FINDING COMMUNITY, BY MICHAEL MONTANUS
Similar to most theatre makers I know, I have a day job that separates what I love to do creatively with what supports me financially. As I’m sure many folks have felt before me and many will after me, I’ve found myself with a frustrating itch that I haven’t quite been able to pinpoint the origin of. A hollowness of some kind that, on good days, prowls the recesses of my conscious thought and, on bad days, consumes almost my entire waking focus and makes working that day job feel Sisyphean in nature.
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DEVISING AS A DANCER - BY DAVID LENAHAN
I love Dance. I love movement. My best friend has described me to several people as the most Kinesthetically Intelligent person he knows (see Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences). I don’t really know about all that, but I do know that movement has become one of my favorite ways to express myself. Because of this I would be doing myself a great disservice to not bring my sense of movement and body awareness to my work as an actor.
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FINDING MY PLACE IN A NEW HERD - BY TRICIA BESTIC
I walked into the rehearsal room without a map, which is not something I am accustomed to admitting, let alone doing. After years of working in the theatre, I have learned how to arrive with answers — or at least the appearance of them. I know how to read a room, how to prepare, how to make myself useful. I know the comfort of a script, the quiet authority of structure. This room only offered some of that. We were going to run through the show for the first time on our feet and play. Experience doesn’t eliminate vulnerability — sometimes, it heightens it.
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ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL - BY LISA WILEY
I vividly remember how excited—and nervous—I was to design properties for my first show with Seat of the Pants: End of the Tour in 2019. I was actively seeking more design opportunities when this one presented itself, and I eagerly accepted. I hadn’t yet experienced a Seat of the Pants production, and although the company didn’t have a permanent “home” space, I quickly learned that everywhere felt like home when working with this group.
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DISCOVERING THE WORLD OF ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD - BY STACEY COSTANZO
As a scenic designer, I think of my job in part as visually defining the time and place of the story. For Elephant’s Graveyard, that answer seems simple: Erwin Tennessee, 1916. Yes, it is true that our story takes place in a town called Erwin in the state of Tennessee in the year 1916, but the people of Erwin are not the only players to consider when building the world onstage. There were three distinct entities I needed to consider when I began looking at designing the show: a town, a circus, and a railroad. All three of these groups needed to feel distinct from one another, yet at home on stage. Playwright George Brant left a helpful note in the script suggesting that, “the set may be an empty stage or an abstract collision of the worlds of the circus, town and railroad. This collision need not be pretty”. That may not mean much to you, but it was enough to get me rolling.
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REFLECTING THE TIMES - BY CARRIE WILLIAMS
Regardless of which creative hat I’m wearing, every play that I agree to work on these days contains some element that resonates as True. Whether I’m directing, performing, or producing, SOMETHING within the piece has got to rile me up, give me a new way to process the present moment. How does it Reflect the Times? Or…“how rowdy is it?”
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SOLVING THE COSTUME PUZZLE - BY JENNIVER SPARANO
“You’re a costume designer? You must be so creative!”
I hear this phrase – or variations of it – pretty regularly. I’ve designed costumes for 45 years, and for most of those years, I’ve also worked for KeyBank. So when my bank co-workers learn that I have a second career designing and sewing theatre costumes, they assume that I’m conjuring elaborate, glittering costumes out of pure imagination, the type of “right-brain” creativity that’s the complete opposite of the logical, analytical, “left-brain” thinking that I do in my day job.
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A CHAT WITH HILLARY WHEELOCK
This week, we were fortunate to have some time to chat with Hillary Wheelock, one of the actors making her Seat of the Pants’ debut in our upcoming production of Elephant’s Graveyard.
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DIRECTING ON A SHOESTRING - BY JEANNINE GASKIN
When you work at Seat of the Pants, you don’t have the luxury of excess: excess money, excess bodies, or excess resources. What you do have is heart, commitment, and a deep belief that the work matters. Over time, directing and producing in that environment doesn’t just teach you theatre skills; it rewires how you approach leadership, creativity, and problem-solving in every area of your life. Directing on a shoestring isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing what matters most with intention. These are the five lessons Seat of the Pants burned into my bones and how I’ve carried them far beyond the rehearsal room.
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