Many of us who label ourselves Arts Administrators usually reached that title through a strange and twisted path we didn’t know we were on. Generally when you meet young artists while in the early years of their college education you don’t hear them lauding “I can’t wait to be an arts administrator!”
Producer, director, choreographer, composer, set designer, costume maker, sound and light designers, it is no secret that, whether you’re going through a show’s playbill or the movie credits, it takes quite a team to bring any show or movie to life and, while the expression “too many cooks” can come up in rehearsals, one must acknowledge that each and every member of a creative team has their area of expertise and that one’s work wouldn’t be complete nor would it be able to stand out without someone else’s contribution.
With stories of sexual misconduct in rehearsal halls making international headlines, conversations are happening across the globe about how we can create safe creative spaces for our artists. Here in Canada, this conversation has been especially lively in the stage management community. We’re asking ourselves difficult questions about our own complicity, how we can support artists in coming forward, and how we can contribute to making rehearsal halls the sacred spaces they ought to be.
Is the role of rehearsal director/ associate choreographer wholly creative? Or is it more of a scientific logistical challenge? The dichotomous skills needed to succeed at the job encompass both sides of the brain and require strong leadership abilities and intuition.
Cirque du Soleil’s latest touring show, VOLTA premiered on the 28th April, 2017 in Montreal. Johnny Kim, the Assistant Artistic Director of Operations shares with TheatreArtLife details on the transition process from VOLTA’s creation into the daily operations and what parts of the show he loves the most.
Tara Young has worked as an Artistic Director and Associate on over a dozen Broadway Shows and National Tours. In addition to creating musical productions and working with notable groups such as the New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, LA Opera, the Boston Pops Orchestra, Tara lends her vast experience and knowledge of Broadway by leading workshops and appearing as a guest lecturer. Tara’s skills have also been used with Cirque du Soleil on the Michael Jackson’s “The Immortal World Tour” and Dragone on “The Han Show” in Wuhan, China.
On December 18, 2010, Theresa proposed to me. We had maybe an hour of our day feeling full of love and happiness before our world came crashing around us when we started telling others our happy news.
We stopped talking about our wedding. We stopped blogging. We stopped dreaming. What about the invites we had sent out? How would we explain it? What could we do? We went to a bank for help – they literally told us to change careers.
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