The Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum Patio in New Bedford, Mass.
As they are saying within the theatre, the present should go on. It is a motto of perseverance and precedence, a signifier that it doesn’t matter what occurs, whether or not a prop breaks, your stockings tear, the set falls down, or your microphone cuts out, on the finish of the day a curtain should rise and a narrative should be advised. But what occurs when this motto is taken too far? When the artwork turns into extra necessary than the artists, when the manufacturing issues greater than the situations you domesticate, what recourse does anybody have?
Rhode Island’s Reverie Theatre Group is redefining professionalism onstage and behind the scenes by putting emphasis on the general theatrical course of alongside efficiency. Its founders, inventive director Lauren Pothier, technical director Alexander Sprague, and government director Megan Ruggiero, got here collectively of their seek for therapeutic after exposing a tradition of hurt perpetuated by the inventive director at their former firm. They needed to create a spot to make theatre that felt secure, fulfilling, and uplifting, sans the standard exhaustion and exploitation that’s too usually thought-about simply part of the method. For the corporate’s inaugural season, which continues with a New Works Festival this weekend, Reverie plans to current a choice of works exploring the theme of “Autonomy.” The street to this vacation spot was an extended and infrequently painful one.
In spring of 2021, a member of Epic Theatre Company in Cranston, R.I., reported that they’d been sexually assaulted by founding inventive director Kevin Broccoli. The theatre’s reporting insurance policies for sexual harassment, which have been written by Broccoli himself in 2017, instructed that incident stories needs to be directed to him. In his absence, stories might be made to the producer or normal supervisor, who have been then anticipated to tell the A.D. The coverage supplied no steering as to the process within the occasion that the accused was the inventive director.
Following the survivor’s disclosure, the corporate’s then government director, Megan Ruggiero, and normal supervisor, Lauren Pothier, performed a month-long investigation into the accusations, which they in the end deemed credible. Medical data from a go to made to the survivor’s major care doctor proper after the alleged assault additional confirmed situations per sexual abuse, in keeping with the Boston Globe. But as a small nonprofit theatre firm with out a Human Resources division or a constantly convening board of administrators, Epic had no collective authority to successfully take away Broccoli from management.
When Pothier and Ruggiero met with Broccoli in June 2021, they outlined the allegations made in opposition to him and the findings of their investigation, and requested that he step down from his place. Broccoli refused, telling them as an alternative that he would discover his personal substitute—a call which prompted the resignations of Pothier, Ruggiero, and affiliate inventive director Angelique Dina.
In a press release posted to Facebook on June 23, Ruggiero elaborated on her and her colleagues’ determination to resign. “Though Kevin told us he will be remaining at Epic to accept responsibility, hold himself accountable, and swiftly try to install new leadership to carry on the company,” Ruggiero wrote, “we still felt uncomfortable remaining in our staff positions. For me, doing that would have made me feel complicit in a way and as if I were not truly taking a stand for the survivor and potentially others, which based on our investigation, I believe do exist.”
In a press release launched to members of the Epic Theatre neighborhood the next morning, Broccoli wrote about his determination to remain on as inventive director, claiming that the employees resignations have been his thought. He additionally admitted to having “absolutely made mistakes…in regards to starting inappropriate relationships with other people I had working relationships with, and, as an artistic director, I should have known better.” He continued, “Professionalism dictates that any interaction I have with someone working with the company, even while consensual, involves that person having to navigate whether or not engaging with me will be useful in some way and/or whether not engaging with me will hurt them in some way.”
Though some have been persuaded by this half-apology, it wasn’t sufficient to comprise the harm. In gentle of the allegations in opposition to Broccoli, Johnston’s Marian J. Mohr Memorial Library suspended him from his job as a fiction specialist, the Artists’ Exchange venue on Rolfe Square severed Epic’s residency contract, and all firm productions have been frozen indefinitely.
The scandal divided members of the Rhode Island theatre neighborhood. Some expressed solidarity with the sufferer, whereas others remained loyal to Broccoli. A month later, Ruggiero posted an replace on Facebook, during which she referred to as out members of the neighborhood for permitting Broccoli to “control the narrative” and failing to imagine the survivor’s expertise. Having reportedly “run the gamut” of controversy, dropping friendships, and dealing with intense public scrutiny throughout this time, Ruggiero remained adamant that searching for accountability was the one manner ahead.
She wrote, “This abuser has spent one month doing nothing he claimed he would do. He has not acknowledged the truth. He has not apologized for causing somebody trauma and pain that will last a lifetime. He has not stepped down from his position at Epic and ‘put new leadership in place’ like he promised.”
In her assertion, Ruggiero referred to the @broccolifrauds Instagram account, the place the survivor shared particulars about their assault, and others from the Epic neighborhood described examples of Broccoli’s predatory habits towards homosexual male firm members.
Eventually the controversy died down: Epic Theatre Company dissolved, and in September 2021, Johnston police said that they’d concluded their investigation and wouldn’t file expenses in opposition to Broccoli. This story may have ended right here, in traditional Aristotelian style: A person did despicable issues and an organization collapsed beneath him. But there can be catharsis, and even therapeutic, but to come back.
With Reverie, the Show Can Go On
Ruggiero and Epic’s former technical director, Alexander Sprague, had already been exploring the concept of beginning their very own firm again in 2019, however the pandemic halted their plans. Around the identical time, Pothier was incomes a Master’s in Public Administration from Johnson and Wales University.
“Reverie came from a group of us talking about wanting to make theatre that isn’t toxic, that doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth, and a place where people are paid for their time,” Pothier advised me over Zoom. “We all came from different backgrounds in theatre, and we all have theatre horror stories.” She, Ruggiero, and different colleagues would usually meet up at their favourite native teahouse and speak store. “It’s unfortunate that [the Broccoli investigation] is what brought us together really close, but it is. We bonded over a lot of shared issues.”
Throughout the course of their investigation, Pothier and Ruggiero unearthed a tradition of hurt that had deep roots. “When we started talking,” Pothier stated, “people were like, ‘Oh, I know what this is about.’ It was an unsaid thing in our community that no one really came forward about until now. Some people had tried to make some noise, but it never caught on. We were in a position where we could do something. It was definitely more of a situation where people knew that this had been going on to some extent.”
Ruggiero and Pothier’s findings not solely uncovered Broccoli as an abuser, but additionally revealed deep cracks in Epic’s facade, together with years of lackluster administration and mishandled firm funds.
“All staff members were completely volunteer at Epic,” Ruggiero stated. Broccoli would inform employees that Epic didn’t have the funds to pay everybody. Directors and stage managers have been compensated, however with out a formal price range course of, it was troublesome to maintain observe of funds.
“As his executive director, he finally gave me access to the bank account,” Ruggiero stated. “And I started going back and investigating things, and I was like, where is this money going?”
For technical director Sprague, who additionally runs his personal manufacturing firm, working at Epic was “more of a hobby…a way to build my portfolio, which now was kind of pointless, because I just pulled everything out after the scandal.”
Working at Epic had been an enormous time dedication, with nearly no promise of a paycheck. “In my time at Epic,” Sprague stated, “I believe I did 26 shows in a year and a half, one after the next. I did two seasons. And out of those two seasons, I made 100 bucks. There was always the promise of, ‘Oh, well, when the Patreon hits this amount of money per month, then I’ll pay out.’ Eventually I left because I just couldn’t balance Epic with my production company.”
As for Broccoli’s management, Sprague continued, “He wasn’t there a lot. He would pop in during tech rehearsals occasionally. There were multiple times he eviscerated both of us for over-designing something. He would disappear, show up, and then rip things to shreds. We never really felt supported by him. So for a while, it was just Megan and I running the tech process and kind of trucking along through that whole mess.”
To make issues worse, Broccoli “had a policy of no meetings. Megan and I fought to get production meetings, two per show. He was never at any of them.”
“Other people probably had very different experiences than I did,” Ruggiero stated of working at Epic on the executive facet. “I never felt like it was oppressive. It just wasn’t open. There was also an element at Epic that was just like churning out work to make a profit, just constant shows. I felt like each show didn’t get its due diligence, because our team was so strapped that we were just going from one show to another and never had time to breathe, or to process the show, to fully enjoy what just happened.”
Ruggiero cited Broccoli’s “cult of personality,” which fashioned across the wealth of alternatives he created for the neighborhood.
“Kevin ran a company that did a lot of shows and provided a lot of roles for people to be a part of theatre in our community, myself included,” Pothier defined. “He was the person that gave me my first post-college role and really took me in after college. He had this way of collecting people and caring for them. I think it was just this magnetic thing that people were drawn to him, through no fault of our own.” That’s why, when the allegations arose, she stated, “People were very wary to go against the one person who provided space for them.” And when the corporate collapsed, she stated, “I know people were upset that the one theatre space that they had was no longer there. That was a reason why they weren’t fully supportive of us.”
Added Ruggiero, “I think that Kevin had different effects on all of the people who are now leading Reverie, and sometimes we get triggered about certain things. We’re all really understanding about that and able to talk about it with each other. He kind of used us all in different ways.”
It is unlucky that it took insupportable situations to foster the conclusion that a greater manner was potential.
“You should not have to push people to the brink to make art,” Ruggiero stated plainly, sitting throughout from me at Providence, R.I.’s Schasteâ, Reverie’s unofficial birthplace, again in August. “I strongly feel it should be a fulfilling, energizing, spiritual experience—whatever spiritual means to you, it should always be uplifting. So many of us at Reverie have been involved in, not just at Epic, experiences in the area that just weren’t like that.”
Not Your Mother’s ‘Midsummer‘
One week over the summer time, I made my technique to New Bedford, Mass., the place the newly included Reverie Theatre Group was chopping its tooth on the world’s annual custom of Shakespeare in New Bedford with an under-the-stars manufacturing of A Midsummer Night’s Dream staged on the grounds of the historic Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum.
The Shakespeare in New Bedford custom was began by Korey Pimental, founder/co-artistic director of the Glass Horse Project and present Reverie board member, who has cerebral palsy. In an apt nod to Laura Wingfield and her hornless unicorn in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, the Glass Horse Project was devoted to creating inclusive, accessible theatre with disabled and nondisabled artists.
While Reverie Theatre Group was forming, the Glass Horse Project was present process a interval of transition, as Pimental headed to graduate faculty. Having collaborated collectively earlier than, Ruggiero and the Glass Horse workforce determined to mix the 2 corporations beneath the Reverie title, beginning with Midsummer in New Bedford.
“I had a really lengthy conversation with Korey and the remaining staff members at Glass Horse about what they wanted to do,” Ruggiero stated. “There was a time when we thought about staying under the Glass Horse name. That being said, because none of our leadership are disabled, we felt a little inauthentic having that name.”
They ultimately landed on Reverie—a reputation which, Ruggiero defined, captures the sense of whimsical daydreaming, impracticality, and surrealism their artists hope to realize via their work, whereas concurrently acknowledging the methods during which artists, and particularly ladies, are sometimes advised to “be more practical.”
In addition to carrying on the Glass Horse mission of inclusivity, accessibility, and variety, Reverie is working to vary the facility dynamics at play within the theatre trade.
“Something that is really important is that all of our core leadership positions, minus our technical director, are women,” Ruggiero stated. “We also have a lot of LGBT leaders. We’re really trying to empower administrators who don’t typically get those opportunities, who tend to get overlooked, particularly in this community, where it’s almost exclusively men who are leading companies.”
These practices have been put into motion in New Bedford, the place I witnessed one thing actually magical: a not-your-mother’s Midsummer that includes a female-presenting Lysander, and a Deaf, male-presenting Helena, together with an assortment of fairies and folk of varied genders.
This was all part of the imaginative and prescient of director Taylor Ok. Corbett, a resident Reverie artist and former Glass Horse co-artistic director.
“Personally, and I’m sure this is a sentiment shared by quite a lot of people, I don’t think theatre is gay enough,” Corbett stated. “Now it’s a little different. Kids are growing up with a lot more representation. And I think that’s due to people in my age group and a little older who didn’t have this growing up. So now it’s my job to make that happen. And Shakespeare is one of the places where we can have that representation.” Of the lovers in Midsummer, she stated, “They’re hormonal teenagers. Straight kids are not the only ones with hormones that go crazy and make them do stupid things.”
Presented with the added problem of staging an outside efficiency, the design workforce at Reverie was capable of amp up their flower-power visible aesthetic with the usage of psychedelic blacklight paint. It was rather less Dead Poets Society and a bit extra countercultural rave. “We’re going through hot glue like water,” Sprague joked.
“I think it was a brave decision on Taylor’s part,” Sprague stated, “knowing the clientele that typically go to a Shakespeare in the Park, but they’ve been going along with it. We haven’t had any complaints about it. Nobody’s been upset. We’ve been getting all positive feedback, which is not what I expected.”
Having women-led management additional enriched the casting course of. “One of the things that I had never experienced in a casting room before was that nobody brought up anybody’s physical appearance,” Ruggiero stated. “It was all about the ability and who we felt was best for the role. In some respects, gender was a little bit eliminated from the equation. It was really refreshing to have that experience, where people were talking more about the language that came through in the auditions and understanding the intent of the monologues, it wasn’t about how the people looked.”
Actress Jamie Roballo had by no means thought-about taking part in Lysander earlier than being solid in Reverie’s manufacturing.
“I originally auditioned for the role of Hermia,” Roballo stated, “but I was super excited when I got cast as Lysander. As a queer performer, it means so much to me to be able to tell a queer love story onstage. Lysander is a character I’ve really gotten to know and had the opportunity to make my own, and it’s been such a wonderful experience.”
Likewise, taking part in the lovelorn Helena had by no means crossed Adam Preston’s thoughts, not to mention touchdown the position in his first Shakespearean manufacturing as a Deaf actor. “I remember being fascinated with Helena when studying the play and thinking that she was just the best, but I never would have dreamed that I would actually get offered an opportunity to play her as a male,” Preston stated.
Preston added that the Reverie workforce have been “probably among the first ones who have actually made me feel seen as a disabled person in theatre.” Though there have been a number of communication hiccups throughout masked rehearsals, “I was able to talk to the Reverie leaders. They heard me and they acted on it. It made me feel very seen and heard and very appreciated.”
He added that the camaraderie between the solid and crew was unmatched. “This is one of the very first shows where I’ve actually developed intimate relationships and friendships with other cast members,” Preston stated. “There have been many shows I’ve been a part of where your colleagues are just there to be castmates. It’s a very transactional kind of relationship. You get along with them and you are friendly with them, but you don’t exchange numbers and make plans to hang out.” Preston stated that the members of Reverie have already made plans to come back cheer on his kickball workforce.
This stage of consolation and respect appears to vindicate the emphasis Reverie’s management locations on the sort of working surroundings they create. As Taylor Ok. Corbett advised me, “Being very aware that this is something that has happened, not just in the grand echelons of Hollywood and Broadway, but also at the level of these fringe theatre groups—abuses of power can happen anywhere, and I think that’s something that we didn’t fully realize. We realize it now. We’re aware that it has to be a community and a collaboration. We’re all working together to make this, and no one can make something truly beautiful if they don’t feel safe. We want people to feel safe. And that’s from the get-go in my rehearsal room.”
Though the manufacturing didn’t have an intimacy coordinator—they plan to convey one on for his or her subsequent present—the stage supervisor would do a check-in at first of every rehearsal. Said Roballo, “She would ask not just how you were feeling physically, because obviously we were still trying to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, but also how we were feeling mentally, how prepared we felt, and if there was anything that we needed to feel 100 percent in the space and comfortable in ourselves.”
When it got here to combat calls and intimacy staging, the solid had “one-on-one conversations with Taylor and Megan about what we felt comfortable with, if we had any boundaries,” stated Roballo. “Everything that came up, we would then check in with each other as actors: ‘Is this okay? Are you comfortable with me touching your arm or your hair? Is it okay if I kiss you in this scene?’ We were actually given the opportunity to say no. Just knowing that you have that ability to use your voice and say, ‘You know what? I’m not comfortable,’ makes you feel comfortable.”
After all the pieces that occurred at Epic, having a spot to really feel secure means an incredible deal to folks. “I cried when we signed the paperwork to incorporate,” Sprague confessed. “I actually have our nonprofit letter hung on the wall.”
Another necessary piece of Reverie’s collaborative course of is giving suggestions, each anonymously and as a discussion board.
“None of us are perfect leaders,” Ruggiero stated. “Something very important in theatre is to recognize that you can still learn. Our leadership team has been doing this for a very long time, in varying capacities, but we’re also learning and I’d love for the people who worked with us to be able to feel comfortable saying where we can improve.”
One key tenet in setting Reverie up for achievement: do much less, rejoice extra.
“At Epic, we had one show a month,” Ruggiero stated. “With Reverie, we’re just starting out with Shakespeare in New Bedford, and then three other programs: two mainstage shows and then one New Works weekend. I think that that’s comfortable, allows some breathing room, and allows people to divide and conquer a little bit.” Even if Reverie have been in a monetary place to supply a jam-packed season, Ruggiero says she would by no means let that occur.
Next on the calendar is Reverie’s Dream Makers: New Works Festival, slated for Nov. 27 and 28 at Kingston’s Courthouse Center for the Arts, adopted by Frank Wedekind’s The Awakening of Spring in February and Lysistrata in April.
Along with a pared-down calendar, the corporate is being conscientious about its funding. The Shakespeare in New Bedford program is funded via a collection of state and native grants, in addition to assist from the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum. Going ahead, Reverie plans to fundraise and apply for grants so that every one the artists concerned with their productions can be compensated pretty.
For the oldsters in Rhode Island and elsewhere who’re reckoning with the consequences of trauma within the theatre, let Reverie be a case research, not in learn how to be excellent, however learn how to start the therapeutic course of. The COVID pandemic has pressured us to see the boundaries of our trade’s expectations of endurance. We have misplaced and we have now suffered, however whether or not we’ve discovered something stays to be seen. For now, the present can go on, and that’s one thing to rejoice.
Alexandra Pierson (she/her) is affiliate editor of American Theatre. apierson@tcg.org
Related