The Official Blog of PURE Theatre

RE: Low Country Boil, premiering at PURE March 5–27

R.W. Smith

As a member of PURE, I have had the opportunity to not only grow as an artist, but expand my skills along the way. All of us in the core take on different duties, whatever it takes to get the show done. Personally, I’ve worked as an actor, director, producer, front of house, company manager, writer and general morale booster. Every one of the core members and extended PURE family has done the same in some form or fashion. It’s how you produce theatre. Everyone takes on the roles that are necessary to get the job done. It reminds me of when Uta Hagen talked about the roles we play in life: teacher-student, spouse-spouse, parent-child, employer-employee, etc. We take on these roles in our daily lives; playing each role with its appropriate status, relationship, and history.

Working on Low Country Boil has reminded me of these roles and how embracing them is the only way art can be made. So many shows at PURE have been directed by one core member while other core members have worked on their vision. We each demand so much of each other artistically, but when it comes time to defer to the person in charge, that respect is given without question. We each wear our hat and play our role.

Right now I’m wearing three hats. Writer/director/actor. To be honest: too many hats. If I had my druthers, I would not be in the play, but (**Warning!!!! , Low Country Boil spoiler****) I stupidly brought my character back to life from the first one. I say stupidly more because I’m in the middle of juggling the hats and not because it is a plot point I’m uncomfortable with. But here I am looking at a piece through the eyes of a director, a writer and an actor, and each has an opinion, sometimes very different from the other; and the ensuing battle can be quite nasty. Mind you, the whole thing transpires in my head. A nightly fight club taking place in my cerebral cortex like a scene from Being John Malkovich. But in the end, I have to defer to the director. The responsibility rests with him/me.

My actor/me needs to focus on breaking down scenes, beat-to-beat, objective-obstacle-action, motivations, super-objectives, being in the moment, listening, character development, etc.

My writer needs to let the director tell his/my story the best way it can be done.

As I head down to rehearsal today, with all my hats in my bag, I know that I’ve got the talent around me to produce a great show. I’ve got a wonderful cast and an amazing theatre company supporting me. So all I have to do is make sure I’m wearing the right hat.

There is much conversation of late about resetting, and in particular, resetting the economy. The stock market, the banking industry, and the housing market all readjusting, realigning, seeking a natural center, after far swing visits to prosperity and, presently, its uncomfortable opposite on the other end of the pendulum.

Arts organizations find themselves affected as much as any by weight of the mass suspend from the theoretical line, swinging between affluence and scarcity, often running to either catch up in times of plenty, or to avoid being obliterated when it changes course. It’s a familiar condition and can be applied to just about any business, in any sector, at any time. A strong argument could be made that the most crucial skill set for an executive to possess would be an ability to anticipate the swing. An intuitive ‘je ne sais quoi’ that rides the wave, taking action in the breath just before the suspension of motion. En route the other way before it all changes course.

For purveyors of art, an even greater skill would be the ability to build an arts organization that is impervious to the swing. To construct a fortress of sorts, inside which art rides the very momentum itself, reflecting both the sudden gasp of the arrest, and the thrill or terror of the change of course.

And as we continue to define PURE’s identity, now under the conditions of this great reset, it seems to me, that if our company is not a sturdy incubator housing the reflective essence of the art we create, then perhaps our aim is askew, or off the mark. We have never been a company that has known great ease, only great effort, resulting in moments of breathtaking joy in our work, and the endless hope that we are indeed better for the struggle.