A Rare Delight

Throughout history, many playwrights have written plays for and about people. Theater has existed for centuries, starting predominantly with the Greek tradition of the amphitheater. Famous Ancient Greek playwrights, such as Sophocles and Euripides, wrote plays to tell seemingly superficial stories about heroes  and love in Greek mythology, but underlying the surface were complex insights on human nature and relationships. Playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill all wrote about what makes us uniquely human, despite the fact they were all born in different time periods and wrote in different styles.

And that’s exactly what the brand-new Kickshaw Theater is trying to showcase. People of all different backgrounds.

The idea of devising Kickshaw belongs to Lynn Lammers, the artistic director of the theater. Prior to founding it, Lammers was a director with ten years of experience in small professional theaters all across Michigan. She thought of creating an alternative theater while working with actress Julia Glander on a one-woman show called “Shirley Valentine” at Williamston Theater.

“We just started talking about what kind of theater we’d like to see and then we started to get serious about it,” Lammers said. “There were certain kinds of stories that weren’t being told, and it felt like there was some opportunity in telling these stories that maybe could attract different people to the theater.”

Lammers was also inspired by Taylor Mac, an eclectic actor and playwright based in New York City. She heard Mac talk at a conference and was inspired by judy’s words.

“I heard Taylor say that ‘We should be asking audiences rather than to expect relatability on the stage that they should come to the theater with their curiosity,’” Lammers said. “That really made a lot of sense to me that if people can come curious, then they are open to seeing stories about people who are very different than them.”

Fast forward three years, and the idea of an alternative theater has been transformed into a reality. The theater is located in Ann Arbor. Lammers co-founded her theater last year with Glander, who now serves as the associate artist. The theater also has a name: Kickshaw.

Lammers and Glander had many conversations debating the name of the theater before finally deciding on Kickshaw. “A kickshaw literally is a little something special,” Lammers said “Another definition for it is a rare delight.” Kickshaw Theater’s mission is exciting the curiosity of their audience and themselves with plays that represent humanity in all its complexity and multitudes. It tries to differ from traditional theater to new experiences for audiences that do not normally come to plays. Kickshaw also works with the community to look at their experiences and bring them to the stage.

Lammers created Kickshaw because she felt that there was not enough representation in mainstream professional theater.

“The most important thing about it is representation and opening up space for people to see theater as a place where they would feel welcomed and they would want to go to.” said Lammers. “Some people have certain associations related to theater and I want to break down those associations and those assumptions and I have to do that by actively changing the way we’ve historically done things. It’s really important to me that theater experiences reflect the diversity of our world and that our audiences reflect the diversity of our world.”

Kickshaw started out by hosting house parties to get people excited about the Kickshaw idea and to see what aspects of theater excited, frustrated and interested them. In the fall, Kickshaw hosted readings of interesting and unique plays such as “The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence” and “The Ohio State Murders” to give people an idea of what Kickshaw was all about. All this lead up to their big inaugural production: “The Electric Baby”, by Stefanie Zadravec.

Kickshaw chose “The Electric Baby” for their first stage production for a myriad of reasons.

“It’s a really unusual play, it’s funny and otherworldly and strange, it’s a very beautiful play,” Lammers said. “I chose it as our inaugural production because it tells a story from many different perspectives. There are six very different people whose lives all come into contact with each other around this tragic car crash, and then they find their lives intersecting in these really interesting ways as they move toward the direction of healing, hope and connection, and it all centers ultimately around a baby who is pretty magical and makes people feel things that surprise them.”

“The Electric Baby” ran from Jan. 28 to Feb. 21, and was met with excellent reviews. “If you see Kickshaw Theatre’s inaugural production, Stefanie Zadravec’s ethereal drama “The Electric Baby”, you just might wonder where the company will go from here – because, wow, is the bar already set high,” wrote Jen McGee for Encore Michigan.

With the success of their inceptive play, Kickshaw is moving on to their next project, and they’re calling it “The Kickshaw Lab Experience”.

I’m working with a comedian, a woman who’s been in comedy to develop a 15-minute long piece, rather than sitting in chairs, you’re going to walk through it.” Lammers said. “It’ll be like a little journey you go through for about 15 minutes. Really fun, really funny, we’re pretty excited.” “The Kickshaw Lab Experience” will open in June of 2016.

Kickshaw Theater opened just last fall, but Lammers is certain that it will go a long way. The future holds many things for this small seed of theatrical change.