Meet Buba Basishvili Meghan Frank | Theatre maker, producer, educator, actor,

We had the good fortune of connecting with Buba Basishvili Meghan Frank and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Buba Basishvili, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The process is complex but to summon it in a sentence is that it is necessary for us as a civic society to have a place where we can create and talk about our social life together through the arts. You might call non profit a business but I call it a social service

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
BUBA: I’m a theatre maker coming from the country of Georgia. I had a very hard life growing up in a country which continuously was attacked by the Russian empire of evil. I have witnessed 3 major interventions, two major economic defaults, and our educational system was bad, especially after Communism. Life was unexpectedly strange with no possibility of planing for the future with no hope. I survived because of the hope I carry deep inside me and I believe in arts which can change minds of people. I believe the arts can give hope and relief to people.

There where times when I used to work in the State Mime Theatre when the lights would go off during the show because the country wasn’t able to pay or produce electricity. We would light candles. My group mates would play piano and some of us would keep acting. It was a special moment when we would develop very intimate connections to the audience. It was when arts was the only thing we all had in this world as a hope for the future.

With every show I make, I’m trying to recreate this connection and bond – what I call conversation between the artist and the audience. Also, humor is a very good medium to talk about the absurdity of the things around us.

MEGHAN: I make original theatre. When I did not get into a traditional theatre university, I wondered if I should give up. But through this failure, emerged an opportunity to transform and grow. I found that theatre has many branches and there were other avenues into the art form I loved; I discovered that theatre can be made without words; theatre can be made within communities about important topics in their lives; the theatre can spark conversations across languages, and cultures, and identities. I became really interested in how the “body speaks” and have spent my career exploring body language in different ways. I got a degree in “Theatre for Social Change,” and then started traveling to places affected by war and conflict (the Balkans, Afghanistan) with Bond Street Theatre. There I also learned the elements of non-profit administration. I really wish they would teach the Arts/Business connection sooner in an artist’s journey. I got an MFA from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Then I moved backed to Denver, where I grew up. I co-founded Theatre Artibus with my partner Buba, a Denver-based theatre company in residence at the Savoy Denver in the historic Curtis Park/Five Points neighborhood. The Savoy Denver is open for independent performing arts, social dances, community meetings, workshops, and rehearsals. I help manage this space too – so am always excited to be in conversation with anyone who has a vision for the space I am also honored to be a facilitator with Mirror Image Arts, whose mission is to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline with participatory theatre.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Buba: Well obviously first thing will be to check out artistic stuff in the area, like music scene or immersive stuff our peers in Colorado are creating. Naturally great outdoors is very inspiring and some of the social gathering places like Denver Museum of Arts, Casa Bonita, Meow Wolf, Rino Artpark, Dairy arts center, Colorado Symphony.

Meghan

Travel to the mountains, in any direction. A little bit closer, I’m partial to Eldorado Canyon or Staunton State Parks, After that, circle back to Denver, check out MCA Denver, Shop at MATTER

(2134 Market Street, Denver), SuperMegaBien, Zaidy’s Deli & Bakery; a show at Buntport Theater.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
BUBA: All the theatre artists who create their own work deserve a shoutout. It’s a tremendous effort to imagine-write it down-organize-sell tickets-play try to make a money for living and then jump back again into the same process. It’s a loop. Some locals groups are: Buntport, Milibo Arts, Emancipation Theater Company, 5280 Artist Coop, Grapefruit Lab, Japanese Arts Network, Warm Cookies of the Revolution.

MEGHAN: I want the world to know more about Joan Schirle. She was an amazing human, performer, and thinker, and helped establish Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California. She recently passed away. Find out more about her:

Remembering Dell’Arte’s Joan Schirle, mentor to Bay Area artists

I want to mention women who have influenced my life in important ways – all are fierce advocates for the transformational power of theatre, Joanna Sherman of Bond Street Theatre (https://www.bondst.org/), Stacy Klien and Jennifer Johnson of Double Edge Theatre (https://doubleedgetheatre.org/about-us/), Janessa Johsnrude (https://vimeo.com/403021421), and Maya Osterman-Van Grak of Mirror Image Arts. https://www.mirrorimagearts.org/

Website: https://www.theartibus.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theartibus/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theatre-artibus-417546192

Image Credits
Meghan Frank in “INbox” by Theatre Artibus. Photo: Michael Ensminger Photography http://michaelensminger.com/