Red Ladder Keeps Good Company
By Ginger Eckert

Red Ladder Theatre Company operates very successfully on the idea that theatre can help build healthy lives by exercising the imagination. The company, started at San Jose Repertory Theatre by Associate Artistic Director John McCluggage, has been improvising plays with youth, the developmentally disabled and disenfranchised populations in and around San Jose since 1992. It calls its workshops “rehearsal for a healthy life.” By keeping a rigorous focus on respect and constantly adjusting to meet the needs of its participants, Red Ladder has set a record of quantifiable results. After celebrating its 10th anniversary in April, Red Ladder is expanding to include a new advisory council and, for the first time, will present 10-minute plays by students as part of the New America Playwrights Festival in June at San Jose Rep.

The evolution of the company is due in large part to its actors, Associate Director Karen Altree Piemme and its founder. McCluggage says the past and present company members have “left their artistic DNA on the process.” And so it grows, having reached 113 participants in 1993 and more than 2,700 in 2001.

On a Friday in March, I walked into the Red Ladder barn in East San Jose’s Prusch Farm Park to find a pulsing boom box and a huddled posse of adult actors. After a brief planning session and some warm-up games, the students from the Foundry School came bounding in. These kids could have been from anywhere. It turns out they are a mix of the Latino, Anglo and Asian-American populations of San Jose, ages 15 to 18, who have run into trouble with substances. On Fridays these students are never in the classroom, and this group of about 20 chooses to go to Red Ladder every other week to play theatre games. By the end of the semester they will have written several short plays to be performed by professional actors at the New America Playwrights Festival. On this day they read from Fences and A Raisin in the Sun to develop improvised scenes about family relations and extended metaphors.

The main product, however, is development of self-esteem and peer collaboration skills—the measure of which is quantified in evaluations of the kids by teachers and community service professionals before and after workshops, in addition to assessments during the process by Red Ladder company members. But when the kids are performing, they are peers in the process. There is no distinction made between the company and the kids, except that the company members facilitate. When asked if there is any one thing missing from school curricula, McCluggage finds it is “the ability to spend time allowing kids to be part of their own education, especially now, with testing. But that doesn’t mean there is not a place for experiential learning.”

The Company They Keep

McCluggage states, “All youth are at risk; all are marginalized.” Moving away from labels like “troubled” or “disenfranchised,” each participant comes to a Red Ladder workshop from his own circumstance. Some are called “gifted and talented,” and they bring their own challenges, too. Says Piemme, “We started with a very narrow focus on primarily elementary school students—we have found this work applies to all populations.” The company has trained groups from all walks of the community, including teachers, social workers and community-based workers. “A great ripple effect of what we do appeals to a wider population.” In jails, for example, they have created presentations on adult literacy.

The Setting

Piemme describes their the company’s in Prusch Farm Park as “an oasis in the middle of a nightmare,” referring to the reputation of the neighborhood skirting King Road. Red Ladder uses the building to establish that the workshop is an alternative space that the kids relate to creatively, whereas in their schools they tend to fall more easily into their established personalities. Red Ladder sees huge benefits in meeting them in a separate environment.
Red Ladder’s biggest obstacle to getting theatre done is achieving focus. The kids come into the barn, which is filled with costumes, set pieces and music. McCluggage says, “It’s like Christmas morning, and at any given moment they’re making discoveries.” The set pieces include giant wooden blocks in primary colors, box frames, tall and short ladders and half-moons, which the kids proceed to stack, stand on and roll over. McCluggage confesses it is a playground setup that begs, “here are some scissors, let’s play tag.” He laughs, “What was I thinking naming the company Red Ladder?” But he found the image to be strong, encouraging and not gender specific, so he adopted it from a company in London’s West End. He would find out years later that the British Red Ladder’s mission is to create socially relevant plays for young people. Now the two companies are kindred spirits.

The Blueprint

To create a company model, McCluggage went to Washington, D.C. in 1990 to train with Arena Stage’s successful Living Stage created by Robert Alexander. But Alexander told him that he’d have to make his own blueprint to start a program. “It’s got to be yours,” Alexander told him. “You can’t just do what I do.”
Part of Red Ladder’s blueprint is keeping the number of company members flexible. Piemme says to get the caliber of actors they desire, they can’t get them exclusively. Six “or so” actors make up the core company this year. Former members return on a per-project basis. San Jose Repertory Theatre staff gives additional administrative support by supplying grantwriting, development, costumes, sets, public relations and such just as they do for main-stage shows. McCluggage considers the support to be the greatest asset of a program “that does not affect the bottom line…It shows a tremendous leap of faith. We have an impact on the community, but you’re not going to see an increase in ticket sales.” Conversely, “some of these kids will be lifelong theatregoers because of our work,” something funders must love to hear.

The Field

Piemme has been doing this kind of work for over 15 years. She calls it “the best job in the world, if you love doing this kind of work. There are no reviews, no applause, but there is an incredible sense of fulfillment.” The rewards are seeing the participants’ transformations. The challenges include shlepping sets and figuring out how to reach each group—homeless or teen or incarcerated. Piemme says you “understand that they respect you because you respect them.” She balances duties at Red Ladder with being director of outreach at San Jose Rep, where she started in 1993.

“This work was new to me in the beginning, and it uses resources like research and reading.” Piemme says it gave her “an experiential education.” She considers it “a specialized area to be using theatre in these populations.” Arts education has emerged as its own field during her tenure. “We are creating the field,” says Piemme. Other arts-ed programs have come to Red Ladder for ideas and research, so the education is coming full circle.

Administrative support is key for a healthy company. The majority of people who do this work are artists, not administrators, and over 80 percent burn out in less than two years because they are overwhelmed with desk work, according to McCluggage. “It can be very exhausting and exhilarating,” he says of the intensity. His company overextended early on and learned to cut back. Taking the next step in the evolution of arts education, McCluggage has been working with other arts professionals to create a certified curriculum in community-based arts programs at Columbia College in Chicago. They hope that if the curriculum takes hold, the field can expand to have greater impact than the individualized training that is presently handed down.

The Celebration

At the 10th anniversary celebration in April, former participants mixed with donors. Looking to the future, McCluggage wants Red Ladder to grow, but not necessarily expand, and “listen more now than ever to the community.” Its committed group of donors and funders has been hard hit by the recession, and as it discusses finishing its funding cycles, Red Ladder faces challenges to meet its $205,000 budget. At the celebration, McCluggage introduced a new advisory council made up of local educators that will help steer the company. He says they are “people who know the issues, have access to youth and will be used as a soundboard for ideas…They will be able to help us in the next phase.” In 10 years Red Ladder has gotten international attention, and McCluggage considers each new day its finest hour. “I’m very proud of how far we’ve come and where we are.”

For more information or to request a workshop, contact Red Ladder Theatre Company at (408) 367-7291. E-mail redladder@sjrep.com. Visit www.sjrep.com.