'Seriously? A New Theatre Company?'

Hi, I'm Emily.  After an inspiring blog entry from Pattie, I feel like I
want to write about 'why theatre?', as well.  So, I invite you to bear with
my stream of consciousness ramblings, and if you can forgive the occassional
pedantry, I'll write a little bit about something that pertains and has been on
my mind:

'seriously, why a new theatre company?'  

I know a lot of people are somewhat disillusioned by, or underwhelmed by, or
even jaded by another. new. theatre company... in New York!  New York, as I
am realizing after transplanting myself here from Georgia via Indiana via
California, is a city of quantity.  There is just so much of
everything.  This is amazing--so many options and diversity and
exploration.  And it's also daunting-- so many moments of competitiveness
and feeling overwhelmed and feeling lost.  I know when I first stepped off
the plane into this jungle gym of a theatrical community, I was a deer in the
headlights.  I am a girl who has been so fortunate in great, significant
acting opportunities, and I was suddenly struggling to find auditions.  I
am a girl who can count on one hand (subjectively of course :) ) the number of
people who rival my passion and love and hunger for acting and theatre--the
power and magic and need and belief I have in this art form, in the work that we
do...more to that later...and I was suddenly feeling deep despair, questioning
my entire belief system, as it were... 'am I cut out for this?'  I am a
girl who believes in sharing and giving and that everyone in this world 'has a
voice'... and love...and I was suddenly feeling like 'what do I have to share
and give and say...and sadest of all, how do I love?'  I was always so
clear on that in the work that I do.  But I digress.  Simply, I know
I'm not alone in this. And that plenty of other actors and artists feel pushed
by our environment to throw in the towel, to pound the pavement, to get a lucky break, or....to start a theatre company.


I need to back track a little bit.  I need to address coming to New York
to do theatre, as I am still wondering and asking and living in the question of
'is this where I want to live and work.'  I firmly believe that great
theatre happens everywhere!  It is not just New York and Los Angeles where
good acting happens.  Arguably, better acting and theatre happens in 'the
regions' (and maybe I have some fundamental hestitations towards using that
term, as to me it suggests New York is the Capital of Theatre and everywhere
else is a region based off of that). In regional theatre maybe there is possibility for more risk and opportunity to leap without a lot of producers and  money at stake.  Maybe.  But somewhere along the line, I need to brush up on my theatre history, people decided to really take New York theatre very  seriously. This is where the 'real theatre' happens.  We look to New York for  guidance and new forms.  We bring to New York the theatre from the regions  or internationally that will be taken seriously with New York recognition.  We move to New York to legitimize our careers.  I don't scoff at  this.  I may have felt resistance before, being a transplant from Georgia via Indiana via California, but as a member of the theatre community at large, I want to embrace this.  Embrace or rebel.  But right now I think it's  incredible that New York City has the power to inspire.  How amazing that  people from all over the world take this place and its art seriously. 
Because ART DOES NEED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.  Theatre does. 
Somebody once said to me 'It's called a play...not a serious.'  And I
agree--in acting and the work that we do, having a sense of fun and imagination
and play is key:  the work is just better that way.  And at the
same time, we must give ourselves responsibility and focus and purpose. 
It's different with art than other professions:  for instance, it feels to
me so hard to ask for money for theatre that I'm working on in grass-roots
efforts on some level because I enjoy and love what I do.  How can I ask
for money for something that is so much fun?  And it's hard to exist on a
schedule and income that's somewhat consistent, because we are working project
to project. Etc. Etc.  And I'm talking about theatre and acting as what I
do:  my passion, my work, my craft, and my career.  I love and support
and am so excited by community theatre and college and high school and
conservatory theatre because so often these people have full days of work or
school and are so committed still to putting up great theatre on top of all of
that--it's so moving and inspiring to me--it makes me want to do better
work.  But I have decided, a long time ago, that this is what I do.  I
understand I will always get asked, 'what else do you do for money' until I'm a
famous film actor, but please, anybody who reads this...take me and my peers and colleagues seriously...we have trained to do this...we have the gifts and skills
and tools and talent to do this...we have something to offer you.  We have
good theatre to give.  This is what we do.  That's why we're starting
theatre companies.  Also, I have a passion for acting and a need to be
paid to do it, but this effort is not just a stepping stone to showcase
ourselves in order to be put on Broadway--that will happen regardless. 
Take us seriously as a new theatre company.  There is enough room in the
vastness and quantity of New York for new, passionate, serious theatre
groups. 
We will grow and fail and learn and succeed.  We will put
classic texts forth with our souls and truths and experiences thus far.  We
will work hard to establish a supportive, loving, artistic and repsonsible
community in our artists and audiences.  We will be concerned with touching
lives and outreach however we can to strive to make the world a better, more
beautiful place.  We will aspire to put new, imaginative theatre and works
forth to the New York community in hopes of reaching past New York to inspire
the world.

 Is it a too lofty* thought to take seriously?   

Well, I am a lofty thinker.  I am an artist.  We are a new theatre
company. We are The Hunger and Thirst Theatre Collective.  Thank you so much for reading and supporting us.

* "I don't know why some humans have to be convinced of human
interconnectedness.  I don't know why life is cheap to some and precious to
others, but I am willing to strive in an art form that honors human
connection.  I am willing to join the struggle to sensitize myself and
others to our mutual challenges.  I am willing to struggle with the paper
lives of poets and raise them from pages to stages in an attempt to reveal the
capacity of the human spirit.  Some may see these thoughts as
idealistically lofty.  Well, we need ideals.  And we need them to be
lofty."   --Stephen McKinley Henderson