We recently connected with CATAC Akron and have shared our conversation below.

CATAC , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

The Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture (CATAC) has prided itself on providing a platform for continued artistic development, both for our resident theatre companies, and the Greater Akron/Northeast Ohio community. We believe that learning the craft of theatre is a lifelong journey, and we provide a platform for that development. It is essential that artists have a platform for incubation and administrative support, because those factors serve as obstacles. CATAC looks to alleviate those obstacles through supporting the development of our resident theatre companies.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture (CATAC) is based out of the Balch Street Theatre. In partnership with the City of Akron, we are able to provide a space for performance and artistic development for our five resident theatre companies; Gum-Dip Theatre, The Chameleon Village Theatre Collective, QuTheatr, Ma’Sue Productions, and the former members of New World Performance Laboratory. Our mission is to foster social change through innovative performances and community and artist-centered events. We do this by mitigating risks for artists, including the need of a fiscal sponsor and budgeting support, marketing support, and continued opportunities for artistic development. CATAC helps assist artists to alleviate administrative barriers to creating new work. CATAC also explores issues of community concern by identifying problems and rehearsing solutions, allowing neighbors to actively participate in the creation process, and generating communal meaning.

In the last two years, CATAC has undergone major changes, including a shift to a new leadership structure. We are proud to have increased our resident theatre companies served by the space, as well as dedication to introducing more communities to the Balch Street Theatre. We are proud of the array of theatre artists that are supported by CATAC, including the LGBTQ+ community, African Americans, and immigrants! We pride ourselves on being a space of freedom of expression for the resident theatre companies. We do not censor their work, and we do all that we can to help them thrive.

Our community-centered work allows for audiences to expand capacity for empathy, build ability to critically think, and create a sense of belonging. For resident artists, we’re encouraging the growth of their social capital, economic impact, and creative aesthetic. Overall, CATAC is a space for the community and artists to meet and eliminate lack of social connections and build new relationships.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being an arts-centered organization is the multi-generational, multi-cultural environment we are able to cultivate through the work. Being able to provide a space for creative exploration for artists has been extremely rewarding, especially because of the quality of work that comes from the artists. We are building a culture of care for our resident companies which opposes the traditional atmosphere of “the show must go on” regardless of the well being of the artists involved. We believe that the health, safety, and security of our artists comes first and the presentation can only happen when their needs are met.

Additionally, many of the resident theatre companies we represent are deeply rooted in the community. Their work helps connect people and increases the representation of our diverse community. The representation onstage cultivated from our companies is unlike any other local theatre in our city.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Recently, the Ohio Arts Council invited the Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture to speak at their Arts Impact conference. Our leadership team presented on “The Importance of Investing in Community Artists.” At the presentation, we talked about the nature of the creative landscape and how important it is to invest in artists. This means finding ways to include local artists (and not outside consultants) throughout an initiative, paying artists for their expertise, and remembering to let them know when they will be paid. Artists should be interwoven into most initiatives, and yet many times are the last ones to be asked to participate. Artists’ value should be compensated monetarily and acknowledged culturally in order for the ecosystem to thrive.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.catac-akron.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/catac.akron
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/catac.akron