Today we’d like to introduce you to Zack Rocklin-Waltch.
Hi Zack, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Towards the end of the junior year of my B.F.A. Acting training program at the University of Southern California, my classmates and I realized that what we had was special. There were only eight of us in the class of 2023, and over the past three years we had fallen in love with each other’s artistry, dedication, and generosity of spirit. It started off as a joke – “I don’t want to stop working with you all after we graduate; we’ll have to start a theatre company together, so we never have to move on.” But one late night, as we were all hanging out, one of us, Audrey Forman, tested the waters. She asked us, between contagious fits of laughter, if that was something we could seriously envision doing. The answer, unanimously, was yes. Audrey is now the Artistic Director of Eight Ball Theatre, a non-profit theatre company dedicated to fostering community through theatre.
It was during our senior year that we started having serious conversations about what this company might look like. We had long meetings in empty classrooms where we hammered out our values and mission statement. We decided to give ourselves a trial run: four weeks over the course of March of that year set aside to write, direct, and produce an original play starring all eight of us with zero budget. If we could do that without starting to hate each other, we reasoned, we could found a theatre company.
And thus, was born Eight Ball Theatre’s inaugural show, Sonder, performed in a windowless classroom in USC’s theatre building (and not necessarily with the express permission of the department). And yet that kind of wild, guerrilla theatre-making – staying up far too late arguing over a scene transition, carrying lamps and furniture from our apartments to campus to use as set pieces, secretly ushering audiences to the back of the building before faculty caught us – all of it was exhilarating. And we came out of it even more determined to dive in and create something lasting together.
So, we did. We divided up roles based on everyone’s interests and availability and got started planning our first fully staged production. I had taken a play I had written, The Fire at the Edge of the Earth, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, an international theatre festival in Scotland, back in August 2022. Audrey had directed it, and I had starred in it alongside our classmate Michael MacLeod. We had gotten some incredible reviews in Scotland, and the three of us had already been talking about an L.A. premiere. The other five members of Eight Ball loved the idea, and we got to work producing it – talking to donors and sponsors to raise the funds. The Fire at the Edge of the Earth ended up getting picked as one of Stage Raw’s Top Ten Shows in LA that summer, and the Hudson Theatres, where we had staged it, asked Eight Ball to sign with them as a theatre company in residence.
We spent the rest of 2023 registering as a non-profit organization and making it to 501(c)(3) status. We hosted a series of smaller, community-oriented events such as an open mic night, an artists’ workshop, and a staged reading of a new play. Now, we’re starting pre-production on our next main-stage production at the Hudson. We’ve got a lot of other awesome projects planned for 2024 that aren’t quite ready to be announced yet. But stay tuned! 2023 was a fantastic first year for Eight Ball, but 2024 is about to be even better. And most importantly, I get to continue creating meaningful pieces of theatre with people I love. Every day, I am so thankful for that alone.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We’ve definitely been learning as we go. Some of us have had internships with theatre companies around L.A., which has given us a bit of experience and foreknowledge, but for the most part, we’re all quite green when it comes to running a non-profit. And yet, just going through the process of non-profit registration and filing for 501(c)(3) status taught us so much about what needs to be done and maintained in the organization. Plus, we’ve had some incredible mentors from all throughout the L.A. theatre scene (and beyond) helping us, often with tips as simple as “fill out this form, not that one,” which don’t seem like much but go a long way. Our mentors challenge us and keep us honest, and we love keeping them involved in the process.
The biggest challenge, as is often the case in theatre, has been raising money to produce the shows. Even with all eight of us working completely for free, productions cost a lot of money, and theatre, in general, tends not to turn much of a profit. We spent a lot of last year courting donors who supported the mission of our company, and one of our big goals for 2024 is to find local L.A. businesses that are interested in donating to the arts and sponsoring our work. We really do believe that our mission – to create community through theatre, both by producing ensemble-driven theatre pieces and by fostering spaces for young, local artists to develop works that express their diverse experiences and perspectives – is deeply important. We hope to continue building our donor base as we connect with more people whose values align with our own.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
So much of theatre in this highly commercialized era has pivoted to the “star model” of marketing. That is, book a big name for your project in order to get people to come see it. But Eight Ball sees the value of theatre not in its focus on celebrity but in its cultivation of ensemble. We believe that all artists need community in order to thrive, and theatre artists are no different. The major goal of Eight Ball Theatre is to focus on ensemble-based theatre, not star-oriented shows, in order to nurture an artistic community of theatre makers in Los Angeles.
The community that the eight of us found with each other at USC changed all of our lives. We can push each other, hold each other, and cheer each other on. What we wanted to do with Eight Ball Theatre was to keep that community going, and to welcome other dedicated artists into it as well. We keep this at the forefront of our minds when producing everything, from staged readings to full-scale productions. And we’re always looking to connect with other artists, which is part of the reason we put such a strong focus on curating community events as well.
I’m personally most proud of our Play Talks series, wherein we read a couple plays a month, all specifically chosen based on current events and all written by contemporary playwrights who are producing new works today – then we meet for in-depth discussions of the plays. All are welcome. These Play Talks represent everything I love about Eight Ball: opportunities for community members to come together through a shared passion for theatre, where we can be exposed to new works from both established and emerging playwrights that exist in conversation with our present moment.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I think I speak for all eight of us when I say we wouldn’t exist without the encouragement of our acting professor, Michele Shay. Michele is an unparalleled artist, and when she started pushing us to found a theatre company together, we couldn’t say no.
We also owe a huge debt to Zeke Rettman and his team at the Hudson Theatres, who believed in our work and gave us the best home we could ask for at the Hudson.
The mentorship of Zach Davidson and Kendall Johnson from Coin & Ghost, another phenomenal non-profit theatre company in L.A., proved to be absolutely essential as we flew blindly into the paperwork of non-profit registration.
Claire Beckman of the Brave New World Repertory Theatre was so kind in offering her expertise as we assembled our Board of Directors, and we are deeply grateful to her for being so generous with her knowledge and experience.
David Fickas and Adrienne Visnic of Drama 3/4 have had our backs from day one (maybe even before day one), and are not only incredible supporters, but also very dear friends.
Other professors from USC who have been wonderful mentors and advocates are Laura Flanagan, Stephanie Shroyer, Edgar Landa, Kathleen Dunn-Muzingo, Esther Chae, Ann Closs-Farley, and Phil Allen.
And lastly, our families and friends have been the greatest supporters we could ever ask for – donating not only money but also time, food, paint, power tools, rehearsal spaces, costume pieces, loudspeakers, musical instruments, and baking tips. We couldn’t have done any of this without them in our corner.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eightballtheatre/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@eightballtheatre
Image Credits
Benjamin Atkinson
Aidan Niswender
Joel Marasigan
