We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia Arts Emerson
David Dower Will Head ArtsEmerson; Rob Orchard Stays On Board
Rob Orchard and David Dower have had one of the more fruitful relationships in Boston theater, Orchard as executive director of ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage and Dower as his director of artistic programs. The 2 men stress that shut collaboration volition continue in January when Dower assumes leadership of ArtsEmerson and Orchard, 67, cuts back to become "Founder and Creative Consultant," while spending nigh a third of his fourth dimension on ArtsEmerson projects.
The 2 men accept been involved with some of the all-time theater in Boston since 2010, when ArtsEmerson unveiled its programming. Orchard, the founding managing managing director of the American Repertory Theater (originally nether Robert Brustein), has brought ane slap-up theater-dance-multimedia company after another into Boston, many sharing the old A.R.T. artful of favoring assuming, stylized productions over kitchen-sink realism. They've included everything from imaginative stagings of classics, such as "Mies Julie" fix in South Africa and a contemporary "Merchant of Venice" with a great performance by F. Murray Abraham, to contemporary works past emerging US companies, similar the Builders' Association's "Sontag: Reborn" and the upcoming "The Old Human being and the Old Moon" by PigPen Theatre Visitor.
"From the very start, I wanted to fill voids," said Orchard. "I wanted to add choices, amplify the cultural opportunities for the community. With that in listen, I saw Boston wasn't on the international theater circuit, and it should be."
Orchard's ArtsEmerson artful was broader than at the A.R.T., as evidenced not only by some of the family programming and overtly political productions, but by his decision to bring Dower into the mix 2 ½ years ago and begin training him, it seems, to be his successor. Dower shares Orchard's artful, merely has been a potent advocate for more community involvement, in both outreach and audition participation at ArtsEmerson.
And Orchard isn't the aforementioned person he was at A.R.T. "I didn't feel this way when I was younger, only I really remember that theater makes a difference in people's lives. It'due south not social engineering science, it's not PC. We use words, in that location'due south a way for theater to open up up the conversation rather than shut it down. I want to do that. I know it works. And David is the enabler of that. I can be cheering on the sidelines."
Dower picked up on that in a separate interview: "If we weren't focusing on the audience, we would only be competing with other theater companies. Our office is to serve the audiences in the gaps. Global diversity onstage and local diversity in the audience.
"When you focus on this notion of citizenship or stewardship or diversity, in that location starts to be a nervousness among theater people most what happens to excellence. Is this theater every bit social work? Did artistic excellence get out the window?" Dower counters that ArtsEmerson has shown that it's not an either-or proposition when it comes to date and excellence: "In that location is plenty of piece of work in the world that moves these conversations, that are able to do both."
And it can be classic theater as well as contemporary theater: "I don't recall a play lasts if there'due south not something in it that has greatness for our time. If the audience starts to learn to come considering tonight is going to bounciness off my life, we can find information technology in anything."
The multifariousness of the audience is part of that bouncing off as well. Both men pointed to Company One, whom they collaborated with on "Nosotros Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Betwixt the Years 1884-1915," an excellent production near racial attitudes, equally evidence of a visitor where the audience is part of the draw.
"They are like a blood brother to us in what they practice and how they connect with the community," said Orchard. "I was at their benefit last week, and I looked out at the people there and information technology was the city of Boston in that room. I've never seen that earlier in an arts organization."
Dower pointed to the four bones tracks of ArtsEmerson — "Rob's original recipe" — that brought him to ArtsEmerson and that he plans to continue: "That it be generative in spirit, international in telescopic, additive to the cultural landscape in Boston, and you lot'd exist working in long arcs with artists then they'd come dorsum once more."
Lee Pelton, president of Emerson, sent out an electronic mail to the Emerson customs saying, "Every bit the founding Executive Director of ArtsEmerson, Rob has created an indelible and vibrant cultural juggernaut for the City of Boston and Emerson College, having brought extraordinary productions to Boston from around the world, which we would otherwise non accept had the opportunity to feel."
As for the time to come, Orchard said, "I've carved out a third of my time to continue working for ArtsEmerson, projects in my planning pipeline that I'll continue working on." He'll besides be doing fundraising besides as more fun stuff, such as traveling effectually the world, scouting and poking around for hereafter productions. "I've never been to South Africa, and it would be good to connect to companies we take relationships with on their turf."
Looking to time to come programming, "Nosotros're going to originate more work, in partnership with others. There are a number of projects that have been in the pipeline, a Robert Wilson project, a Don DeLillo play about the financial crisis. Yous will not observe me taking on the leadership of any other arts organization. I'chiliad not going to answer the phone for six months."
Both Orchard and Dower saluted Emerson's delivery to their programme, as well as its contribution to the development of lower Washington Street. All of which, says Dower, has been function of the synchronicity of the programme.
"What Rob brought with him, after his work with two regional theaters [Yale Repertory Theatre as well as A.R.T.], was to put learning into something fresh and new and dissimilar and establish a set of priorities on behalf of the field, on behalf of the metropolis, on behalf of the college."
Source: https://www.wbur.org/news/2014/09/11/dower-orchard-artsemerson
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