Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Reck.
Hi Caroline, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was raised in California by social scientist parents, but I had an artistic mindset from very young. I got into theatre like most people do by acting, but I was very frustrated by the roles available, especially to women and non-binary people. I got intrigued by the idea of creating performance work, of using performance to help audiences see a situation from diverse perspectives. I tried performance art and mime, but they both lacked the subtlety I was looking for. I discovered the tiny field of devised performance while studying in college and began trying to figure out how to pursue it (in the days before the internet put you in reach with like minds in the world).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road to devising original theater is not an obvious one, especially in the United States, where traditional, hierarchical theatre structures had/ (in many cases still have) a chokehold on the industry. I moved out of the country for a while to Europe when I was a young person, which is friendlier to the devised theater format, and managed to train in Movement Theatre while scraping by as a nanny, a house cleaner, and an English tutor. I think the complicated and winding path to this career encouraged my creativity and tenacity. While I was living abroad, I couldn’t afford books in English a TV, go to internet cafes, or to buy alcohol, so honestly I had a lot of time to think and imagine without the benefit of entertainment or distractions. I learned other languages and met people from all over the world, which informed my belief that we are formed by our cultural backgrounds, and we can learn new ways of being. These experiences influence the work I create, which is globally-minded, multilingual, and optimistic about reimagining how people live on the planet in the face of social and climate struggles.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a Co-Artistic Director of Glass Half Full (Theatre). We construct visual stories to illuminate urgent issues of social and environmental justice. We use innovative puppetry forms, physical theatre narratives, and multilingual performance to enable audiences to experience complex ideas from multiple perspectives. The work centers overlooked populations, species, and objects: bicycle-riding Victorian feminist travelers, migratory birds trapped in rapidly expanding cities, indigenous communities battered by climate change, and plastic cups left to (never) rot in landfills. We make puppets out of cast-off objects and trash to give things new purpose and remind the world that nothing– not people, not objects, not the planet– is disposable. We like to give audiences a reminder about the ways we are all interconnected, that we are not alone on this planet, that our actions matter. This work has been performed on stages in Austin and throughout the US to adult and youth audiences. I also teach as an adjunct theatre professor, specializing in Movement Theatre and Puppetry. I’m particularly drawn to helping emerging theater artists and puppeteers find their own framework to tell their original stories in the format the story demands.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I constantly refer to the book “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever to Reverse Global Warming”
Contact Info:
- Email: caroline@GlassHalfFullTheatre.com
- Website: www.GlassHalfFullTheatre.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glasshalffulltheatre/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GHFTheatre/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/GlassHalfFullTheatre
- Other: https://vimeo.com/glasshalffulltheatre
Image Credits:
photos by Julia M. Smith, Dannie Snyder, Kate Taylor
