Ideas for a Regenerative Practice
All what’s behind us in this essay are the description of our problem areas, and a couple ideas for solutions to them. That said, I will outline some ideas for how a regenerative theatre might look in practice. None of this is meant to create an industry jargon or a dogma that people can worship. We need another religion like we need another ice age. NOT AT ALL. Some of these things will come as second-nature. Use what you will and enjoy the journey.
A Note on Hierarchy
Sometimes it is necessary for a production’s success or the success of a company to maintain a Producer/Director hierarchy. I suggest that even in a hierarchical structure, you put in place the understanding that a Director or a Producer plays a specific role in the ensemble and that role serves the production and the group. No role is better than another, and no one should be motivated to take a position in order to accumulate power or accolades. If anyone attempts to use these positions for that purpose, or defaults to that modality by force of habit, this becomes an unavoidable conversation that might very well lead to a change in the position to someone who is perhaps a little more intimately in touch with their virtuous attributes. In any case, it’s a great opportunity for dialogue and growth within the group.
A worker-owned cooperative model is highly suggested when putting a company together. Thus, if a particular production is deemed to need a hierarchy, the Director answers directly to the members of the cooperative, keeping their role cemented as subservient to the group’s needs.
All the members of the cooperative have an equal say in the choice-making process, and all major actions are taken by a simple majority vote (democracy). These organizations can be set up in any manner of ways, usually have a board of directors who oversee the grand plan of the company, and people naturally fall into leadership positions as their personalities dictate. Note that a worker-owned cooperative doesn’t stop corruption or a charismatic leader from accumulating social power, as mentioned above. All organizational types are social by definition and therefore are subject to any of the entrapments of a society, including power grabs, corruption, lingoism or jargonism, sycophantism, and celebrity-style worship. In a worker-owned model, as in every other model, each member must be diligent in the protection of their own self as equal stakeholder in the company, and like all social structures, the group will (whether by nature or policy) set the social rules to keep order for the betterment of the group over the comfort of the individual.
Some Ideas To Chew on
Look at your rehearsal room as a sacred, spiritual space. Theatre is a parallel art to religion. It requires ritual. It’s free of dogma when done right. Spiritualism is an element of our nature. Dogma/religion is a set of rules designed to control people. A regenerative theatre discards the concept of genius and stupidity, and naturally regards everyone as having unique talents that contribute perfectly to the whole experience of humanity and its cultural endeavors.
Set the room up so that it is warm, inviting, and comfortable. Often we have to rehearse in the back room of an old defunct school where the floor tiles are cold, the lighting is institutional, the chairs uncomfortable, and it smells like a ditto machine and rotten milk. Let’s work to make our rehearsal rooms more like yoga studios. Let’s put carpet down, bring in some warm lamps, pillows and fabric, make it feel more like a living room than a surgery theater. Let’s make it a sensual place to hang out for hours and hours and work out the problems of a script and our personalities.
Build camaraderie. Bring food and drinks for your people. Set up regular potlucks for cast and crew. Go out together. Go camping if you can. You’re building a family. Period. It’s either going to be a functional family, or a dysfunctional one. Do your damndest to make it a functional one. That’s your greatest chance to make a great show.
Set the tone for honesty. Demand at the outset that people be honest about how they’re feeling. The last thing you want is someone saying yes when they really mean no. If you sense that someone is doing that, ask them if they want to discuss it publicly or in private. Do what they need and listen. Don’t try to lead. Just shut the fuck up for a second and listen to someone outside yourself. You’ll learn something new, I promise.
Ban phones in the rehearsal room. Get people focused on the project, which is more interesting and fun than some app or game anyway.
Every production has an Eeyore and/or a Karen. Nip those in the bud right away. They’ll take your whole enterprise and throw it in the gutter, all with a wry grin on their face. This can be a tough one. Your job as a leader or an ensemble is to hold the space for everyone, not just a couple of squeaky wheels. Have a counseling session where you listen well and give sympathy. Ask them what they need. Then make it crystal clear what the collective expectations are. If it seems like they’re going to be a problem, ask them clearly if they’re going to be able to meet them. If they give a vague answer or a no, they’re gone. Nicely, but they’re out. No time for that nonsense. That’s them trying to make you a part of their trauma game. Don’t play it for one second or you could lose your whole production, and it won’t be their fault, as they’re unable to see their own behavior.
Prioritize the conversations that need to be had. Some conversations are more important than others. Your job is to choose which ones to see to fully, which ones require a little attention, and which ones are a waste of everyone’s time. You’ll know right away whether an issue could unravel the production. Deal with that fire first. Get everyone lovingly on the same page. Everyone doesn’t have to agree with each other! It’s okay for people to get offended as long as they don’t use that to be offended by a whole person (in other words to write someone off entirely for a disagreement) or to derail their mental health.
Again, in the making of a regenerative theatre, we can’t allow for trauma to dictate our work. We’ll never get anything done. Make sure that those who are traumatized feel listened to, but make it clear that their trauma is theirs to deal with and they can do that on their own time, or leave the production to deal with it. The therapy of the theatre is in the assembly of a healthy community to do a great show. That’s it. Anyone who can’t participate in that must go.
Conflict resolution can be hard if everyone is working with their own system and/or at cross purposes. Make sure the group has a protocol, however loose or tight, that effectively addresses interpersonal conflict. And not by avoiding it or glancing at it and then moving on. People are not going to get along all the time. That’s the nature of humanity. Some people are going to plainly dislike each other. Rarely, it can come to blows. Resist at all costs the urge to undercut, cannive, backstab, build a case, build a clique, use exclusionary tactics, or reduce relationships to good and evil. Save it for the stage. Leave personality differences in the dust and work on the logistical and psychological problems of the piece. Find that common “enemy” in the challenge at-hand and you’ll build a partnership to defeat it that will supersede your personality differences.
The act of creating theatre is a sacred responsibility. Do your best to be good, and don’t require others to parent you. You’re a grown-ass person. Be your own parent so that others don’t have to parent you, and so that you can be an example to those who are learning that lesson after you.
Emphasize curiosity. There is a remarkable lack of curiosity in our society today. Have you noticed it? Because of the fact that we are being constantly barraged with information, most of it crap, there is a natural tendency to shut down the curiosity function. A regenerative theatre practice requires a robust curiosity from its participants. There are so many ideas that have yet to be discovered. There are so many relationship dynamics that have yet to be invented. There are so many new styles, genres, archetypes and storylines that are waiting in the ethers to be pulled down. And who else is going to do it? We are the ones! Find ways to encourage curiosity in your ensemble, and institutionalize its practice so that it becomes second-nature again.
There was a time when humans didn’t know what was around the bend. We need to get back to that place in order to make great theatre again, and as well in order to survive the coming mega-crises that threaten the planet and our species.
Collaborate with artists of all media. If you have the idea strike you that a painting would go great in the piece, find an artist to collaborate with. Same with music! There’s a powerful genre of theatre called New Music Theatre, wherein music plays an elemental role in the movement of a story narrative. It’s not the same as a musical, in which a song stops the action in order to make itself known, or that a plot is haphazardly weaved around established songs. Musicals are wonderful for what they are and we love them, of course. New Music Theatre is a genre that seamlessly weaves story and music together. Find musicians to collaborate with from the beginning to make an amazing piece of theatre. Execute collaborations that make a new genre happen. Build something that you yourself can’t pigeon-hole with a label.
Do plays in the forest.
Do plays in a house.
Do plays in a restaurant at dinner time.
Do plays in a bar.
Do plays at a park.
Do plays in the dark.
Do plays with green eggs and ham in your mouth. I digress.
Figure out your marketing strategy. One of the most critical elements of a regenerative model for theatre makers is getting butts in seats. This is more complicated than it might seem. You must find out from your roommates, your relatives, your coworkers, questionnaires, woman on the street interviews, etc… what would people leave their couch to watch in a room full of strangers post-COVID. People go to see some all-CGI Star Wars movie (again, know when you’re the product) that took three months to make. What do people want to watch? Is Forum Theatre successful in your area? Improv? Free sandwiches? Are you in a college town? A retirement community? What are the demographics of your community and how can you leverage them to maximize interest in your material? Advertise. You can’t survive without people knowing what you’re doing, learning that they’re interested in it, and how they can get into it. Advertise. Advertise. Find free publicity wherever possible.
And try like hell to stop relying on grants. Again, this is back to taking responsibility for yourself and your work and your worth. If we are reliant on outside sources of sustenance that don’t directly relate to the work we are creating, we are doomed to fail. Make work that your community wants to participate in, and watch your community support and grow you. Ask questions that will make your community think. Support your community in a whole, adult way rather than as a beggar on the corner, and you’ll see better results. The sad-sack narrative for small theatre companies has never worked.
Get away from a scavenger mentality with your organization. Be proactive, be industrious. Find sources of money and materials that are earned and not gifted. Our society is built on rugged individualism. Become a rugged organization that makes its successes out of producing work and services that people in the community are willing to pay for, with whatever “money” the community uses.
Moving past capitalism should be the goal for all of us at this point, and that’s fantastic. If we want to move past a monied paradigm, we’ll need to think about how people can pay us to do the work we do for them in the theatre. Is it food? Drink? Do we get paid in toiletries? Space and time in a building? For many of us who make theatre, we have another source of income which allows us a little bit of time to do theatre for free. If we want to create full-time employment in the theatre, other solutions have to be found. Again, go into the community and ask the community what it wants from you. Decide if you are willing or able to provide that to your community. If you’re not, you have your answer. If you are, enlist those community members who support your efforts to help you get butts in seats.
Consider rehearsing a show until it’s ready before marketing it to the public. Too often in our fast-paced society, we are prone to setting deadlines and opening dates, and conforming our project to those timelines. But how often is a show ready for its opening date? Never? Ten percent of the time? Consider rehearsing a show until it’s at its peak of effectiveness and quality. Then, choose a run schedule, do the marketing, book the venue, sell the tickets and run the thing.
I’ll be honest with you: most theatre sucks. That’s partly why people don’t go to it. Oh, I know you’re attached to this role or that relationship or that theatre you worked in. It has a sentimental value to you, so you feel like it was a good show. Nope. It sucked. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Your show blew. You want to know why? Because you didn’t spend enough time on it, the people involved weren’t skilled enough, the budget suffered, you couldn’t find the cast it needed… It takes months to put a show together. Just a show. Not a good one. Just any show. Months. Look at the next project you want to tackle, and then envision spending 5 months working on it. Now, envision spending ten months or a year developing it. Double your time investment and the quality level will improve vastly.
Have talkbacks at every performance. Even if it’s Mama Mia. Your audience wants to hear from the people who worked so hard to put together the thing they just experienced. It involves the community in the event. It creates buy-in for your main support structure: your community. And if the show tackled any issues of substance, you get the invaluable opportunity to engage in a live, open dialogue around the issue.
Stop doing the same tired shit. You think that Much Ado will pull people in because it’s known. I will submit to you that the reason your theater is half full is that you’re doing the same tired shit. Make new work. Take the time to invent new stories that threaten the mainstream cultural narratives. It should be entertaining, of course. Take the time to make a show. I’m not oversimplifying, here. Take the time that it takes to make a show where there was none before. Maybe do ONE cover in your season. It’ll sell out, right? Maybe. Make new work. Do playwriting contests and ask for submissions. Develop work with a troupe of actor/creators who have an imagination and who are curious. Stop paying royalties to Samuel French in order to do theatre. Make new work.
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