thespisbustard: Janet Sojack: Triangle Theater

Janet Sojack and The Triangle Theater, and the Random Acts of Theater Foundation:

Philadelphia's Own Ellen Stewart and La Mama? ?

Forty-five years ago in New York, Ellen Stewart, a noted fashion designer, had a dream to nurture young playwrights and to bring the best of European theatre to the United States. Her Café La Mama started in a tiny basement in lower Manhattan and has grown into a multipurpose arts complex with an international reputation. According to Stewart, “ I was always taught by my mama I’m on an island and there’s not a soul on the island but me. And so whatever gets done, I have to do it.” Artists and playwrights like Adrienne Kennedy, Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard and Harvey Fierstein credit her with helping to form their careers.

Flash forward to 2006, and consider Janet Stojak and her young Triangle Theatre and Random Acts of Theater Foundation. Stojak’s background includes a doctorate in psychology and an M.A. in journalism from Columbia. She did a post-doc at Yale and has taught psychology at
Williams College and the New Schoolfor Social Research. A former freelance science reporter and independent consultant in organizational development, Janet Stojak and scientist, Robert Kelley developed a program called "Breakthrough" for Bell Labs (now Lucent Technology) to train engineers and scientists to be more productive when working creatively on complex projects. It worked and, after licensing her design, Ms. Stojak decided to take a sabbatical.

Inspired by book called The Artist’s Way, she studied voice (“ I never felt that I could sing”) and took an acting class at the Walnut Street Theater with George DiCenzo. In DiCenzo’s class, something clicked with her and she thought, “Here’s the real thing. This is what I want to do.” She rented space under Mike Leman’s casting office and opened a workshop where Mr. DiCenzo would teach classes and she would develop theatrical product. The two have gone on to create or produce several successful one person shows including David Dallas’ Barking Dawgs and The Gentlemen from Tennessee, a piece on the life of Mississippi’s Senator John Stennis which is now on tour. And so, from a career sabbatical, a new Philadelphia theater facility, company, and foundation was born.

Located in the heart of Northern Liberties (or “Old Kensington” depending on your realtor), Triangle Theater, its offices and performance space, was created when Stojak gutted and revamped an old flat iron shaped building. Triangle is now home for Mr. DiCenzo’s master acting classes and serves as the incubating base for numerous “Fringe projects”. Triangle has a two-pronged mission: to produce original work “from abstract idea to full production” and to bring classics to modern audiences. Often Janet Stojak will develop an evening from Mr. DiCenzo’s monologue/scene classes or sponsor original one-person shows. There is also a writing class, conducted by Bryan Osborn, which also provides inspiration. She prides herself on “fostering work of some people who do things that I don’t do” and makes space available to performance artists.

A dream project for the future is a production of Chekhov’s The Seagull performed in rep with Tennessee Williams’s Notebook of Trigorin, which contains the subtext of the Russian classic. She would like to give space and opportunity for artists or groups who have no space but deserve to heard by the community. One such piece is Solitary, a one-person show about an Afro-American youth who wakes up in a cell without any idea how or why he’s there. Another new initiative is “Taking Stage,” a series of workshops to teach professionals “how to communicate truthfully and effectively in public.” Aimed at the non-actor, the course is intended to help individuals in a variety of fields gain the skills to communicate to their clients in a dynamic, energized, and honest manner.

Spend a few minutes with Janet Stojak and you’ll find her creativity, sincerity, self-reliance, energy is electric. Could Triangle Theatre and the Random Acts of Theater Foundation become
Philadelphia’s own Café LaMama? Remember Ellen Stewart’s mother’s words?: “I’m on an island and there’s not a soul on the island but me. And so whatever gets done, I have to do it.” Well, in “Old Kensington,” Janet Stojak is definitely doing it.

thespisbustard

Janet Sojack: Triangle Theater

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