Written by: Camille Pugliese, Staff Writer
Graphic by: Leah Geisler, Co-Editor-in-Chief
As the lights begin to come back up on stages around the world, whether they occupy spaces in big Broadway theatres, in classrooms, in parks, in storefronts, or in church basements, there are people everywhere who are afraid of what the future of theatre is going to look like. I completely understand the validity of that fear; however, I’m not one of the people who are afraid. I am surrounded by incredible artists daily. I see the work they make and am always inspired. They find ways to remind myself and others of their passions. I am confident that what they see for the future of theatre and what they want will undoubtedly happen.
I am not without worry though. I am scared for the future of the ensemble. That is a fairly loaded statement and I completely understand that. My current working definition of an ensemble is a large body of artists who work together towards a collective goal whether in a traditionally structured play or a devised piece. The ensemble to me is a representation of a collective body. Different parts make up a single whole. There is not one voice that overpowers the other, and each member is in a constant state of healthy communication. Disagreements and discord are worked through to meet a resolution that is best for the whole body. Together, they begin to form an intimate closeness both physically and emotionally.
I love ensemble work. I love being in ensemble-driven productions. One of my favorite experiences being involved in theatre was being a part of a twenty-person cast, where each member was on stage for almost the entirety of the duration of the play. There was comfort in knowing that I was not on stage alone, that there was a group supporting me if I needed it. I especially loved being able to tell different parts of the same story in a language that we worked hard to come up with together.
I am afraid that this unity does not exist in a post-pandemic theatre (are we really ever going to come to a place where we can say post-pandemic and actually be past it?). Over the last 20 months, almost everyone I know has experienced some form of trauma. It may have been through the death of a family member, friend, or loved one, or through living during a time of massive social unrest and a call for the reckoning of racial injustice, or having undergone an intensely difficult financial hardship, or the emotional toll of being alone for so long was simply too much, or maybe even a combination of these mixed with anything else. So much has happened and there are so many individual and deeply personal responses to it. I’ve heard the term “collective trauma” a lot recently, but I am not quite convinced that this is something that I think actually exists, trauma is not collective. Who else was there when I sat in my room at two in the morning and just started to try to make sense of the world?
How can we, as an ensemble, make sense of this together? It is important to acknowledge that each person has a different comfort level returning to the in-person world. How do we begin to navigate physical spaces and begin to establish connections that need to form in order to create ensemble work? Not everyone may be comfortable in spaces with more than a handful of people and certainly not comfortable with the level of physical intimacy that many theatremakers have seen and even experienced during the time before. Is an ensemble of more than 15 people even logistically possible?
There may be some who have emerged totally enlightened by their experience in quarantine, there may be some scarred by it, and there may be some who are still thinking ‘what the F actually happened’. How do we bring these people together? How do we turn these different experiences into a collective? I understand that an impactful ensemble is diverse both in identity and experience, but there has always been a common language. 2020 and so on has ‘tower of babbled’ this language (yes, I made up a verb).
I do not have a solution to this problem or a complete remedy to my fear, but I have some hope. As I come to a conclusion of this written reflection, but not this conversation, I am not in the same place as I was when I started reflecting on the issues the ensemble may face. I was lucky enough to see one of the BFA 2 actors’ Intros. I saw a devised ensemble create joy and laughter and excitement. I saw this ensemble become one while being unapologetically themselves. It reminded me what it’s like to be together, really together.
Maybe this is a reflection of my own hesitations or what some would call cynicism about returning to a world that has fully come back, but I am desperate for what I love about theatre to come back. I am now left wondering, how can I make this happen?