It’s been a year.
Life has been full to the brim this year. It’s all good stuff. I have been one lucky man, indeed. I am fully aware that I am a very privileged artist; after all, it’s 2019 and William Shakespeare - even though he’s been dead for over 4 centuries - pays my bills. But life has also been challenging, and I haven’t had any time at all to rest and reflect on this transformative time in my life.
The move from Stratford to Winnipeg is finally complete. My final project with the Festival in Ontario was my workshop presentation of Calderon’s LIFE IS A DREAM - one of my favourite plays from the Spanish Golden Age - at the end of October (no more flying back and forth now!). It went real well! Dora Carroll - an old friend - was my assistant in that presentation. I feel like I ended my 4 year stint at Stratford on a high note. “Ended” sounds a bit dramatic; I hope to return one day…
But right now I must focus on Shakespeare in the Ruins - but, of course, because I am insane, I am already splitting my focus. For the past 6 weeks, I have been in rehearsals for Love’s Labour’s Lost with the U of W, as their guest director (apparently, I am old enough to be one of those wise professional artists that get hired to share bits of brilliance and experience with actors in training now…god help us).
It’s been a packed month, full 12 hours daily, between the SIR office and the rehearsal hall - while at home my wife and son succumbed to bronchitis. No one is sleeping well these days, and I bet I will get severely sick as soon as this play opens: which is THIS WEEK, on November 26.
There’ still so much unpacking to be done at home…I need time to stop and absorb the present tense - or as they say in the Theatre: to be in the moment.
And, even though I was offered the job of leading SIR in January, it all still feels way too fresh, and I’m still fumbling away playing catch up every second of the game.
There is always something to tackle *right away*; there is always a deadline that’s *right now*; there’s always an email that should have been answered *OMG this should have been answered last week*…and there’s always a show going into pre-production whose team must be assembled. Don’t get me wrong, it is thrilling and exciting; but this first year – and especially now, as I’m solo on the job and the overlap with my predecessor is done – is all about playing catch up and becoming familiar with the artistic and financial cycles of the company.
It will take me a while to feel somewhat comfortable; to feel like I am, in fact, a proper bona-fide Artistic Director.
And that’s ok. Humility is important. Especially in this job, whose main function is, indeed, begging for money, and searching for new ways to grow the company’s revenue and capacity to offer more to our audiences.
This may sound nuts, or somewhat grand, but I have been flirting with the idea of becoming an AD of a theatre company for a long, long time, and I truly think it is something I was…ok, here it goes: born to do. The idea has always turned me on: the vast possibilities of the job, of developing a project you truly believe in, and of organizing a community - it’s all intensely romantic and beautifully challenging. And I feel incredibly grateful that SIR and the Board have invested their trust in me as their new leader.
So here’s to living the dream!
Yours,
RB.