Filament

Our lab theatre functions as an adaptive entity. We often say our model is “built to change”, a philosophy which impacts how we make our work, as well who and what we make it with. Filament does not have any structural hierarchy and functions more like a network than a company. If a couple of members develop an idea for a piece, they may reach out to other Filament members for support or collaboration, but no one is expected to be a part of everything. We also are committed to a donation based/ pay-what-you-will model for funding our projects. A long-standing tenant of our work has been to raise as much money as possible to pay our collaborating artists, while keeping our budget for things like sets, costumes, technical elements, marketing, and space $0. We have historically accomplished this by being aggressively resourceful, activating non-theatrical spaces, and by designing everything with these harsh parameters in mind. As another commercial theatre closes its doors seemingly every month, we find it absolutely crucial to be looking for other means of producing theatre that are not reliant on owning a space, having a board, employing a bullpen of admin workers, or producing plays year-round. We are very hopeful, however, that with a little support and guidance from an organization like Shunpike, we could see a resurgence in micro, fringe, and public theatrical models. Filament: a collab lab intends to be in the vanguard of that movement.