StillPointe Theatre Initiative

Coming Home

Christmas is a few days away. How strange and sudden it seems. Stillpointe will be finishing up Return of the 5th Sister this weekend and then it will be time for a swift rest before moving onto Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. Time is constantly moving and so is Stillpointe. We are very proud of our work this year, and excited for the shows coming up.

Our opening weekend of 5th Sister was a success, we had many friends and family members come into a space at the EMP and enjoy the show. A show about love, and family and being….willing to let change happen. Which I think is a perfect way to end the year as a company.

We had a fabulous sit down interview with Peter Davis about Stillpointe and our creativity and vision as a company. Check it out in What Weekly this week. It is truly a pleasure to sit back, look around a table and see people you love and believe in, still there, sitting beside you so many years later.

I always say I remember the first time I saw each member of Stillpointe. Danielle—-wearing blacks and introducing herself as my TA for Voice I when I was 18 years old. She had a severe short black hair cut. And I thought her kindness was beautiful. Amanda—-she was laying in a full straddle split on the floor of the Studio theatre laughing up at someone. And I thought her joy was beautiful. Charlie—-I saw him on stage in Angels in America…there was something foggy about the light he was standing in, and somehow the fog made him magical. And I thought his mysteriousness was beautiful. And Ryan—-he was wearing a scarf that looked like it was 18 feet long, all wrapped around his neck. He looked intensely in the direction he was walking, I wanted to grab hold of the end of his endless scarf and follow him. I thought his strength was beautiful.

It is strange being in love with so many people for so long.

5th Sister closes this weekend. We will have fun, and enjoy and be proud. Break down the set and spend a few days with our close family and friends. And then we will be back.

Come out for auditions for Bubbly Black Girl, tomorrow at the Strand (See the facebook for details!) and come support 5th Sister’s last 3 shows.

I wrote a few weeks ago about “being ready”. I still don’t know what that means. Maybe it just means holding on to the people you love and finding strength in their love to move forward. That’s what 5th Sister is about. And that is what Stillpointe is about too.

Fitting. And so full circle.

Hope to see you all this weekend. Happy Holidays.

Katie O (And the Stillpointe Family)

fee fie fo fum….

What does it mean to be “ready”? 

For me, I feel like I have to be so ready I’m about to burst out of myself before I even realize I’ve been ready for quite some time. I’m not sure that is a good quality. I’m also not sure if that is something I can change.

Being ready isn’t always accompanied by a good feeling. Is anyone ever really ready to do something frightening? New? Intense? Upsetting? Overwhelming? Probably not. But being ready isn’t about being comfortable. It’s about understanding that you aren’t going to be comfortable until you do whatever it is that you need to do in order to start something new, end something old, try something scary, fail at something big, succeed at something unimaginable.

I wonder about Stillpointe. On that September night 3 years ago—did we feel”ready” to start a theatre company? I don’t think we were. I don’t think we thought about it. We just moved forward because that is what we had to do, we all agreed—lets give this a whirl. Newly college graduates. Friends. Comrades. Sure—-why not? And from that—-we are here now.

Arsenic and Old Lace closed last weekend. I was extremely proud to sit in the audience and watch so many people I care about do justice to a great text. I enjoyed being on the outside looking it. It gave me a different appreciation for Stillpointe and what Stillpointe does. Congratulations to the cast, crew, designers, director and musicians. What a thrill for Baltimore to have a company in its midst who continues to challenge text with new ideas. What a pleasure.

And now Return of the 5th Sister is in rehearsal. A beautiful piece by Kimberly Lynne. For the first rehearsals we’ve had the joy of sitting around and discussing the play, disecting the text and asking questions. Questions like “What does ready mean”. No answers yet. Not sure if we will find the answers to all of them. But the journey so far is a joyful one.

Maybe being ready doesn’t matter. Maybe “being ready” is just a phrase, a catalyst for making you realize something bigger is happening. And ready or not, here it comes.

Only time will tell.

Happy Lazy Sunday—

Katie O (And the Stillpointe Family)

Insanity runs in my family… It practically gallops.

Hello friends and fans!

This is a very exciting week for Stillpointe. Arsenic and Old Lace opens this Friday and we couldn’t be more thrilled. We hope to see you all out there filling the seats at Gallery788. If you are feeling really fancy (we sure are) pay 5 extra dollars and join us for the Opening Night Event. Music, Champagne, dress up! You know Stillpointe loves to keep it classy at the theatre.

Theatre is such a funny thing, one minute you are performing a show and before you know you are somersaulting into the next rehearsal process. It feels like just yesterday we were performing The Country Wife at Artscape, and now here we are in October, Halloween time really, and Arsenic is descending upon us.

If you haven’t had the chance, make sure to check out our website—www.stillpointetheatre.com AND on our facebook look at the AMAZING photos of the cast taken by Britt Olsen-Ecker.

This is tech week, lots to do! But we look forward to seeing you all over the next three weekend. Come out and check out what Stillpointe is up to! We look forward to seeing you!

Love,

Katie O (And the Stillpointe Family and the Arsenic Cast)

Another openin’, another Show!