GREENFIELD — Greenfield Community College and Ashfield’s Double Edge Theatre are teaming up to grow visual and performing arts at the college and throughout Franklin County.
“We’re in the early stages of planning,” said GCC Theater Department Chair Tom Geha.
Geha, who has been instrumental in getting this partnership off the ground, according to collaborators, said the excitement is obvious for both GCC and Double Edge. The collaboration will kick off with an experimental performance class at the college during the spring semester that will be taught by Double Edge members.
“Having Double Edge Theatre involved with GCC students and community brings an international working theater ensemble to their backyards,” Geha said. “Having the ability to take a class in math and then walk down to the theater and be taught by respected theater professionals is a unique and promising endeavor for the department, the college and the community.”
According to GCC President Yves Salomon-Fernández, the partnership will evolve into a “multi-year endeavor” that will engage a mix of students and community members in longer productions and performances.
“We want to keep the arts accessible to all, including those traditionally underserved and whose access to the arts and humanities is challenged,” Salomon-Fernández said. “This is meant to be an intergenerational experience with a range of experiences. It’s also meant to be a long-term collaboration.”
Salomon-Fernández said she envisions everyone, from working adults to retirees, becoming involved. The collaboration will harness imagination and tap into people’s undiscovered potential.
“We have a deep commitment to arts and humanities,” she said. “We want to give students in all disciplines access to them.”
Bringing Double Edge to the college will also make it more accessible to people who struggle to find transportation to Ashfield, where Double Edge has been located on a 105-acre former dairy farm for the past 25 years.
“We’re making this front and center for folks who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity,” Salomon-Fernández said.
“We (GCC and Double Edge) see eye-to-eye,” Double Edge Founder and Artistic Director Stacy Klein said about the collaboration. “Our values and our missions are really similar.”
Klein said that while GCC has democratized knowledge by bringing affordable education to the underserved and low-income populations, Double Edge has democratized theater by bringing underrepresented and diverse voices to the art world. Klein and Salomon-Fernández said both institutions think critically about inclusion and how to help their rural hometowns flourish.
“This is the first time we have found a solid, grounded and ‘similar in values’ institution to partner with,” added Carlos Uriona, one of three co-artistic directors at Double Edge.
Double Edge’s performance spectacles have the potential to incorporate students and faculty in all departments, while exploring historical contexts and literary roots, developing conceptual art and musical scores, researching connections to the environment and sustainability, and learning about marketing and production.
GCC Dean of Humanities Leo Hwang said Double Edge offers a “fantastic model” for building a compassionate, creative community dedicated to art and a sense of place.
“This is the kind of theater people can connect with, even if theater is not their main focus,” Hwang said.
The theater company puts a lot of research into their productions, he said, thinking deeply about the consciousness that they are trying to elevate. He said the collaboration is exciting because Double Edge will help students expand their visions of what is possible through non-traditional forms of storytelling or non-linear narrative, and also brings international or global perspectives back to the context of Franklin County.
“There’s something wonderful and exciting when we are able to bring things we learn from reading about, studying and experiencing the world back and integrating them into our home communities,” Hwang said. “What are the roots of these ideas? Where do they emanate from in literature, history and culture? What are the personal connections to these experiences? That’s what education is really about.”
Klein called the partnership a sign for a future in which education and cultural institutions are taking the lead in welcoming all people.
“Theater that gets the community involved helps people who feel like they could never participate in culture see that a living culture really does have something to do with them,” Klein said. “It’s a necessity for flourishing creative lives.”
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269 or afritz@recorder.com.