This blog by Stacey Ardelean, Fuse Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director, is from an article appearing in the Entanglements3, a curated collection of contemporary culture. This anthology of West Coast artists and writers was curated by Nanette Wylde.
PART 1 from Stacey’s essay….
Looking back on the development and evolution of Fuse Theatre, it is obvious that creating a community of artistic partners was a foundational principle in the vision for the company. The community has shifted and evolved as the vision has changed. It has become a beautiful cycle of evolution of ideas and partnerships. As we add collaborators, supporters, artists, and partners, our vision and perspective widen or become more focused which in turn leads to mission and value shifts. The creative collaborations effectively guide the direction of the organization. It was always my goal to create a company where artists could find an artistic home. That “home” was not built with walls and a stage, but with ideas, collaborations and connections. The vision for this creative “home” percolated in my imagination for nearly ten years before I acted.
Artistic inspiration comes in every form for artists. Anything can influence a creative endeavor – art, nature, human emotions, perspectives, ideas, stories, books – the list is endless. There are often major influences that one can point to like a map or compass. In the ten years prior to starting Fuse, I was fortunate to find inspiration in so many individuals, companies and research. I participated in a leadership cohort with the American Alliance for Theatre and Education about ten years before I began Fuse. There I was encouraged to explore how I wanted to serve my community in an atmosphere of creative self-actualization. This was my first creative community beyond a production cast or a teaching team. This group of individuals pushed and inspired me to consider starting a theatre company. I wanted to start a company that would be different. At the time, I was working as a drama teacher for a school that valued social justice and encouraged teachers and students to embrace a sense of community in all that we did. My students inspired me daily to create projects to amplify their voices and thoughts about the world. They were my first collaborators in community-engaged theatre. Many colleagues inspired my exploration of social justice through theatre. They challenged me to explore my own privilege and question the status quo. They guided me to read theoretical and practical texts. This lead to an exploration of Theatre of the Oppressed, Theatre for Social Justice, and Applied Theatre practices with the Creative Arts Team at CUNY and to enroll in the Masters of Theatre Education program at the University of Northern Colorado. Through my connections with the American Alliance for Theatre and Education I was connected with educators, researchers, playwrights and other artistic directors. I was introduced to community-engaged and site-specific practices of Sojourn Theatre and Cornerstone Theatre. Seeing how the stories of certain groups were being ignored on our stages and the value of community-engaged theatre, I began to formulate ideas for Fuse.

Once I committed to making a company a reality (2016), friends, family and colleagues were asked to participate in a brainstorming session and BBQ dinner to name the company. As a friend pointed out, “…you need to get a name and stop calling it “the company” - just sit in a room until you find a name.” I did need a name, but I refused to sit alone in a room, so the naming-dinner was planned. It seemed appropriate to involve my creative community to find a name for the company. What it became was an in depth strategy session that included theatre games and exercises, hot seat Q&A, graffiti boards, surveys and improvisation. My people showed up! They drilled me about the vision, mission and goals surpassing my expectations for the evening. Those who knew little about theatre pressed me for clear explanations of goals and methods of what I wanted to do. Those that knew theatre challenged me about how the company could be different and embrace my ensemble approach to directing. And that night over dessert…the “Fuse Theatre” name rose from this collaborative creative process that uplifted, highlighted and made space for all the voices at the table - literally. Those voices included a generational spread of 50 years, educational diversity from high school to doctoral graduates, and those in theatre and non-theatre careers. Not only had we created a name, but a process and a foundational principle that has become a hallmark for Fuse’s creative process as a company. Everyone at the table has a voice and contributes to the vision.
In the early days, our creative community was a small board acting as advisors and support volunteers to build the company as a business. Our casts and crews on early productions were the artistic partners. These two groups remained mostly separated between art and business in a traditional theatre company hierarchy. Engaging with audiences of all backgrounds through bilingual plays was where we started with a touring production of Tomás and the Library Lady.

Our first community-engaged devised production was Whatever Happened to Docktown?. Both projects yielded challenges that pushed us to learn about creative collaborations and become better in serving the communities we were working with while offering us surprising insights. Tomás established Fuse as a company doing bilingual work for youth. Docktown taught us firsthand about challenges and struggles within a community facing obliteration and the importance of amplifying stories – even when the community loses their fight. The people of Docktown, a water borne community living on Redwood Creek, lost their homes about nine months after we did the performances in their community. One community member commented, “…the project gave us a positive thing to work on together - like the days before the lawsuits – because we didn’t agree about how to fight the evictions.” Stories bring people together and support those experiencing loss. It was all we had to offer a community facing a tragic loss of the homes that some had literally built with their own hands. The artists were deeply affected by these stories and this community.

In the early days, we experimented with forming an ensemble with varying degrees of success. We offered community theatre for social justice classes and devising workshops in an effort to widen our artistic community. One workshop lead to our long partnership with Sequoia High School’s Dream Club. Often artists became collaborators on artistic projects but did not become integrated into the company on other levels. Some artists repeatedly worked with Fuse on different projects and began pitching ideas for new productions. Two artists, J. Adán Ruiz and Hedvig Flores started with Fuse on those first two projects (Tomás and Docktown) and have continued with the company to this day in various roles such as Sparks members, director, actor, co-creators and playwright. Their dedication to Fuse and our friendship has been invaluable in my personal growth.

During the next period of work 2018-2020, our major productions included many new partnerships and new works. In 2018 and 2019 Fuse also toured two shows: Karen Zacarias’ Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans, a bilingual musical play for youth with strong female characters, and a new unpublished play Lily’s Wings. We developed a partnership with Dragon Theatre to produce The Redwood City Play Festival in 2019 - “Gendershorts”, featuring a new work by Hedvig Flores - Because I Went There, a gender bending play about a sexual assault case, Legal Tender Loving Care, a transgender romantic comedy by playwright Leanna Keyes and Never Swim Alone, by Daniel MacIvor. The RWC Play Festival also partnered with local artists and organizations to develop community art exhibits around gender topics. In the fall of 2019, Fuse produced a new play by Chelsea Unzner Echoes of Them in partnership with New Ground Theatre Dance Company, NGTDC. This project combined a one-woman show featuring Chelsea exploring themes of grief with the modern dance pieces on the all woman NGTDC which focuses on healing practices and featured original music by Alex Valdivia, a long Fuse musical partner.

We had also joined the first Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival BaWTF set to launch in March 2020 producing three shows in repertory, Echoes of Them, Because I Went There and Being Me is Ridiculous by Hanna Rachel Gerry. Dragon and Fuse were also set for another Redwood City Play Festival for 2020 - “Coexist”. Our projects were flourishing in 2018, 2019 and 2020 with new and established creative partners.

Lily’s Wings was a devised piece written with Bowling Green High School (Ohio) Drama students, Jobeth Gonzales (their teacher) and Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, a playwright from UT Austin. Jobeth, Roxanne and I are colleagues from AATE. They wanted to try this play on the west coast. It was a play written by HS students to create awareness about human trafficking. We took on this play and immediately looked in our community for partners. We found two invaluable community partners – Bay Area Anti Trafficking Coalition (BAATC) and Rape Trauma Services (RTS) of San Mateo. Both served as resources and partners at every performance. RTS provided the actors with a trauma informed workshop to train us how to help any audience members who reached out.

BAATC presented information as a pre-show warmup and facilitated a Q&A at the end of the production. As we were developing the partnerships and script for our area, BAATC knew that Fuse did many bilingual plays and asked if we could do this play bilingually. Roxanne Schroeder-Arce happens to be a bilingual playwright! So the bilingual version of Lily’s Wings was originated to serve our Bay Area communities better. The all Latinx cast served as cultural advisors because Roxanne’s background is rooted in Texas Latin culture which is different from Latin immigrants in California. This collaboration included several play readings, conference calls and a visit to California for Jobeth and Roxanne prior to the production tour. These collaborative communities pushed my creativity and the scope of what Fuse was creating. As we were about to begin a second tour of Lily’s Wings, the pandemic shutdown was mandated.
To be continued in Part 2….
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