Recently, there has been a rapid turnover of theatrical company executives. Some people have been kicked out of their jobs. Others quit to do something else in the arts.
Daniella Topol, artistic director and longtime theater director of the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, is retiring to become a nurse.
The unusual move arrives at a pivotal moment for small Off-Broadway company Rattlestick. In addition to regenerating after a long pandemic shutdown, Rattlestick is about to embark on a much-needed renovation of its cozy but imperfect West Village home. 19th century church parish house.
Topol, 47, has led Rattlestick since 2016, succeeding David Van Asselt, who co-founded the company. Shortly before taking her leadership position, she directed a production of ‘Ironbound’ by Martina Majok at Rattlestick. Martina Majok won the Pulitzer Prize for “Cost of Living”.
Three years later, Topol changed her trajectory with another piece directed at Rattlestick. and consulted with nurses and nursing students as patrons moved from place to place associated with the story in a lamenting play. sparked.
“The seed was planted, and then we kept moving forward. Six months after that, the pandemic hit and there was a lot of reflection: ‘Where are we as a field?’ ‘Where are we as a country?’ ‘Where are we going?’ ‘What are the roles we play and don’t play?’ ‘How do I hold power and privilege as a white woman?’ ‘Why?’ Where do you fit in?” she said. “Obviously, I’ve done a lot of reflection on my own private life. I’ve also thought about the meaningful and rewarding experiences I’ve had on a very personal level. Many of them are complex. I was so focused on the inside of maternity care, I felt like I was in line with the stars.”
She said she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do as a nurse, but she planned to stay in New York and mentioned her mother’s health and birth equity. The overturn of the Roe v. Wade ruling increased her interest, especially hers. “I’ve been pregnant multiple times. Late loss, early loss, and kids,” said Topol, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her 10-year-old daughter. “I feel it’s a way to contain the loss and it helps inform the next step on a very personal level.”
So while she prepares to direct Rattlestick’s final play this fall and works on other theater projects, she’s taking prerequisite courses and volunteering at a hospital. Rattlestick has begun looking for her successor, and she hopes to duplicate that person and retire before she enters nursing school next summer or fall.
“I was just a theater person,” she said. “I wake up at 4:30 a.m., study science, learn muscles and bones, dissect pigs. It’s all kinds of things I never thought I’d do.”
Topol said there are other factors as well. She said she’s been thinking about “how long everyone should stay in what kind of leadership position,” and said the civil rights turmoil of 2020 has strengthened her thoughts. , and how much power sharing exists – defines what the trajectory of the field is.
“There are other great artists who have taken over Rattlestick and have done an amazing job and imagined things I never could have imagined,” she added.
As the paths of Topol and Rattlestick diverge, she is interested in shedding light on the theater’s commitment to survival, growth, and a smooth transition.
Founded in 1994, the company is small — with a pre-pandemic annual budget of $1.2 million, 80% of which came from foundations and donors — but not just Majok’s early plays, Annie Baker, Samuel D. Hunter, Dale Orlander Smith, Heidi Schleck. The theater describes part of its mission as driving “societal change,” and many of its shows reflect that. The first play after closing was “Ni Mi Madre”. This is an acclaimed autobiographical look at culture and sexuality by Arturo Luis Soria, whom the theater is currently commissioning to write a follow-up.
“What I love about Rattlestick is that we’re small, silly, authentic, taking chances and not plagued with huge institutional problems of unreachable large spaces. We are more like motorcycles than cruise ships,” Topol said. It gives you the flexibility to turn around.”
Topol said he was comfortable leaving, partly because the theater had a well-funded plan to redo the performance space it had amicably rented. St. John’s in the Village, Anglican. The theater space, which has been in place since 1999, has had two major challenges. The theater is inaccessible to those who cannot climb stairs as it is necessary to climb narrow stairs to get there. The only way to use the bathroom is across the stage.
Rattlestick has now raised about half the $4 million from the city to fund a project to add the most basic elevators and patron toilets, but moving the front door will keep the entrance and the theater itself separate. also modernize. We set up a ticket office and a small lobby and removed the raised stage to make performances and seating areas flexible and accessible. The theater can accommodate up to 93 people, much the same as it does today. “It’s not ‘bigger is better,'” Topol said. “We feel like it’s really the right size for the work we do.”
The refurbishment will allow Rattlestick to stay in the West Village, which has become a very expensive area, but a district where theaters have long existed and are determined to remain. Rattlestick also shares a rehearsal space on Gansevoort Street with three of her other theater companies. “Keeping places for artists in our neighborhoods is very important,” said Marta Saunders, the renovation’s architect.
Construction will begin next summer, pending city approval, and Topol hopes it will last for a year. During construction, the theater showed productions elsewhere. Theaters continue to raise funds for programming and operations.
Jeff Tankitikasem, chairman of the theater’s board of directors, said he was surprised by Topol’s move but came to support it.
“When I first heard about it, I tried to convince her, but my mother was a nurse. I saw that connection of wanting to take care of people in a way…” he said. “I was shocked, but when I thought about it, I could see where the connection was to who she was.”
Thamkittikasem said the organization was sound and the board retained a search firm to find a successor to Topol. “Rattlestick is in a very strong position since Daniela took over. It’s rising.”
