Julianne Brienza.

Rachel Grossman: I’m opening all of these conversations with the big question--what is theatre?

Julianne Brienza: Theatre is something that is in the moment. Like, it’s not recorded. You have to take it in--in the moment--and then it’s gone.

And you have to be there, in person, to experience it.

I think you can use all these different elements, and I mean, we’ve live broadcasted shows. But: re-watching live broadcast on your computer? I mean, who wants to really do that? unless it’s something you’ve never--

Who really wants to do that? (It’s like “bringing the masses” to do that.)

So I think theatre is taking as much communication, all the communication tools we have on hand, and using them to create something that’s in the now.

Not choosing one or the other but really using everything.

It goes back to storytelling around the fire and what that’s supposed to be.

But we just get caught up on socio-economic barriers, and trying to be innovative. Where we forget it’s just--

I just read, it’s in the new New Yorker--I’m really bad with names. Who wrote Circle Mirror Transformation?

rg: Annie--

JB: Annie Barker? Baker?

rg: Annie Baker. (I’m bad with playwrights names as well.)

JB: There’s this thing in there, a profile on her.

I really love the language she uses in plays.

There is a rhythm to the way people talk now. that wasn't that way.... 20 years ago. (Or whatever, that’s obvious) But I think often times when people are writing plays, they don’t think about how people talk.

Like, we do say “like” all the time.

We do.

But to do that, to write that, to write the way people talk, is an actual skill.

I remember when the ensemble-based thing, the devising got popular... I remember thinking: “why is this?” It wasn’t a new idea. “Why is it suddenly coming?”

I think it comes back to figuring out a way to portray how things really are. And how people really speak and how we communicate with one another. And I don’t think....

Because if you think about how you learn.... I mean think about how you learned about that meteor that hit, or whatever--is it a meteor or an asteroid that hit Russia?

rg: Well it was called a meteor, and then they changed it to asteroid.

JB: Think about the various different things you had to look at, to take in that information and go--holy shit! that’s crazy!

It’s sort of like, if you think about, if you were actually going to tell that story onstage, the different conversations and message-gathering you would have to do? It would be better if it was an ensemble, and you were working together and you could play things off of each other instead of sitting at a desk and writing it and writing it.

I think that’s kinda how we think.

rg: It makes me think about the word “authentic” which is getting a bad rep, but it feels like to get to a true, more authentic voice you need--

JB: --other voices.

rg: Right.

JB: It kinda makes sense.

rg: Switching gears a little... what is your role within DC’s theatre community? Your role in the position you’re in with Capital Fringe?

JB: It’s hard for me to gauge because I don’t really pay attention to what people are saying about me. I walk around most of the time with blinders on and I have no idea. And then I’ll hear people are saying all these things and I be like “my God.’

In starting Fringe, the first maybe three-to-four years, I felt I needed to be really tough and have a real ass-kicking, because we were trying, one: to prove younger people could start a company and make it serious

rg: Y’all or people producing through the Fringe?

JB: Us. We were also breaking a lot of rules--like actual laws--and at the time there were a lot of people seeking permission to do work or start a company, and so it was making space for that.

And then I didn’t pay attention to what my role was. And in the last two years I realized that

[exhales]

I don’t know...It’s sort of a given that the Fringe is here.

I was out recently with someone--I didn't know this person very well--and they were like “you run the festival for the weird-o theatre people” And I was like “What!? Is that really what people think?”

I think there is a large group of people that think Fringe is just a big party. It’s really not. It’s really not.

I think there’s a lot of roles that people think myself or Fringe fill, but none of it is actually reality. We’re still coming to where we’re supposed to be. What people thought three years ago is not what it is now. What people thought last year is not what it is this year.

rg:  It seems with Fringe there’s the people who use the festival--to work “the system”--to grow their companies and the people who want a venue to showcase their art, and then Fringe has the ability to connect different people with one another.

JB: Fringe is home to a lot of people. In starting the festival, my main thing was that I didn’t know how to meet people in DC. The main thing was to set up avenues for meeting people. Getting that element right was more important than getting the greatest venues.

Now we got that right, so we need to work on the venues.

[laughs]

rg: In order to run Fringe in the most appropriate way, you’re kinda trying to walk the line of being in multiple worlds at the same time?

JB: It is walking a line. It’s having a voice, but not having the voice. Having a voice, but not having an opinion.

What I am trying to do, and what I feel Fringe’s role is, is to make sure there is space for the mid-level and amateur folks that is not a shit-hole. You need to have different steps. Fringe is not the bottom, but to try to create that level here.

rg: What do you think are the defining qualities of theatre or the theatre community in DC?

JB: As of today, I think theatre in DC is really exciting. It’s really exciting.

We’re in a period where we are battling out--not a negative, we’re not a war--

rg: --companies are not fighting one another?

JB: No. [It’s a] sifting sort of thing. It’s a tumultuous time. For a long time this national stuff was really what was here: Kennedy Center, The Warner. [Now] we have good companies who aren’t trying to be national or are solely touring [houses]. We have a solid base of mid-level theaters and amateur folks.

Where the battle comes into play is we are running out of space. The smaller houses, to support that smaller base, we need more. I’m talking about small black box theatres. Or a garage. Spaces run by artists or companies that have more of an artistic sensibility. Not a corporation that renovates a building and charges you $3,000 a week to rent it.

I’m talking about authenticity.

About having an artistic community. 

As far as the work that’s being done.

[inhales, exhales]

Puppetry is exciting.

I’m using the word “excited” a lot.

rg: But I like that this is how you would define theatre in DC: exciting. And these are the categories of exciting--category one: “the battle”; category two: puppetry.

JB: We do have a lot of actual puppetry happening right now. Not, like, just for children.

We’re still lovin’ Shakespeare. A lot. 

When people ask what type of city DC is, it’s hard to answer. It’s this disjointed thing.

I think it’s the same way with [DC] theatre. It’s still in this battling period of trying to figure out what it is.

Maybe what it is, is that it is always that.

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If I were shaping a rubric based on my conversation with Julianne Brienza, a “thing” would be considered theatre if:

●     It’s momentary.

●     It is a contained occurrence, in real time and a shared space.

●     It calls on a broad spectrum of approaches and devices to convey story, meaning, message.  

●     It is an avenue for meeting people, for connecting them.

●     It can’t be fast-forwarded.

●     Bonus: It is exciting.

●     Local Bonus: In DC, it is currently experiencing a battle for space.

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A sampling of DC companies that focus on puppetry:

●     the Puppet co

●     Blue Sky Puppet Theatre

●     Pointless Theatre Co

●     Puppet Underground

●     WIT’s End

And then there’s this cool event in DC...

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