IN TERCOMPANY
TWO for the SHOW . . . or THREE or FOUR Collaborations expand horizons for artists, theaters and audiences. THE OLD SAYING about two heads being better than one has never been truer for the performing arts than during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has fostered new partnerships in a medium that by its very nature was already collaborative. Arts organizations, venues and the artists themselves have teamed up to take advantage of a whole new digital world whose virtual projects spark creative and technological breakthroughs and a worldwide audience reach. “Had it not been for the pandemic, we probably wouldn’t be collaborating with a theater across the country,” affirms Tyrone Davis, Center Theatre Group’s associate artistic director. The series he’s been developing for CTG’s Digital Stage, Not a Moment, but a Movement, celebrates Black artists and lives via play readings, music and visual art. “I really wanted to amplify and center Black
voices and stories and think about the role that art plays in our society in regard to creating social change,” Davis says. “The Fire This Time Festival in New York came to mind, because they’ve been doing this work for quite some time, really cultivating amazing writers. I reached out to them, as well as to the Watts Village Theater Company in Los Angeles.” The first episode spot-
22 PERFORMANCES SPRING 2021
lighted Black women; Angelica Chéri’s onewoman play Crowndation: I Will Not Lie to David was bookended by singer Jessica Lá Rel and a breathing meditation with Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle. The second, About Black Nourishment, features spoken-word artists; it’s available on demand through June 15. A third episode is in development. It’s been an adjustment to accommodate the East Coast time difference,
but, Davis says, “it’s a collaboration in every sense of the word.” His partners are episode host Watts Village artistic director Bruce A. Lemon and, from Fire This Time, founder Kelley Nicole Girod and artistic director Cezar Williams. “We share values and ideas. There are no egos involved. We’re really coming together with the goal to amplify Black voices, something that excites all of us.”
