The Arts and Community

I came to the theatre because I wanted to express my unconscious. I came to the theatre because I saw people expressing themselves...expressing their unconscious. I came to the theatre because I thought this is a place where people communicate with people consciously and unconsciously. I came to the theatre because it spoke to a community with the voice of a community.



The theatre I have had the pleasure of creating has always been deeply impacted by the community of artists informing and shaping the production. This theatre has also been informed and shaped by society, by culture, by politics, by religion, by people...This theatre has taken its voice, its body, its vision, and given the world we live in a hardy welcome and bold commitment to building a stronger tomorrow for the next generation.


When I think of the arts, I think first of theatre, because that is what I do. The arts are so much more than just theatre or just music or just literature...the arts are a way to communicate with each other by using materials that we all recognize, utilize, enjoy, abuse, and share. The arts allow humanity the opportunity to create, to give something intentionality, to give material a new voice or a louder voice.


When I think of a community, I think first of family, because I was raised in a family of 9 plus (the plus being aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and friends). Communities are families with as much in common as your basic run of the mill family (dad, mom, a couple of kids). Communities have needs, dreams, thoughts, feelings, and they all result in life...living life.



When I think of the arts and community, I think of a world continually transforming, growing stronger, re-structuring the way our children will experience the world. I can only hope that as we continue to develop...to transform...that we would continue to create art that allows a community to grow and a community that allows art to live.