Of course, it's not a particularly small niche. A generous eye can see perhaps every play ever written as offering some insight or highlighting some aspect of the nature of family, but in a city where companies are forever vying for attention and space, family is a uniquely underappreciated starting point for theater-making.
Indeed even BackStage was not born with this domestic focus in mind. When it was founded in 2000 its bread and butter was technically ambitious productions meant to challenge the theatrical possibilities of small-budget shows. Ten years later and now helmed by Matthew Reeder, its fourth artistic director, BackStage is feeling right at home in its new mission.
In a recent conversation, Reeder expressed his continued excitement at the direction the company has taken, "Everybody is born into a family; everybody leaves a family. It's a kind of universal meta-journey we all share."
The delight and continued surprise of producing work centered on families is the variety and complexity of the work they can do, while still maintaining a clear identity. In the past year, Reeder has directed shows facing some of the darkest possibilities of family life as in the critically acclaimed How I Learned to Drive or the recent Aunt Dan and Lemon. "In a healthy family you're encouraged to consider a wide range of ideas," Reeder explains. "We always want [to produce] an intellectually challenging, intimate theatrical experience."
But as dark as some plays can get, for Reeder the experience of family and of BackStage is ultimately positive; not just lively, but life affirming. "We all have families," he says, "and we all have a theatre company that excites us and invigorates us."
Join the family: find out more about BackStage Theater Company on their website and Facebook page.Benno Nelson