S D A

Dispatch #1

Edited by Robert Avila

March 2022

The following reminiscence from Brent, recounting his fateful 2014 meeting in Budapest with Hungarian director and current collaborator Árpád Schilling, is excerpted from Episode 1 of the S D A podcast (and lightly edited for readability). You can learn more about the S D A project between Schilling and the Imaginists HERE, and hear Episode 1’s complete conversation with Brent and Amy by going HERE.

“After a tumultuous visit, Philip got back in touch with us, saying, ‘Guys, you’re on the top of Tamás’s list. That means you’ve got to go see Árpád. We need a meeting.’ He said, ‘Discuss which one of you is going, and I think you need a partner.’ At that point, we were working with Gabe Maxon. It just seemed obvious to us that Gabe was going to be a great partner for a project—a great partner also to go [to Budapest] with because he had been to Hungary. . . .

“So we went there in 2014. Gabe and I had a day or two to make our way around town. Martín invited us up just to look at the space and we got to tour the Krétakör offices. Everything was empty. I think they were just about to move out. But it was gorgeous. For us, it was heaven. Anywhere the ghosts are good. This is where it’s happening. It was obvious. The energy was unbelievable. It was so magical.

“But no Árpád that day, and afterward we made our way around town. We would go into shops—a record store, a smoke shop, whatever. It was always, like, ‘What are you guys doing here?’ ‘We’re seeing Árpád.’ ‘Oh! Oh, Árpád Schilling! Oh my God, that’s great!’ Everyone knew this guy. The more familiar I got with Budapest and Árpád being this mythic figure, I got more and more rattled. Gabe and I would go out and have beers at night. Gabe was, like, “This is the plan. You talk about your education work, talk about your community… I’ll jump in with some future project stuff…’ Gabe had great ideas. Gabe, he talks. In fact, he said, ‘If I get to talking too much at the meeting just stare me down or kick me under the table and I’ll shut up, because I have a problem with that.’ I said, no problem, we’ll work it out.

“We met Tamás the day of the meeting. Tamás had set the meeting up and had suggested we have coffee before the meeting. We met him in a cafe, had coffee, and then made our way up to the Krétakör offices again. Árpád’s assistant let us in, and asked us to please wait, saying that he was still busy in his office. I think we may have had tea again. Gabe and I finally were let into Árpád’s office, which was not that big, but big desk, with Árpád on one side. Tamás joined him at the corner, and then Gabe and I on the other side. There were a few things up on the table, and I launched. I said, we’re this theater company in Santa Rosa… I mean, the more I went into the story, the more ludicrous it all sounded, the more stupid. I was just thinking, What in the hell am I doing here?! There were little things on the table that I started moving around, mapping Santa Rosa. You know, ‘We’re here, and this is San Francisco…,’ and I was moving these little things all around.

“Árpád was just sitting back looking at me like I was a nutcase. I was talking about our community work, our education work, how similar we are, how I thought this was a great potential match up, how I just think that there’s something to this. I kept looking at Gabe at this point, thinking, ‘Gabe. Any time. Jump in. I’m ready. I think I’ve said it all. Gabe. Gabe! What’s going on?’ There was nothing coming from Gabe. For the first time in our whole three days together, Gabe did not talk. Nothing came out of Gabe’s mouth, and I thought, Oh man. I just rattled on for, I think, another 15 minutes until Árpád said, ‘Well, that’s all the time we have.’ It felt like an audition! The worst audition I’ve ever had!

“I put the things on the table back where they should have been. There was this long pause. And Árpád said, ‘I think I’m interested. This is interesting to me.’ He said, ‘I went to the States once, a long time ago. We toured a show there. I didn’t find it that interesting. But I’m interested in this.’

“We all left his office. I felt like I had just been hit with something—I didn’t get out of that cloud for a few hours, thinking, Did that just happen? And what does it mean? And what is going to happen next?”

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S D A (Someone Dies Again) examines the central role of guns and gun violence in contemporary American society. The Imaginists are commissioning acclaimed Hungarian theater director Árpád Schilling to create a new work that will bring his outsider’s eye to an issue that is unique to American society. Building on a longstanding artistic collaboration between the Imaginists and Schilling, the new work will highlight a shared artistic sensibility that prizes risk-taking, experimentation, and theater as instigation and provocation.

Z Space, San Francisco:

Preview: May 19th

Premiere: May 20th

Run: May 21, 25, 26, 27, 28

Imaginists, Santa Rosa:

Run: June 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11.

Ticket and show information coming soon.

We have a podcast chronicling the process available HERE

Árpád Schilling’s website HERE

Read more about the work of Árpád Schilling here: Meeting with Árpád Schilling | Árpád Schilling, the theater of resistance 

the Imaginists has been selected as a recipient of a Hewlett 50 Arts Commission, a program of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Imaginists is among a stellar group of 10 Bay Area-based non-profit organizations that will receive $150,000 to commission important and unique works of theater, musical theater, and spoken word. More information about the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions HERE.

S D A is an incredible undertaking. We appreciate the encouragement and support we’ve received so far. If you’d like to contribute to this project, please donate!

This work is made possible by Trust for Mutual Understanding, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Center for International Theatre Development, and Imaginists’ Bedrock Donors.