Statements by Tamara Coffey, company member, administrator

By Michael Fields

Tamara Coffey’s job to make sure things get done, and to be a presence in the Whitesburg office. (Roadside has offices in both Norton, Va. and Whitesburg, Kent., an approximate 45-minute drive apart.) She’s been with the company for seven years and was born and raised near Whitesburg.

Coffey oversees access to the records, publications and videos for Roadside. She is currently involved in upgrading the Web site to include a reading room that will have articles on Roadside Theater, grassroots theater and the region and a press room where all of the p.r. materials, current history, publications, etc., will be available.

As Roadside is a part of the larger organization of Appalshop, budgets are planned three to four years out. The summers are evaluation time where evaluative notes from the past year are looked at by the core members of Roadside and future plans and directions are designed. The current plan reflects the companies transition form extensive touring to more, "community-building projects and residencies and documenting the companies practice and methodologies."

They still play extensively in the Appalachian region. In all residencies, they see a principal goal as "getting out in the community so people know who you are." It is most helpful to return to places again and again.

Coffey was, "From here. Left here. Had to figure out who I was in somebody else’s culture and then had to return here. In this place folks are taught they have no value, no culture. A lot of our work is figuring out how to counteract that whole myth and build a net to support and connect the culture of this region and others who find their culture marginalized or threatened with extinction. Looking at Roadside form the outside is just too simple. It has to be seen in context of this place. Everyone told me, ‘Just trust the process.’ And that is right. If you can listen to people’s stories, put them into plays and see the connections people make and identify with, bridges are built in the community."

Also Roadside is learning about cultural negotiations through a current collaboration with Pregones Theater of New York and Junebug Production of New Orleans. The work is titled "Promise of a Love Song".

Michael Fields is a founding member of the Dell'Arte Company where he acts, directs, teaches, creates plays, manages all company business and oversees development. He is the producing director of the Dell’Arte Mad River Festival. He is also the director of the California State Summer School for the Arts Theatre Program and resident director with Het Vervolg Theatre of Holland. Fields has taught at the American Conservatory Theatre, the California Institute for the Arts, the Dutch National Theatre School and the Danish Dramaturgs Institute. He has directed numerous productions nationally and internationally. He received 1984 and 1986 Drama-logue awards and a 1984 S.F. Bay Area Critics Circle award. He holds a BA in Communication Arts from the University of San Francisco and an MFA in Directing from Humboldt State University. Fields is on the board of directors of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) in New York, he is a member of the James Irvine Foundation California Arts Leadership Forum, and has served as a National Endowment for the Arts panelist.

PERFORMING COMMUNITIES
Carpetbag | Cornerstone | Dell'Arte | Jump-Start
LAPD | Pregones | Roadside | WagonBurner
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