Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Moseley.
Anthony, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 1995, I decided to pursue my passion and dedicated myself to being an artist to celebrate life and humanity. I started as an actor and got cast in Collaboraction’s third show. In 1999, I became the Artistic Director and my first production was the first SKETCHBOOK Festival, a multi-medium festival of short plays, music and visual art. SKETCHBOOK created a new environment and audience for theatre in Chicago while cultivating new artists and we took off, along the way, I married my closest collaborator, Sandra Delgado and we built careers together as the first working artists in our families’ history. Over the next 15 years, I produced over 50 productions and 100 epic event with Collaboraction including highlights like “Guinea Pig Solo”, “El Grito Del Bronx” and 15 SKETCHBOOK Festivals. In 2010, Collaboraction move into the Flat Iron Arts Building of Wicker Park and developed three unique performance venues. Then in 2012, my vision for Collaboraction evolved to focus on inciting change around Chicago’s critical social issues through original devised theatre and deep community collaboration and we created “Crime Scene: a Chicago Anthology” about the root causes of violence in Chicago. That show sold out for 8 weeks in Wicker Park before touring to Englewood, Austin, Uptown, Back of the Yards and many other neighborhoods throughout the city with free shows, meals, and workshops for over 25,000 Chicagoans over 125 performances. I also co-wrote/directed “This is Not a Cure For Cancer” about my experience with my Father’s battle with Cancer and the meaning of life and “Connected”, Collaboraction’s 25th anniversary show about technology and our connection to one another. In 2016, we ended the SKETCHBOOK Festival and reincarnated it as PEACEBOOK, a festival of short plays about Peace in Chicago, which premieres Aug. 26, 2017 at the Goodman Theatre before touring the city. We have dedicated the 2017”18 season to the “reality of racism in Chicago and envisioning racial healing” and am working on a new piece entitled “A Blue Island in the Red Sea” which will premiere in April 2018. Collaboraction also offers a For-Hire department which offers custom creative event production for private or public events and you can find us at Lollapalooza, After Dark at the Art Institute of Chicago and hosting the Dome of Dance, a dance battle tournaments inside a geodesic dome, throughout the city. In conclusion, I am grateful to be alive and for you, reading my story.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Life is short and full of change and being an early career artist with no formal training was challenging, however I believe that are toughest times make us who we are and give us powerful artistic assets. We only live once. What will we do with our time on this little blue planet? How will we react to tough times? What will they say about us when we are gone? My motto is “Love hard, have fun and leave a good looking eulogy”.
Collaboraction Theatre Company – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Collaboraction is a unique, Chicago, artistic thing. We have grown out of the people of this city and we create work for that community. We use deep collaboration to create pieces of art that reflect our lives, hopes, fears and dreams. We know this work incites knowledge, dialogue, and change around important issues. We believe that inequity in Chicago is our biggest issue and it can be seen in the city’s violence and income disparity. So, we bring Chicagoans together to explore these inequities and inspire change. We create innovative collaborations that confound the expectations of theatre. We shape time and space and hope to change the way we see the past, present and future and, in doing so, change them.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success by my ability to optimize opportunities and experience. By goal that, I mean, we have certain resources available to us as a theatre company, as artists, as humans. What did we do with all we have been given? My goal is to create intangible benefits to bringing people and things together. I look for connection with my artists and audience.
Pricing:
- Shows range from free to $30 and events range from $10 to $175
- Our monthly donor program, the MC’s, starts at $5 per month
- Our For-Hire work starts at $1500
Contact Info:
- Address: 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., #332, Chicago, IL 60622
- Website: www.collaboraction.org
- Phone: 312.226.9633
- Email: info@collaboraction.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collaboraction/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/collaboraction
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Collaboraction
Image Credit:
Joel Maisonet
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
