Austin, Texas, fall 1999: Christa and Judson had very little experience as producers, but we found ourselves searching for a project. So along with four other artists, a handful of clip lights, and, yes, an actual barn, we produced Desire, a reconsideration of Eugene O’Neill’s amazing play, Desire Under the Elms.  After an overwhelming response from the community, critics, peers, and award panels, we put a name to it and founded the dirigo group. 

Over the next five years, the dirigo group helped set the pace for Austin theatre.  From the beginning we felt it paramount that our artists be competitively compensated, and budgeted to do so (and during those six years we were able to operate completely in the black).  With each show we raised our production values, expanded our audiences, and took artistic risks.  We produced twelve shows, ranging from contemporary texts (Daniel MacIvor’s In on It and Neil Labute’s bash), adaptations of classics (Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms), and original works (Lowell Bartholmee’s The Middle of the Night and Kirk Lynn’s The Jinn).  We worked with a community of over 75 artists, were honored with the distinguished American Theatre Critics Award, five B. Iden Payne Theatre Industry Awards and twelve nominations, and received nineteen Critics Table Award Nominations.  Out of the twelve shows we produced in Austin, eight of them made annual Top 10 Lists, both in the Austin Chronicle and the Austin-American Statesman.  And in 2004 the dirigo group was recognized as a company that was “Hot, Hip, and on the Verge” by the national publication American Theatre magazine.

New York City, fall 2004: After moving here and working on various projects, we found a new home at Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan; it wasn’t long before we were asked to come on as Associate Directors in an effort to reform the company and make the move into the Off Broadway market.  Our efforts were mainly concentrated into producing, development, and marketing.  Over the next three years we produced two critically acclaimed shows: the premiere of
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Christopher Durang’s The Vietnamization of New Jersey (NY Times Critic’s Pick) and the premiere of Texas playwright David W. Crawford’s Harvest (Back Stage Critic’s Pick).  The production of Harvest also earned us a spot as “producers to watch in 2008” on PBS’s Theater Talk with Cindy Pierre.  In addition, because of that production, Harvest was chosen for the Smith & Kraus publication of Best New Plays of 2008.   In the three years with Alchemy, our community grew as we utilized bloggers to reach the online community and offered substantial discounts though online forums such as MySpace and Facebook.  In an effort to better know our growing community, we began having talkbacks with our audiences following performances.  We also helped oversee the transition with Actors’ Equity Association to attain our Off Broadway status.

New York City, fall 2008: Drawing on the community we had built over four years in the city, we felt it was time to create a home of our own. Thus, with the help of Joseph Parks (a fellow artist we had worked with in Austin and who had just made the move to New York), we formed Theatre East and began work on our first production, the New York premiere of Tim Blake Nelson’s Eye of God. The show exceeded our wildest expectations, playing to sold-out houses and bringing this powerful story to over 1,000 audience members. Most importantly, our community grew even more enabling us to begin boldly planning for the future.

As producers, we have always felt that theatre shouldn’t be a mere observation, but an experience.  We want our audience — our community— to see a part of themselves on the stage.  To relate and identify with the characters and the themes of our productions.  For their human experience to be validated by the stories.  And when people are moved, when people feel like they have a voice, they come back.  They join our community and support us.  

The truth is that theatre started with community.  It existed long before playhouses were built or marquees were lit.  Wherever there was a campfire, people would congregate to hear stories of the great hunt or of a journey fraught with peril.  People would be impassioned or frightened by the tales of loss or victory…and it was a communal experience.  It was a collective experience because it was relatable.  It was a part of them…it was their community.

This creation of community has been our charge, from our early days in Texas with the dirigo group, all the way to our move to New York, the forming of Theatre East, and on into the future.