ForCollaborators
Dear prospective collaborator,
Almost everything I have made, I have made with someone else. Directors, choreographers, filmmakers, performers, designers, researchers — some of them for twenty years now, which is long enough that we finish each other's sentences and argue comfortably. I like working this way. It is not a compromise I have made with solitude; it is the part of the job I look forward to.
So if you are reading this because you are wondering whether to write to me: please do. Early conversations cost nothing, and a good number of the projects I care most about began with someone admitting they had an idea that might not work.
A few things it seems fairer to say up front than to discover halfway through.
Themes I am drawn to
Marginalised voices, and subjects that are not talked about enough. Documentary film. Fantasy, and psychological drama. I am not precious about genre, but I am drawn to material that has something at stake in the world outside the theatre.
How I like to make opera
Co-creatively, with everyone making at more or less the same time. A score written to a locked staging is a translation; a piece where the music, the text and the staging grow together is a conversation, and it is a far better piece. Practically this means I want to be in the room while the material is still soft, and I expect to change things when what you make changes what I should be doing.
Clear commitments
Open-ended enthusiasm is lovely and it is not a plan. Before we begin I would like us both to be able to say what is being delivered, by when, for what fee, with what rights, and who decides if we disagree. Written down, briefly. This is not distrust — it is what lets the rest of the process stay generous, because nobody is quietly keeping score.
Ecological and fair practice
I am committed to working toward the Fair Practice Code and to reducing what our productions cost the planet, and I am honest that this is a direction rather than a finished achievement. In practice it means: everyone on a project I lead is paid, including students and assistants; touring is planned by rail where the journey allows it; sets and technology are reused rather than rebuilt when we can manage it; and rehearsal schedules are made for human bodies. I do not always get this right. I would rather be told during a project than after it.
Looking forward to hearing what you are working on.
Kasia