Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021 - 28

me to the last thing.
When you know better, choose to do
better. If you have received information
that you never received before, my hope is
that you will have the courage to choose
to do better. If you now know that asking
and correctly using someone's pronouns
is the most basic way to show respect
for their identity and creates an inclusive
space for others, why not do that? If you
now know that land acknowledgement
is a way that non-indigenous people can
highlight and bring understanding of the
land that you benefit off of, and this in itself
is an act of resisting the erasure of indigenous
histories, I hope you choose to
do this. If you now know the climate is in
crisis and single use plastics contribute
to the destruction of our planet and our
own health, choose to do better by not
using them. If you have become aware
of racial injustices and inequities in our
industry, I hope you lean into the opportunity
to change and do better and be part
of the solution.
What are you doing to disrupt a continued
pattern of maintaining status quo?
In this global timeout we have been given
a great opportunity to take a step back
and question how we have produced theatre.
The act of seeking out information,
critically thinking about it, leaning into
the discomfort of growth, choosing to do
better, and not falling into easy comfort.
Now that takes humility, courage, and
discipline. And I hope you join me in doing
the work.
A lifelong arts maker, Audrey
Hoo (she/her/hers) is the
production manager of the
Tony-Award winning
Berkeley Repertory Theatre in
Berkeley, California. Originally from
Singapore, Hoo ventured to the United States
to seek new experiences. Most recently, she
has production managed at the American
Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse,
and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In her
20-plus years of production management, she
has worked with artists across all performing
arts genres, including Christopher Ashley,
William Kentridge, Jaime Castañeda, Chuck
Davis, Catherine Martin, Sam Mendes,
Paul Simon, Bill T. Jones, John Turturro,
and Elaine Stritch. Hoo was among Art
Equity's inaugural 2020 BIPOC Leadership
Circle. She earned her MFA in technical
direction from the University of North
Carolina School of the Arts.
A screen capture of Adam Honoré's Keynote address to viewers of USITT 2021: Virtually Anywhere.
Energize: Adam Honoré
We've spent this past week together
learning how to make sense of the last
year, which has been rather nonsensical-a
year that doesn't need further
reminiscing and absolutely never needs
repeating. Since, we've become informed
together and through information, we've
found a wealth of inspiration in need of
cultivation and expression. Now, what I
want to do, as we get ready to depart, is
bring your focus to an energy that each of
us possesses, an energy that harnesses
your knowledge and your art, an energy
that yes, you held even before becoming
enlightened and inspired this week.
And to do this, I want to challenge
something that even I, as a designer, who
has been lucky enough to have found
work in these times, have been guilty of
saying aloud. Theatre is not hibernating.
Theatre is not dying. In fact, it's not
paused or held or even fallen silent. No,
theatre today has grown wider and more
expansive than ever imagined possible.
I'm speaking, of course, of the designers
and technicians of every degree,
shade, and expertise in this industry that
I've seen rise to the heights of their skill
in the face of unprecedented uncertainty-the
designers and technicians who,
when they had to temporarily move and
leave their studios, wings, and booths,
did so to help transform this world.
I've seen lighting designers who became
directors of photography, dressers
who became social workers, carpenters
who became licensed contractors, sound
designers who became oral therapists,
28 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | SUMMER 2021
scenic designers who became children's
book illustrators, stitchers who became
mask makers. And that doesn't even
include the actors who became fitness
coaches and mental health advocates,
ushers who became poll workers and
phone bank workers, general managers
who became financial advisors, or playwrights
who became queer journalists.
We theatre practitioners found or created
every opportunity fathomable to help ourselves
fulfill, because we naturally possessed
the energy to do so.
And as a result, we infiltrated the
world with our values of craftsmanship,
perseverance, dedication, excellence, responsibility,
and art. We kept theatre alive
by keeping ourselves empowered.
We captivated whole communities
once untouched by the arts to see the
world a little more artistically. We engaged
professions void of craft to think
a little more technically. We asked that
a very trying year move a little more efficiently.
And we did our damnedest.
Educators managed to keep their doors
open virtually, a feat worthy of a Nobel
prize. Students were persistent in their
desire for knowledge, and even went as
far as proving that, yeah, it is possible to
open a musical on TikTok. And as far as
practitioners, well, we kept practicing.
This is all to say, regardless of our
inability to gather in the classrooms,
stages, and studios over the last year, we
never once let this momentary darkness
compromise who we are. We didn't abandon
our craft. We never accepted defeat.
Rather, quite the contrary happened.

Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2021

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