“Theatres are meant to be living, breathing, organisms,” he says. “Every leader should, at all times, be willing to undergo radical transformation, because communities undergo radical transformation all the time.”
As Theatreworks celebrates its 50th season, two new leaders, Giles and artistic director Max Shulman, are stepping into the spotlight. Shulman, who started as artistic director mid-summer, will lead the creative vision, while Giles, who took on the new general director role in early October, will lead strategic operations, business development and community partnerships.
Having Giles in the general director position, an entirely new role for the company, broadens Theatreworks’ horizons, Shulman says.
“It just expands our reach and our bandwidth and our attempts to serve the community,” he says. “It also allows the artistic side, which is really what I represent, to focus even more on creating great work, working with artists and being more adventurous.”
The two are excited to shepherd the company into its next era, and want to make it one that’s as vibrant as the community it’s a part of.
“It’s our responsibility to speak to our whole community,” Shulman says. “We need to make sure we’re telling a diversity of stories from a diversity of perspectives. I think everybody has the right to go to art and see themselves represented.”
Shulman, who has been a professor of theatre in the UCCS visual and performing arts department for nearly a decade, also led the HomeFront Theatre Project, which centered the experiences of veterans and military personnel.
“Theatre is so good at working our empathetic muscle,” he says. “When we tell stories from different perspectives, it also reorients our moral compass to be more understanding of the world we live in, so in some ways there’s a moral duty to produce work that speaks to different world experiences.”
For Giles, who has worked in all four time zones throughout his theatre career, building that representative and accessible theatre begins with lots of listening.
“Art is hyperlocal,” he says during his first week on the job after a move from South Carolina. “What does my community want? What does my community need? What resonates in Colorado Springs is not going to resonate in Greenville, South Carolina, or in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s very different, right? You have to approach it by doing some radical listening and sitting and saying, ‘What are the barriers to entry here? What keeps people from coming to the theatre here? What keeps people uninterested in the theatre here?’ And how do we meet those individuals where they are and change it and say, ‘No, we exist for you.’”
Those barriers can be anything from price point to perceived class stigma, he says.
“I think it is our responsibility as leaders, as arts makers and as arts leaders, to tear those barriers down,” he says.
Recently, Theatreworks began a program that offers a set number of free tickets for anyone affiliated with Inside Out, Colorado Springs’ LGBTQ+ youth services center.
“Something like that is an easy decision that lives our values of inclusiveness, caring for our community, and of joy,” Shulman says. “Because those young people bring a tremendous amount of joy.”
This rest of this season, predominantly planned by former Artistic Director Caitlin Lowans — who Shulman credits with creating a culture of caring for artists and doing meaningful work — includes “The Importance of Being Earnest” (Nov. 28 – Dec. 21), “Where We Stand” (Jan. 29 – Feb. 15), “Romeo and Juliet” (April 9 – May 3), and “The Garbologists” (June 11-28). The process for planning next year’s season is already underway.
“The thing I’m most excited about is continuing Theatreworks’ legacy of producing
plays that are relevant to the moment, of growing new audiences and programming that speaks to the now, and taking up the charge of doing theatrically challenging work
and growing our local audience,” Shulman says. “I want Theatreworks to be the place in Colorado Springs where people go to see great work, and I want people to come to this city and know that they can be here and do that great work.”
Giles, who has previously worked in larger cities like Minneapolis and Seattle, is looking forward to getting to know his new home and creating art that “excites, energizes and engages” Colorado Springs in new ways.
“I really do love making art in a community where you see your patrons at the grocery store the next day. You’re invested in their lives, and they’re invested in yours,” he says. “I’m really drawn to communities where you feel that you can roll your sleeves up, not only alongside your team, but also members of the community who love the arts as well, and you get to make real impact and see real change happen.”