Be The Audience
Be The Audience
Meet Me at the Crossroads: Be the Audience
My goings to and fro on the earth as an artist have led me to an intersection of disciplines. It’s a crossroads where I thrive – stages, pages, lenses, microphones and all sorts of devilment are here.
My labours encompass theatre, photography, poetry, music, and other surprises. My life revolves around all these artistic practices.
About My Work
I create art, primarily theatre, but I also practice photography, podcasting, poetry, and plunking on the guitar.
I run a non-profit, all-volunteer theatre company called the Yokohama Theatre Group (YTG). With YTG I create one to three theatre performances a year– usually some combination of fully staged productions, workshops, showcases, labs, or events. The works are created collaboratively by the ensemble, and my role (aside from producer) within each ensemble varies between performer, director, writer, technican, and designer based on the membership and their own skill-sets.
The ensembles I work with are mostly made up of young artists who come to Japan to work with me on these productions, and another big part of what I do is make space for these emerging talents to grow.
As a photographer, I specialize in candid portraits and event photography. This is a skill I developed over years of shooting theatre for documentary purposes.
My work is focused on process and doesn’t have the volume or mass-market appeal of your usual “content creators”, nor do products emerge on a regular schedule (if only). Furthermore, I’m averse to leaving the presentation and distribution of my work to contemporary platforms like Facebook, Patreon, or Youtube that can change the rules at any time to extract more value for their shareholders.
And here’s the kicker: as much as I am compelled to create, I am compelled to give all these things away for free. I don’t want to lock my work behind a paywall on a website. I want my artistic output to be accessible to anyone who is interested in it. It’s always been my policy to give comp tickets to anyone who asked. I’ve done countless photo shoots for friends. I’ve given my time to dozens of emerging theatre artists. I like saying “yes”.
But this way of making art and saying “yes” isn’t possible without the support of an audience— let’s call it “The Audience”— and that, my friends, is you.
Be the Audience is your invitation to join me at the crossroads. It’s your chance to be an active participant in my artistic life and become part of a larger community: one that fosters and feeds my creative process and allows me to say “yes” as much as possible – yes to creating new work, yes to pushing boundaries, and yes to mentoring emerging artists as they discover their own creative paths. (Read some of their stories below.)
Ensemble Stories
Rojhat Nargili
My Experience at YTG was helpful, educational; truly. Andrew welcomed me from the first second on and gave me an insight into the theater production with practical work.
Kennagh Leanne
Andrew is a well-rounded, experienced, professional and friendly creative, who treats his team equally and respectfully. Despite my lack of years in the industry, Andrew immediately made me feel like a vital part of the process; I gained a lot more confidence in my creative abilities because of his guidance and encouragement to voice my thoughts and ideas, to which a lot were interpreted in the final product. I would absolutely recommend working with Andrew as his approach to theatre is very open and expressive and he is an absolute pleasure to work with!
Jun Woo Hwang
As an aspiring lighting designer, Andrew provided me with the environment at YTG to experiment and explore with actual equipment. It really meant a lot for my growth.
Rio Namegaya
Working with Andrew was such an invaluable opportunity for me to grow as a working adult, manager, and artist. He always made sure that everyone in the team felt safe to be themselves and try out their ideas. As a stage manager, I found Andrew’s support and trust immensely motivating and instrumental in upgrading my problem-solving skills. As a set designer, I had the best environment to experiment my creativity and train my collaboration skills with the rest of the creative team, where Andrew ensured that all the voices were heard. Being themselves and putting an effort were always seen and celebrated. Andrew gave me any new roles I wanted to try and learn with his full support, like no other mentors. To any young emerging theatre people who are hungry to learn, Andrew never ceases to provide them with opportunities and encouragement.
Don’t be fooled about how we normally think of the word “audience”. By becoming part of The Audience, you’re not just a passive observer. You’re a catalyst in every process. You’re a provocateur of every new idea. You’re an active participant in every “yes” I’m able to say.
How can you join The Audience? Here are some ways:
- Join my mailing list (always FREE!) and get updates on my work, from process to completion
- Become a weekly subscriber (for $5.00 or $5.60 CAD a week)
- Be an annual subscriber with no automated recurring payments (for $260 CAD)
Money F.A.Q.
Why $5?
$5 a week is sustainable amount. If you were to buy me a drink at a coffee shop each week, it would be in the ballpark of $5. On the other hand, if 100 people give $5, it makes a huge difference to the sustainability of my work.
The optional $5.60 pledge covers the platform charges to make sure I receive at least $5 of each pledge.
Why Canadian Dollars?
Be The Audience is intended for people who know me, and most of those in a position to pledge money live in Canada.
What if I Can’t Afford $5 Per Week?
Then don’t pledge money! Sign up for the newsletter! Drop me a line! Those able to pledge are making my work available to those who aren’t!
I don’t want anyone else who is struggling financially to support me.
Why Can’t I Give More or a Custom Amount?
When I first came up with this project, I knew I wanted a set level of support for several reasons.
- Below a certain amount, the money gets eaten up in processing charges.
- I don’t want anyone to get excited and pledge a huge amount and then get donor fatigue and either quit or stop supporting other good causes.
- I’m working for sustainability here. It’s not just the money, it’s the predictability of it that’s important to me.
- I don’t want a few large supporters to even subconsciously influence my work.
- If someone decides they need to stop supporting me, I don’t want that one person’s money to represent a large portion of my income.
- I want to maintain a sense of equality in my work.
Why Aren’t You Using Patreon?
The short answer is that Patreon is a good platform for a commercial venture, but not as good for a non-commercial project like this. Because I am giving everything away for free, I don’t need them to manage tiered access and distribution. And, like most of the big internet companies, they can (and have) pushed massive changes to their platform without consultation or even much notice to their users in pursuit of a better return for their investors. I would rather have my own content hosted on my own site where I control how it is presented.
I did look into using similar platforms, including a non-profit platform that didn’t take any fees, but the other platforms either didn’t allow single contributions for those who don’t like recurring payments and/or didn’t allow me to set the maximum contribution at $5.60 a week as I wanted to.
Progress to Goal #1 (100 sponsors)
Sponsor Me!
Whether or not you want to subscribe to get updates, you can support the work I do by clicking one of the buttons below. Help me say yes! (All amounts are in Canadian dollars.)
Sign Up!
Don’t like recurring payments? You could support me for one year in one go; no subscription required.
If you prefer to use an interac email transfer, send $260 to 8veq86to@duck.com
Meet Me at the Crossroads: Be the Audience
My goings to and fro on the earth as an artist have led me to an intersection of disciplines. It’s a crossroads where I thrive – stages, pages, lenses, microphones and all sorts of devilment are here.
My labours encompass theatre, photography, poetry, music, and other surprises. My life revolves around all these artistic practices.
About My Work
I create art, primarily theatre, but I also practice photography, podcasting, poetry, and plunking on the guitar.
I run a non-profit, all-volunteer theatre company called the Yokohama Theatre Group (YTG). With YTG I create one to three theatre performances a year– usually some combination of fully staged productions, workshops, showcases, labs, or events. The works are created collaboratively by the ensemble, and my role (aside from producer) within each ensemble varies between performer, director, writer, technican, and designer based on the membership and their own skill-sets.
The ensembles I work with are mostly made up of young artists who come to Japan to work with me on these productions, and another big part of what I do is make space for these emerging talents to grow.
As a photographer, I specialize in candid portraits and event photography. This is a skill I developed over years of shooting theatre for documentary purposes.
My work is focused on process and doesn’t have the volume or mass-market appeal of your usual “content creators”, nor do products emerge on a regular schedule (if only). Furthermore, I’m averse to leaving the presentation and distribution of my work to contemporary platforms like Facebook, Patreon, or Youtube that can change the rules at any time to extract more value for their shareholders.
And here’s the kicker: as much as I am compelled to create, I am compelled to give all these things away for free. I don’t want to lock my work behind a paywall on a website. I want my artistic output to be accessible to anyone who is interested in it. It’s always been my policy to give comp tickets to anyone who asked. I’ve done countless photo shoots for friends. I’ve given my time to dozens of emerging theatre artists. I like saying “yes”.
But this way of making art and saying “yes” isn’t possible without the support of an audience— let’s call it “The Audience”— and that, my friends, is you.
Be the Audience is your invitation to join me at the crossroads. It’s your chance to be an active participant in my artistic life and become part of a larger community: one that fosters and feeds my creative process and allows me to say “yes” as much as possible – yes to creating new work, yes to pushing boundaries, and yes to mentoring emerging artists as they discover their own creative paths. (Read some of their stories below.)
Ensemble Stories
Rojhat Nargili
My Experience at YTG was helpful, educational; truly. Andrew welcomed me from the first second on and gave me an insight into the theater production with practical work.
Kennagh Leanne
Andrew is a well-rounded, experienced, professional and friendly creative, who treats his team equally and respectfully. Despite my lack of years in the industry, Andrew immediately made me feel like a vital part of the process; I gained a lot more confidence in my creative abilities because of his guidance and encouragement to voice my thoughts and ideas, to which a lot were interpreted in the final product. I would absolutely recommend working with Andrew as his approach to theatre is very open and expressive and he is an absolute pleasure to work with!
Jun Woo Hwang
As an aspiring lighting designer, Andrew provided me with the environment at YTG to experiment and explore with actual equipment. It really meant a lot for my growth.
Rio Namegaya
Working with Andrew was such an invaluable opportunity for me to grow as a working adult, manager, and artist. He always made sure that everyone in the team felt safe to be themselves and try out their ideas. As a stage manager, I found Andrew’s support and trust immensely motivating and instrumental in upgrading my problem-solving skills. As a set designer, I had the best environment to experiment my creativity and train my collaboration skills with the rest of the creative team, where Andrew ensured that all the voices were heard. Being themselves and putting an effort were always seen and celebrated. Andrew gave me any new roles I wanted to try and learn with his full support, like no other mentors. To any young emerging theatre people who are hungry to learn, Andrew never ceases to provide them with opportunities and encouragement.
Don’t be fooled about how we normally think of the word “audience”. By becoming part of The Audience, you’re not just a passive observer. You’re a catalyst in every process. You’re a provocateur of every new idea. You’re an active participant in every “yes” I’m able to say.
How can you join The Audience? Here are some ways:
- Join my mailing list (always FREE!) and get updates on my work, from process to completion
- Become a weekly subscriber (for $5.00 or $5.60 CAD a week)
- Be an annual subscriber with no automated recurring payments (for $260 CAD)
Money F.A.Q.
Why $5?
$5 a week is sustainable amount. If you were to buy me a drink at a coffee shop each week, it would be in the ballpark of $5. On the other hand, if 100 people give $5, it makes a huge difference to the sustainability of my work.
The optional $5.60 pledge covers the platform charges to make sure I receive at least $5 of each pledge.
Why Canadian Dollars?
Be The Audience is intended for people who know me, and most of those in a position to pledge money live in Canada.
What if I Can’t Afford $5 Per Week?
Then don’t pledge money! Sign up for the newsletter! Drop me a line! Those able to pledge are making my work available to those who aren’t!
I don’t want anyone else who is struggling financially to support me.
Why Can’t I Give More or a Custom Amount?
When I first came up with this project, I knew I wanted a set level of support for several reasons.
- Below a certain amount, the money gets eaten up in processing charges.
- I don’t want anyone to get excited and pledge a huge amount and then get donor fatigue and either quit or stop supporting other good causes.
- I’m working for sustainability here. It’s not just the money, it’s the predictability of it that’s important to me.
- I don’t want a few large supporters to even subconsciously influence my work.
- If someone decides they need to stop supporting me, I don’t want that one person’s money to represent a large portion of my income.
- I want to maintain a sense of equality in my work.
Why Aren’t You Using Patreon?
The short answers are that Patreon is a good platform for a commercial venture, but not as good for a non-commercial project like this. Because I am giving everything away for free, I don’t need them to manage tiered access and distribution. And, like most of the big internet companies, they can (and have) pushed massive changes to their platform without consultation or even much notice to their users in pursuit of a better return for their investors. I would rather have my own content hosted on my own site where I control how it is presented.
I did look into using similar platforms, including a non-profit platform that didn’t take any fees, but the other platforms either didn’t allow single contributions for those who don’t like recurring payments and/or didn’t allow me to set the maximum contribution at $5.60 a week as I wanted to.
Sponsor Me!
Whether or not you want to subscribe to get updates, you can support the work I do by clicking one of the buttons below. Help me say yes! (All amounts are in Canadian dollars.)
Sign Up!
Don’t like recurring payments? You could support me for one year in one go; no subscription required.
If you prefer to use an interac email transfer, send $260 to 8veq86to@duck.com