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| Karla Boos Credit: Jim Harris/PBT |
Karla Boos, founder and Artistic Director of Quantum
Theatre, will retire in December 2026 after programming the company’s 37th
season. Her departure marks the end of an extraordinary era of creative
leadership and bold experimentation, not just for Quantum Theatre, but for the
city of Pittsburgh and the national stage.
Over the 36 seasons to date, Boos has produced all 106
works, of which she directed 33, acted in 17, and wrote or adapted nine as
original works for theatre. “From a single production in 1990, Karla built a
hugely successful theatre company—one whose audiences followed her vision no
matter where it led,” notes Janet Sarbaugh, former vice president at The Heinz
Endowments. “All audiences have Quantum experiences forever in their mind’s
eye—and their imaginative lives and world views are so much richer for it.”
| Cymbeline. |
Boos founded Quantum Theatre after years in Los
Angeles where she earned an MFA at CalArts and worked as an actor in the
experimental theatre scene. “Pittsburgh didn’t have what I was encountering in
L.A. in those days,” Boos reflected. “I wanted to make work that represented
the things that were blowing my mind about theatre and do it in a place where
it would be unique. Pittsburgh has been that place.”
Boos notes, “For many years, we were the up-and-comer
on the Pittsburgh theatre scene. As it turns out, Quantum’s differentiation has
yielded success and sustainability that surpassed everyone’s early
expectations.”
Boos’ signature approach upended traditional
hierarchies. At Quantum, there is no prescribed template—no fixed stage or
formula. Instead, artists collectively explore potential sites across the city,
negotiating and envisioning together how each space might best serve the
narrative. “We go on a journey to find the right location for the project
together,” Boos says. “We have one budget, not individual line items. Everybody
figures out how to realize the project as a team, and that prompts a huge
amount of collaboration.”
This model has made Quantum a magnet for bold, curious
creatives. From dancers and musicians to international opera stars and emerging
local talent, artists have been drawn by the company’s spirit of adventure and
open experimentation
Boos’ message to Pittsburgh is one of gratitude and
challenge, “I want people to remember their own moment—whatever moments over
the history of Quantum Theatre have been meaningful to them—and act on that. I
want there to be an investment in the artists who will make theatre that cannot
be anticipated in its gifts. It requires courage because you just don’t know
that it will work. But anytime you say ‘I know this works,’ you’ve eliminated
the possibility of doing something absolutely better.”
| Library Music Hall in the spring of 2007. |
As Quantum Theatre prepares for its next chapter, the
company and its community celebrate the legacy of a trailblazer who changed the
landscape of Pittsburgh theatre—and inspired countless artists and audiences to
embrace the unknown.
For a glimpse into the mind and memory of this
exceptional artist that is Karla Boos, I proposed a back-and-forth, Q&A, to
explore some of her thoughts and reminisce over the past 37 artistically-rich
years. Despite her busy rehearsal schedule for her directorial swan song with
Quantum, the upcoming production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, she graciously
consented to engage with me to answer some of the questions I was curious
about.
Q
& A with Karla Boos
Q: Perhaps we should start with origins. What was it that got you interested in theater and pursuing a career in theater art in the first place?
A: I was a dancer. Danced in plays and discovered
talking.
Q: What did you do in theater before Quantum and
where?
A: I got a graduate degree at CalArts and knew by the
end I wanted to make my own work.
Q: As the founder of Quantum Theatre, you lit on the
unique idea of not having a permanent performance site but chose instead to
find appropriate places all over the city, some of which were quite unusual and
unexpected. How did you come up with the concept and did making this decision
give you a lot of pause and second thoughts? And does the title Quantum have
something to do with this concept? Come to think of it, how did you land on the
title of Quantum?
A: In the earliest days we were just looking for a
place to make a play; some of the places available were unusual, had challenges
we turned into opportunities. Discovered freedom, the theater started to feel
confining- certainly one space would. Never looked back.
Quantum is named for a physics principle, in subatomic
particles the act of observing them changes what they are. This seemed a good
theatre metaphor.
Q: Your repertoire is quite eclectic, namely, original
works, contemporary plays from around the globe, updated classics, even quirky
chamber opera. Was this your intent from the start or did the idea evolve
through the years?
A: No ‘idea’, just my interest in doing what I feel I
have an impulse towards but don’t understand. I want to feel quite inexpert,
even now or especially now.
Q: Over the last 36 years as Quantum’s artistic director you’ve acted, directed and written or adapted plays for production. Which of these hats is your favorite one to wear and why?
A: I’m most comfortable directing, but I’ve retained
the part of my soul that is an actress and I think my directing is affected,
for good or ill, by the fact that I’m an actor.
Q: As a follow up question, what are your favorite
productions in which you’ve acted, directed or written/adapted and why?
A: All the Names. Idaspe. Ainadamar. All the
Shakespeare’s. Knives in Hens. (Lots more reflecting all the artists I have
dearly loved.)
| 2018. |
Q: Are there any sites that you’ve wanted to stage a
production that fell through for one reason or another? On the other side of
the coin, which are some of your favorite sites and why are they favorites?
A: Answer yes, but right now in my rehearsal
exhaustion I can’t think of them, and right now for same reason there’s nothing
better than Carrie Furnace.
Q: What were some of Quantum’s most successful
productions, which ones got the greatest critical reviews, and were there any
surprises whereby a production was more successful than you initially
anticipated?
A: Well, most recently we were delighted by the
success of Enron- great director, designers, cast and space … but still it’s a
25-yr-old play, surprised it spoke so potently as a play, to Pittsburgh. All
our Shakespeare’s have been very popular. Jed Harris is a great director- An
Odyssey, Collaborators, wonderfully successful critically and popularly. If we
go back further, Rodgers Henderson gave us Therese Raquin, Indian Ink, The
Crucible- huge earlier successes.
| Library Music Hall in the spring of 2007. |
Q: I’m curious to hear some of the anecdotes, humorous
or otherwise, \ about mishaps that happened on stage during some of the
productions. Something on the order of “The Play That Goes Wrong.”
A: So many funny stories. Since I’m working with
Jeffrey Carpenter right now- we played the illicit lovers in Betrayal. We had a
conceptual set in the Terminal Bldgs (by architect Paul Rosenblatt) that had
empty picture frames. We were supposed to embrace and then go fall on the bed
at one point. One night in a show we knocked against an empty picture frame
which came down over us trapping us in it in our embrace, and tottered over to
the bed laughing our heads off. I’d think I made that up but Jeffrey’s confirmed
it.
Q: Regrets, we all have them. Any particular regrets
you’ve experienced? Things you’d have liked to have done but hadn’t?
A: Oratorio for Living Things by Heather Christian.
Q: How long did you deliberate on retirement? Why now?
And what are your plans for the future?
A: Just a person who acts on instinct. It’s right. I
don’t know what I’ll do, but explore the world from a different perspective.
Q: You chose Shakespeare’s final play, “The Tempest”
as your last with Quantum. Did that factor into the decision to select it as
your swan song? Did you consider other plays as well? If so, which ones?
A: No, The Tempest is the perfect last play for me.
Q: What is your directorial approach to “The Tempest?”
you’re staging at Carrie Furnace. Did you consider other sites as well? If so,
which are they? And what qualities does Carrie have that make it especially
appropriate for this production?
A: I really like Jan Kott’s thinking and writing on
The Tempest. It’s a warning, a world-weary, truth-facing treatise on some facts
about human nature that one comes to with age… one may not want to accept them
but you have to, at a certain point. And yet, as Kott says, the play is full of
‘fragile but stubborn hope’. I have 2 granddaughters. I think the world is
royally $&@#ed up, because as a student of theatre and so, human nature, I
must accept some truths. But I have very stubborn, if fragile, hope. And I
believe in young people, mine and others’ - which is also why I’m retiring.
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