Pirate Ships Under Cover

I'm a Tori Amos fan ... or nutzoid. Whatevs. You might know this since I quote and talk about her more times than not.

So ... you may or may not know that Tori toured with Alanis Morrissette back in 1999. I saw her on that tour in Pittsburgh. Anyways ... Tori was asked by interviewers time and time again about what it was like working with Alanis, yadda yadda yadda and a couple of quotes popped out to me and sum up how I feel about our theatre company, art, how we go about creating it and how we collaborate with other theatre companies ...

"We get along very well . . . It's like two pirate ships that have gone into the same cover together."

"It's been about holding space for each other ..."

"Charlie Rose: I mean.. well, was their conflict, was there tension? or was it just a
lovefest?
Tori Amos: no tension because.. I think honestly, she approached me and she did it
in a way that was like, "hey, lets be creative and put two shows together,
two separate shows and um.. I had to bring my own production. I didn't want
to do anything where I couldn't bring my own production because that's not
how i work. I have a pirate ship, I have a captain..
C: yes
T: I'm the ship(giggle)
C: yes
T: i have loads of chefs
C: yes
T: and all sorts of people floating around. thieves, fantastic. few
harlots.
C: yes
T: all on my ship
C: yes
T: and we all had to come and be respected that, you know, no compromise on
any level. and, she has her captain, she is her ship, and of course thats
how it had to be approached. and, because of that mutual respect it worked
out really well."



We're the captains of our pirate ship. You do what you have to do to keep your art and motivations sacred. And you have to remember to do things your own way. Sometimes you can converge with another but it's a very tricky negotiation. You have to maintain your own identity.

How do you imagine your theatre company?

RZ

For more Tori quotes on Alanis and vice versa, please visit http://www.thedent.com/torialanis.html