I met Anne Bertram at the 2014 Great Plains Theatre Conference. Her play, The Good Fight, was so AWESOME, I knew I had to get to know this playwright! My hope at the time was that maybe she would want to write something for our 2015 ONSTAGE Festival, but lo and behold, she decided to come on board as a Partner Producer instead – she is just that awesome!
Anne is the Executive Director at Theatre Unbound, a Minneapolis based theatre company devoted to delivering thought-provoking live theatre conceived and created by women, and providing audiences with engaging, rarely-seen perspectives on issues that are relevant and universal.
We absolutely can’t wait to work with Theatre Unbound this month – they’re going to be reading our first group of Semi-Finalist plays on March 10th at The People’s Center Theatre (425 20th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55454)
While Theatre Unbound gets busy casting an rehearsing and doing all the wonderful things they do, we thought it would be fun to share a few interview Q & A’s with you!
LBDI: What motivated you to become a part of the ONSTAGE Project?
ANNE: We want to get to know more playwrights!
(YAY! We love that answer!)
LBDI: Why do you love female playwrights?
ANNE: Well, let’s see, here’s the mission statement: “Theatre Unbound delivers thought-provoking live theatre conceived and created by women, providing audiences with engaging, rarely-seen perspectives on issues that are relevant and universal.” We exist to champion women theatre artists.
LBDI: Which theatre-makers inspire you and why?
ANNE: Anne Bogart, because she has evolved a beautiful and useful framework for developing theatre. Katherine Hepburn, because when she wasn’t getting parts offered to her, she backed the stage production of and acquired the film rights to “The Philadelphia Story” – she made her own opportunities. Izumo no Okuni, because she invented kabuki.
LBDI: What is your spirit-animal?
ANNE: It’s either the snowy owl or Homo sapiens (the company vote was divided)
LBDI: Paper or Plastic?
ANNE: BYOB! Canvas shopping bag.
We can’t wait for our playwrights to be heard in Minneapolis! We’ll be posting a little more information about them this week, so check back soon to read their bios and find out a little more about each playwright’s piece.
Until then…
