There’s been a whole lot of turnover in theater management recently. Some have been drummed out of their jobs. Others have stop to do one thing else within the arts. Many have retired.
Daniella Topol, the inventive director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and a career-long theater director, is leaving to grow to be a nurse.
The weird transfer arrives at a pivotal time for Rattlestick, a small Off Broadway firm that, along with rejuvenating following the lengthy pandemic shutdown, is about to embark on a much-needed renovation of its cozy however imperfect West Village dwelling, situated in a Nineteenth-century church parish home.
Topol, 47, has been main Rattlestick since 2016, succeeding David Van Asselt, who co-founded the corporate. Simply earlier than assuming the management place, she directed at Rattlestick a manufacturing of “Ironbound” by Martyna Majok, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for “Value of Residing.”
Three years later, one other manufacturing Topol directed at Rattlestick altered her trajectory. Whereas engaged on “Novenas for a Misplaced Hospital,” a play that each chronicled and mourned the demise of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village as patrons moved from location to location related to the story, she consulted with nurses and nursing college students, and one thing sparked.
“A seed was planted after which we continued ahead — a pandemic occurred six months after that, and there was a whole lot of reflection round, ‘The place are we as a area?’ ‘The place are we as a metropolis?’ ‘The place are we as a rustic?’ ‘The place are we going?’ ‘What function can we play or not play?’ ‘How do I as white lady maintain energy and privilege?’ ‘How don’t I?’ ‘The place do I slot in a constellation in a means that’s productive?’” she stated. “I’ve been doing, clearly, a whole lot of reflection about my very own private life, and significant and difficult experiences that I’ve had, on a really private stage, and plenty of of them have centered inside maternal care complexities, and so it type of felt prefer it was aligning with the celebs.”
She stated she is just not positive precisely what she needs to do as a nurse, however she plans to remain in New York, and stated that maternal well being and delivery fairness — a time period used to explain efforts to cut back racial and sophistication inequities for brand spanking new moms and their infants — have grow to be explicit pursuits, intensified by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “I’ve been pregnant many occasions — I’ve had a late-term loss, early time period losses, and I’ve a toddler,” stated Topol, who lives in Brooklyn together with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. “I really feel prefer it’s a strategy to maintain the loss and let that assist inform my subsequent steps on a really private stage.”
So now, whereas making ready to direct a remaining play for Rattlestick this fall and dealing on different theater tasks, she is taking prerequisite programs and volunteering at a hospital; Rattlestick is starting a seek for her successor, and she or he hopes that she’s going to overlap with that particular person after which depart someday subsequent yr, earlier than beginning nursing faculty subsequent summer season or fall.
“I’ve solely been a theater particular person,” she stated. “Right here I’m, I’m waking up at 4:30 a.m. to review science and memorize muscle tissue and bones and I’m dissecting a pig. It’s every kind of issues I by no means thought I might do.”
Topol stated there have been different elements as effectively. She stated that she has thought of “how lengthy ought to anyone keep in any sort of management place,” and that the civil rights unrest of 2020 had intensified that considering: “A part of the reckoning was about who’s operating corporations, the place does energy lay, and the way a lot energy sharing is there — defining what the trajectory of the sphere is.”
“There are different great artists who can take over Rattlestick and do a wonderful job main it and picture issues I haven’t been in a position to think about,” she added.
Because the paths of Topol and Rattlestick diverge, she’s all in favour of highlighting the theater’s survival and development, and its dedication to a easy transition.
The corporate, based in 1994, is small — its annual prepandemic price range was $1.2 million, of which 80 % was raised from foundations and donors — however has constantly attracted consideration for its formidable work, together with not solely Majok’s early play, but additionally work by Annie Baker, Samuel D. Hunter, Dael Orlandersmith and Heidi Schreck. The theater describes its mission, partially, as prompting “social change,” and far of its programming displays that; its first post-shutdown play was “Ni Mi Madre,” a much-praised autobiographical examination of tradition and sexuality by Arturo Luís Soria, whom the theater has now commissioned to write down a follow-up.
“What I’ve beloved about Rattlestick is we’re small and scrappy and genuine and take probabilities and aren’t burdened by large institutional problems with large unaffordable area — we’re like a motorbike, not a cruise ship,” Topol stated. “You don’t get the posh of the cruise ship — you get the scrappy journey of the bike — however you get the pliability to have the ability to twist and switch as issues go.”
Topol stated she feels comfy leaving partially as a result of the theater now has a completely financed plan to redo its efficiency area, which it rents harmoniously from St. John’s within the Village, an Episcopal church. The theater area, the place it has been situated since 1999, has had two critical challenges: The one strategy to get there may be to climb a slim stairway, which suggests the theater is just not accessible to those that can’t navigate these stairs; and the one means to make use of the lavatory is to traverse the stage.
Rattlestick has now raised the $4 million — about half from the town — to finance a mission that may, at its most elementary, add an elevator and patron bogs, however can even modernize the doorway and the theater itself by relocating the entrance door, including a field workplace and a small foyer, and eradicating the raised stage in order that the efficiency and seating areas are versatile, in addition to accessible. The theater will be capable to seat as much as 93 individuals — about the identical because it does now. “It’s not ‘larger is best,’” Topol stated. “It looks like we’re actually right-sized for the work that we’re doing.”
The renovation will enable Rattlestick to remain within the West Village, which has grow to be a really expensive space, however is the neighborhood the place the theater has lengthy been situated and is decided to stay. Rattlestick additionally shares a rehearsal area on Gansevoort Road with three different theater organizations. “It’s vital to take care of locations for artists in our neighborhoods,” stated the renovation’s architect, Marta Sanders.
Development, Topol hopes, will start subsequent summer season, pending metropolis approval, and would final a yr; throughout development, the theater would current work at different places. The theater is constant to lift cash for programming and operations.
The chairman of the theater’s board, Jeff Thamkittikasem, acknowledged shock at Topol’s transfer, however stated he had grow to be supportive.
“Once I first heard about it, I attempted to speak her out of it, however my mother is a nurse, and sooner or later it switched for me and I noticed that connection about desirous to take care of others in a way more direct, bodily means,” he stated. “I used to be shocked, but additionally, as I thought of it, I noticed the place there was a reference to who she was.”
Thamkittikasem stated the group is wholesome and that the board has retained a search agency to search for Topol’s successor. He added, “Rattlestick is in a really sturdy place since Daniella took over — we’re stronger financially, we have now good connections to foundations and funders, we have now an lively board and a strong workers, and our status has grown.”