What’s my #vision?

Written by WAM Theatre Artistic Director, Kristen van Ginhoven.
January 1, 2016

A lot of people lately have been asking me this question.

It keeps evolving as my life evolves.

It evolves as I meet people, have experiences, live through emotions.

It evolves every time my heart breaks.

For the past seven years, since the moment I read ‘Half the Sky’, my heart breaks every time a woman is denied an opportunity.

My heart breaks when I hear about children being abused, when I hear about the enormous number of children living in orphanages and foster homes. My heart breaks when I hear about people who can’t afford an education. Who don’t have somewhere safe to live. Who don’t go to the hospital when they have an injury because they can’t afford the bill.

My heart breaks for lots of things. But, my heart breaks the most when lack of opportunity prevents transformation.

My life has been changed time and time again by opportunity. By someone seeing something in me and saying ‘let’s give her a chance’.

The director who hired me for my first big acting job in Toronto (Thanks Brian Quirt!).

The head of school who hired me for my first theatre teaching job in Brussels (Thanks Kevin Bartlett!).

The Presidential Fellowship committee at Emerson College who made it possible for me to get my Master’s Degree (I don’t know the names of those people but I’m eternally grateful to them!)

Those opportunities, and the so many more that have come to me, came through lots of hard work but mostly, they came from the good fortune of being born in North America to a middle class white family who valued education.

For the past seven years, I have devoted my life to building WAM Theatre. To using theatre to create opportunity for women and girls. It has been hard. It has been enormously gratifying.

The days we give people a job, I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

The days we open a play by a woman playwright, I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

The days an audience member stands up and applauds with tears in their eyes or a huge grin on their face, I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

The days we make our gift presentation to our beneficiaries and create an opportunity for a woman or a girl somewhere in the world, I know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

But.

There are lots of days when I’m running WAM that I don’t know if I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. When I don’t believe that what I’m doing is worth it.

Why?

Because I spend a huge part of my time being an administrator.

I spend a huge part of my time doing the nuts and bolts of running a non-profit theatre and I’ll be honest, I don’t love it.

I wonder- am I getting sucked down into the rabbit hole of all that’s ‘expected’ of running a non-profit? Will I end up constantly thinking about the bottom line and not the VISION behind what we are doing because payroll has to be met? 

Although there are days I wish I could focus on somehow making my million, I happen to be pretty good at running a non-profit so far. Our thank you cards go out on time. We always end our year in the black. We all like each other in the office and in the theatre. Our unique mission of theatre as philanthropy is becoming known.

Which means more administration. Which is not my vision.

My VISION is to use theatre to create opportunity for women and girls. My VISION is to make a difference in someone’s life. To contribute, in my way as a professional theatre artist, to the movement towards gender parity.

And MY WAY of contributing is to tell stories that move me, to create a community of people who share my desire to focus on what’s being DONE, not what still has to happen. Who focus on OPPORTUNITY, not oppression.

I want to tell stories. I want the stories I tell to speak for me. They are how I advocate for all I believe in. They are my imagination and my politics.

There are lots of people who care deeply about women’s issues.

There are lots of people who love the theatre.

There are lots of people who believe that working together as men and women, side by side, and investing in women and girls with our time, talent and treasure will result in a better future for us all.

That is my community.

As WAM grows people are starting to ask- why give money to WAM when WAM gives money away?

Because WAM creates jobs, provides the opportunity for women’s stories to be told and heard AND gives money away to organizations taking action for women and girls. A triple WAMmy.

It’s a no brainer to me.

It’s what moves me.

I have to do all that other administration stuff right now in order to make the VISION happen.

Is it worth it? Most days. It may never, ever feel like it is worth it every day. But for now, it’s worth it most days. And that has to be enough. Cuz, I ain’t gonna stop. That’s for sure. There are too many stories to tell.

And hopefully someday, hopefully, that community I mentioned above, that WAMIly- with their money, advocacy, passion, change making, optimism and hope- will help me pave the way to do just all that other stuff- all the stuff that moves me.

Give someone a job in the theatre.
Give a woman the chance to hear her story told.
Give a woman or girl somewhere in the world an opportunity to grow because I staged a play.

I am eager to share my thoughts all around the world about the power of theatre as a force for good and the power of theatre as philanthropy.

Imagine if other theatres adopted the WAM model and gave 25% of their box office proceeds to organizations taking action for causes the producers believe in deeply- imagine the social change that could create?

That is my VISION.

January 1, 2016