Spotlight on Live Girls: Live Girls' Year of Mobility
Perhaps you've noticed the increased output the Theater section has been releasing over the last few weeks. That's not accidental; along with increased coverage of the theater beat, and more of our patented in-depth reviews of current productions, we have added two new series designed to keep you better informed of the community around you. "Lights Up On..." is a series of interviews we're having with individual artists and their projects (so far, that's included Elizabeth Kenny and Keira McDonald, with more to come). Today, we bring you the "Spotlight" series, in which our team of Theater writers highlight theater organizations in the Pacific Northwest region, talk with their leaders, dig into their historical archives and bring our findings to you, the reader.
Meghan Arnette, Live Girls' Artistic Director, prepares for the Suffragette Centennial celebration.
In early 2010, Live Girls! Theater - a Seattle based theater company dedicated to supporting new works by women - made a strategic decision that seemed counter intuitive to the conventional wisdom in the world of theatre. They decided to go mobile.
While most smaller theatre groups seem to be on a quest to find a space to call home, and to build from that space, LG gave up their basement abode in Ballard they had occupied and operated since 2005. The announcement from the company at the time said:
“Instead of renewing our lease we walked away from our venue and this winter we gave ourself some time to 'sit awhile and think'.We took time to dig into what our mission means to all of us.
We took time to debate what was essential to furthering that mission.
We took time to discuss all the ideas that had been indefinitely back-burnered because the work of running a space took precedent.
We took time to lay the groundwork for heading out and taking what Live Girls! does into new places.
We took time to dream about what Live Girls! could be if there were no limitations.
As a company we decided what we were most excited to pour our energy into and started figuring out what it would take to make those things happen.
And now we are on the move.”
It’s been over a year since that decision, and we thought it was time to talk to Meghan Arnette - Live Girls’ founding Artistic Director, and see how things are going.
“We told ourselves, let’s pretend we don’t have a mission - shred it up and start over. In the brainstorming that followed, we discovered that our mission is exactly what we stand for and want to do. We stand behind it 100%, and feel it is still necessary,” Arnette told us. However, what Live Girls also discovered is that there is plenty of confusion, or at least a misunderstanding about what LG’s mission really is. “We realized, there is a lot of clarifying that needs to happen with LG - people think of us as ‘girl theatre’ and interpret that to be stories about women, or just plays that have a lot of women on the stage. That’s important, but it is not really what we are about. We are about women defining the story to be told. We work primarily with new works, and we wanted to put our energy into the stories, instead of spending it running a venue”.
But isn’t a venue important? Doesn’t it help build the identity of a company? Build continuity with the audience? Arnette agrees. “We've been very conscious of that this year and really expanded our web presence and social networking so we were in people's faces virtually. Because we're not in a fixed location, staying on the radar is critical. However, as we’ve been able to come out of our own little corner in Ballard, it almost feels like people are more aware of the company even though we've done fewer things in the past year.”
“There are some challenges,” Arnette continues. “For example, a web search for LG events brings up results under different venues. Quickies Vol. XI was produced at Ethnic Cultural Theatre, UW - which is a rental venue, so there wasn't much of a problem. But when you rent space from Annex Theatre, your production shows up under Annex. This could lead to some confusion over who the producing entity is. On the other hand, someone who wasn’t looking for us might find us too. So the jury is still out.”
Maintaining continuity with existing audiences is important to Live Girls, but so is growing potential audience base and exposing non-traditional theatre audiences to the company’s work. In July of 2010, Live Girls partnered with MOHAI to present site specific performances at various Seattle locations celebrating the opening of MOHAI’s exhibit "Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices." The event commemorated the centennial anniversary of Women’s suffrage movement in Washington.
“When you’re operating your own space, you have to pay rent every month, and that impacts your priorities,” explained Arnette. “The project we did with MOHAI would have paid for itself, but it wouldn't have covered the rent that still would have been due, even though the show was not in our theater space. Being mobile removes the constant stress that we carried as a company.
“Additionally, this was a collaboration with a cultural institution - a non theatrical partnership - important because it's not theatre in the conventional sense - the "one big secret space that we all go to" - but a more basic form of communication. This work was seen all around the streets of Seattle, by people who would have never found us in our basement.”
LG’s first full length main stage production since leaving Ballard was Hardball by Victoria Stewart, staged at Annex Theatre in Capitol Hill during the month of March. “Having a gathering space is really important to some companies, for parties, fund raisers and other events. On the other hand, reaching out to the playwrights is a big part of what we do at Live Girls, and it doesn't have to happen at the same place. In fact, being tied to one space could be limiting. If something wouldn’t fit in our space, we may need to turn down what would otherwise be a great project for us. So it really became about returning the focus to the playwrights and their voices.
“Hardball is perhaps the most complex show from a technical perspective that we have ever done, and I’m not sure if it could have been done in the Ballard space. We spent a lot of up front time in planning and working out the logistics with video etc. We took the time to seek out the best cast for the show - and we were able to do this because of all the time we freed up when we stopped chasing the rent.”
As part of their commitment to developing new female voices in theater, Live Girls partnered with Seattle Girls' School and Youth Theatre Northwest to introduce young girls to the art of play writing and help them develop their individual voices. But cost is a factor. As Arnette explained, “we went into the class rooms to work with 8th graders. We asked them to write their own plays and then helped pick the scripts that were performed as readings, with the girls taking on the roles as actors and the responsibility of directing. We might be able to evolve this into an education program. But this is not a money making project, and all the upfront work needs to be done. When you have rent to pay, you can't afford to make that choice.”
The dual theme of cost reduction and expanding audience base is repeated as Arnette talks about the workshops LG conducted with S.P. Miskowski’s script Emerald City. “We put our energy and resources into this celebratory event, executed in spaces typically not used for theatre. The feedback we received came from ’new’ people who participated by accident, and we discovered that the public is super excited to talk about the topic of this play. These workshops gave S.P. a chance to see not only what her regular cohorts and audiences were responding too, but also what the atypical audience members were coming up with. We were able to bring S.P. back to Seattle to participate directly and she did a lot of re-writing during the week she was here.”
Clearly leaving the space in Ballard was a big decision for Live Girls Theater, and significant thought and analysis went into it. But there is no way to anticipate everything. Unexpected things come up, and even the best thought out plans require adjustment. “Within a very short time of announcing our decision to go mobile, MOHAI contacted us and asked if we wanted to do something together. A number of feelers came in from other places as well, some of which we actually had to say no to.”
“What has been most surprising, but in a very positive way, is how supportive the Seattle theatre community is, and how open companies are to collaborate with each other. Everyone is struggling with resources, so it makes sense, but people have been overly generous and inviting.”
The world of fringe theatre isn’t all rosy and positive. There are challenges associated with going mobile, and Live Girls are facing those as well. “Time, is the biggest difficulty. When you own your space, you take for granted the ability to stay back after rehearsals to go through notes, or to fix things that need work. But now that your space is a rental, you have to pack up and get out to find a bar”. When it's not your space, you may not have to worry about taking out the garbage, but you have to be lot more flexible, and plan a lot more in advance to anticipate what things might hit you.”
Advanced planning isn’t all bad though. “If we needed six months to get the next show up, people would try and fit three other things in between to generate revenue. Overbooking was required because we had to pay rent. Now we don't have to do that, so we can be grown ups and make responsible choices on what we actually want to commit to. While producing Hardball, the board had to make some choices regarding where to spend our energy. Now with the show closed, we will revisit our resources and make sure we have the time to build our strength back up, instead of just jumping automatically to the next thing. The constraints created by not having a home space are causing us to be more disciplined.”
Live Girls Theater has been mobile for over a year, and the company is trying to be “more people driven than stuff driven.” The conversation at LG is not dominated by the seats that need repair or what lighting instruments are available any longer. “The plays dominate the conversations. We talk more about actual work than the space, and that's what we wanted to be able to do. It's about spending time on ideas and artists, not on the objects of running a theatre.”
“It felt like a gift this year. I believe the quality of each project we're doing has been good - but people will have the opportunity to judge that for themselves as well.”
