Theater leadership has had a lot of business lately. Some have been fired. Others have given up on doing something else in the arts. Many have retired.
Artistic director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and career-long theater director Daniela Topol is set to become a nurse.
The unusual move comes at a crucial time for Rattlestick, a small off-Broadway company that, in addition to rejuvenating after a long pandemic shutdown, is about to embark on a much-needed renovation of its cozy but incomplete West Village home, which is a is located in. 19th century church parish house.
Topol, 47, has been leading Rattlestick since 2016, replacing David Van Asselt, who co-founded the company. Just before assuming the leadership position, he directed a production of “Ironbound” by Martina Majok at Rattlestick, which won a Pulitzer Prize for “Cost of Living”.
Three years later, another production Topol directed at Rattlestick changed its trajectory. While working on “Novembers for a Lost Hospital”, a play mourning the demise of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, as patrons moved from place to place associated with the story, he spoke with nurses and nursing students. consulted with, and spark some
“A seed was sown and then we kept going – six months after that there was a pandemic, and there was a lot of reflection all around, ‘Where are we as a farm?’ ‘Where are we as a city?’ ‘Where are we as a country?’ ‘Where are we going?’ ‘What role do we play or not?’ ‘How do I gain power and privilege as a white woman?’ ‘How can I not?’ ‘Where can I fit into a constellation in a way that is productive?'” she said. “I am, frankly, reflecting a lot about my personal life, and the meaningful and challenging experiences that I have had, on a very personal level, and many of them are centered inside maternal care complexities, and so It sort of felt like it was aligning with the stars.”
She said she’s not sure what she wants to do as a nurse, but she plans to live in New York, adding that maternal health and birth equity – a term used to refer to new mothers by racial and class It is used to describe efforts to reduce inequalities. Their babies—became special interests—that Roe v. Wade’s reversal has intensified. “I’ve been pregnant several times — I’ve had late losses, early losses, and I’ve had a baby,” said Topol, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. “I think it’s a way to stop the harm and that helps inform my next steps on a very personal level.”
So now, while directing one final play for Rattlestick this fall and working on other theater projects, she’s taking required courses and volunteering at a hospital; Rattlestick is starting a search for her successor, and she hopes she overlaps with the person and then leaves sometime next year before she starts or drops nursing school next year.
“I’ve only been a theater person,” she said. “I’m here, I’m waking up at 4:30 a.m. to study science and memorize muscles and bones and I’m biting a pig. It’s all kinds of things I never thought I could I will.”
Topol said there were other factors as well. She said she thought about “how long someone should be in any kind of leadership position,” and that the 2020 civil rights unrest had intensified that thinking: “Part of the calculation It was about who is running the companies, where the power is, and how much power is distributed – defining what the trajectory of the sector is.”
“There are other amazing artists out there who can handle Rattlestick and do a beautiful job and imagine things I can’t imagine,” she said.
As Topol and Rattlestick part ways, she becomes interested in uncovering the existence and development of theater, and its commitment to a smooth transition.
The company, founded in 1994, is small – it had an annual pre-pandemic budget of $1.2 million, 80 percent of which was raised from foundations and donors – but has consistently attracted attention for its ambitious work, which includes not only Mazok’s initial The game is involved, but also the work is done by it. Annie Baker, Samuel D. Hunter, Dale Orlandersmith and Heidi Schreck. The theater describes its mission, in part, as inducing “social change”, and much of its programming reflects this; Its first post-shutdown play was “Ni mi Madre”, a highly acclaimed autobiographical examination of culture and sexuality by Arturo Luis Soria, which the theater has now commissioned to write the follow-up.
Topol said, “What I love about Rattlestick is that we are small and scary and authentic and burdened with larger institutional issues of largely unattainable space and we are like a motorcycle. ” “You don’t get the luxury of a cruise ship — you get a bad ride on a motorcycle — but you do get the flexibility of being able to twist and turn as things go.”
Topol said she feels comfortable leaving partly because the theater now has a fully-funded plan to redo its performance space, which she harmonizes with St. John’s in the Village, an Episcopal church. rents. The theater space, where it has been located since 1999, has two serious challenges: the only way to get there is by climbing a narrow staircase, which means the theater is not accessible to people who cannot navigate those stairs; And the only way to use the bathroom is to cross the stage.
Rattlestick has now raised $4 million—about half that from the city—to finance a project that, in its most basic form, would add an elevator and patron bathroom, but modernize the entrance hall and theater by relocating the front door. will also. Removal of a box office and a small lobby, and raised stage so that performances and seating areas are flexible as well as accessible. The theater will seat 93 people – almost the same as it does now. “It’s not ‘bigger is better,'” Topol said. “It looks like we’re really in the right shape for the job we’re doing.”
The renovation will allow Rattlestick to live in the West Village, which has become a very expensive area but is the neighborhood where the theater has long been located and is determined to stay. Rattlestick also shares a rehearsal space on Gansevoort Street with three other theater organizations. “Maintaining space for artists in our neighborhood is important,” said renovation architect Marta Sanders.
Construction, Topol hopes, will begin next summer, pending city approval, and will last a year; During production, the theater would present works at other locations. The theater is raising funds for programming and operations.
The chairman of the theatre’s board, Jeff Thamkittiksem, acknowledged his surprise at Topol’s move, but said he had become an assistant.
“When I first heard about it, I tried to talk to her about it, but my mom is a nurse, and at some point it changed for me and I made that connection about caring for others. looked way more direct, physically,” he said. “I was shocked, but at the same time, as I thought about it, I saw that there was a connection with who she was.”
Thamkitikasem said the organization is healthy and the board has retained a search firm to look for Topol’s successor. He added, “Rattlestick has been in a very strong position since Daniela took over – we are financially strong, we have good foundations and good relationships with funders, we have an active board and a solid staff, and our reputation has grown. Is.”
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)