Editor's Note 10/24

Welcome to the beginning of Unstaged.

We’re an online literary magazine for the performing arts and we’re new here.

Some magazines have long vision statements, we have an amorphous ambition to share good things. Some thoughts on what we might be:

1. A staging ground for unstageable text.
2. A repository for random acts of dramatic writing.
3. An aquarium.
4. A sanctum of the profane.
5. Unspecified fifth thing.

Let’s gather close for a moment and adopt a solemn tone.

Putting on shows is hard, man. It takes precious resources like Willpower, Faith, Funding, Venue, and so on. Staple institutions and infrastructure that once fueled new work have deflated. Production can feel like a magical walled garden.

You may find your creative process interrupted by pesky questions such as, what’s the ideal cast size for a small production? What are the budgetary constraints? Who is this work even for, and hey who’s buying lunch?

Shhh, quiet! There’s a time and place for such things. But here is a home for what happens in-between.

We love live performance, and we see the potential of digital space for community-building, cross-pollination, experimentation. Work-in-progress is the name of the game. We aren’t here to showcase, we’re here to lower the barrier to risk-taking in pursuit of more interesting art. Join us, won’t you?

A giant thank you to all our contributors for helping define this magazine as cross-disciplinary. The publication’s working definition of performance is quite broad, but one thing that characterizes all of these pieces is generosity — generosity of reflection, of vision, of storytelling, the generosity of doing and sharing art.

I hope these initial pieces plant some seeds for you, The Reader, as we explore how to grow a garden without walls.

-Martin Thompson, Founding Editor