(in the unicorn lobby)
(a director prepares- or gives notes after a preview)
Applied Mechanics would like you to meet Ian Crawford. He’s the Associate Artistic Director of Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City Missouri, and a monthly donor to Applied Mechanics. We are exceedingly grateful to our monthly donors for their continued support, which makes the work we do possible at every level; from our smallest administrative tasks to our largest theatrical undertakings. If you too would like to follow Ian’s lead and become a monthly donor, click on the button below. Our fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas makes it VERY easy to schedule monthly payments of any size. But before you browse to the support page, check out our interview with this lovely human being and cherished friend of Applied Mechanics:
Name: Ian R. Crawford
Sign: bullheaded Taurus here!
Job description: Associate Artistic Director of Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City Missouri- I get to direct and design plays and help run a busy new play theatre!
How did you come to know Applied Mechanics?
I first learned about Applied Mechanics while attending a fabulous symposium for directors in Umbria Italy where I met the brilliant Rebecca Wright and fell in artistic love with her and her work. the plays she created with Applied Mechanics and the beautiful vision for artistic creation and community spoke to my heart and thrilled my theatrical soul. I knew even though their work is happening many miles away from me that this was a company with a mission and vision for the theatre that I believe in deeply.
What made you decide to do a monthly donation?
As a theatre artists and former non-profit fundraiser myself, I know the importance of consistent monthly giving. When a company, big or small, can count on regular donations it helps them to plan and dream bigger and though my little monthly donation is meager, I know overtime it can make a big difference. I hope that some other lovers of Applied Mechanics might read this and decide to convert to monthly giving, go for it! I think monthly giving is one of the most important ways to support the artistic communities we believe in.
What’s your favorite thing about your job/working in theater?
I think my favorite thing about having a full time job in the theatre is that no two days are the same. Working on new plays and being charged with caring for an historic building in midtown Kansas City means that some days I’m helping to cast a reading of a new play that has never been heard before and some days I’m mopping the floor or getting a broken window fixed or cleaning up literal human shit and some day’s I get to be in the room with theatre artists I admire to help to bring their vision to life. I get do what has to be done to make great art. It’s not always glamorous but its always different.
What’s one cool thing about making art in Kansas City?
I feel really lucky to have found an artistic home here, I know that is unique especially for a younger director. Unicorn is devoted to working with local artists. Getting to support and sustain a community of incredible theatre makers and to grow those relationships and share that talent with our city is unique and special. Over the years, having theatres (like the Unicorn) committed to working with local artists has meant folks could make a home here in Kansas City and have a family and still get to do their work without having to move to one of them bigger cities. So, getting to help maintain a local artistic community in this town is pretty cool.
What are you working on next/right now?
I just directed the World Premiere of Babel* by Philly playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger! (coming to Theatre Exile in Philly real soon!) this play is part of the National New Play Network’s Rolling World Premiere program and we are one of 6 theatres producing the play all across the country over the next 12 months- it has been an exciting wild ride and I feel honored to help birth this awesome crazy new baby of a play.
*Babel opens at Theater Exile in Philadelphia on February 19th, starring Mechanician Anita Holland! To buy tickets click here.
What do you love to see on stage?
oooh I like to be surprised, I love scary on stage because I think we can do it better than movies. I like to see queer shit on stage because I exist and I’m real too. I like to see big bold messy beautiful new ideas, successful or not, go big!
What’s on your bedside table?
A pulpy Julian Fellows novel called Belgravia for all my costume drama escapist fantasies, books on old house restoration because I love my creaky old 1908 Arts and Crafts bungalow and I’m slowly lovingly restoring it with my sweet husband. A few books on queer sex magick cuz 2020 is making me feel witchy and gay. And lube!
What’s the last awesome play you saw/movie you saw/book you read/song you heard/piece of visual art you saw (pick one–or as many as you like!)?
I was able to experience a bunch of Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms when they were touring through the Cleveland museum of art and they were stunning and surreal and fun and funny (I love when I can laugh in a museum) There’s this silly wonderful song called France by OPAL that I often put on for my walk to work- it makes me giggle and its a little trippy, like an aural kaleidoscope and it has a fun kicky walking beat.
(babies… from one crazy night in Rome)
(with playwright Hilary Bettis in Mexico City working on the Rolling World Premiere of The Ghosts of Lote Bravo)
