Monday, April 20, 2015

Who Does This?

Rochester’s Black Sheep Theatre is about to make its mark on the national community theatre scene. The world can now consider itself forewarned.

Putting the Black Sheep on the Map


This past weekend, the community theatre group I helped found eight years ago was privileged to attend and perform in the American Association of Community Theatre’s Eastern States Theatre Association, Region II Festival competition on Saturday, April 18, in La Plata, MD.

We’d performed alongside very capable theatre companies from all over the Eastern seaboard. Groups from communities in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and The District of Columbia, who provide thousands of dollars of financial support in arts grants and private donations. We operate on a thinly held together shoe-string budget, and struggle to pay our rent each month. But we held our own. We made our mark.

And we won the show.

At the awards ceremony of the on Sunday, April 19, we sat together as we always do, as a theatrical ensemble, a united force, as friends. We’d dressed for the occasion. As most around us sat in shorts, denim, t-shirts and Birkenstocks, we sat in tuxedos, suit-coats, ties, cocktail dresses and strappy sandals. This was our Super Bowl, our moment; we were going to enjoy it, and bask in the glory of it. We didn’t yet know we had won, but we wanted to celebrate the accomplishment of simply being there amidst the greatness.

As we sat sipping morning cocktails and coffee, we joked and chatted with those seated around us. A true sense of camaraderie had developed over the weekend and lingered even that morning. It truly had been a friendly competition, many groups standing and cheering the others on as the curtain went up and came down time after time. Many stopped by to whisper and confide to us, “You got this!” and “Grand Rapids, here we come!” Grand Rapids, Michigan being the next stop for the victorious group with the winning show, to compete at the AACT National Festival in June.


Choosing to Say "Yes"


At one point, a man approached the table, and offered his compliments to a job well done. It had been an impressive show: a simple yet beautiful set, a gorgeous lighting plot, superb acting, and some stunning special effects (one judge described them as “delightfully creepy”). Then this man asked who was in charge. Who had been responsible for the production design? “Where is the director?” The others – I’m happy to say – proudly pointed to me.


The man continued to describe how he had seen the set – our wooden waterfront dock, about 6 feet by 9 feet – lying on the floor in the “on deck” area in the tech shop back stage. He confessed he had wondered what the heck we were going to do with the thing. Was it for transport? Was it for storage? How were they going to use this crazy thing?

Then he saw us setting it up. He saw our tech crew place the dock such that it extended past the edge of the stage, jutting into the audience. He saw them fasten and screw down the custom-designed front pylons for the dock, specifically measured and precisely cut for this stage, to fit perfectly, the height of the apron.


He said he watched as we set the “water lights,” an effect that used a string of Christmas lights in front below the dock to simulate moonlight sparkling off the surface of a salt water lake. He saw the eerie green and blue lights come up and our creative elements come together to create the Southern swampland world in which the play takes place. He said he watched all of this and thought to himself, “Who does this?” Who thinks to extend the set into the audience to literally bring them into that world of the play? Who builds a set piece that essentially has to be rebuilt each and every time the show goes up? Who, indeed, he wondered out loud, then asked us that morning, “Who does this?”

My colleagues, seated around me, and I smirked and smiled at each other. Then someone – Jared – spoke up. “We do,” he answered.

And we do. We’re the Black Sheep. WE do this.

Perhaps Too Stupid to Know Better


Maybe we’re just too stupid to know better. Maybe we're just too naïve to recognize the risk. Or maybe we just choose instead to explore uncertainty and fully exhaust the options before we decide.

I really think that last one. Yeah, that’s it.

You see, this particular moment in time drove home for me the reason my organization exists – exactly why we’re here. Someone – usually a potential director – has a vision. He or she has an idea that is creative, innovative, unusual, or even perhaps outrageous. And unlike others (I suspect, anyways) who may begin to provide all the reasons it can’t be done – too risky, too expensive, we don’t have the experience, our audiences won’t like it, we don’t do things like that – we, the Black Sheep, instead begin to brainstorm, create or invent different ways we can make it happen.
 
Make it happen. Make it so.

I am most proud of this aspect of how we choose our projects and mount our productions. Yes, we have limited resources. Yes, we have a small, unconventional space. Yes, many of us come from backgrounds other than technical theatre, having learned what we know through what I like to refer to The School of Hard Knocks. But instead of considering all the reasons we can’t, we instead choose to explore all the ways we can.

We’re the Black Sheep. And now that we’ve won Regional honors and can boast the title AACT/ESTA Festival 2015 Outstanding Production First Place, the world had better get ready: here come The Sheep.

See The Sheep. Fear The Sheep.

Rochester’s Black Sheep Theatre: Yes. We can.

And yes, we do.

(Photo credits, Kristy Angevine-Funderburk, KristyK Photography)

Rochester's Black Sheep Theatre received the following awards and recognition at the AACT/ESTA Fest 2015 Region II Festival Competition: Outstanding Production, First Place; Outstanding Achievement in Acting to Jared Lee Morgan, for his portrayal of "Martin;" Outstanding Achievement in Acting to Colleen DiVincenzo, for her portrayal of "Eden;" The Spencer C. "Spence" Watson Award for Excellence in Technical Theatre

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