What is Improbable Athenaeum?
I call us a performance troupe, rather than a theater company, because we do plays and staged readings but we also do dance/poetry/art events: whatever type of literary performance strikes our fancy. We’ve got a collaborative, DIY, found-objects-art ethos.
Where can we see your work?
Right now, come see us at St. Catherine of Alexandria Episcopal Church in Temple Terrace (info below)! They are our partners and hosts for The Story Brought by Brigit. In general, all over the place. Often in libraries, art galleries or public places, because our tag line is “Art for Everyone” — we think of ourselves as arts ambassadors who take performance out to unexpected places.
What's different about Brigit (as compared to your other events)?
It’s certainly the first passion play we’ve produced, and the first performance in a church. That noted, The Story Brought by Brigit seems part of a continuum to me. It’s a lovely, literary script and a play that our audience might not otherwise get to see. We do an Irish play or poetry reading every year about this time. Because of the Irish folklore aspect, and the connections the author’s drawn between the mountain rebels of Israel at Christ’s time and the Irish independence movement of hers, this play is more revolutionary than you might expect a passion play to be. We spend a lot of time with the poor people and the women who follow Christ. For all of that, it’s deeply reverent. Every word Christ says is straight from the Scriptures.
What made IA choose this work?
The beauty of the script and the joy of the subject matter.
Recently, more and more women seem to vocal about good roles/equal pay/equal treatment for women, but your passion for finding theater equality in theater goes back… well, a lot longer than this most recent vocal uprising. What was the moment in your life when you realized this was a passion that mattered to you?
The moment when I put it into practice was my birthday in 2000, out at Four Green Fields with Teresa Gallar. T and I were both production managers for other theaters at the time, and talking about the kind of theater we wanted to be creating and the plays we’d like to see produced. We formed Alley Cat Players there and then, so we could do ourselves the work we wanted to see done. Over the years, Alley Cats morphed into Improbable Athenaeum, which I hope is a better name, but retains the same guiding principles.
You have a daughter. How are you and your husband, Ned Averill-Snell, raising her to be a strong woman? To borrow from a story circulating on social media, what will you tell/have you told your daughter to do when a boy snaps her bra strap/ comments on her developing body/tries to chase her and kiss her (do boys still do that?)?
We’re raising her to be a strong woman by example, by giving her as much space as is consistent with her age to make decisions for herself, and by listening to her and taking her thoughts seriously. I’ve told her straight-out and repeatedly that politeness does not enter into it if someone puts hands on you and you don’t want them to. Be loud and draw attention; make a fuss; you’ve every right to protect yourself if they won’t stop; and know that you’re never going to be alone in facing consequences. Your family will have your back.
Tell our readers something outrageous about yourself only people who know your middle name might know.
That I’m fulfilling a promise by producing this. St. Brigid is my patron saint — Brigid’s my confirmation name as well as the name I gave my daughter. I choose her to be devoted to because she’s known for charity, for scholarship and for bravery, all attributes I would hope to emulate (the Irish imbued her with many of the attributes of the pagan goddess Brigid as well, who got sort of folded into the stories about the saint). I’ve been waiting to produce a full production of a play rather than just a reading or one-night performance piece because I’d sworn that Improbable Athenaeum’s next play would be dedicated to her. We’ve been doing smaller things for a while, and this is our return to a more robust production schedule.
Cathy Salustri is the arts + entertainment editor for Creative Loafing Tampa. Contact her here.
This article appears in Mar 15-22, 2018.