31

Our Blog

THE REPERTORY TRADITION

PlayMakers is one of only a very few repertory companies remaining in a country that

was once chock full of them. Since the 1850s, almost all of the nation’s 75 regional

theatres have moved to the line production model

(http://howlround.com/repertory-is-the-answer), which requires hiring and

housing a different set of directors, designers, actors, and production personnel on a

show-by-show basis.

In contrast, the repertory has been a model of making theatre in which a resident acting

company rehearses during the day and performs a rotating repertoire of shows each

night. Historically this meant theatres would hire a company of around seven actors

who could fill “stock roles.” (https://www.britannica.com/art/stock-company)

They would keep a number of plays at the ready and often present often a different one

each night of the week, supplemented by the preparation and rehearsal of new plays

during the day.

Talented rep companies could have dozens of shows in their repertoire, keeping sets in

storage, ready at a moments’ notice for a change in the interest of the company’s

artistic director or the appetites of the audience.

WHAT REPERTORY MEANS AT PLAYMAKERS

Here at PlayMakers, we consider the

talent of our resident company of actors

and other theatre professionals as the

base for producing a season full of both

newly imagined classics and plays hot off

the presses. The company is key.

Our diverse resident acting company

turns the idea of “stock” characters on its

head as we work with UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art (http://drama.unc.edu/)

to prepare any actor to take on any role. Our six veteran actors lead the company and

WHAT DOES “REPERTORY” MEAN, ANYWAY?

VIEW ALL BLOG POSTS (/ABOUT- US/OUR-BLOG/)

SHARE

RELATED SHOWS

MOLIÈRE'S TARTUFFE (HTTP://PLAYMAKERSREP.ORG/SHOW/TARTU

February 3, 2018 - March 11, 2018

THE CHRISTIANS (HTTP://PLAYMAKERSREP.ORG/SHOW/TH

CHRISTIANS/)

February 1, 2018 - March 10, 2018

(HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PLAYM(HTTP://T

(HTTP://INSTAGRAM.COM/PLAYMAKER(HTTPS:/

CONNECT Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Yo

current on all things PlayMakers.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSL Get all your PlayMakers news delivered right

JOIN NOW (HTTPS://TRACKING.WORDFLY.COM/JOIN/P

serve as faculty in the Department, while thirteen young professionals in UNC’s

Professional Actor Training Program round them out. We get to choose our season

around their abilities and interests, even pre-casting some roles two years in advance.

We also employ resident designers, artisans,

dramaturgs, and production personnel, all of whom

perform double duty as faculty or graduate students.

So each season is also filled with shows that serve

these incredible theatrical professionals by presenting

them with a wide scope of settings to play with: from

realism to impressionism, regency chic to the fashion-

of-the-week, intricate woodworking to towering

scaffolds of iron.

WHY THIS IS AWESOME

This is why former Artistic Director Joseph Haj called PlayMakers a sort of “teaching

hospital” for professional theatre artists in training. Top professionals from all corners

of the theatrical apparatus come here to make great work in our community, including

the likes of Tyne Rafaeli (http://playmakersrep.org/artists/tyne-rafaeli/), Annie

Golden (http://playmakersrep.org/artists/annie-golden/), Jennifer Caprio

(http://playmakersrep.org/artists/jennifer-caprio/), and Tim Mackabee

(http://playmakersrep.org/artists/tim-mackabee-2/) as guest artists. This ensures

that each production is as vital as can be without losing a grounded sense of

community.

But the greatest advantage of our repertory model is that our resident company gets to

work together continuously, leading to deeper relationships and “more theatrical,

delightful, provocative, and inspiring theatre.”

(http://howlround.com/repertory-is-the-answer) Our commitment to being a

company of play-makers who live and work right here in the Triangle also means

creating theatre that is specific to the community we serve—a continuous re-

investigation of our shared interests and concerns.

A big part of this continuous re-investigation is the other meaning of “repertory.” In the

next installment of this blog series, we’ll explore what the “rotating repertory” means

here at PlayMakers.