Late April, I was in a suddenly sticky bus terminal at Harvard Square. It was finally starting to thaw from the winter. I picked up a call from my friend, Jon. He sounded kind of nervous, as if he had prepared a speech. He started proposing all these ideas and talking about projects he wanted to start, and it all seemed scattered. Until he finally settled on the line: "We keep writing things down and the first person we want to edit them is you." It made perfect sense then. Jon and Rachel were starting a theatre company and they wanted me to be involved. They didn't really have a role for me (in fact, they just let me make it up on the spot) and they definitely didn't have many resources but they had some thrilling artistic ideas, a safe place in their hearts for me, and the drive to just do the thing. So, that's where we began.
Quickly, it evolved into having a lot to do. Quite suddenly, actually. There was content to generate and videos to film. There were also lives to live. In a bunch of separate cities. But the thrill kept coming back when any of us would just pick up the phone or write an email and just demand each other's attention. "I have this idea!" "Oh, oh, what about this?!" It was contagious. It was almost too exciting. The fade back into our everyday lives became less interesting because we were quite actively creating something together. We were making up a new language about what this thing exactly was. We were picking our priorities. Soon, we realized that a number one priority emerged: community.
We want to make a laboratory. We want to make a comfy space so our friends and their friends can take giant risks. We want to feel like a space that grows on principle. Bring your people here and make the thing you need to make. Another priority emerged with that sentiment: HERE. Where exactly is here? Here is everywhere! Here is wherever we want. I don't think we can get any more specific than that so far. As nomadic young artists, we can escape to new spaces and learn about them. We will do this together. At this point, we feel a lot more like a community of artists, then we do a company of administrators. That could be just because we are new, but we'd like to hold on to that feeling for as long as possible. All of our most treasured mentors, very seriously told us: "Don't you dare start a theatre company." We listened. But then we started one anyway because we just couldn't help it. We'll obviously keep you posted on how it goes.
My favoirte part of our mission is "a hunger to question the conditions under which we live." We are setting out to ask big questions and are not as interested in answering them. Getting creative about HOW to ask a question feels a lot more compelling than all of its answers. I find that to be my favorite part of my generation. We are very eager to investigate. We are not settling on what's expected. We are exhausted of normatives and would like to explore every possibility. This desire to swim around in the unknown, is exactly where we got our name.
Let's take big risks. Let's all just call our friends and make something.
Hayley Sherwood
Founding Connectivity Director