Daniella Topol of Rattlestick Theatre's New Calling: Nursing
The artistic director of the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater makes an unusual career move after preparing the company for a major renovation.
There has been a lot of turnover in theater management lately. Some have been fired from their jobs. Others quit to do something else in the arts. Many have retired.
Daniella Topol, artistic director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and theater director throughout her career, is leaving to become a nurse.
This unusual move comes at a pivotal time for Rattlestick, a small Off Broadway company that, in addition to rejuvenating after the long pandemic shutdown, is about to embark on a much-needed renovation to his cozy but flawed West Village home, housed in a 19th-century parish church.
Topol, 47, has led Rattlestick since 2016, succeeding David Van Asselt, who co-founded the company. Just before taking over as director, she directed a Rattlestick production of Martyna Majok's "Ironbound," which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for "Cost of Living."
Three years later, another production Topol made for Rattlestick changed its course. While working on "Novenas for a Lost Hospital," a play that recounted and mourned the demise of St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village as patrons moved from place to place in connection with the story, she consulted with nurses and nursing students, and something sparked.
“A seed was planted, then we kept moving forward : a pandemic happened six months later, and there was a lot of thinking around the question: "Where are we as a field?" "Where are we as a city?" "Where are we as a country?" "Where are we going?" "What role do we play or not?" "How can I, as a white woman, hold power and privilege?" "How can't I?" "Where do I fit into a constellation in a way that is productive?" significant and empowering experiences that I have experienced, on a very personal level, and many of them have focused on the complexities of mothering, and so it comes out to feel like she is aligning with the stars.
She said she wasn't sure what she wanted to do as a nurse, but she planned to stay in New York, and said maternal health and birth equity — a term used to describe efforts to reduce racial and class inequalities for new mothers and their infants — have become special interests, intensified by the reversal of Roe v . Wade. "I've been pregnant multiple times - I've had late loss, early loss and have a child," said Topol, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. "I feel like it's a way to contain the loss and let it help inform my next steps on a very personal level."
The artistic director of the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater makes an unusual career move after preparing the company for a major renovation.
There has been a lot of turnover in theater management lately. Some have been fired from their jobs. Others quit to do something else in the arts. Many have retired.
Daniella Topol, artistic director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and theater director throughout her career, is leaving to become a nurse.
This unusual move comes at a pivotal time for Rattlestick, a small Off Broadway company that, in addition to rejuvenating after the long pandemic shutdown, is about to embark on a much-needed renovation to his cozy but flawed West Village home, housed in a 19th-century parish church.
Topol, 47, has led Rattlestick since 2016, succeeding David Van Asselt, who co-founded the company. Just before taking over as director, she directed a Rattlestick production of Martyna Majok's "Ironbound," which went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for "Cost of Living."
Three years later, another production Topol made for Rattlestick changed its course. While working on "Novenas for a Lost Hospital," a play that recounted and mourned the demise of St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village as patrons moved from place to place in connection with the story, she consulted with nurses and nursing students, and something sparked.
“A seed was planted, then we kept moving forward : a pandemic happened six months later, and there was a lot of thinking around the question: "Where are we as a field?" "Where are we as a city?" "Where are we as a country?" "Where are we going?" "What role do we play or not?" "How can I, as a white woman, hold power and privilege?" "How can't I?" "Where do I fit into a constellation in a way that is productive?" significant and empowering experiences that I have experienced, on a very personal level, and many of them have focused on the complexities of mothering, and so it comes out to feel like she is aligning with the stars.
She said she wasn't sure what she wanted to do as a nurse, but she planned to stay in New York, and said maternal health and birth equity — a term used to describe efforts to reduce racial and class inequalities for new mothers and their infants — have become special interests, intensified by the reversal of Roe v . Wade. "I've been pregnant multiple times - I've had late loss, early loss and have a child," said Topol, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. "I feel like it's a way to contain the loss and let it help inform my next steps on a very personal level."
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