San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
It’s a mouthful of a name, for a very special place on the northern waterfront of San Francisco. And it is very much an artistic home for We Players, thanks to a robust Cooperative Agreement that spans 2012-2017. We recently had a meeting with SAFR (the NPS code for that 15 syllable name) where our agreement was referenced, and I took the opportunity to revisit the language in our “Statement of Work” –
“We Players will produce various site-specific traveling theatre productions and other art and community engagement programs at various sites throughout San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. In the course of the programs, park visitors will be encouraged to explore multiple park areas. Programs will be presented both during the day and evening, daytime programs will be accessible to all park visitors at no charge. Programs will generally be ticketed (some offered free of charge) and open to the public. ‘We Players may offer focus group workshops, i.e., art workshops open to the public.’”
In our planning meeting and again as I re-read this, I am reminded how much the staff at the Park respect Ava and I, admire the quality of our work, and appreciate our professionalism. I understand that trust today, having created two full-scale site-integrated theatre productions, presented several music concerts, and hosted multiple workshops and parties at the Park in recent years. What’s amazing to me is that San Francisco Maritime went out on a limb to establish We Players as a cooperating agency in 2012 – just a year after being established as a formal organization, and only a few months after we received our non-profit status. Just as (then site-supervisor) Amy Brees’ invitation to a three-year creative residency on Alcatraz Island, 2009-11 helped us shape our programming and design our organization to truly address our mission, San Francisco Maritime’s partnership is helping We Players deepen our practice and further our mission of connecting people with place.
Deliberately shaping We Players’ lasting creative contributions to the Park is what’s most interesting to me as we continue working with the lovely staff and volunteers aboard the historic ships, on Hyde Street Pier and in the Maritime Museum. As site-integrated performing artists, we excel at creating ephemeral beauty, captivating audiences with full sensory experience, and provoking thought on the shared themes embedded in a story and site. And, we are very interested in sharing the fruit and scattering the seeds of our practice, which we find central to a creative and fulfilling life in healthy relationship with people and place. I look forward to developing and sharing our programming at San Francisco Maritime this fall, and working with our artists and Park staff to create new interpretation programs that will hopefully live on long after 2017.
– Lauren D. Chavez, We Players Managing Director