On Sunday, March 12, we broke ground on our newest play, This Sinking Island. This play expands our current body of investigative devised work to include thrilling live theatre for young audiences. We want the work to speak to family audiences as well as challenge ourselves to create art that is true to the science that has inspired it.
Why family inclusive?
The Anthropologists is in a new phase where several core members are now parents, raising young children while continuing artistic careers. Artistic Director Melissa Moschitto has two young daughters (ages nearly-3 and 4.5 at the time of this post!) and Artistic Associate Mariah Freda has a one-year-old son. Some of the other artists we want to collaborate with also have young children at home while others, like Resident Set Designer Sarah Edkins, have an adult child and can serve as inspiration and guide.
Having a young child can so often completely change your schedule: nighttime activities quickly decrease for various reasons; seeing - and making - live performance often disappears with it. We’ve felt quite acutely how caretaking demands can preclude us from our once vibrant artistic lives.
Yet having children can paradoxically give us a deeper well of creativity and changes the way we look at art. Can a child’s aesthetic help us to more candidly address taboo or difficult topics? How will it challenge or reinforce our own aesthetic?
What does Family Inclusive mean to us?
We want to experiment with integrating our families into our process. Can we minimize the conflict between art and parenting by making art that both responds to our children and involves them during its creation?
We see a need for high quality theatre that engages young children and caretakers alike.
A show which can travel to different communities to make it easier for families to see live theatre (e.g. a tour of local libraries)
How would you define "Family Inclusive"? Please comment with your thoughts!
Stay with us as we begin this adventure!
Resident Actor Jean Goto and Nora Moschitto (daughter of AD Melissa Moschitto) share a moment at a rehearsal for No Man's Land.