As a storyteller, I seek to craft an experience for the community as a way to engage with and support cultural sustainability through nuanced provocation. For me, theatre artists are librarians who use artistry to both proliferate and protect stories. We are stewards of those narratives.
My directing aesthetic is built from three key components: Queer, scholarship, collaboration.
My aesthetic is, first and foremost, Queer. My artistic expression is intrinsically tied to my Queer identity. I define Queer as celebratory, subversive, joyous, revolutionary, inclusive, and theatrical.
For me, these words do not just define my personal ethos as living Queer but are rooted within my stagecraft.
My directing aesthetic is built from three key components: Queer, scholarship, collaboration.
My aesthetic is, first and foremost, Queer. My artistic expression is intrinsically tied to my Queer identity. I define Queer as celebratory, subversive, joyous, revolutionary, inclusive, and theatrical.
For me, these words do not just define my personal ethos as living Queer but are rooted within my stagecraft.
My directing aesthetic is also rooted in scholarship.
I value the use of research within my practice. From theories, articles, and history, I often look to records of the past to help inform artistic choices. This scholarly penchant is a tool to be used with efficacy. Whenever it becomes obtuse, cumbersome, or irrelevant, I close the book. While I know many artists shutter at academia, I find it exciting to parse through the past. It is part of my process before I enter the room.
As I have learned so much from past experts, impresarios, and revolutionaries, it would feel impious to disregard the “cloud of witnesses” that not just stand behind me, but hold me up.
I have also been fortunate enough to travel and live abroad. This exposed me to a range of theatrical expressions outside of European and American Modernism (yet that genre and style carries strong within me, despite the current milieu's proclivity to rebel against it.)
This global sensibility has instilled a compulsion to stay informed on current affairs. I constantly learn as much as I can about what is happening in the world around me, both globally but also locally. My curiosity to learn has sustained my drive to honor and celebrate all stories.
I value the use of research within my practice. From theories, articles, and history, I often look to records of the past to help inform artistic choices. This scholarly penchant is a tool to be used with efficacy. Whenever it becomes obtuse, cumbersome, or irrelevant, I close the book. While I know many artists shutter at academia, I find it exciting to parse through the past. It is part of my process before I enter the room.
As I have learned so much from past experts, impresarios, and revolutionaries, it would feel impious to disregard the “cloud of witnesses” that not just stand behind me, but hold me up.
I have also been fortunate enough to travel and live abroad. This exposed me to a range of theatrical expressions outside of European and American Modernism (yet that genre and style carries strong within me, despite the current milieu's proclivity to rebel against it.)
This global sensibility has instilled a compulsion to stay informed on current affairs. I constantly learn as much as I can about what is happening in the world around me, both globally but also locally. My curiosity to learn has sustained my drive to honor and celebrate all stories.
My last final core aspect to my directorial aesthetic is radical collaboration. I evoke the work by synergizing creativity around me.
I instill ownership of the work created by those in the room. I am the "holder of the container" and support the world of those around me. But rather being individual ownership, it is a collective ownership from all involved.
I strive to hold space where the artists can bring their ideas and true selves; a brave environment focused on world-building. I am no actor or designer, so I need creators who can bring their own ideas.
My main task as a director is to lead a room where the artists are opened and engaged to generate options, answers, and opinions. As the one who holds this space, t is only then when I can engage from the outside, editing, stitching, and supporting the story we are collectively telling.
My artistry thrives when I edit in three dimensions.
I aid the audience in meaning-making.
I instill ownership of the work created by those in the room. I am the "holder of the container" and support the world of those around me. But rather being individual ownership, it is a collective ownership from all involved.
I strive to hold space where the artists can bring their ideas and true selves; a brave environment focused on world-building. I am no actor or designer, so I need creators who can bring their own ideas.
My main task as a director is to lead a room where the artists are opened and engaged to generate options, answers, and opinions. As the one who holds this space, t is only then when I can engage from the outside, editing, stitching, and supporting the story we are collectively telling.
My artistry thrives when I edit in three dimensions.
I aid the audience in meaning-making.
I do not see the director as a stage magician, as it has often been described to me, but instead as a stage alchemist.
Magicians operate in illusion and obfuscation, while alchemists seek authenticity and transformation.
As a director, I curate experiential events anchored within a real, tangible world. If that world forms from spoken text, a wisp of smoke, or just a well-placed chair, it is just as real as you or me.
Magicians operate in illusion and obfuscation, while alchemists seek authenticity and transformation.
As a director, I curate experiential events anchored within a real, tangible world. If that world forms from spoken text, a wisp of smoke, or just a well-placed chair, it is just as real as you or me.
Public Exposure by Keith Hovis | Market Garden Theatre | Photo by Scott Pakudaitis
Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker | Baylor University | Photo by Jared Tseng
Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker | Baylor University | Photo by Jared Tseng