ARTISTIC STATEMENT

"I believe the future of theater and film will depend on tangible stories with world themes. I believe that not only will theater and film reach more audience members soon, but it will be theater and film that isn’t afraid to say, “This is what’s wrong in the world, and this is how you can fix it!”

Even before COVID and LOCKDOWN, I observed the world through the 9-1-1 calls. We took and thought, “Is it just me, or are the calls getting crazier and crazier?” Then the lockdown hit, and I was an essential worker and had to go in daily while people were staying home because there was no work for them. That time of history tested people in ways I had never seen before because they weren’t always nice to each other. They weren’t always supportive, and there was great division on every subject in the media. I was coming home wiped out and with no outlet. Theaters were closed. That meant my social life and 4 nights a week of workshops were closed. I was depressed, and I was mad at the world for doing this to me and my loved ones. Then, I had my first Zoom session. I thought it was terrific. The people I loved were being brought into my bedroom, and we had our own television network once we learned how to “UNMUTE.” I lay in my bed and thought, “What do we do?” I decided to dive into studying old-time radio shows and went right to my hero, Orson Welles, and I started to take apart his classic War of the Worlds. I “percolated” on the situation and what assets were
at hand.

I wrote a script. “NOW, NOW, NOW...” A Covid-infected, fascist-inspired, alien, take over and, thanks to Zoom, we can go into the Covid-free homes of our friends and all act together in our own live Zoom Show.

Once a week for a year, twenty-nine actors from New York to Los Angeles would perform a free show for anyone who logged in! Over Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube, we brought
them live performances and a complete story that won awards in virtual Fringe Festivals and was featured on ABC News in Los Angeles. We did theater and film in our homes, and we touched lives. That’s what theater and film will be doing more and more in the future. With every great technological advancement, there is a slingshot response that is not as great but extremely large, so large that it changes society. They once said that this new thing called “The Information Superhighway” or “The Internet” would destroy live theater and that people would never leave their houses. Theater and film grew because of this invention. People discovered theater companies in their own neighborhoods or new shows they wanted to see because of “THE NET,” and theater and film had a bonanza!

COVID set us back, and iPhone and streaming are faster and faster, but I believe this is setting theater and film up for the next boon! We are being inundated with negative information about a world that people believe is dying, but I believe it will be the artists, theater, and film artists in particular that will NOT be afraid of the powers that be, and theater and film artists will be brave enough to point their fingers at all the problems in the world and say,” THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG AND THIS IS HOW YOU FIX IT!” through plays! Live performances on a stage and streaming at the same time by a play that is written to follow the line of action of a character in a new world with the same problems as the viewer, and this will relieve the a viewer of their worry, and as an audience, they will free up their hearts and use their minds to compare and think as the character saves the world. ONLY THEATER AND FILM CAN DO THIS, and I want to be there and lead the way in making it happen!
- TOM CAVANAUGH

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

​