Perspectives / Anne Bogart Anne Bogart is artistic director of The SITI Company, which she founded in 1992 with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki. She is also an associate professor at Columbia University. I must thank Eduardo from the bottom of my heart because this initial invitation led to a decade of adventure. I first traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1991 because Jon Jory invited me to direct Eduardo Machado’s In the Eye of the Hurricane at the Humana Festival. I think that it was Eduardo who suggested to Jon that I should direct his play. Actually, I’m fairly sure that Jon was initially apprehensive about hiring me. He either expected me to be bad-tempered, demanding or expensive, but I certainly felt kid gloves around the arrangement. Looking back, though, I must thank Eduardo from the bottom of my heart because this initial invitation led to more than a decade of adventure at Actors, both in the Humana Festival and during the regular mainstage seasons. And it led to a remarkable relationship with Jon and the theatre culture he nurtured. I remember arriving in Louisville the very first time. Incoming artists are greeted at the airport by “friends of the theatre” who are endlessly enthusiastic and curious and always proud of their relationship to Actors Theatre. Immediately upon arrival it is clear that the work is going to be concentrated but that there is also a social side to the weeks of rehearsal. Rehearsals take place on the rangy fifth floor of the Bensinger Building where four studios with warm wooden floors are shared in the preparation of the many productions. As you walk the halls of the fifth floor you can feel the creative heat emanating through each closed door. On breaks, actors, directors and playwrights exchange anecdotes, nap or wait for the phone. In the theatre you are surrounded by apprentices and interns, the mainstay of the theatre’s health, vigor and optimism. I really don’t know when these young professionals find time to sleep. They are always doing “changeovers” where the set and lighting for one play is replaced by another. The apprentices play small roles in the productions and they take some classes, but mostly, they work the sweat jobs that make a festival like the Humana Festival of New American Plays possible. I do not know of any other theatre in the country that gives so many playwrights full productions of new plays. I don’t know any festival that generates as much enthusiasm or loyalty. People fly in from all over the world. It’s fun. You hang out in the bar, meet people, see shows, eat, schmooze and commiserate about the state of American theatre. It’s a communal affair. I first came to Actors after a forced departure from Trinity Repertory Company where I served as artistic director for one difficult year. It was a relief to be welcomed into the arms of another regional theatre and to benefit from the structure and yet not have to worry about fundraising, board maintenance and season planning. And I think that I was able to give the theatre something in return. In 1992 I formed The SITI Company, which is a group of actors, designers and managers. We make new work and also stage classic plays. We teach young theatre professionals, and we tour our shows nationally and internationally. Actors Theatre quickly became a regular home for us. Every year we are in residence, always scheming about how The SITI Company might generate something new for the next Humana Festival. I am not a playwright, and yet Jon invited me to bring the kind of work I create with the actors in my company and perform the result in a playwright’s festival. This confidence in our idiosyncratic way of making plays gave me courage to move in exciting new directions. Many of the shows we dreamt up for the Humana Festival have toured around the country and the world. I am grateful for the confidence Actors has in our abilities. Something remarkable happened over the course of ten years of making shows in Louisville. The audience responded and came back at the work. In the last couple of seasons I have particularly enjoyed observing the audience arrive in the theatre for our shows. It feels like they are pulling on their boxing gloves. There is a sense of feistiness and energy, like, “What is this company going to toss in my direction this time?” It’s very hard to describe the feeling in the room but it’s a good one. I sense the audience thinking, “We’ve taken it before, we got something out of it before, it was a challenge before and now we are ready for the next hurdle.” Perhaps the theatre is like a gym of the human spirit which offers a workout for the imagination. Louisville audiences have demonstrated an appetite for the kind of theatre workout that I want to share. For the regular Actors seasons, I have directed William Inge’s Picnic, Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine, August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and Noel Coward’s Private Lives. For the Humana Festival, besides In the Eye of the Hurricane, I directed The SITI Company creations of Going, Going, Gone; Cabin Pressure; and with writer Naomi Iizuka, War of the Worlds, a production by Charles L. Mee, Jr. of a play to be titled bobrauschenbergamerica for the 25th Humana Festival. Several years ago, Jon Jory had the harebrained idea of creating a kind of festival of my work in the time frame of the Actors Classics in Context Festival. Honestly, I thought that he had finally lost his mind. I suggested that he reconsider and assured him I would not be disappointed when he came to his senses and realized that his mad scheme was misguided. Well, Jon’s idea turned out to be a wonderful event titled Modern Masters. People came from far and wide. There were round table discussions, lecture demonstrations, speeches and exhibitions of my work. Three of my shows, The Adding Machine, The Medium and Small Lives/Big Dreams, ran in the three theatres. When I wasn’t embarrassed by the attention, I was thrilled. What does it feel like to enjoy an artistic home? It feels great! My tenth grade French teacher, Jill Warren, was the first person to look at me and see someone with potential. The particular way she looked at me made an enormous difference in the way I saw myself. Because of her interest and belief in me, I went on to direct many plays in high school. She gave me the courage to decide to become a director. The way Jon Jory looked at me at a particular moment in my life granted me courage and freedom. And Actors’s continued belief and support have made many wonderful projects possible. What is an artistic home? I have come to understand that the most important substance in life is the quality of relationships, the space between certain people. Our responsibility is to watch over and take care of the relationships we value. In the case of my relationship with Actors, the artistic home is the consequence of quality relationships between people who share mutual respect and admiration. The result is a fruition of what each does best. Actors volunteers interest, belief, support, rehearsal rooms, technical staffs, audiences and a home base. My company and I can fill that space with our dreams.