#3 A company as a stable crossroads

Some consider that a companion is someone with whom we share bread. And to have company is to have someone with whom to share it. Some etymologies teach us that the very word has this sense embedded in it, you just need to separate it into syllables. Being in company is to live by sharing bread, and when we do something in the company of others, we do it based on what each person contributes. But where does company truly reside? In other words, when "we are in the company," where exactly is it? It's neither entirely yours nor entirely mine; company always exists in the middle, like the bread we break. When shared, this bread is no longer yours or mine; similarly, company is the space where we are intertwined, connected, and where there is complicity. It's a reciprocal relationship, a link between two (or more) paths that intersect. It resides in us, but in an "us" that is not just a "you" and a "me," but a common place, not compartmentalized but shared.

Making theater in company has something to do with this. Even though each member brings specific languages, skills, and sensibilities, the company is what results from the amalgamation, and this is reflected in a way of working and in theatrical works. It resides in the midst, it's the way of doing and the result. Artistic paths that come together, and at their intersection, give rise to the production of the unexpected. Like a crossroads, which only exists as the space in between, as a common place of parts that, when joined, create an "us." The theater company is very similar, a crossroads that has become stable, a collaborative way of working based on a relational "us": "the company."

It's evident that all theater projects that manage to create a good show in some way function like this. Theater is a profoundly shared and collective art. Even if the way of working is highly compartmentalized and the connection between the parts depends mainly on direction, the entire team generates a collective work. But it's clear that a group of people coming together for a project doesn't create the same common space as a company that works steadily. The continuity of the company is crucial, it broadens the in-between space and allows the resulting (shared) shows to dialogue with each other. A company, in this sense, is a crossroads that doesn't cease, a way of doing that summons us to their shows, inviting us to attend the crossroads it generates.

In the midst of all this, we must ask ourselves how many companies manage to nurture this character of a meeting of paths. How many material conditions make it difficult for them? And, above all, what dialogue currently exists among different companies? To what extent do we also manage to create intersections between different companies?