Five Women…

We are right in the middle of rehearsals for our last production of the season, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress by Alan Ball. I have been amazed at how much fun we are having in rehearsal! To give an audience the chance to go “behind the curtain” and see the inner workings of relationships between females is an exciting prospect. It also allows for a great deal of silliness. I can’t wait to see how the menfolk react to this production!

Another reason I’m so thrilled to be a part of this production is just the sheer number of women working on it. A cast of five women (obviously), female Stage Manager and Stage Management Intern, female Lighting Designer/Technical Director. DCRT is obviously a female friendly company but there’s something about working with this many women that’s just delightful. This process has, so far, been so exciting to me for many reasons. One, we get to work with some new blood. We’ve got plenty of familiar DCRT faces in the show but getting the chance to work with one actor we’ve only worked with once before and two other actors we’ve never worked with is galvanizing us all in the rehearsal space. The new blood is energizing everyone!

But the main reason why I look forward to going to rehearsal every night is getting to work under the direction of DCRT Associate Artistic Director Frank Green.

Now, the reason why I love working with Frank on this production is that I go in to that space every night and watch a man approach something that terrifies him with complete and utter bravery. I see a man, directing a show about women (a mystery for any person of the male persuasion), surrounded by women, with little directing experience and Mr. Green is running, RUNNING towards the unknown. Watching Frank direct this show is witnessing a master class in bravery. Every night I watch him discover a new and more efficient way to communicate with his actors, a better way to lay his preconceived notions aside. I watch him creating a new language for himself and his cast. He is a brilliant example of an artist experimenting with his art at every opportunity. And what I also see, the thing that makes my heart swell, is that Frank’s bravery and humility in the rehearsal room is inspiring the rest of us to rise to that same level of risk and lack of ego. Frank has set the bar. And it’s now up to the rest of us to meet him on that level. It’s a challenge and a struggle for some of us, I know, because it is never easy to do the scary/hard thing. But I see the fire burning in our eyes. I see the desire to be great.

And I know that this show, which could so easily be written off as a fluff piece, will be so full of courage and wonderful because we had a fearless leader in Frank Green.

What do you have for us today?

This Saturday, August 18th, we’ll be holding our third annual season auditions. I’m so excited!

I’ve seen my share of auditions and it always surprises me how nervous I get. My job is to sit in a room, watch people be very brave, make some suggestions, give some notes and I’m done. But I always get butterflies. I don’t know if they’re sympathy jitters or if I’m anxious about finding those hard working, eager, humble folks who will join us for the season.

Either way, I’m looking forward to Saturday and getting to watch a bunch of 90 second plays.

The latest installment of Meet the Company!

It’s time again for another round of Meet the Company! Today we take some time for Artistic Director Amelia Ampuero to interview Associate Artistic Director Frank Green, whose first question was “Can I smoke?” Of course, you can, Frank, as long as you do it outside!

DCRT: Alright, hooooray! We’re here for another installment of Meet the Company. Today our interviewee is Associate Artistic Director Frank Green. Hi, Frank!

Frank Green (FG): Hi!

DCRT: Hooray!

FG: Hooray.

DCRT: Yaaaaay!

(Laughter)

DCRT: Awesome. So, it’s been a while since we’ve done this, so just to sort of remember how this whole thing goes, we’re going to talk about you for a little bit and then we’re going to do 5 Questions with DCRT. 

FG: (deep breath) Alright.

DCRT: Fantastic. So Frank, why don’t you start off by telling our readers a little bit about yourself.

FG: OK, I was born January 28th, 1978 to Frank Taylor Green III and Louise Angela Green-

DCRT: So that would make you Frank Taylor Green the Fourth.

FG: I am the Fourth. My Dad is the Third, his Dad is the Second and a man I’ve never met is the First.

DCRT: Do you think you’re going to have a Fifth??

FG: We’ve often debated that! Sometimes just to make everyone mad, I’ve said that if I do have kids, it won’t be until the second or third son that will get the Fifth.

(Laughter)

DCRT: Awesome. Awesome! So Frank Taylor Green the Fourth -

FG: Yeah…

DCRT: …That’s where we left off…

FG: Oh, OH! I grew up in D.C. Went to college in West Virginia. My high school at the time had a partnership with West Virginia Wesleyan College and so, uh, I joined the choir my junior year in high school. My sister was already in it and she was like “You can get a scholarship in the choir.” It was a while of doing that that I actually got the chance to actually act in things. My sister was in a group called Uprising back when we were in junior high school. And I used to go to her rehearsals and watch and that’s what kinda really got me interested in it. But it really wasn’t until high school that I got to do it a lot. The choir always did this musical, same premise every year – some guy gets, doing well in school and he’s either in sports or academics or something and he gets pulled by the lure of the streets and the school and the community has to pull him back.

And I went to school in West Virginia and, you know, spent way more time up there than I should have.

(Laughter)

DCRT: That’s alright! It seems that’s kind of the, uh, the motto of the DCRT leadership team -

FG: Uh, yeah.

DCRT: That it take us a little longer to finish cooking, degree-wise.

FG: Yeah! (Laughter)

DCRT: AWESOME! So being from back East, being from the D.C. area, New Mexico is quite a change of scenery.

FG: Yeah.

DCRT: What was your first impression of the Wild, Wild, West?

FG: Well I drove out here so it was kind of “normal road trip”. I don’t take a lot of road trips so, you know, it’s “Scenery’s changing, scenery’s changing” and then I passed the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign and I just remember gasping because it was like the whole world had dropped away and I was suddenly driving in what used to be an ocean? You know what I mean?

DCRT: Yeah, Yeah!

FG: It really felt like I was on the ocean floor and I could not keep my mouth shut. It just kept hanging open and I could just see forever. And I sped quite a bit. (Laughter) Because I could see, you know, for what felt like, a day, down the road (laughter) and there was nothing there.

DCRT: Yes!! Though we don’t advocate speeding. It’s against the law.

FG: It was a little weird at first, the scenery never really bothered me, you know. I know for some folks the, all the brown got to be a nag but for me the brown means less snow, less cold which means my back and joints don’t lock up as much – (LAUGHTER)

DCRT: Because you’re OLD.

FG: Because I’m OLD. (Laughter)

DCRT: Frank, how old are you??

FG: I’m 34.

DCRT: Nice!

FG: I just turned 34 this past January.

DCRT: How’s 34 treating you?

FG: Uhh, so far pretty good! With 33 I felt like I went through a phase where my body reminded me that I couldn’t do the things I did when I was in my 20s and now at 34, for some reason, I feel a slight rejuvenation.

DCRT: AWESOME! It’s your third wind!

FG: Yeah.

(Laughter)

DCRT: So what the hell drove you to come out to Albuquerque, NM?

FG: I think the biggest thing was fear. I had gotten very comfortable in Virginia. I felt like the roles I was getting, it was no longer…when I first got there, when I joined the Resident Company at Barter, I felt that the roles I was getting were very challenging and I would get them and say “How the hell am I going to be able to do this??”…

Can I say hell??

DCRT: Yeah, you can say “hell”!

FG: “How in the hell am I going to be able to do this?” and by the third year going into the fourth year, I just didn’t feel like that anymore. So we’re sitting out there that day during the party on the hood of that car and we were talking about it (the idea of DCRT), and I mean, I’ve said this to you, with everything that had gone on, I still didn’t – I was like “I don’t know why I trust her in this!” This was quite possibly the scariest thing and I felt like it would be a real challenge for me as an actor, as a man, and as a human being to drive across the country by myself, to work and live with people that I really didn’t know that well. Like I knew you but -

DCRT: Yeah, but that was it!

FG: I didn’t know Kristi very well, I’d met her, I’d met Janaiah but so… when I first got out here, it was a little rough. I was like “I wanna go home! I miss the comfort!” (laughter) But once I got over that, it’s been truly a joy out here… I really dig it out here.

DCRT: And we’re unbelievably happy and honored to have you out here! And now it’s time for 5 Questions!!! These are the questions that we ask everyone during 5 Questions so uh, we’re going to get started! If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?

FG: Uhhh…probably right here.

DCRT: NICE!!!

FG: To be honest!

DCRT: Solid answer!

FG: Yeah.

DCRT: Ok, what is your least favorite household chore?

FG: Wow. My least favorite household chore, I would have to say, would be cleaning the bathroom.

DCRT: Mmmm.

FG: I really hate cleaning the bathroom because I feel like just going behind the toilet is asking for ebola.

(Laughter)

DCRT: That seems to be a popular response. However, mine is still taking out the trash.

FG: Awww… I like doing that! It lets everyone know that I’m not a hoarder.

DCRT: That’s always good to know!

(LAUGHTER)

DCRT: Ok, what is your favorite word?

FG: Ugh.

DCRT: Uh-oh!

FG: My favorite word is one that I cannot say on Meet the Company. It starts with the – A, B, C, D, E, F – starts with the sixth letter of the alphabet and ends with – G, H, I , J, K – and it ends with the eleventh letter of the alphabet. I enjoy it because you’re going to get a response, no matter what. I feel like even if you’re used to hanging around people who say it all the time – there’s so many different ways you can use it: as a noun, as a verb, as an adjective, as an adverb.

DCRT: It’s the Swiss Army Knife of words!

FG: It is! It really is!

DCRT: Nice, nice. What is-

FG: There’s a dictionary!! Barbara Jones: Give it BACK!!!

(Laughter)

FG: She has my dictionary of the F Word.

DCRT: Ohhh…Really? There’s a dictionary for that?

FG: There is.

DCRT: Amazing! What is your favorite thing about working with Duke City Rep?

FG: My favorite thing about working with Duke City Repertory Theatre is the willingness of everyone to say “Yes”. Even when we disagree and we may not always – I’m going to repeat myself -

DCRT: That’s alright.

FG: We may not always agree with everyone’s ideas but it’s like “Ok. This is the route we’re going. Yeah!” and everybody goes after it, whole hog. A lot of times you get into that situation and someone will begrudgingly do it and-

DCRT: And half ass it.

FG: Yeah! And that doesn’t happen here. It’s nice to work with a group of people that… we’re always willing to set aside our own personal preference and feelings for the greater good of what’s going to be best for the company, for the community, the state and the country and so on. And that is a very nice thing.

DCRT: Aww. Ok, finally… does this teak patio furniture make me look fat?

(Laughter)

FG: Like… am I asking myself that or-

DCRT: No, I’m asking you that question about me!

FG: No. No. Teak is very slimming. Not that you need slimming- (Laughter)

DCRT: Alright, folks, that’s a wrap on this session of Meet the Company. I’d like to thank Frank Green for his honest and heart-warming answers and I’d also like to say that the teak patio furniture did not make Frank look fat either. Until next time!

Oh, is THAT how we save non-profit theatre?

Running a non-profit theatre company in today’s economy, with increasing belief that the “Arts” are a luxury and not a necessity and where the work we create has to compete with the likes of “Jersey Shore” and “The Bachelor”, is unbelievably hard. And those of us who do it, and I mean, really do it – We pay our artists, we cultivate the cultural landscape of our cities and states and we risk, risk, risk in order to serve our audiences – we do this because we love it and we believe we provide a valuable service to our cities, states, country and world. Nothing about what we do here at DCRT is easy and we wouldn’t want it to be. There are no easy fixes. There is no fool proof method to success in the theatre arts or any medium, for that matter. Although, many people seem to feel differently…

A few weeks ago, during the closing weekend of Oedipus, the following article was making it’s way around the DCRT company and cast. We took some time to read the article, entitled “Ten Things Theatres Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves” and it spurned some lively discussion among our ranks.

I’d like to use this post to discuss Mr. Kiley’s article with some help from Resident Company Member Lauren Myers and Wooden Snowflakes director and Oedipus cast member Katie Becker, point by point. Ready? Off we go!

“Enough with the goddamned Shakespeare already.”

Amelia Ampuero (AA): Oof. The author of this article calls for a five-year moratorium on the Bard’s work. He pleads that theatre artists and producers s t r e t c h ourselves, to find new, weird plays and not play it safe by producing the works of Shakespeare. This is something we at DCRT have heard from a reviewer a few times (during Taming AND Oedipus) and I have this to say to critics of the classics: Stop being so lazy. It’s become fashionable to hate on the classics and to a certain extent, I get it. There is A LOT of bad Shakespeare going on. So how about that instead? As matter of fact, how about we call a moratorium on lazy, self indulgent theatre of all genres?

Lauren Myers (LM): Aside from the fact that Shakespeare is royalty free and so the mere financials of it make it great to produce, I do find it interesting that the author didn’t mention the other classics. It could very well be that there’s a ton of Shakespeare going on in Seattle and he’s sick of it. But overall, I disagree. Shakespeare will always be awesome if it’s done right. That’s why there are certain Shakespeare-only companies that are still going strong all over the US and the world.

Katie Becker (KB): There seems to be an essential question not being asked: Why have these classical plays have been produced for hundreds (or thousands!) of years and how can we do them well? The author states “Teach your audiences to want surprises, not pacifiers.” I agree. Especially when they expect a Classical play to be one thing (bad) and it turns out to be something else entirely (engaging and evocative).

AA: I’d also like to take this opportunity to give a rebuttal to the idea that there is an infinite number of BRILLIANT contemporary plays out there that aren’t being given a fair shot because everyone keeps doing the classics. Let me say this: That’s not true. It’s absolutely not true. It’s my job to read plays and I can tell you without any doubt that there is a bunch of badly written tripe out there. Plays that read like episodes of prime time soap operas, plays that consist of several horrible people being horrible to one another for two hours, plays that are about nothing. To the proponents of forsaking classical work for the contemporary, I ask you this: Should we produce bad work simply for the sake of producing new work? I cannot and will not do that to our audiences.

“Tell us something we don’t know.”

AA: Mr. Kiley suggests that everything theatres produce should be a new work. A World premier, an American premier at the very least a regional premier. He calls out directors, actors, playwrights themselves and even the Actor’s Equity Association as culprits in creating a theater community who is reluctant to produce new work. Sigh… please see my above response to this point.

Oh, and by the way, Duke City Rep did the New Mexico premier of LaBute’s reasons to be pretty, the West Coast premier of Catherine Bush’s Wooden Snowflakes, our adaptation of Oedipus has only been done once before and we will yet again have another West Coast premier with the final show of our season, Phoenix by Scott Organ.

KB: Again, the essential question is missing: Why is it important to do new work? How does new work serve the audience? I’ve seen a lot of bad and underdone plays at theatre, big and small. They turn off an audiences just as quickly as a bad production of Midsummer or Death of a Salesman.

“Produce  dirty, fast and often.”

AA: Ok! Does this writer have hundreds of thousands of dollars to give our company so that we can makes that happen? I ask because we don’t make our artists work for free. They all get paid. And once again, I am not interested in doing bad work just for the sake of being prolific. That’s not what this great city needs or deserves. They deserve the best and that’s what we are trying to give them, even if it’s by doing only four shows a year.

“Get Them Young.”

AA: Absolutely! Yes! I truly have no argument to this point. Cultivate young audiences and you cultivate the audiences of tomorrow. Yes! And provide audiences of all ages theatre that is thought-provoking, engaging and bold. Don’t talk down to your young audiences or your old audiences or ANY of your audiences, for that matter.

“Offer Child Care.”

AA: Yeah, no.

This is a great idea, don’t get me wrong. But it requires several things that don’t make it practical. It requires a large space, away from the main performance space in which to wrangle the kiddos. We produce our work in a refurbished service station. Our dressing rooms are an old Airstream Trailer. We simply do not have a location on site (or off, for that matter) in which to hold a bunch of playing children.

There’s also the small matter of liabilty.  And no matter what you say, this isn’t an area where I’m willing to ignore the rules. What if one of the kids gets hurt? What if some kid comes in with lice or chicken pox or pink eye?? Seriously. What then? My employees aren’t CPR certified, Mr. Kiley! How can you realistically tell theatre companies to set up a ramshackle day-care?!? That’s just irresponsible, in my humble opinion.

LM: I’ve never heard of this and I think it’s brilliant! HOWEVER – there are so many legal issues to look into. Do the people watching over the kids need licenses? Background checks? Watching kids becomes so much more complicated than people anticipate. BUT the thought of having kids play theatre games while waiting for their parents and thus waiting for the day they get to see the play with Mom and Dad just makes me smile.

“Fight for Real Estate.”

“Push government for cheap artists’ housing and hook up with CODAC, a committee that wants developers on Capitol Hill—and, eventually, everywhere—to build affordable arts spaces into their new condos. (CODAC’s tools of persuasion: tax, zoning, and business incentives.) Development smothers artists, who can’t afford the rising property values that they—by turning cheap neighborhoods into trendy arts districts—helped create.” 

KB: Mr. Kiley makes lobbying sound like this easy thing – write a letter, change something. I’m curious – what sort of arts lobbying already exists in New Mexico? How successful are they?

“Build Bars.”

“Alcohol is the only liquid on earth that functions as both lubricant and bonding agent. Exploit it. Treat your plays like parties and your audience like guests. Encourage them to come early, drink lots, and stay late. Tax, zoning, and liquor laws in your way? Change them or ignore them. Do what it takes.”

AA: Hahahaha!! Sure, why not! Liquor liscenses, be damned! I know that there are plenty of companies out in the world who won’t think twice about serving beer, wine, and liquor to their patrons “under the table”. We are not one of those companies. We’ve worked really hard to be taken seriously and no member of our company is willing to throw that all away in order to have a socially lubricated audience. I also don’t believe that a drunk audience = a good audience.

LM: I also think this is awesome, but I can’t help but wonder how zoning and liquor laws in Washington differ from those here. But, dude’s got a point.

“Boors Night Out.”

AA: Again, a nice idea. This is something that would be very easy for DCRT to do because so much of what we do is based in serving our audience and we like hearing, good or bad, how we’re doing. We’re not afraid of hearing constructive criticism. (Constructive being the operative word.) And I, frankly, like the idea of getting immediate feedback from those we serve. Maybe not a “boors” night, necessarily but our Director of Marketing had actually suggested some time ago that we do the whole gladiator “thumbs up, thumbs down” thing. It is absolutely something to think about and let’s the audience know that when we ask how well we’re doing our job, we are truly asking. We want honest opinions, not ego stroking.

KB: I’m also interested in how to encourage audience participation beyond being a boor. Talkbacks? Pre-show discussions? Season selection focus groups?

“Expect Poverty.”

“Theater might drown without its unions, but it will certainly drown with them. And actors have to jettison the living-wage argument. Nobody deserves a living wage for having talent and a mountain of grad-school debt. Sorry.”

Unacceptable. Sorry. I have made a living wage as an actor before and yes, Mr. Kiley, I can expect to do it again. I also know many people who make their living in the arts: Actors who work at regional theatres and earn enough to have families and buy houses stage managers who are calling shows in major venues around the country, technicians who have gotten to see the world working for years on touring productions of Rent, West Side Story, Wicked. It’s not a pipe dream.

I should expect to be paid because I provide a service to my community. This argument is ridiculous, disrespectful and offensive. This is the equivalent of saying “Pfft! Doctors! You expect to make a living wage because you memorized a bunch of facts and like to cut things?” or “Teachers, you need to stop expecting to earn a living just because you learned your colors and letters in school.”  It greatly simplifies what we’ve dedicated our lives to. What theatre artists do need to jettison is the idea that they should work for free. What they need to do away with is the idea of the “starving artist”. It serves no one, the artists included. Ohhhh, I could write an entire post on this topic alone as it really melts my butter.

KB: But a skilled artist DOES deserve to earn a living wage. The only city where I know of where AEA and Non-Eq earn a living as theatre professionals (mostly acting and teaching) is Atlanta. So I’d be curious to see a similar article from the Atlanta comunity.

LM: That union rant makes my head hurt.

“Drop out of grad school.”

LM: This one made me giggle simply because I auditioned for grad schools before I found out I had to come home to have jaw surgery and I couldn’t have been more happy with the way things turned out. MFA programs are a league of their own. I still don’t know what I think of them (and to be perfectly honest, have never ruled them out entirely for the future) BUT what’s funny is that a lot of commenters of the original article reacted to this one in particular. People got ALL defensive!

AA: Well, no one likes to be told they’re wasting their time and money to be taught by a bunch of has-beens or never-weres. Ha! I think the point to remember about grad school is that it doesn’t have to necessarily be the next step. And what you learn in grad school or undergrad or wherever is not gospel, it’s not the final word.

*These are, obviously, only our opinions on these matters and while we disagreed with some of the things Mr. Kiley says in his article, we are grateful for the discussion it spurned and the thoughts it generated. Readers, we would LOVE to hear your thoughts on Mr. Kiley’s article, so if you have the time, please read the original article and tell us your opinions in the comments!*

And the winner is…

It’s been a while since our last post and there’s so much to catch everyone up on!

Albuquerque the Magazine holds a contest every year to decide the Best of the City. This year, only 1 and half seasons in, Duke City Repertory Theatre was named “Best Theatre Troupe in the City”!

We happen to take this award pretty darn seriously. To those of us at DCRT, we take this to mean that we’re keeping our promise to the audiences of Albuquerque. That we’ve been serving you all and that you’ve decided to bestow this honor on us because you’re responding to our work. That seems really freakin’ cool to us! And we want to thank those friends and families and patrons who got out there and voted for us. And we expect to continue being held accountable to you. We rejoice when we receive emails and phone calls from our audiences telling us that they were moved by one of our shows. And we contemplate the feedback from you all as well about what you didn’t like, what you thought didn’t work. We take it all to heart and we listen to it. We’ve had the good fortune of having almost all positive feedback but that doesn’t mean we take the constructive criticism any less seriously. We try so very hard to make our art accessible to all of the communities in this great city and that means constantly evaluating our work and ourselves.

Occasionally, we get asked “Why another theatre company in Albuquerque? Don’t you think there are enough of you? Aren’t you worried that you all are cannibalizing your audiences?” To which we always answer: No. Since when has any city suffered from having too much good art? We don’t ever want to take away another theatre company’s patrons. We do, however, believe that theatre is a community art form and we can only become better if we are surrounded by other companies who are always striving to make tomorrow’s work better than today’s. Art cannot exist in a vacuum.

In addition to being named “Best Theatre Troupe in the City” we were also listed in the “Best of the Rest” for “Best Spot for Live Theatre”! And we are the only professional company, as opposed to venue, to make that list.

As we move into the second half of our Second Season, we are also asking our fans and supporters to consider a small donation to our current cause: A Kickstarter Fundraiser that will, hopefully, aid us in raising enough money to purchase a much needed truck. Click the link below to learn more and, hopefully, make a contribution.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1339717003/truckin-for-duke-city-rep

( A big thanks to Rick Galli and Lauren Myers for making that awesome video for us!)

On the topic of fundraising, we’d like to let you in on a little secret. Any dollar amount helps a non-profit organization like ours. Of course, of course we want those big ticket donations! But the truth is that we are just as grateful for $10 as we are for $10,000. The reason is because we see each check, each dollar in our donation jars as an indication that you believe in us and the work we are doing. And how could we not be grateful for that faith that is placed in us by you, our patrons?

Until next time, thank you all again for your beautiful support of our company and we’ll see you at the theatre!

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Duke City Repertory Theatre was incorporated in 2008, we received our tax-exempt status from the IRS in August of 2009 and in August of 2010 – Ta Da! – Duke City Repertory Theatre opened our Inaugural Season with Trust by Steven Dietz. Hooray!

So those are the basic facts of how DCRT came to be. But the story goes much deeper than that and spans several years and a few cities. This is the story of the love of my life. It’ll be easier if I explain it to you…

After deciding to transfer to Southwest Texas State University in 2000 (go Bobcats!), I was accepted into the BFA Acting program. It was there that I met the dazzling Ms. Kristi Wiley. A friendship was forged almost instantly based on her being one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and my ability to literally fall down laughing at her jokes. We were a match made in heaven! You’ll hear more about Ms. Wiley in a bit.

During my last few years of college, I was attending various unified auditions and not getting any offers. I would love to say that those theatre companies just didn’t see all of my obvious “talent”. Truth is, there were a lot of people who were better than me. Let’s face facts, right?

Regardless of my “talent” or lack thereof, an idea was born. Maybe, just maybe, I could have my own theatre company. I started speaking that idea out loud, just to experience what it was like to say those words: “I’m going to have my own theatre company someday.” Only problem was that I had no idea whatsoever how to actually make that happen. Mostly I just thought about what city I’d like to have this company in…

So I was going to these auditions and  having these amazing experiences like studying abroad with the Royal Shakespeare Company and doing the month-long intensive program with Shakespeare & Co. in Massachusetts while continuing to audition for professional theatres. In February of 2004, I attended UPTAs  in Memphis, TN. It was there that I met Katy Brown, Associate Artistic Director of Barter Theatre and Artistic Director of the Barter Players. Katy Brown would go on to be one of the most influential people in my career as a theatre artist. Katy offered me a job as a Barter Player, which I almost didn’t take! But that’s a story for another time. I started my contract in late May of 2004. In my two and a half years at Barter I learned more, was more challenged, and worked so much harder than I ever have in my entire life. It was also there that I met Associate Artistic Director Frank Green and the man who would literally shape me into the artist I am today: John Hardy. And it was at Barter as well, where late one night, on a porch with a fellow Player I said “I’m going to have my own theatre someday.”  For some reason that conversation sticks out in my mind particularly. Perhaps it was because that was the first time I had said it to someone who actually believed me…

My contract with Barter ended in December of 2006. I spent the next 8 or 9 months auditioning everywhere within a 6 hour drive of Abingdon, VA. or wherever I could get a cheap plane ticket to. There was a one week period where I made the drive from Abingdon to the DC area 4 times. I put quite a few miles on my car. I stayed in a lot of cheap hotels and ate a lot of bad food. And I didn’t get one single job. I spent two-thirds of a year auditioning in front of countless directors and artistic directors and didn’t get one stinking offer. It occurred to me that I wasn’t completely comfortable putting my career in the hands of people, mostly men, who I didn’t feel were qualified to handle it.

Somewhere around August of 2007, I was catching up with Ms. Wiley and we were talking about, of all things, Zac Efron and High School Musical. I kind of wish we’d been talking about Stanislavski or Uta Hagen or anybody else really, but no, we were talking about Zac Efron. Kristi and I started discussing the art that we responded to and would make if we had a platform to do so. It was there, during that conversation, that the idea for DCRT was actually born. I actually remember that I was leaning against a wall between the kitchen and the living room and as Kristi and I started to really plot this out, I had to slide down the wall to sit on the floor, so massive was the possibility of this idea.

In my mind, things moved so quickly from there. We discussed what would be the ideal city for this theatre. Albuquerque? Taos, NM? Austin, TX? Tulsa, OK? Tulsa came into the mix because I read an article on a flight to one of my last auditions that said that Tulsa was the next big American city. Kristi and I kept coming back to New Mexico. After much debate and deliberation, we ended up where we started: Albuquerque. It was decided that I would move back home and get the ball rolling while Kristi finished up her MFA in Theatre Management at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. This would allow me to be the Artistic Director of the theatre that would eventually become known as Duke City Rep and Kristi would be our Managing Director.

Very near to the end of my time in Abingdon, I was spending some time with Frank. One of my favorite things about living in Virginia was all of the trees and greenery. Directly behind the large, ancient dormitory that served as Actor Housing at Barter there was a big green lawn with a little garden to one side. The Shakespeare Garden. Frank and I, along with several of my former co-workers, were sitting in the Shakespeare Garden and maybe we’d been enjoying a few cocktails and I began to tell Frank about this idea of a theatre company where the work would always be at the heart of what we did. This company would be different! We would exist as a theatrical democracy. We would build in a system of checks and balances to make sure that no one person would ever be able to veer the company off the tracks that we had set it upon. Frank and I spent quite a long time talking about this idea and it was there, in that garden in the middle of the night, that Frank joined the DCRT family.

Our duo had become a trio.

A few days later, Frank and I went to meet John Hardy to play some baseball. I nervously told Hardy of my plans, scared that he would tell me that it was impossible, that I didn’t know enough, that no one would support us. Hardy said none of those things. Instead, he told me that it was a fantastic idea. That he was so excited for me and that the fact that Frank Green was already on board should speak to the level of confidence that folks would have in my ability to be a leader. He also told me that he would always be a resource for us and that he would always support us in any way he could.

I’m pretty sure I cried in the dugout.

I moved back to Albuquerque in October of 2007 and hit the ground running. Kristi and Frank joined me here in July of 2009. Along the way, we picked up several people who would be instrumental in our first season and beyond: Guy Fauchon, Daniel Garcia, J Tanner, Charles Murdock Lucas, Rose Nuchims, Lauren Myers, Scott Milder and many, many more. We had the incredible good luck to meet up with so many people who shared our vision for what we wanted and continue to want for Albuquerque audiences. Everything seemed to be lining up just as we had planned.

Sometimes, though, life zigs when you zag. In February of 2010, a few months before we would begin rehearsals for our first production, Kristi learned that she was pregnant. Plans began to shift a bit as we all sought to figure out what this would mean for Kristi and her involvement with the theatre. It was no surprise to me when Kristi tearfully told me that she would have to move back home to Fort Worth. We didn’t know yet what this would mean for Kristi and her future with DCRT but I knew that what was going to be best for Kristi and her little bundle of joy would be to move back home to the incredible support system she had there.  On September 23rd, Kristi gave birth to a BEAUTIFUL baby girl and in December of 2010, Kristi officially stepped down from her role as Managing Director, though she remains a co-Founder and avid supporter of the work we’re doing here in ABQ. We even get phone calls from her telling us about patrons who continue to call her number to reserve tickets to our shows! So much of her influence is in the work that we do and the way that things are run at DCRT. We miss her a great deal.

So much has happened in the last four years and yet it feels like it was only yesterday that I was saying a tearful goodbye to my life in Abingdon. When I think of that night back in 2007 when Kristi and I began to excitedly plan this dream, I kind of can’t believe we’re here today, that I’m signing paychecks and creating budgets and asking my actors and artists to risk more and more in service to our amazing audiences. I am so grateful for all of the help we’ve gotten from our friends, mentors and supporters. Though it may sound overly emotional and sentimental, that help and support we’ve gotten from so many people is the very reason we strive to bring them the very best product we possibly can and it’s the thing that keeps us going when we’re exhausted or frustrated or scared.

Truth is, we do so much and work so hard because we love the work. Even on our hardest day there still isn’t anything else we’d rather be doing than serving our audiences. I know, without a doubt, that five, ten, fifty years down the road we’ll still feel the same way.

See? Told you this was a love story.

I was going to title this post “A Well Deserved Break” but seeing as we only just closed the first show of the 2nd Season, that seemed a little indulgent.

Wow, what an experience reasons to be pretty was! A great cast, a great script, awesome audiences with so much to say. It seems that we choose a somewhat polarizing piece of theatre to open the 2nd Season with. Our amazing patrons had some very thoughtful and insightful things to say about our production and we were glad to hear them all. Although, we were very surprised at the amount of times we heard “Loved this production! Loved the actors, the direction, the set, the costumes, everything! But I HATED the script.” Even more surprising? Every single patron who told us that was a man. What the?

Our dear friend and supporter, Susan, told us we could write a thesis on that alone. She’s probably right!

In case anyone was wondering, the most oft heard comment from our female patrons was “This play feels so good!!!” Truly.

So DCRT is taking an unofficial “break” until rehearsals begin for Wooden Snowflakes in November. However, because we don’t really understand the meaning of the word “break”, we will actually be working with Fourth Wall Productions in conjunction with SCRAP Productions to produce Ash Tree, a lovely theatre for young audiences piece written by one of our favorite playwrights and dear friend Georgina Hernandez Escobar. Associate Artistic Director Frank Green joins the cast of this incredible show for a limited engagement at the end of the month.

There are several reasons why you should check out this stunning show if you are in the 505:

1. Ash Tree is intelligent and honest theatre for young audiences. This isn’t your run of the mill, fuzzy bunny suit, dumbed down children’s theatre. This is the type of theatre that will create the audiences of tomorrow. Come see what professional theatre for young audiences looks like.

2. This is a site specific show! Want a lovely evening of theatre in an even lovelier setting? Then be sure to join us!

3. Duke City Rep doesn’t throw it’s support behind any old playwright. We choose the material and the projects we work on very carefully so you know this is going to be worth your time.

4. Ok, if these reasons above haven’t quite convinced you of why you should be sure to check this show out, here’s one last go: Admission to this show is Free. FREE. You get to see this show for absolutely nothing but the gas it takes to get you there! And since it’s outdoors, you can bring a picnic, you can bring your blankets and you can enjoy some AMAZING theatre for audiences of all ages and you can do it all for FREE!!!

ARGH! It’s so exciting, we can barely control ourselves over here!

Wanna know more? Follow the link! http://mim.io/dc3581

And be sure to be on the lookout for Wooden Snowflakes opening in December. We’ll be in a different venue for this production: Kosmos aka The Factory on 5th!

See you at the theatre!