Breaking new ground in theater
By Ruby Nancy, QUAD-CITY TIMES -- December 11, 2000

Tonight's reading of a new play at the Bettendorf Public Library will set a precedent, and it's not just that "Tribal Rites" will make its debut in front of an audience.

Chris Jansen, founder of New Ground Theatre, says the new troupe's performance is a first in another important way. "Actors, director and playwright are all being paid for the performance. That's the precedent that I want to set, to always pay the actors and designers and everything."

In the past, Jansen has been a director, designer, performer, playwright and grad student and she knows firsthand how that not many of the people involved in theater get paid for their work, especially actors.

She thinks it is time to change that, and though the budget for this initial project is tiny, each actor will take home a small check as a reminder of the value of their work.

"I remember what a big deal that was, to be able to say: 'I'm getting paid for this. I'm a professional!'," she said.

The free, informal sit-down reading is a low-key affair followed by an audience discussion with the playwright and director. It is the first of four New Ground readings funded by Friends of the Bettendorf Library.

Audience are invited to participate in the discussion, which is designed to provide feedback for the playwright and spark conversation about the performance and about theater.

The mission of New Ground Theatre will be to do good contemporary and original theater, including productions coming off Broadway that may not be community theater material right away, she said.

"Tribal Rites" is a homegrown piece, written by Quad-City writer Julie McDonald, that deals with human nature.

It's about a novelist who discovers when she returns from a book tour that members of her family aren't happy with the book. "Some are upset because they think they are in it, and others are upset because they think they're not," Jansen says.

Unless the library closes early because of the weather, or Scott Community College cancels evening classes, the show will go on as planned at 7 p.m.

Next up for New Ground are more readings, and Jansen has called for work from more playwrights. Interested writers may send scripts to New Ground Theatre, 1505 Jersey Ridge Road, Davenport, Iowa, 52803.

"I want to build a network of actors and playwrights here," Jansen says.

After the spring schedule of readings, Jansen and New Ground will make plans to move into the theater's new home in August. An agreement with St. Katherine's-St. Mark's College Preparatory School in Bettendorf means New Ground will be a resident company in the school's new performance space, which is scheduled for completion in August 2001.

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