When you think of professional theatre, you might have a few images in mind. The word may conjure up scenes of audiences in luxurious fur stoles and evening gowns or well-tailored jackets and crisp button-down shirts, seated in impressive, palatial venues like our own Tennessee Theatre or The Bijou. It may feel formal and impersonal, especially if you’re seated way in the back of the orchestra or up in the balcony, the actors seeming so distant, the fourth wall unbroken. You might also anticipate a cost-prohibitive admission, especially for a production coming from Broadway. While many of these traditionally lofty expectations for theatre-goers are slowly becoming a thing of the past, there is a lot more work—or opportunity—to do theatre differently: to challenge the images of what theatre has been and to create new opportunities for what theatre can be. Knoxville’s own First Take Co. is one local creative collective taking up this challenge in new and unexpected ways, asking you to come as you are and to experience theatre like never before.
First Take Co. lives up to its name by facilitating first-time experiences, however those experiences may unfold. Founder Ethan Graham Roeder describes First Take Co. as a local artists’ collective and initiative providing a professional playground and the expertise to bring underrepresented artists and new, innovative projects to life. It’s a community that can provide the know-how and support that more traditional theatre structures might not be able to provide for local artists and projects under development. Rather than following a rigid script and structure, First Take Co. loosens up the expectations of performance to create an innovative and welcoming experience for both actors and audiences. In many ways, the audiences of First Take Co. productions—or concepts, as Roeder reframes them—are invited to be artists themselves, participating in the performances in whatever ways they are comfortable with. One of First Take’s previous concepts, The Jane Austen Experience held at UTK, was a Regency Ball where actors portraying Austen’s most lovable characters mingled with audiences between reinterpretations of favorite scenes, complete with lively country dancing and tea-sipping. Concepts, says Roeder, are different from “plays” or “scripts” in that they are malleable, playing off the less-emphasized aspects of the performance experience, like the particular space the performance is held in, the audience, or the musicians that may participate in the production. As an artists’ collective, First Take Co. supports more than just local actors, but facilitates opportunities for local musicians, comedians, dancers, and other makers and doers, asking all who encounter their productions to reinvestigate the ways we engage with narrative and experience performance.
First Take Co. emerged from a need to keep Knoxville’s professionally-trained actors local. Roeder saw the needs of UTK’s Theatre program alums, like himself, who are left with a major decision with slim options after graduation: attempt to pursue acting in a large city like New York or Chicago, or struggle securing work and funding in Knoxville’s tight-knit community theatre circuit. First Take Co. fills this need for talented local professional actors by offering them the structure and space to develop their own ideas and talents without making a huge move to a major city, keeping our city’s talent close to home and helping Knoxville’s local theatre scene thrive. And because they keep things local, they are free to experiment with performance and produce events that are still in the raw, giving artists the ability to refine their work while they share it with the community. Whether it’s an experiment, a trial run, or a first take, they work with what each artist brings to the table, building off each person’s individual strengths to create fresh new experiences and improve local art through collaboration. With this approach, First Take Co. thinks outside the box—or the proscenium—by using non-traditional venues such as bars to host one-time pop-up interactive experiences, which have included themed discos, nightclub experiences, and a variety of other events that blur the line between performance and participation, transcending both. That’s the beauty of how First Take Co. does what it does: each event is unique and unrepeatable, honoring the rich legacy of traditional theatre while thriving in those unexpected spaces exposed by breaking the rules and chasing a feeling. It’s the essence of representing the human condition through performance.
In many ways, feeling is at the heart of First Take Co.’s philosophy: that all who come to participate feel involved in local arts, feel cared for during the experience, and feel welcomed to engage in whatever way is individually meaningful. First Take Co.’s productions are inclusive and supportive of a variety of artists and venues beyond just actors and theatres, such as involving local movie theatre Central Cinema in the production of Annie Baker’s play The Flick and showcasing musicians and vocalists through their musical revue offerings called Scruffy City Sings.
Check them out at https://www.firsttakeco.com/ or follow them on social media @firsttakeco to stay in the loop.
