The Obie-winning Ice Factory festival presents seven new works from June 29 to August 13 at the New Ohio Theatre. We spoke with director Tara Ahmadinejad about collaborating with Piehole on Ski End, a play about an abandoned ski shop at the center of the universe.

Ski End was created by Piehole, "a laboratory of theater artists who investigate the process of collaboration and collective authorship in order to create live events." Can you talk about the idea for this piece emerged?

In summer 2014, the five Piehole core group members got the chance to work in an abandoned ski shop in Bridgewater, VT, which was destroyed by Hurricane Irene. We didn’t originally mean to make a piece about the space, but when we encountered the architecture and strange remnants (like ski posters on torn up walls, dead birds and empty beer cans) we couldn’t ignore the stories and images that the space conjured. We were drawn to how these otherwise meaningless objects became relics in a sea of cataclysmic destruction. We were working on a couple of different projects after our initial visit, so we let this space percolate in our heads before revisiting it the following summer. We were amazed to find that the space hadn't changed much at all, except a few additional empty beer cans, which we assumed came from teens hanging out there. We gathered as a group to assess the meaning of these remnants, their formal implications, and our own relationship and responses to the space. We also supplemented our inquiry with readings about Romanticism, particularly thinking about the relationship between "Man" and “Nature” in the search for the Sublime. Throughout our ongoing group investigation and discussions, we keep hitting up against how this abandoned space seems to contain the past, present, and potential, in a way that at times can feel totally doomy and at other times hopeful. We connected this feeling to an increasing sense of doomy thinking in the world, and began to investigate how our deep devotion to an abandoned ski shop could help us unpack doom mentalities, what they look/feel like, how they form, and what our alternatives might be. This is our larger pursuit as we develop Ski End.

What was most challenging about bringing the show to the stage?

As a collective, it is important for us to find a clear common ground before heading into the rehearsal room, with an awareness of the different perspectives we bring to a piece, and some inclinations of how those different perspectives may translate into the work we're creating. For the first time, our source material was not a text or anything on paper, but a building. There were so many layers to this building (its past, present and potential realities), as well as our own memories and experiences of it, that this collective common ground was less immediately clear to us. It took some time for us to fully articulate as a group how we wanted to approach the space. We were initially led by a feeling to keep pursuing this space, but it took time to define what drew us to it, and how precisely that connected to the pervasive sense of doom we see forming in the world around us.

What classic play/musical would you like to direct and how would you reinvent it?

The murder mystery part of my brain has long been obsessed with Ibsen because his plays are so tidy and symmetrical that I feel so inspired to unmake the tidiness and unlock whatever's jailed up in his structure. I’m also wanting to spend more time with Fornes, since I’ve never directed her work, and want to get closer to it/her brain. But I don’t think about “reinvention” when I think of directing Fornes. “Reinvention” to me implies some kind of oppositional relationship to the text…

How do you think actors would describe your style of directing?

I HAVE NO IDEA! You should ask them. 🙂

What would you change about the current state of theater?

What I want for the theater is not so far from what I want for the world: a more inclusive space where people are brave enough to aim for the truth in all of their pursuits, and go to greater lengths to connect with others, appreciate difference, and radically awaken our habitual modes of perception!

There are so many forces that lead us to live homogenous/tunneled-in lives (despite our increasingly abundant access to the world), and I believe we should aim to expose ourselves to diverse modes of thinking and being in the world as much as possible.