When it comes to creating art, there is great strength in the power of collaboration. As Louisa May Alcott once said, “it takes two flints to make a fire.” Just ask Karen Azenberg. For the past eight seasons Azenberg has been Artistic Director of Pioneer Theatre Company., , is considered one of the nation’s most successful non-profit regional theaters. The company is devoted to nurturing and presenting works that, as Azenberg says, “say something urgent and necessary.
So enter Chris Massimine, Pioneer Theatre Company’s Managing Director who just began his tenure last July. “I need someone with great artistic vision who won’t stop elevating the bar,” says Massimine of his needs. Before he joined PTC Massimine was CEO of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene . He received the National Theatre Conference’s Theatre of the Year Award for his commitment for bridging social and cultural divides through the arts.
Finding out how best to communicate to each other—the directions we’re going in, the directions we want to go in, and what directions we need to go in, then how to prioritize all of that between us—is critical early in the relationship. Everything is important. And in a theater everything is really important. Ridiculously so. To a fault.... [+]Brunner: Can you talk about how your journeys helped you come into your own?I was a dancer because I was told I can’t be a choreographer.