MacKinnon
very exciting equity, diversity and inclusion work.
But it’s stepping into sort of an ongoing machine that has a lot of institutional stickiness and figuring out how to move things forward — in particular, make it a more open and welcoming space to artists, staff, audience, students. So, that has been a lot of really exciting but difficult day-today, hour-to-hour work.
Qthey would come back the following season. Everything came in two- to three-month chunks and it felt, at a certain point, adolescent. It felt like it wasn’t accumulating beyond myself. I got really interested in wanting to be part of building organizations, building institutions — being part of culture change, being part of COVID-19 hit in something that has a time March 2020. When frame that is maybe a year did you first realize it was or maybe five years. going to be such a game
I was approached by a changer? headhunter — who I am
A
sure approached a lot of I was in the late people — for this coveted stages of rehearsal job at ACT, and I stepped and previews for “Toni into the interview process Stone,” a nine-character and got more and more interested. play that had been in my life for a long, long time. I
was very excited to put it
Q
ACT was obviously up at ACT. So, I was in a very interested as very focused space. well … The word “pandemic”
started to become something
A
It’s great to have an real partway artistic home and it’s through our rehearsal process. great just to have a bigger But I don’t think I timeline. It’s been very am alone in having never gratifying thinking about dreamed that this would projects for this community, be now a year out, and this for this city, for these would affect my industry times. And also thinking so devastatingly. about how can this organization We closed and opened support artists the show that I was working who aren’t me — who on the same day — don’t look like me, who March 11 (2020). We shut are at different stages in down another show in another their careers? Just thinking space that same about the art form in a night. Then we canceled bigger way. the remainder of the season by March 16 and left
Q
How would you review our office spaces to continue your first year or work remotely. I was so on the job? thinking, “Well, we are going to be back together by
A
It’s hard. It’s a large the fall.” But, yeah, here organization and taking we are. over from a leader who
Q
had been in the role for How has ACT
26 years. We are still reorganizing. adapted to the new We are still figuring environment? out how to move
A
things forward. There is It’s devastating. The a lot of necessary culture pillar of what we change. There is a lot of do (is) onstage storytelling,
gathering people together in place — the opposite of social distancing in every way, both in how we make it and then how we share it. We are a theater. We are about gathering together.
We pivoted. And we pivoted really fast. That’s the
word of the era in all industries right now, but especially one that is about live and in person.
We are living in a digital age, so we can actually deliver theater to homes. But both the making process and the delivery process is so different than
— I’ll speak personally — what I have spent my entire career on. Making digital theater has been rewarding. We have employed artists, which feels really great. As an institution, we are still being creative.
But we had to let go of a lot of people. That has been devastating.
Q
Talk to me about the financial impact. How will ACT recover from those pressures?
A
We don’t have as much ticket money coming in, obviously. We do have some. We certainly also have some very loyal and committed donors, who have continued to contribute. They recognize that they want ACT to come through this.
When I stepped in as artistic director, our budget was at $27 million. Going through my first year, we recognized that was too high — that was not sustainable — so we cut it down to approximately $22 million. Then coming through COVID, this year’s budget is $14 million. So, we are a very different organization. And coming out of COVID, yeah, we are in desperate need. Looking at next year’s budget, we will have a gap. And we don’t yet know how to cover it.
Q
How can patrons help support local arts organizations like ACT? A
Subscribe. A subscription to any theater is a both a display of a commitment (and) it does get money to the organization upfront. Take a chance on digital programming. You would be amazed. Not of all it is fantastic out there. But there is a lot of really interesting content coming out.
We also do a lot of free content. Even if you don’t have the financial ability, let’s say, to subscribe, there are ways to get involved. And your involvement — even if it’s like clicking on a podcast so our numbers go up — actually helps us.