Be With Us: An Invitation

NOVEMBER, 2024

Dear Friends,

In the wake of the results of this week's election, we know so many of you may be feeling a combination of shock, grief, overwhelm, numbness, rage, shame, defiance, exhaustion, fear. We are, too. It is our hope that over the past couple days and into this weekend that we all can find soft places to put down our burdens, rest, and refuel with some joy and tenderness.

As we all move through this time, we want to affirm a few things we know about the world, about you, and about us:

1. Theatre is absolutely essential, and it isn’t going anywhere. We don’t want you going anywhere either.
   Your work — as world builders, as imaginers, as networkers, as nurturers (of ideas and people), as organizers — is essential work, both for protecting your people and your values and also for designing a better world than the one on offer from those in power. A.R.T./New York is fiercely committed to supporting our community to ensure that you have the resources, space, and tools you need to produce the work that will carry us into the future. 

2. Rituals matter. You matter.
   Theatre shares so much DNA with all of our other essential human rituals: wakes, graduations, weddings, coming of age celebrations. When we come together to sit in the dark, we honor our vast collective experience in a shared time and place. We look across the fire at one another – maybe we tell ghost stories, maybe they are fantasies that end happily ever after. No matter the story, no matter the form, the telling matters. At A.R.T./New York, we are as certain as ever in the civic, cultural, and cathartic role of theatre. 

3. Community is resistance. Don’t go it alone.
   Authoritarian regimes depend on keeping people isolated and afraid. Building a network – a net that works – is our most powerful response, and will ensure that we have the collective capacity, resources, and resilience to think creatively and to act boldly. A.R.T./New York is proud to be a connector: when we gather together, we share wisdom and joy that no one can take from us without our permission. 

With these values in mind, we invite you to join us in community at the Fall Forum. While we did not necessarily intend for our gathering to be a response to this deeply destabilizing news, the premise for our gathering remains: take the leap. From now on, we will all be asked to make decisions about how we want to show up for, with, and in our communities, in the face of many headwinds driving us apart. Come together at the Fall Forum to release old methods that no longer serve us and walk together into the unknown. 

Thank you for how you show up in this world, to your craft, and to this community. We are honored to be linking arms with you in the work we have ahead of us. 

We hope to see you November 18-20. If you’d like to connect with us separately, drop a line here, or schedule one on one time with Talia or Risa.

With deep care and commitment,

Talia + Risa

ARTNY Board of Directors