April 15, 2013 | Notes From Leadership,

My Sweet Embraceable You

We are on the eve of announcing our program for fall, 2014. It’s the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. I am standing in the second-floor lobby of The Paramount, our Randall Lobby, surrounded by a mix of students, faculty and Boston theatre makers, 60 people in all, each deeply focused on writing. This is actually a hybrid sort of performance event, an installment of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Watch Me Work project. Suzan-Lori, a Pulitzer-winning writer and MacArthur Genius Award recipient, sits at her typewriter in the middle of this crowd, clacking away.  Meanwhile, across the globe, people have logged on to participate in the event via HowlRound’s New Play TV livestream.

It is also the afternoon of the opening of Guillermo Calderon’s Neva and just on the other side of this lobby, in the Jackie Liebergott Black Box, he is directing the final rehearsals. One of Chile’s leading theatre artists, he’s also written the screenplay for Violeta Goes To Heaven, which we will screen as part of our film series this weekend. He’ll be talking with the audience following that screening.

This moment encapsulates so much of why I leapt at the opportunity to join Rob, of what is possible at ArtsEmerson, and why we are so energized by the work.

ArtsEmerson was created as a place that is generative in spirit (focused on new and developing works), international in scope (the world on stage and screen), and committed to expanding the cultural choices of our city. It is, therefore, an aesthetic of intentional, multidimensional diversity. As Rob Orchard says in his note, one delightful result of that is that there is something for everyone in the set of projects included in this announcement. I am as inspired by the way our programming rewards the adventurous hearts and minds in our city and reveals, to those whose embrace is total, the broad tent of this form as it is expressed globally.

We have planned this line-up with a vista toward that intentional, multidimensional diversity. There are works from cultures around the world and from diverse communities within our own country. There are works that are fresh as paint, at the starting gate of their lives on the road. There are works with roots as deep as the five generations of family members behind Colla Marionette. There are new works from world masters and new works from emerging rule-breakers. The forms represented run a gamut while sharing the qualities of excellence, relevance and chutzpah that you have come to expect from your visits with us. There are works that tell story through text, through music, through movement, through film and through objects. What these pieces have most in common is that they are uncommon in our city.

At the same time, we are at work devising multiple avenues of engagement for you to be able to get inside, underneath and behind the workings of these artists and their creative processes. ArtsEmerson Members enjoy many perks, such as open rehearsals, free workshops and conversations with the people making the work and making the decisions here. Membership is essentially free–well, OK, it’s $60, but that includes a free ticket. So the only thing standing between you and this abundance is your schedule. I realize I am biased in this matter, but I am certain that making time spent with us a priority in your calendar will enrich your world immeasurably.

Suzan-Lori is now encouraging the students to practice “radical inclusion,” stepping outside their own boundaries of the known. She has thrown her arms wide open to illustrate the concept, as though she’s trying to embrace the whole wide world. Perhaps she’s speaking to you, as well? Throw your arms around the whole package of what’s available here and see the world as we see it: dimensional, diverse, filled with surprise and possibility.