Into The Fire

I'm starting a theatre company. There. Too late to turn back now. I feel a little like Indiana Jones at the moment, staring down the Holy Grail, but from across a seemingly bottomless chasm. A seemingly bottomless chasm that I'm about to willfully step into. And Sean Connery's my dad. Actually, that part's pretty cool.

It's been an off-and-on lingering thought for close to a year now, but thanks to a recent resurgance along with inspiration a la blogosphere and some choice words of encouragement from Anne Bogart via Slay and Tony, I've convinced myself that this is a good idea for a long enough period of time to actually act on it. I'm channeling my zen side (which is no easy feat) as best I can and walking into the abyss with arms open (also as best I can). 'Tis a bit scary, though.

Here's the scoop as best I've been able to whittle it down after a few days of heavy thinking and long conversations with close friends:

The company stems from the theories I've been rambling about on this blog the last few weeks. I've taken to referring to it as Anti-Anticipation, because it's a more broadly suited term. The approach is two-pronged: first, and most obviously, to create work that diverts and subverts our (and thus the audience's) expectations of theatre as an artform. To provide a theatrical experience where anything, everything, or nothing could happen at any time. The second, but more essential reading of Anti-Anticipation concerns not the counteraction of Anticipation, but the removal of it. In an environment where anything can happen, what is happening must be so passionate, so at hand as to make the next second irrelevant, to stop the artists and the audience from jumping to conclusions, from trying to guess the ending, from having expectations or anticipations of any sort. When anything is possible, the only thing that matters is the actual. The company will strive to create this actuality through a willing sacrifice to the next moment.

I'm calling it Per Diem.

An important part to all of this is that Per Diem's output will be a sum of it's parts. Each piece will stand alone, but no piece will be a stand-alone. Rather than a string of unrelated work, as most companies produce each season (that's not a judgment), Per Diem's work will continually build upon this theory of Anti-Anticipation, always a further step towards that goal. Each piece must be informed by every piece that has come before in order to avoid undesired patterns or assumptions.

Whew... that was a brainful. This is the part where I worry some more.

I'm truly excited about these ideas, but we all know how far that alone will get me. Please, please, please, I am leaping right out of the frying pan on this one -- I need all the advice I can get. E-mail (or comment, your choice) with any thoughts, questions, warnings, support, tips, Nigerian spam scams that you might possibly have. My mind is a whirlwind right now.

This may be the scariest thing I've done in my (granted, short) life. I think that's a good sign. Right?

P.Rekk
2007