We Players has been transforming public spaces into realms of participatory theater for over a decade. Founded by Ava Roy at Stanford University in Spring 2000, our community has always involved participants from diverse backgrounds. WE are a revolving collective of actors, dancers, musicians, academics, teachers, non-profiteers, chefs, therapists, and writers. We Players began modestly, a group of friends and interested acquaintances speaking classic texts and referencing the OED in evening salons, exploring and timing possible routes on scouting missions, and dancing and playing in all sorts of fabulous places.
Never formally organized and never having much funding, our early performances began with a small group of in-the-know audience, and regularly doubled or tripled in size by the end of the show. Through our early years, We Players honed our skills for engaging diverse audiences and encouraging strong performances from people with little experience to masters of their craft.
While many We Players supporters have been devotedly following the work for years, our audiences are always changing based on the performance site. When presenting a piece in an open public area the audience is comprised of both We Players fans specifically there to see the show, and passersby and regular visitors to the site, who might have happened upon us during a rehearsal or during the performance itself. In our current partnership with the National Park Service, we are creating visual art installations that are accessible to diverse population of regular park visitors, as well as drawing visitors to local park sites specifically to engage with our work.
We Players has operated on a project basis for most of our company’s existence. Beginning in 2008, we have worked hard to maintain momentum in the off-season, develop our financial stability, expand our youth and outreach programs, and showcase a variety of great works successively. We have been blessed by invitations in recent years, a welcome change to the time-intensive challenge of convincing space stewards of the benefits of our presence and process. We have been blessed by significant support from individuals and funding organizations. And we have been blessed to find renewed inspiration from the same amazing space, year after year on Alcatraz. WE are on the verge of establishing our own non-profit, and we look forward to learning more about our local landscapes, communities, histories and myths.
