2 minute read
AUTHOR FEATURE
WE ASKED OUR AUTHORS, WHAT MADE YOU A THEATRE PERSON?
Theatre, for me, began as truth-telling around my family’s kitchen table, it was a drunken confession at my grandmother’s Thanksgiving dinner, and a world opened up while sitting on a stoop in Brooklyn just before nightfall. Theatre, for me, remains a space where my heart is given room to expand and contract, and experience the unexpected.
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Lynn Nottage
Ruined, Sweat, Intimate Apparel, Clyde’s
For a sad while, we couldn’t gather in theaters to see plays. So we watched a lot of stuff on our phones and tablets and TVs. And then, one fine day, we were able to gather again. And some theaters reopened. And I went to my first play in eighteen months—and I realized how sick of screens I was. Because screens are barriers. When you go to the theater— there’s no barrier between audience and play. Plays can be seen and heard, just like filmed content. But—unlike filmed content—plays can also be touched and tasted and smelled. And they can be interrupted—by the audience. People can walk out of a play. They can boo and cheer—and the actors will hear them. They can rush the stage in protest. All because there’s no barrier. That’s dangerous. I think that’s why I’m a theatre person. It’s dangerous.
John Cariani
Almost, Maine, Love/Sick
Acting first made me a theatre person. I remember doing school plays all throughout elementary, middle, and high school and realizing the full power of wielding emotion and language to not just tell the story but share time, heart, and perspective. It was never about the prizes or awards (though I was proud of our little high school winning state one year!). It was always about the congregation our plays created between an audience and the artists on and offstage.
Lauren Gunderson
The Book of Will, Silent Sky, Ada and the Engine
The idea that I could change someone’s mind or maybe even right a wrong by telling a good story.
Chisa Hutchinson
She Like Girls, Surely Goodness and Mercy, Proof of Love
[ PLAYS ]WE ASKED OUR AUTHORS
In a word: community. I always got a lot of joy from performing, and from seeing my work performed, but the real thing that makes me a “theatre person” is the feeling of shared purpose and community that is such a part of every theatre group. Maybe it’s because theatre is great at creating empathy, but I’ve always found that theatre people were always among the kindest, most fascinating, most outgoing people I’ve ever met. I made so many friends doing shows, and I feel like just about everyone out there doing a show could be my friend.
