belong.
Environments that let contributors ask for what they need without fear.
Environments that give contributors what they need, rather than acquiescing to time.
I want processes that allow for participants to have lives. To have other jobs if they want, to have more than one career. To have a family when they want to.
I want theatre that recognizes that only working in the theatre is not a privilege available to everyone. That working class kids can dream of being a part of. That respects and welcomes everyone into the creative process, not just those who fit a certain criteria or have a specific set of experiences.
I want theatre for people who think theatre isn’t for them. I want theatre for kids who like me, grew up in a poor neighbourhood. Kids who know what it is like to come home from school and have the hydro or water shut off due to an unpaid bill. Who didn’t know anyone who was an artist. Who didn’t have a financial support lineage to pay for school or rent or support while they interned or did apprenticeships before the “real” money came. Kids who had to turn down “great opportunities” to make sure they could eat.
I want theatre that focuses on experiences; those beyond our own, those that create empathy in the creators and viewers and a desire to learn more and take action.
Theatre that encourages performers to take risks, to try something they have not done before or that scares them, from a safe environment.
To risk.
To be risky; because the very act of performing is risky, and the idea that suggesting one group’s stories may be more risky than another’s is divisive and dangerous.
I want theatre for the community. Theatre that reflects and challenges our view of the world. Tears down our assumptions, and most importantly, our expectations.
I want for theatre.
Justin Otto in Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio for impel Theatre, 2019. Photo by Kendra Jones.