Skip to main content
Theater34 min

A Room Full of Strangers

He has directed in storefronts, gymnasiums, and one converted grain elevator. The room, he insists, is always part of the play.

Interviewee

Sample Interviewee — Theater Director

Director and dramaturg

ShareFacebookEmail

DemoVideo is a placeholder pending the Foundation's final media.

"An audience is a room full of strangers agreeing to believe the same thing for two hours," he says. "That is an extraordinary thing to ask of people, and we ask it casually."

Does the venue change the play?

Always. In a proscenium house the audience agrees to watch. In a gymnasium they have to be persuaded, every night, and the persuading becomes part of the work.

"An audience is a room full of strangers agreeing to believe the same thing for two hours."

This interview is condensed sample content prepared for design review.

ShareFacebookEmail
Explore the series
Black and white portrait of an artist seated in her studio surrounded by brushes38 min
Visual ArtsEpisode 12 · March 2026

The Artist Who Never Stopped Asking Questions

Sample Interviewee — Visual Artist

Six decades into a studio practice, she still begins each canvas the same way: by admitting she does not know what it will become.

Discipline: Visual Arts
Black and white portrait of a conductor raising a baton in a concert hall31 min
MusicEpisode 11 · February 2026

Listening for What Isn't There

Sample Interviewee — Conductor

Forty years on the podium taught him that the hardest thing to conduct is silence — and that an orchestra hears everything you do not say.

Discipline: Music
Black and white portrait of a choreographer leaning against a studio mirror27 min
DanceEpisode 10 · January 2026

The Body Remembers First

Sample Interviewee — Choreographer

She builds work from the floor up, and she does not write anything down until the dancers have already found it.

Discipline: Dance

Support

Your support helps fund new work, strengthen communities, and provide opportunities for emerging artists.