audacity
- 1: the quality of being audacious. 2: intrepid boldness. 3: recklessly
daring: Adventurous. 4: bold disregard of normal constraints. 5: marked
by originality and verve.
OUR
STORY
Previously
known as Audacity
Productions (1999-2007), the company participated in many Dallas
area fests such as the Festival of Independent Theatres and Out of the
Loop, represented north Texas at the New York International Fringe Festival
multiple times, and produced works for Austin's FronteraFest as well
as the Mind Over Money Theatrical Festival. As Audacity Productions
the group mounted over 50 plays - large and small - over our nearly
eight years. The leaders of this little theatre absorbed a lot, often
learning by doing, from this earlier garage-band-sized Audacity. Audacity
Productions filed articles of dissolution in the summer of 2006, when
Artistic Director Brad McEntire headed off for more than a year abroad,
living and working primarily in Hong Kong. One production, THE LAST
CASTRATO carried over into 2007 to fill a prior obligation, with a limited
run in Austin,TX.
McEntire
returned to the DFW Metroplex from his international travels and assembled
a group of brave like-minded artists including Jeff Swearingen, Cassidy
Crown, Ruth Engel and Jeff Hernandez. The group decided to keep the
name Audacity and came up with a new focus, mission and set to work
once again. Audacity Productions was the pilot program, so to speak,
for Audacity Theatre Lab.
Audacity
Theatre Lab took up operations in early 2008 and has since developed
quite a body of work, participating in several national festivals and
garnering solid press, growing audiences and several local awards. For
instance, HELLO HUMAN FEMALE: Winner for Best New Play by the DFW Theatre
Critic's Forum, Listed as a Top Ten of 2009 by the Dallas Voice, and
garnering Jeff Swearingen and Becca Shivers Best Comic Actor/Actress
winners for the Dallas Observer's Best of 2009! Arianna Movassagh and
Jeff Swearingen snagged recognition for Best Actress/Best Actor at the
2010 Column Awards! Swearingen went on to win the amusingly-named 2010
Ultimate Best Actor Award from Pegasus News.com. Arianna Movassagh was
also named an Outstanding Actress of 2010 for her work in HELLO HUMAN
FEAMLE by Alexandra Bonifield on TheaterJones.com, while ATL's production
of VOLUME OF SMOKE garnered mention on the Dallas Observer's List of
Top 10 Productions of 2010 and TheaterJone's list of Top 20 in 2010.
One critic called the show "Simply one of the most moving evenings of
theater of the year."
By
mid-2010 the group temporarily ceased operations and began thinking
about the working model it was using. Faced with the dilemma many organizations
face once they've passed the 10 year mark, the artists of ATL had to
decide weather to grow into a full-fledged institution complete with
a large board, salaried staff, subscriber base, consistent venue and
large operating budget and spend a considerably larger amount of time
fund-raising, accounting, administrating and filling out grant proposals.
This is, after all, how nonprofit theatres are supposed to work, right?
This
dilemma was intensified by the fact that since 1999 Audacity never established
a single "home base" venue, had never recieved grant money
of any kind, and had never developed "seasons." The group
was just too busy, really, making theatre. Having always created projects
in a inventive, non-glitzy, yet theatrically sophisticated way, the
artists of ATL grew accustomed to operating on an excessively thin shoe-string
budget.
But
the organizers of the company did not want to keep spinning their wheels
for the sake of it. If the intimate size of the organization
wasn't a concern, the group just had to clear up the exact purpose
behind the kind of theatre they wanted to create. Beyond what kind of
work did they want to do, beyond how they wanted to do this work, the
ATL artists actually had to aswer the question: What do we, as theatre
artists, need this company to be for us?
Taking
their cue indirectly from such examples as Daniel
Quinn's "tribes" social structure, Greg Allen's 25
Rules and small indie publishing houses (particularly "micropublishing"
organizations), at last ATL's artists believe they've found their indentity
as a theatre. Defying normal conventions, ATL is a company that truly
serves the artists - first and foremost. In fact, the artists are at
the heart of Audacity Theatre Lab. Each artist at ATL is an instigator,
developing and helming his or her own individual projects from first
ideas to the finished product. The traditional lines between actor,
director, writer and designer blur here. The usual hierarchies are cast
aside. There is no "house style" or unifying aesthetic, but
instead several unique and individual voices each making his or her
own kind of theatre. This small group of artists happen to be all operating
under the same umbrella, a laboratory for idiosyncratic theatrical expression.
OUR
MISSION
Audacity
Theatre Lab is a platform for the imaginations of a collective of individual
theatre artists. The artists of ATL are empowered to use the company
as an outlet for the creation of new theatre projects, be they bold
re-imagings of existing works or the incubation and exploration of completely
original works for the stage.
HERE'S
THE DEAL
1.
The Artist comes first! We are turning our back on any sort of Unifying
Aesthetic. Audacity is not a brand. It is a place where Artist's make
stuff. Each artist has his or her own unique vision and personality.
ATL is made up of these personalities. We won't bend an artist's point
of view to fit it in some intangible, amorphous "house style." Here,
the individual artist is not watered down. Our service to the community
comes through our service to the artist. In fact, it is our belief that
the cultural community can profit just as much or more than traditional
community-oriented theatre, from theatre made and passed down - from
idea to staged result - directly from the originating artists.
2.
New works rule! At ATL, we believe the theatre needs new voices,
new ideas, new everything. We might just attain immediacy that way.
We will leave the plays of the classical canon - museum works - to other
members of the cultural community: academia, community houses, larger
repertory companies. These plays are great for the education of young
artists, supplying a background on where they fall in the history of
the Theatre, but our concerns are more with the here and now. These
museum works, left alone, as they are will be left for the traditional
interpretive artist. For us at ATL, as contemporary creative artists,
these plays could serve us only as a catalyst for immediate "re-imaginings".
3.
It is called Play for a reason! When's the last time you went to
the theatre because, well, it was fun? No, really. We thought so. Theatre
must entertain. No message, truth, or idea can be conveyed to an audience
that is not engaged. If we fail at this, we fail at everything. This
is crucial. Since we are a laboratory for new works and new ways of
working, we experiment. But we will not forget, the word "Experimental"
is but a modifier for "Theatre." The first priority, like that to all
Theatre, must be to "entertain", not simply to "experiment". Experimentation
for the sake of itself is self-indulgence. Fun is an infinitely worthy
goal. Fun to make for the artists, fun to experience for the audience.
4.
Cheap is actually the goal! We believe in a theater that is created
cheap and is cheap to see. Our pricing policy runs from $10 to $15 suggested
donation, more if you've got it, free if you're broke. Unless we're
at a festival or something where others set the ticket prices, we're
sticking with donations only. Listen, we know that the theatre company
must make money in order to continue, but its the theatre, not the money,
that supplies the livelihood. Therefore, our aim is not to keep the
company going to make money, but to make money so we can keep the company
going. See the difference?
5.
Every theatre artist at ATL is a multifunctional instigator! We
have no need for "interpretive artists". Thusly all artists in the theatre
now must see themselves as Creative. We deal with Theatre-Makers. Their
role is instigative. If you do not create, share, and defend your art,
then you are really just going through the motions. You must be active
in your own creative process, from the very start. The lines between
director, playwright, actor, designer, stage management and even administration
must be blurred for a more evolved theatre to come into existence.
