Some people, not us, but some people, think live theater can be boring. You sit in a sometimes stuffy theater full of sometimes stuffy people and have to watch 1-3 hours of a play or musical you might not even understand. It’s easy to get distracted and let your eyes wander to the caramel opening old people, or the shuffling stage hands, or your constantly vibrating cell phone that you want to be a text but is probably just a message from Candy Crush telling you that they miss you and there’s candy waiting to be crushed. The innovators at We Players have solved this problem. They have created a completely integrated performance environment where it’s impossible to divert your attention for even a moment since the moment you do you’ll be whisked away to another time, place, or experience. To introduce you to this unique and captivating company, here are 5 facts about We Players.
1. Minor Changes to Existing Majors
While at Stanford in the 2000s, We Players founder Ava Roy designed her own major where she created many of the staples of the We Players site-integrated performances we know and love today. Since 2009, Roy and Lauren Dietrich Chavez have managed the company. They have performed all around the Bay Area including beautiful and historic locations like Sutro Baths, Alcatraz, Fort Point, Fort Mason, and more.
2. Prisoners of Art
In November 2008 Amy Brees, the National Park Service’s Alcatraz site supervisor, invited Ava Roy to be the first artist-in-residence on the island. There, they have held film screenings, workshops, and an acclaimed production of Hamlet where the entire island was used. They probably don’t even need to pay the ghosts that filled in as extras in all their scenes (Alcatraz is super haunted). They now have a partnership with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park as well that includes places like Maritime Museum building, Municipal Pier, Hyde Street Pier, the historic vessels, Victorian Park, and Aquatic Park and lagoon (more water, less ghosts).
3. They Believe Creative Children Are Our Future
In 2013, We Players launched their 90 minute introductory Aesthetic Education Program workshop in 7 classrooms, across three counties. The AEP strives to inspire full-sensory awareness, honest and eloquent communication, and healthy, collaborative relationships. You know, everything their iPads can’t teach them. They are currently expanding to schools all across the Bay Area and are hoping they can make a difference in helping the youths of today become more creative, imaginative, self aware individuals that are able to solve the problems of tomorrow, and also like, know what outside is.
4. All the Arts
In addition to their site-integrated theatre program, We Players offers opportunities to experiences all different kinds of artistic mediums in their “Presenting Series.” From music, to dance, to visual arts, to speakers, and parties, the We Players have their delicate graceful finger on the pulse of the already thriving soon to be thriving-er arts and culture community in The Bay Area and beyond.
5. They Can Be Your HEROMONSTER Baby
We Players newest adventure in interactive theater is HEROMONSTER at Fort Mason. Birthed by Ava Roy and Nathaniel Justiniano, with an original score by award-winning composer Charlie Gurke, HEROMONSTER, inspired by the ancient poem Beowulf, explores the balance between good and evil, light and dark, dogs and cats, well, not that last one, you’ll have to explore that one on your own time, and, of course, the heroes and monsters amongst us all.