HowlRound:I was standing in the lobby of a friend's show last spring, talking to an acquaintance from the community. Unfortunately, I already knew what the conversation was going to be: she had smiled too brightly at me and hugged me just a little too long when she saw me, and now, tilting her head with concern and stepping just a little closer, she asked the question.
“So, how are you?”
3 comments:
It seemed so sad and antithetical at first to hear that such a successful company up and disbanded so abruptly—Why not continue to grow? Why not wait and see if new artists would come in and replace the artists who were getting tired?—so by the end of the article, I did not expect to understand why Whistler in the Dark Theater would announce its end. While it sounds like this was the best decision to make for the artists involved, was it really the best decision for the theater world as a whole? Why not pass on those resources and pre-conditioned audience to a new set of young artists to take the reins, and to either continue Whistler’s mission or create their own? Or maybe that doesn’t really work in an ensemble theater model, rather than a more hierarchical regional theater model. Maybe that’s sort of wishful thinking, but what really would have happened if the company stayed together?
I’m also really intrigued by Whistler’s ideas about open, non-hierarchical collaborations. I have seen hierarchical-based productions include designers in the rehearsal room and give stage managers the chance to include artistic input, and I think this openness in the collaboration is important, but in these instances it was still open opinions within a structure; ultimately, a director always had the final say. I’m interested in how Whistler attempted to truly flatten the structure through the training sessions/laboratories led by artists of all disciplines. By giving everyone in the company a chance at being a “director,” in a way, it seems that the company would be better able to appreciate each other’s strengths, ideas, and leadership potential. I imagine this would give everyone a more equal voice in the room, and that’s really exciting.
I loved reading this article because we rarely see positive accounts of companies disbanding or splitting up. I definitely think that endings do not always have to be negative things, and it’s good that this ensemble was able to realize that they would gain more as individuals from separating than they would from keeping the company together. I think this is especially relevant for theater ensembles because they are difficult to maintain from a financial and logistical perspective, and are therefore often subject to premature endings. There are probably many ensembles that try to maintain their organization past a reasonable time because they are not able to accept that they might have outgrown their scope or mission statement. I think the fact that the theater announced their disbanding before the end of their season is valuable too because as the article points out, it gave both the artistic team and the audience the ability to “grieve” the end of an era but also celebrate the work that’s been done there in the past.
I love articles that are open and honest like this. There is nothing wrong with admitting that the same kind of art cannot happen forever with the same ensemble. When I think back on shows that I've done that were particularly wonderful and that I was emotional about even when it ended, I feel that way because for that short and temporary amount of time that the specific piece of theatre existed, it was well loved by everyone involved and it was a true team effort. Everyone was all in, and that's a hard thing to keep up with such a large group of people. Life happens, schedules changes, better opportunities come up, and yes you'll miss it, but you'll miss it because it was this beautiful and lucky experience that you were able to have. I feel similarly grateful to those rare non-profits that disband once they've fulfilled their mission statements without complaint. Something about saying, "we did all of the work we came here to do" is very satisfying and I think it should be more celebrated.
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