Making Art in 2017: Sonya Aronowitz on #CocktailPlays
Name: Sonya Aronowitz
Company: Juniper Productions
Show in 2017 Festival: #CocktailPlays
Role: Producer
Past Festival shows: This is our first production!
FringeArts: Tell us about your show.
Sonya Aronowitz: I founded Juniper Productions this year to be a new independent “spirit” in the performing arts. I’ve written plays myself and know how difficult/impossible it is to have work produced. Our starting point is serving emerging talent, in particular playwrights, by providing more development and production opportunities. At the same time, I want to open up theater to more audiences by making work in places where people gather anyway. The short play format allows us to introduce a new audience to several emerging playwrights in one evening of performance. So, in short, the questions I seek to answer are: How do we introduce a broader public to the great talent we have in Philadelphia? How do we continue to cultivate and sustain our theater artists?
FringeArts: How have your interests in or approach to art making changed in the last year?
Sonya Aronowitz: Juniper is a start-up. I’m approaching it as a business that exists to support emerging artists, engage new audiences, and build new support. We are building new patron relationships, for example, with small businesses, who get perks for being a patron of the “art spirit!”
FringeArts: Tell us about an instance from 2017 when your interaction with art provided some much needed solace or refuge from outside troubles.
Sonya Aronowitz: I left a full-time position to start Juniper this year. One of the first meetings I held was to discuss a Fringe project with some artists and community members. I have never been in a room with so many creative, articulate, brilliant people. It reaffirms my decision to take this leap forward, out of a “safe,” more corporate environment. I love the energy and the impact of this work and blazing my own trail with a great team in place. We all have personal trials and challenges. Working with such talented people, doing the work we were meant to do, keeps me grounded and very much alive and open to positive possibility.
#CocktailPlays
Juniper Productions
$20 / 70 minutes
Sept 18-20 @ Philadelphia Distilling, 25 E Allen St