convergence-continuum: Too Small and Flexible to Fail

(l-r) Corin Self, Jill Kenderes & Soren Russell in con-con’s 2019 production of "Statements After an Arrest" Photo: Cory Molner

Forty seats and a miniscule performance space. Limited cast size and few production bells and whistles.  Little overhead and a full-time staff of only three. 
 
This is business as usual for convergence-continuum in Tremont under the supervision of founder and artistic director Clyde Simon.
 
So with the realization that smaller theater venues may very well be the first to re-open under a new set of guidelines for social distancing, downsizing will hardly be noticed.
 
Going from 40 seats to 27 and truncating an already small playing space to accommodate an already modest production, says Clyde, “is not that much of a hardship.  Small is pretty much our business model.” 
 
Since con-con also dances to a different production schedule than most other theaters – it had not yet started its new season when the pandemic hit – things have been delayed but not necessarily dismantled.  Plans are moving forward to produce Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Holding History in July and the theater might circle back and revisit planned but never staged productions of Johnna Adams’ Gidion's  Knot and Topher Payne’s Angry Fags.
 
“When we started out so many years ago, we never announced a season because we could not plan that far ahead.  We announced a show, performed it and, at the end of the run, we announced the next show.  That may be the new reality.  We have a feeling that audiences will be forgiving.”
 

Clyde Simon, Founder & Artistic Director, convergence-continuum