For one of my classes, we were split up into groups and given fictional theatre companies. \u00c2\u00a0We were to each take a role in the company and complete some tasks that position holds. \u00c2\u00a0I was lucky enough to become the artistic director of the Susan Glaspell Theatre, a regional theatre in Greenwich Village that focuses on the development of new works. \u00c2\u00a0Two years ago, I had this crazy dream that I might want to be an artistic director “when I grow up.” \u00c2\u00a0As those two years have passed, I have scaled down my goals, made them more central to what I consider to be my speciality: the literary department. \u00c2\u00a0Now, don’t get me wrong, I would kill for a job in a literary office in a theatre next year. \u00c2\u00a0I would absolutely murder for it. \u00c2\u00a0But this assignment, this absolutely crazy idea of making myself the artistic director of a theatre brought back those feelings, those ambitions.<\/p>\n
Some in the class saw the assignment as an end of the year blow off thing, and if we’re being honest, it had all the potential to be just that. \u00c2\u00a0But, thank God, my group didn’t see it that way. \u00c2\u00a0We went crazy. \u00c2\u00a0We began to imagine a history for our theatre. \u00c2\u00a0There is a next door space called “The Susie” that is a coffeeshop in the daytime and a bar at night. \u00c2\u00a0We planned an entire fictional season of works that don’t exist. \u00c2\u00a0Something inside of me will not let go of this damn fictional theatre. \u00c2\u00a0I want it to be my life. \u00c2\u00a0I think I’m going to save my mission statement and letter to patrons to my computer, as a sort of time capsule. \u00c2\u00a0If I reopen them in twenty years and my life isn’t what I had planned at 21, I’m going to start over until I get it right. \u00c2\u00a0I need this to be my life. \u00c2\u00a0I want to make a difference and do exciting, relevant theatre.<\/p>\n
Here’s our mission statement:<\/p>\n
The Susan Glaspell Theatre has dedicated the last fifty years to producing new plays that speak to the contemporary moment.\u00c2\u00a0 The Glaspell has a split mission: we both produce some of the most vital and well-known American voices in our regular season and encourage playwrights at the beginnings of their careers with our one-month staged reading series, The Birdcage.\u00c2\u00a0 The Susan Glaspell aims to be a haven for its writers, lovingly known as Canaries, who are both developing and mounting new work.\u00c2\u00a0 The Glaspell strives to engage with society as it is today, and, as a result, present theatre breaks boundaries, creates new styles, and challenges its audiences.\u00c2\u00a0 Throughout its history, the Glaspell has proven itself one of the most daring and socially engaged theatres in New York City, and it will continue to provide audiences relevant, exciting, youthful theatre for years to come.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n I know it may seem crazy, and it probably is, but this project has inspired me to finish up next semester and head out into the real world. \u00c2\u00a0No matter how scary it may be, I have this crazy made-up dream as my light at the end of the tunnel, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For one of my classes, we were split up into groups and given fictional theatre companies. \u00c2\u00a0We were to each take a role in the company and complete some tasks that position holds. \u00c2\u00a0I was lucky enough to become the artistic director of the Susan Glaspell Theatre, a regional theatre in Greenwich Village that focuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2062,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}