SEE SITI's Extended Ensemble

Election season is upon us.  I watch HBO’s Bill Maher bang his head on the “Real Time” table in despair at the lack of communication that is possible between parties.   We wade into a season of debates, hearing persistent expressions of surprise that the “other side” does not recognize the logic of a particular argument.  But perhaps the surprise is unwarranted because, in fact, it is nearly impossible to convince anyone of anything via facts, charts, numbers or even abundant proof.  People are not persuaded to change their opinions with ..

Not long after the cataclysmic events of 9/11, I launched a series of one-on-one conversations between myself and various artists and theater people I admired.  Open to the general public, the talks took place in the SITI Company studio in midtown, Manhattan.  I did not know that these conversations would fulfill a palpable need for substantive discussion in a room with no separation between the audience and the speakers.  We all sat in the same light, breathed the same air and followed thoughts as they developed through the art of conversation.  The event ..

At the end of June I had both hips replaced at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.  Since then I have been recuperating and learning how to negotiate the world with large new pieces of metal inserted with great craft and skill into my hips and thighbones.  At first my body reacted in shock, shooting fluids to hips, legs and feet, causing much swelling, which is a perfectly normal reaction to trauma. The body activated rescue measures as though I had been in a massive car accident.  As the days progressed post-surgery, I confused ..

During the late 1970s I was a young director in New York City still finding my way in the performance and art scene when I had the extreme good fortune to meet the choreographer Mary Overlie.  We were both teaching at New York University’s new Experimental Wing and together we collaborated on several productions.  She introduced her Six View Points to me, which did nothing less than rock my entire world.  At the time, the conventional New York theater scene did little to excite my imagination.  But innovations from the dance and ..

We read and we write.  We read the world and at times we write upon it.  In order to write effectively we must learn to read well. It is impossible to write without reading first.

Great writers are effectively great readers.  To read teaches one to write.  In a broad sense, we are all readers and we are all writers. A baby swiftly learns to read the surrounding world and begins to write back. The human mind is tuned to detect patterns.  In “writing back,” the mind attempts to craft ordered ..

Artists and inventors rarely create something out of nothing, but rather they use the components that exist already their environment to forge new territory. Innovation results from re-combining things. Playwright Chuck Mee excavates the world to scavenge for bits of pieces of what delights and energizes him.  He organizes these bits and pieces into the content of his plays.  For our new production, Café Variations, we have excavated the scripts of Chuck Mee to make our new play.  We also scavenge through You Tube clips of Apache Dances from the early part of the ..

The playwright and performer Taylor Mac is constantly developing multiple new projects. He is at work now on a twenty-four hour concert about the history of popular music.  He spoke to my students at Columbia University recently and told us that he is looking for two hundred and fifty songs from twenty-four decades, music from the 1770s up to the present decade.  I asked Taylor how he choses the songs. He said that he looks for songs that create community. 

Oh, a song that creates community! I asked Taylor what kind of songs creates community. He said that some music ..

In early January, during the APAP (Arts Presenters) Conference in New York City, I enjoyed a few quality moments with my friend Mike Ross, Director of the Krannert Center in Champaign-Urbana.  We sat together on stools at the corner of a bar in a shady midtown pub.  Over the years, Mike has been a great supporter of SITI Company, hosting us many times at his beautiful performing arts complex in the flatlands of Illinois.  He is a tall, handsome, intelligent glass of water, always insightful and philosophical about the world we live ..

SITI Company has just completed a two-week “creative lab” period in which we laid down the initial strokes on the canvas for a new project entitled Café Variations.  Committing those first strokes is absolutely terrifying. At least that is my experience.  In the weeks and days leading up to our collective launch, I was nervous and jittery.  As much as I prepared, nevertheless I felt the real lack of firm ground.  Armed with the theme of the alchemy that occurs when one human being makes the heroic effort to reach out to ..

SITI Company is approaching its twentieth year.  Yes, twenty years!  One of the biggest challenges that we face is our capacity to reinvent ourselves rather than capitulate to the human tendency to repeat old worn down, unexamined patterns.  If SITI is to thrive in the coming years, we must re-assess the stories that we tell others and ourselves about ourselves, and we must invent new narratives when necessary. 

We are looking seriously at how decisions are made, how projects are initiated, funded, diversified and carried out and how we might possibly move forward ..