By SHARON EBERSON
Katie Brook was minutes from heading to the airport as she hopped onto a Zoom with onStage Pittsburgh Wednesday afternoon. Mere hours earlier, the Toronto, Canada, native had been tapped as the next Artistic Director of Quantum Theatre. Brook is a Carnegie Mellon alumnus (MFA in Directing), an educator at Tufts University, and a freelance director whose focus is nontraditional theater — the very definition of the company she will lead. She succeeds company founder Karla Boos, who is retiring at the end of the year. Before taking the AD’s position, Brook will direct the world premiere of Liza Birkenmeier’s radio island for Quantum, opening October 23.
Brook previously directed Boos in Quantum’s 2022 production of The Cherry Orchard, their first time working together.
“I connected with Katie in the way that I do, when somebody wants to have a coffee with me,” Boos said at the time. “It was a kind of impulsive move for me to say to Katie, ‘Direct The Cherry Orchard. I’m playing this role, and I know that’s a lot to ask you to do, we don’t know each other that well.’”
Boos later concluded, “I think it was remarkably right. She’s a young director who has done a lot of experimental work, but she has a real love of classic plays and wants those two things to come together. That’s what made me sit up and take notice. I don’t usually get to talk with a young person who wants to direct Tennessee Williams, and that’s what she mentioned.”
There likely will be changes ahead under Brooks’ leadership, but one thing that won’t change: “It’s safe to say that we’re going to continue to work in unusual spaces,” Brook said: “That’s part of Quantum’s identity, and it’s one of genuinely the most explicit expressions of the values of nontraditional theater.”
Here’s more of what Brook had to say about her new role:
BROOK: I feel incredibly fortunate and proud to have made it through this process, and it was a really rigorous process. Where I am in my career, I feel like this is some kind of kismet lucky moment, finding a position like this, in an organization that I so easily align with. As a theater director, I have hoped to find an artistic director position at some point. It’s definitely like a North Star thing, right? But I didn’t know quite where it would be or what would be the right fit. And the timing of this, with this organization that I already have a bit of a relationship with and, more importantly, like the values of the organization, are just like perfect for me. So this is just like an easy, perfect fit, and also, oh my God, what a process! I can’t believe I made it.
oSP: Karla has believed in a singular vision, which has meant it has been hers, for 36 years, while also guiding artists to realize their vision. How do you see yourself as a leader?
BROOK: So this company is at a more mature place now, having been developed over these 30-some years. I understand it started as a much more, gritty, founder-led enterprise, and it being that [Artistic] Director’s vision, and her will, and her as the force, made sense. And I think that once an organization grows to a certain size, it kind of stops making sense for it to be that way.
I think I’ve got to know the board and some of the staff, and it is an organization that is beyond just Karla now, and I think Karla is proud of that. I enter into this knowing that part of what is going to make this organization successful is it being a bit more integrative of others’ voices, within the sort of Quantum vision. So that’s part of it. And then at the same time, of course, for me as a director and artistic leader,it is going to be an expression of my values and my aesthetics, but I just think it’s going to manifest maybe in subtler ways or different ways than it would if I was founding an organization right now.
oSP: As a freelance director, you go into companies, they may have a venue, you may be looking for a venue. The way Quantum has evolved, there are a certain number of productions, one is always outdoors, but site-specific work is what it’s known for. Are you starting from scratch in figuring that out, as someone who is known for experimental theater?
BROOK: It’s safe to say that all of my work is nontraditional theater, and that can manifest differently in different situations. As a freelance director, you’re there to sort of serve the vision of the organization, as well as try to express something that is important to you. So for example, I’m directing [radio island] for Quantum right now, and I’m directing under Karla, though it is my work.
To get back to your question about thinking about season planning, I think I’m equal parts going to be using this situation to bring my directing work to a more consistent and bigger scale, and also, trying to foster artists in Pittsburgh and beyond. I’m in the early stages of imagining things, but one of the things I’m looking at is, what’s working for Quantum right now and what are things that maybe aren’t working, and also, things that I feel are important that I want to change.
It’s also safe to say that we’re going to continue to work in unusual spaces. That’s part of Quantum’s identity, and it’s one of genuinely the most explicit expressions of the values of nontraditional theater, which is something in common between Karla and I. We have a lot of differences in terms of our tastes, but we both really believe in theater doing something new every time, and the way that Quantum engages with the city of Pittsburgh in these specific spaces and builds out new worlds in each new space. That is central to Quantum, and that’s not going to change.
oSP: Because you’ve worked in Pittsburgh before and you went to school here, does that mean you are familiar with the artistic community here?
BROOK: I know the local artist community as well as I can, having lived in Pittsburgh in these sort of short little periods, but not well enough. So one of the things that I am most eager and curious about is going to see everybody’s work, getting to know who the local folks are, and having an understanding of the appetite for different kinds of theater. Also, I’m interested in, what does our subscription audience enjoy about Quantum? And then, what are other people craving that could be somehow infused or included? So both the artists and the audience are things that I do feel I have some knowledge of … but I think I need to learn a lot, and that’s going to be my first big focus.
oSP: Where are you based now, because you teach at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and is this going to be a big move for you?
BROOK: I am mostly based in Boston right now because I teach at Tufts, and I have another home in New York, where I’ve spent most of my career. So I go back and forth there a lot. So these have been the places that have been home that I’ll be moving from. You know, in the last couple of years as I’ve been at Tufts, I’ve gotten to know a bit about the Boston theater community, and it’s distinctly different from the New York one, and Pittsburgh is distinctly different, too. One of the things I’m excited about is, I find Pittsburgh to be somehow this magical artistic place from everything I’ve encountered. And what I’m hoping is that living there and investing in that, is going to mean understanding something new about the sort of art that could come out of the city.
oSP: I am sure you know that parts of the Pittsburgh theater community are in flux right now, and there is a lot of angst about what’s going on in some places, while others, outside the city, may be thriving.
BROOK: I come into this position with a kind of gratitude and humbleness about my role and my responsibility as a leader in the theater. I understand that there’s going to be just a lot for me to learn and understand about what’s been going on lately in the theater in Pittsburgh. Maybe because I’ve had these sort of different times that I’ve dipped into the city, I have this longer view that makes me still think of Pittsburgh as this incredibly generative, creative theater space for its size. So, I have that attitude and optimism.
oSP: Because of your connection to CMU, do you see that continuing?
BROOK: Oh yeah, I hope so. You know, I love Carnegie Mellon. That’s where I went to graduate school and I have friends there, and any way that Quantum Theatre can build bridges with other organizations, in order to resource really cool work and also bring in new audiences, is awesome.
oSP: I had a similar conversation just recently, with City Theatre’s new Artistic Producer, Nicholas Perez-Hoop, someone coming into a new situation, having gone to college here and coming back, and, for me, it feels like a breath of fresh air, in a way, to have an influx of new ideas. Do you feel that, too?
BROOK: Oh my gosh. Well, if a year from now, I’m being described as, ‘Wow, what a breath of fresh air,’ I will feel like I’ve succeeded.
oSP: I am looking forward to anything that takes me to new places. I’m someone who likes to be out of my comfort zone when it comes to theater.
BROOK: I guess the last thing I just want to convey, now that you’re having me think about this, is, my experience of Pittsburgh audiences is that they’re really down and adventurous. I love making theater that, let’s say, invites people out of their comfort zone, and doesn’t leave them hung out to dry, you know? Because like, how fucking lucky are we to have audiences that are like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go on this ride with you.’ And so then as the director, I’ve got to take them on a good ride.
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