RealTime Arts

RealTime Arts is the creative partnership of Molly Rice, songwriter, composer, and dramatist; and Rusty Thelin, director, producer, and dreamer. We are a community-fueled performing arts company interested in what happens when people–often with vastly different experiences and backgrounds–gather to witness compelling and well-crafted stories about real people in real time. We seek to facilitate authentic human connection, generate curiosity and wonder, and to help audiences re-see their surroundings in unexpected ways.

Although our projects are varied, our work most often falls on the spectrum of community engagement and civic practice, although sometimes we make art for art’s sake. We create in conversation with a broad range of collaborators, from refugees to scientists to rock bands to our neighbors down the street. We build new “companies” with every project, with individuals from diverse walks of life and realms of experience bound by the story we are telling together.

So why are we drawn to public art? Well, it turns out we’ve been doing public art for years and didn’t even know it; it’s not a term commonly used in the theater world. But our samples should give a sense of our work’s community-fueled, site-specific and immersive nature, and our focus on partnerships–qualities key to public art.

People may not think of live theatrical experiences when they think of public art. But theater is a powerful engine for re-imagining the world, exploring new roles and power dynamics, unearthing histories and legacies in unique but unsung spaces, and connecting human beings with each other to drive social change. By its nature it gathers people in a shared space, weaving together text, music, sound, visual design, lighting, technology, kinetic experience, and even food in infinite permutations to create unforgettable experiences shared between friends and strangers alike–experiences that can uplift and create community at the same time, and inspire ACTION.

We use all these elements to create new work with our ever-expanding web of collaborators and partners. And this web– between fellow artists, community members, organizations, and audience members– may be our most important, evolving work of art.

Photo by Laura Petrilla