Art Rotch | Designer | Director

 statement

Theater performances are both immediate and ephemeral, a story told between heartbeats, in the space between when an actor receives their cue and gives their response. If you are fortunate to be present, don’t look away, or you’ll miss something.  Theatrical storytelling is an essentially present art form, about the now. For all involved including audience, this essence is built on what we’ve done before: Our preparation as artists, anticipation of audience’s shared memory, our coming together to participate in a social act, prepared to sit together and not look away.

 I was interested in history when I was very young. I remember the bicentennial year well, learning about family history which took me back to colonial times in Massachusetts, where I was born, and then going on to study history in High School and College.  I liked the research and the understanding that comes of learning the historical evidence and listening to what it tells us. I love that the word ‘story’ is embedded in the word ‘history’. I have always been drawn to how the work of historians and storytellers is based in words and language, and the goal is shared understanding through shared story.

I came to theater via the humanities and via Alaska, and I love its demand for presence and collaboration. My studies demanded rigor and hard work, and Alaska is a place where, when there, it’s hard to be anywhere else. Today, I’m still interested in those early questions. As I age, I want to read/make/experience as many stories as I can. My appetite feeds a commitment to follow each story, with each creative team, wherever it leads us. Stylistically, I like to wed an approach to the text and team, but seek a theatrical space in all projects. I especially like a space that can serve the story and move action forward. I admire Robert Edmond Jones’ idea that a space can create the expectation of something about to happen. I like theatrical events where things happen, and seek to keep the focus on action and text. 

In design school I remember debating if designers are generative or interpretive in our work. Do we refer to ourselves as ‘artist’ or, instead,  ‘designer’ with its connotations that we solve specific problems? Is it possible to be designer-problem solvers who begin our work once it is framed by a text, a space, a direction, or must we be artists who breathe in a broader culture to participate within our artist-teams to create theatre that is present? I like this entire spectrum. I’m sure that designers must engage with the world deeply, researching rigorously, to be effectively connected to our cultural context, however we participate as collaborators on a particular project.  

Most of all, I’m here for the storytelling.