.The Imaginists Bonded by Vision

For this pencil-wrist Hercules, writing this column sometimes seems an impossible task.

This week, my word limit must be made to contain the three-headed giant of the local arts scene—Amy Pinto, Steven K. Patterson and Brent Lindsay—the co-directors of The Imaginists theater company. 

For containment and contentment, I recommend the spacious 90-minute interview I recorded (in the Linktree below). Better catch a show in their converted garage container. I would buy any ticket they issued blind. They have the trust of the local art community.  Across a span of 24 years pushing limits on A Street, they have certainly earned it.

CH: Amy, can you recall and recollect a poppy POV moment in which you were really living your arts mission?

AP: In 2009, I conceived and co-directed a play with two other women. At the time, we all had kids ranging in age from 18 months to seven years. The piece was called Women’s Work and was about the history of unpaid labor, told in stories by the three of us while our children were on stage with us. We agreed that whatever our kids did, it would be part of the performance. And what happened basically is that children cried and were handed off to audience members, or they ran around and disrupted everything we tried to do, and the whole piece pretty much fell apart.

CH: Thus illustrating your point about unrecognized and uncompensated maternal labor.

AP: It was an incredible moment for me—emblematic of what we want to do—because these two women, who didn’t formerly consider themselves performers and now do, were up for this experiment and seeing what happened. Also, it was bilingual English/Spanish. 

CH: Your mission affirmed.

BL: Affirmation is such an important thing. Because artists in this county are not affirmed. But when you finally find your family of artists and that inspiration, that bar gets raised to such a point that it inspires not just your work but your artistry and personhood. It’s so important because it keeps you waking up and doing this art thing.

CH: Weakly attempting to encapsulate your company, I would say you have an abiding interest in progressive messaging and inquiry, the participation of non-professionals on an equal footing with yourselves, on-stage spontaneity, discovery, and also, I might say … silliness?

SP: In the search for what is true or what can be truth … I believe that truth is where the funny is.

CH: Then you’re very truthful.

Get involved:  linktr.ee/theimaginistsLINKS.

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