Cameron Stuart lives and breathes DIY theater. Not only does this New Yorker produce his own works, but he’s one of eight operators of a DIY space called the Glove that hosts performances of music, theater, poetry, and all things artistic.
What does DIY mean to you?
It is pretty broad. It’s a way of doing things that’s essentially pragmatic and intuitive and ahistorical; it should remain nonrigorous as a definition. I think you can be rigorous and still be DIY, but I think it’s counterproductive to make DIY a really specific category. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think anyone will say I can’t be DIY if I am! To me, that’s the joy of it: the freedom to make it your own as long as you do the work and expend the energy.
Where do you feel DIY work fits into the current theater scene?
It has become an essential part of the toolkit for getting theater produced, especially new pieces, new companies, new plays, new ideas. DIY spaces that cater to a lot of different kinds of performance are really great for their ability to engage a nontraditional theatergoing crowd, keep costs low to inspire risk-taking, and cross-pollinate between disciplines, media, and communities. But really, it’s the openness that attracts people—the lack of rigid definition and the call to participate.
A lot of established artists, like Patti Smith and David Byrne, think New York is too expensive for this type of work. Well, they’re wrong. Lots of my friends from around the country move to New York City because in the end, it is actually cheaper here than other big cities. You just have to work harder, and you get less space for your money. And you have to really develop the skills to exist in a thriving network of activated, creative, energized people. I also think DIY in New York City, to Byrne and Smith, is Manhattan. Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx all have great DIY. It is a very different version of New York life than the super-dense Lower East Side, but there are a lot of diverse communities in the outer boroughs, and I believe artists will find in the long run that with the MTA offering lots of accessibility, the geographical center of New York City is not in Manhattan. It’s also easy to bike just about anywhere.
Why is DIY still important?
Because it is fun, and Lucretius and the Epicureans say the pursuit of pleasure is the highest aim. It seems to me [that] people have a lot of control over their identity and community in DIY spaces, but identity is only one thing to be found in these places. Access to pleasure in all forms in a single setting is rare in a market-driven economy chained to the specter of perpetual growth. DIY is the best—where else can you feed your intellect, your body, your senses, your community, your imagination for basically no money at all?
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