The Tectonic Theater Project Continues To Transform How Theater Is Created

When it comes to creating theater, collaboration is often the secret sauce that elevates a production into something magical. In fact, for the groundbreaking company, Tectonic Theater Project, collaboration is the ultimate lynchpin. Through the technique they developed called “Moment Work” to explore theatrical form, they create theater using all the elements of the stage. The company writes performance instead of relying exclusively on text.

In other words, theater makers get to play and experiment with all of the elements of the stage—sound, lights, sets, costumes, projections and movement to develop a work in tandem with the text. Rather than just lighting an actor’s face, the light becomes part of the storytelling.

“All these elements are mined for both their poetic and narrative potential,” explains Leigh Fondakowski, a founding Tectonic Theater Project Member and a chair of their Moment Institute. “Moment Work is fundamentally about allowing the stage to speak to you about what your piece wants to be.”

As Fondakowski explains, the technique needs a witness and observer. “The witnesses to a moment get to decide what it is and wants to be,” she explains. “The collaborative team is typically made up of artists from different disciplines who approach the moment making process differently and uniquely to how their training and theatrical imagination work.”

Founded in 1991 by Moisés Kaufman and Jeffrey LaHoste, the Tectonic Theater Project has created over twenty plays and musicals, including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project, Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, and the Tony-winning 33 Variations. At its core the company values taking risks, political and social change and egalitarianism where all have a voice in a work’s creation.

In addition to continuing to create theater the Tectonic Theater Project also has a Moment Work Institute that offers workshops and residencies in the form. “My dream for Moment Work is that it continues to inspire artists to make their best work and make work that is distinctly theatrical, whether it ends up on stage or in another medium,” shares Fondakowski who is committed to understanding what makes the theater a living and vital art form.

In fact, several universities have connected with the Moment Work Institute to offer its unique programming to their students. “My dream for the institute is to become a place where devising artists can develop their work in community, particularly the incredible teaching artist team that works tirelessly out in the field with students,” she shares. “I would love to see them have the opportunity for that same kind of collaborative nurturing and support.”

Jeryl Brunner: How did you first become involved with Tectonic Theater Project and what would you like people to know about the company?

Leigh Fondakowski: I first became involved with Tectonic in the mid-1990s. Moisés had just graduated from the Experimental Theater Wing at New York University and I had just graduated from the directing program at Playwright’s Horizons’ theater school. My directing teacher introduced me to Moisés. Moisés and his partner, (now husband), Jeff LaHoste met at NYU and were just getting Tectonic off the ground. They had done a Beckett play at Theater for the New City in the East Village.

Moisés and I had both studied with Mary Overlie and Siti Company’s Anne Bogart. Moisés was in the early stages of developing Moment Work, which was a way of analyzing theater from a structuralist perspective. Mary Overlie had broken down the components of dance—what actually makes up a dance performance—space, shape, gesture, story. Overlie’s movement theory influenced an entire generation of artists at the time and still does. Similarly, Moises was thinking about the viewpoints from the theater perspective. Can we create theater using all of the elements of the stage to write performance, instead of relying exclusively on the text as the centerpiece of theatrical convention.

Brunner: Most people know about Tectonic through the theatrical work of the organization and its artistic director, Moisés Kaufman. How was Moment Work used to help create and stage The Laramie Project?

Fondakowski: In terms of Laramie, we had collected a vast amount of interview material over the course of several weeks and months. We transcribed all of the material and had a working understanding of the story of what happened to Matthew Shepard and the town of Laramie. But it was only when we began the process of Moment Work that the material came to life in a theatrical way. We understood HOW the story would be told, and that informed WHAT the story would be.

When we discovered the theatrical event—that a troupe of actors would tell the audience what they saw and who they spoke to, and then transform into those interviewees—the organizing principle of the play was brought into focus. It was Greg Pierotti’s moment in the studio—where he recreated the fence where Matthew died by placing chairs in a simple, elegant line, that we understood the dramatic engine of the piece. This was the story of the town of Laramie told by the actors from New York. And the tension between these urban New Yorkers and these animated Wyoming figures provided tension, humor, and above all, connected us all in our humanity.

Brunner: Moment Work has been recruited by many universities. Do you have any collaborations in the works and do they sometimes lead to new works of theater?

Fondakowski: One of the big projects right now is at Clemson University. Dr. Rhonnda Thomas, a scholar and wonderful writer, has uncovered and collected a vast archive accounting for seven generations of Black history at Clemson. The university is built on a plantation. It was built by enslaved people, sharecroppers, and convict laborers who received strict sentences in part because the school needed free labor. After writing a book, Dr. Thomas thought of creating a play from the material and a colleague introduced her to Tectonic. Our collaboration is growing as we take Dr. Thomas, who is now a first time playwright, through the moment work process with her material. The play will premiere in early 2023.

Also, Drew University is the Institute’s longest collaboration with a university, and an important one to the company. The students and theater faculty at Drew have been fundamental in helping the technique continue to grow.

Brunner: The principles of Moment Work were included in a book, Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project’s Process of Devising Theater, by some of the founding members of Tectonic Theater Project. How can readers get the most use from the book?

Fondakowski: The book was many years in the making. Barbara Pitts-McAdams is the main thrust behind that work. When we realized we should probably write down and codify what we were doing, we decided to observe each other teaching Moment Work. Barbara was there, documenting the whole process, observing every detail and nuance in how these ideas were being conveyed by various Tectonic members. She was able to synthesize all of that into a coherent method for teaching Moment Work to artists and to teachers as well. The book was a huge labor of love. Barbara had been a moment maker herself in many processes with both Moisés and I. So she was in a unique position to write about the process from inside and out.