Leaving Room for Growth

Leaving Room for Growth

Written by Aubrey Taratine

My best friend Minda once said that growth requires space for discomfort and change. No one wants to sit in discomfort. Have you ever had growing pains? You know that feeling - you’re growing quickly, you feel odd in your body, you’re unsure of what’s going to happen next and you’re not sure when it’s going to end. It isn’t comfortable, but the change is necessary for you to grow into who you’re meant to be. 

The same process happens when we’re trying to change the state of something outside of us. We never really know what it’s going to look like until we start and we’re not always sure of exactly what the end product will be. We don’t know if the process of change is going to be easy and carefree or hard and complex, but if change is needed, then we have to move forward no matter what. We may not know what the journey will look like, but it’s our duty to steer the ship in the best direction we can knowing that it won’t always be easy or comfortable.

When we look at this growth journey through the lens of advocacy, it may look one or more of these things: having uncomfortable conversations, not always having the answer, accepting that you may have been wrong and admitting it - and then simultaneously holding space, so that all of those things can happen in order to foster a better environment. Growth requires space for discomfort and change, and that won’t always feel easy, but growth will always be necessary.

Our Theatre community is vibrant, glowing, and so many wonderful things are happening every day. That doesn’t mean, though, that there aren’t pitfalls. Just like any line of work, there is always room for growth, change, and forward movement. There is always a need for uncomfortable conversations, taking accountability, and allowing those things to then foster a better environment for everyone. One such topic of conversation that seems to come up repeatedly in the Theatre community at large is surrounding the topic of safety within the community. What does safety within the Theatre community look like, though?

It looks like a clear audition and rehearsal process that is considerate of people’s time and families. It looks like having user-friendly audition forms that are easy to process and understand and transparent reporting procedures in case something goes wrong, so that people know who to go to and what to do at every step.. Safety in a Theatre looks like making clear assignments and roles for everyone involved in a production, so no one person is taking on more than they should have to. Additionally, safety within the Theatre looks like aligning actions with words and going beyond diversity, into the space where equity and inclusion live– allowing marginalized voices to be heard. It’s providing opportunities for those with differing abilities to perform characters who may/may not possess the same disability as the actor playing them. It’s opening our eyes to see how a character could potentially be portrayed as a different nationality, a different religion, a different sexual orientation, etc. It’s utilizing different actors from outside your normal company, in order to expand outside of your comfort zone. 

There are so many theaters within our community that are doing wonderful things, and I also have always believed that we all have the space to grow. We might be doing everything within our power to be 80% of the way there, but there’s still the 20% left that we must go. No one is ever going to be perfect, no job will ever be perfect, and no world will ever be perfect. But, we all have the ability to help move our community as close to perfect as possible! Growth isn’t always easy or comfortable, but it is always necessary and, in the end, it opens pathways that we never even realized were possible!

Be Well!

Aubrey