Wayward Artists
About

Welcome to Wayward Artists, founded in bleak midwinter of 2015.

It is a perpetual work in progress, beams exposed. It subscribes to no ism.

Principles

  1. People First
    Quality will take care of itself given the right people. What do participants want? What is their investment? Their compensation?

    Look for allies -- opportunities exist to share vision and pool resources. Of the many small companies now forming, those which survive long term will likely be those with the strongest relationships.

    Wayward is mostly by/for artists. For a small company, much of the audience even are artists. Consequently, the play is not necessarily the thing; workshops and projects to do with artist development are of great value as well.

  2. Focus on Story
    We're story tellers. When making decisions about production, ask, "Does this serve the story?", especially in relation to point 4 (available light).
  1. Surprise!
    Try and find surprise in all aspects of production; acting, design, writing, directing. Even a play done well is dull when everything is exactly as you would expect, and the lack of this, maybe more than anything, makes people not want to see theatre. Give them some OMGs and WTFs to take away with them!

  2. Evolution
    Don't predefine more than is necessary. Choices have to be made in process, but be aware that a choice often precludes other choices. Remain open to possibility.

  3. Available Light and Sustainability
    It is better to do some good things indefinitely than try to do all good things immediately and burn through resources and burn out oneself.

    Available Light is a One Yellow Rabbit term referring to resources. What resources are available? How do we best utilize those to tell the story? Effective resource management will also affect sustainability overall.

    Time is a precious resource. Allow enough time, or else scale the production to time available, so as not to burn artists out.

  4. Follow On
    What comes after? We're accustomed in theatre to having projects essentially evaporate when they are done, and true, this is part of the nature of live performance. But consideration should be given to potential fruits of a project. If original work, what life will it have after? What can we learn from this to apply to what's up next? Are there innovations we want to play with which may change how we do things in future?

  5. Listen
    Again, people first. What do you want to see? What do you want to do? What do we need in theatre in Calgary right now? Contact me, Deimon Slagg, deimon@waywardartists.org