Quarantine Q/A: SEAN DANIELS

Sean Daniels

by Gil Benbrook

Our series of interviews with individuals involved in the Phoenix theatre community continues today with a conversation with Sean Daniels, the artistic director of Arizona Theatre Company.

COVID-19 has affected us all in many ways. The theatre community has been harshly impacted with show closures and postponements. We hope this series of daily interviews will be a way to provide some personal insight to what people are doing during this period of time while highlighting familiar individuals from the theatre community in town.

Was there a show you were in or involved with or preparing for when the stay at home order started?

Daniels - "I was going to make my Arizona Theatre Company directing debut with Women In Jeopardy, and we were in talks about The White Chip returning to Off-Broadway, and launching in the West End in London.

We also had a summer of musical workshop lined up for Arizona Theatre Company, developing shows for us and Broadway.

But we are now doing an online reading of The White Chip on Monday, May 11th with the original Off-Broadway cast as a benefit for Arizona Theatre Company and the Voices Project – so no project is ever really cancelled! "

How have you been personally impacted by our current situation?

"The best advice I got when I took this job was 'Character counts. It just does. And when coupled with competence it is very powerful. Allow the job to make you a bigger person. Allow it to make you a better one.'

And while that was true in my first 9 months (in my new role at ATC) – it has been something I think about every day in month 10 and 11. We made the choice early on to try to be as communicative and transparent as we could – and as we heard horror stories from the ways other staffs were treated, we stuck to it.

We laid off 65% of our staff, and I spoke to everyone on the artistic/production staff. I don’t say that to compliment myself at all – but the truth is, how does the job today make a bigger person? It’s about working to take care of people I am letting go, when I know their children are also on the theater’s health insurance – and it’s about how extra hard I work to bring them back – and how do we always treat our people like humans, because at the end of the day we have nice buildings, but our theatre is not a building, it’s the people who work there – so how do we protect the thing that actually makes us who we are.

And if I’m honest, how do I acknowledge the real emotional cost of carrying that each day, and not let it harden or ruin me or take it out on others.

We all got into Artistic Direction because on some level, we love making the work of other artists possible, and now we spend so much of our time letting people know that their work, and their paycheck is postponed.

But I think the job right now is being communicative, honest, and yet with enough optimism to keep us moving forward. "

How has your daily routine changed?

"I will say that a silver lining is that I get to eat lunch every day with my wife and daughter – we go on more walks at 5 PM – and whenever I forget to lock the door to my office my daughter crashes my Zoom calls – which I think really makes them a touch more bearable. "

What do you feel will be different when theater restarts?

"The best thing that happened to us as an organization is that in a few short weeks we went from being 'not great' at social media to it being our main platform. We have very quickly brought our organization into the current moment with daily content, connection and excitement thru the web. From live talk shows, to weekly podcasts, to tons of short form content, our website is now where you can go when our doors are closed. How will it be different when we’re back? We need to keep ALL of that going. "

When do you think that’ll happen?

"I keep aiming for the Fall. "

What have you been doing to stay creative during this time?

"I have been so uncreative that I actually started dreaming that I was forgetting how to direct. At least my brain has replaced the 'late for a test for a class I stopped attending' stress dream of the last 30 years. "

Any binge tv shows you’ve watched?

"My wife loves garbage reality TV, and I don’t – but honestly, after each day of fundraising and working from home (and each day feeling like a month), it’s suddenly all I can do also. So, '90 Day Finance: Before The 90 Days’ has suddenly been something we share together.  It’s really impressive how they stretch 7 minutes of content into hours of tv. "

Any new hobbies you’ve taken on?

"I love a great video game, and some good reading – so no new hobbies, but I’m pretty dedicated to getting thru the new Spiderman game and the Magician’s book series before the quarantine is over. "

How has this experience changed you?

"I think I actually love theatre people a bit more now.

If there’s any group of people who have always been underdogs, that chose a field that it’s nearly impossible to make a living in - and yet did - that believe so much in their community and their theater, that they’re up for a daily fight – no one is better suited for this moment than theatre people.

To watch all the theatre people in my life work overtime to figure out how to keep our field going, to keep stories out there, to teach free master classes, to mentor, to witness online – what other field has that? What other field in a moment of utter devastation and financial insecurity turns to mentorship and care?

Theatre people are the best. I always believed that, but now I know it.

What is the one thing you’re most looking forward to when the stay at home order is lifted?

"Gathering. Celebrating. Hugging my friends. My daughter in a park with other kids. Ordering an appetizer. When the plane wheels hit the ground and you’re in a new town. Baseball.

But mostly, the moment in between the end of that first back Opening Night Speech and the first sound cue of our first show back. When we know we made it. "