Rooks is the Chair of Eastern Front Theatre’s Board of Directors
Rooks has been volunteering for Eastern Front Theatre (EFT) as a signing officer since spring of 2020. Learn about EFT here!
In the fall of 2020, Rooks was asked to speak as a part of Theatre Nova Scotia’s #BeSceneNS campaign. That interview can be found here.
Alternatively you can peruse a transcript of the interview below:
"I volunteer for live theatre because live theatre has volunteered for me! Who is there for me when I need to hear stories, when I need to process through traumatic events, when I need to express myself? Theatre!"
Interview with Rooks Field-Green (HE/THEY) emerging artist and secretary of @easternfronttheatre Board of Directors. Full interview transcript:
How long have you been volunteering for Eastern Front Theatre?
I am the secretary for the board of directors at EFT and I began in this position in May 2020. This is my first Theatre Board experience as I am a wee sprout of an emerging artist.
Do you remember what first drew you to give your time to Eastern Front?
In 2019 there was a push to recentre and refocus what Eastern Front would be for Atlantic Canadian communities. I was very excited about the individuals who were putting their energy into the company at that time such as Karen Gross and Lee Anne Poole. I have also been a long standing fan of EFT's Stages festival. I am so happy to be able to commit to a company that is supporting emerging artists especially during the covid-19 pandemic that has made it very exceedingly difficult to be an emerging artist.
Do you have a favourite production or moment from a show that you've seen there? Could you tell me why that touched you or has stuck with you?
The New Pants Project of From: Florine is a clear standout for me. From: Florine involved mailing poems by Florine Stettheimer to interested audience members and asking for a creative response. The use of the 2020 EFT Stages Festival to both produce meaningful and beautiful work despite the digital medium is a feet on its own. BUT to use the digital medium to allow for distinctly theatrical forms of audience engagement and creation is worthy of celebration! Julia Schultz, Edie Reaney Chunn, Anna Shepard and Kirsten Bruce deserve so much praise for inspiring artists and audience members to create through these trying times. As an artist who has attempted to continue creating during these past few months I was so healed seeing such beautiful ways of involving community within creation. Bravo! Encore!
How would you finish the thought "I volunteer for live theatre because..."?
I volunteer for live theatre because live theatre has volunteered for me! Who is there for me when I need to hear stories, when I need to process through traumatic events, when I need to express myself? Theatre!
How would you finish the thought "Eastern Front is important because..."?
Eastern Front Theatre is important because it supports emerging artists, because it supports artists living on the east coast and because it produces art that must exist. Asking this question is like asking why is art important? or Why is theatre important. One point to illustrate this for me is to look at what people do in quarantine and isolation. They turn to art, they turn to theatre and stories to help connect them to their communities and to their moral centres.