Assembling the Ensemble

Our class has nearly reached the end of its first year together at the New School for Drama's graduate program. We've learned so much this year, somewhat without realizing it fully. The daily osmosis consists of a variety of theatrical information: a short history of European actors, memorizing perfect pronunciations of "str" combinations, careful selection of a well-placed word for a pivotal moment in a script, synthesizing rehearsal blocking with proper Alexander Use... we've experienced the osmosis in class, in hallway discussion, over the much-needed third glass of wine on Friday nights...our brains have picked up a new vocabulary and a new outlook on theatre and what "THEATRE" is. And somehow, we find that the year has gone by too fast, that there is so much more we need to know, and that we are developing into artists of immense potential...far beyond anything we could have imagined in our application letters.

Many of us came to school to be with like-minded individuals; students who want to create better "THEATRE", students whose colors scream potential, challenge, and big dreams. This first year has challenged us, yes. Our horizons have broadened in possibility and shrunk in terms of market reality. Our dreams have become anxious, fervent thoughts of the day, residing next to the essential craft work we have to finish that evening. We've been concentrating on building our skills individually...and in the meantime have realized that we need to build our ensemble within the Drama walls, in order to achieve that elusive THEATRE we're yearning to create in the outside world.

In the midst of all the craft work (by that I mean the individual skills of elocution, stage movement, and script analysis), our class has experienced an underlying crisis in unity of spirit. We're suddenly facing, in our last two weeks of our first year, the threat of a weak ensemble. This threat may not seem ominous if you believe that artists are their own business - in that case, ensemble is something that comes and goes with every project. However, in the spirit of creating THEATRE as we have discovered this past year, the threat looms like the rustling of leaves amidst the hunt.

Our class is divided in more than a few ways, and leveling our experiences so as to create a solid foundation is an item we have yet to tackle. The faculty has tried to create a technical foundation that we can build upon, but when your art depends on another's in such close proximity, tensions appear and questions of esprit de corps arise. We start seeing that our so-thought "like-minded" colleagues are rather inexperienced, or cannot communicate, or would rather concentrate on their own pursuits within the industry.

Creating an ensemble. There is no business manual for this task. Theatre professionals love to pretend that the theatre business is different than other businesses: really it's all venture capitalism at heart. VC work environments can be exciting and a little uncouth at times, but there are ways of succeeding. The theatre ensemble rests on many of the same tenets. There is no company; there's Broadway (consider that the IPO). If you do well, you only have so much time on the market before your idea becomes stale, or historic, and is replaced by another. You can revive, re-stage, re-finance...but the theatre is always looking for the next big thing. Creating an ensemble means creating a group that will consistently create something new and essential for the market. And finding just the right mix of talent for this requires sacrifice and blind faith in the prospect of potential IPOs.

Some artists are too afraid to lay aside their own insecure future for the insecure future of an ensemble. (Working towards your own goal is much more secure than working towards a group goal, isn't it?) Students who show up late to class, are consistently under-prepared, and don't memorize their lines give those artists seeking a strong ensemble reasonable doubt in the future of their classmates. So we've got to either throw in the towel or confront the issues which sometimes become personal. Why isn't my classmate prepared? What is s/he going to do about it? The ensemble is only as strong as the weakest link. When does it become appropriate for the person in the cubicle next to you to point out your lack of commitment to the project? Is that employee threatening the group's success?

We're having a town hall meeting this week to discuss the threats to our ensemble. Management has failed us a little bit - the teachers are not holding some students to a like-minded standard in class coursework. There are some suggested pink slips circulating, but not with enough weight to satiate the students who are shelling out $500 an hour to learn from that other student who was 20 minutes late for their scene work. Many of us are discussing our original hope: to come to graduate school to be challenged by artists of the same caliber, of the same desired potential. Like-minded individuals. Creating an ensemble. The like-minded are showing their true colors now, and it's threatening our pursuit of the IPO.