Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Zudak.
Hi Catherine, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have been involved in theater production since forever. I started by running the spotlight for my older sister’s senior follies. I performed on stage and worked backstage in plays and musicals in my teens and early 20s. I took a break from my creative life during my first career in public policy research. I stopped working full-time when my children were born and I was able to go back to theater.
However, I came back in a different way. I still enjoyed performing, but I could no longer do back-to-back shows. I also had skills from my first career that I applied to non-profit organizations. I wrote grants and led programs in education and community outreach for a variety of arts organizations.
In 2008, I became really interested in new and original works for performance after eight (8) production companies in Southeast Michigan produced The Tempest in one season (September to June). I love Shakespeare, but I thought surely, there are more and different stories to be told by more and different people.
I started an annual new play festival with Ann Arbor Civic Theater with encouragement from other artists. I produced one for twelve years or so. During that same time, I became involved in other types of performance, including storytelling and curating shows with work from multiple artists around social justice issues.
With my shift towards new and original work, I started talking with other creatives about the need for a community space for independent artists and producers to develop and present shows. This included a wide range of performing artists, including storytellers, playwrights, actors, spoken word, singer songwriters, and improvisarios.
We all agreed this would be a great resource, but everyone was so busy, trying to create while still doing everything else life demanded of them. No one had the time or resources to make it happen.
Now, I’ve reached a point in my life where I have some freedom and flexibility. My children are mostly grown and I’m ready for a new chapter in my life. I turned 59 and a half this year, so I dipped into my retirement for the seed money to start Forge Theater. Fortunately, I have a supportive spouse and the financial stability to gamble on Forge becoming a self-sustaining collaborative community.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge was simply committing. I don’t think I would have found the courage, if it hadn’t been for COVID. The shutdowns and slow downs hit small theaters hard. I spent a lot of time writing grants for small non-profits trying to keep them afloat during that time. Without shows, there were no ticket sales and no reason for artists and audience to come together. One theater I had been involved with for years, had to let go of their paid staff. I joined the Board and suddenly found myself having to learn on the fly about Google Workspace, ticketing software, tax preparation, and social media marketing, and so on. When we were able to hire a new part-time staff member, I had to learn about payroll and 1099s. As much time as I had spent in and around theater, I had never done the organizational management part. As difficult as though three years were, it now feels like a gift. I had gained the experience and skills to imagine myself managing a theater space. I took some time to get use to the idea. Then, I signed up for a five month Business Start-Up Bootcamp at the Entrepreneurship Center at Washtenaw Community College in March 2025. By October, I had leased Forge’s current location, 1500 square feet of an old industrial space. I’m still building out the space to make it performance ready, but by the first of the year, we’ll be open for business.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve been creating original work for the stage since around 2008. It took me a couple years to finish my first full-length play, Virtues, which was inspired by the Borders Bookstore strike in Ann Arbor in 2003. I knew people on both sides of the picket line, having worked there myself. I used the play to explore the question of “who is the bad guy?” The greedy corporation? The ungrateful employees? The careless consumers who abandoned in-person shopping for online convenience? My plays are highly fictionalized but they draw from real life experiences with real people I have known. Another play, “Nuns at the End of the World,” presented Theater Nova’s Michigan Playwrights Festival just before COVID struck, It includes four nuns cut off from the rest of the world due to a weather apocolypse. During COVID, I wrote Mortal Fools which was performed on Zoom with Theater Nova. In it, an Army Major stationed in Afghanistan is accused of treason. His interrogator calls on his ex-wife to help find the truth. The overlap among these three plays is not immediately obvious, but they all explore individuals struggling against an unjust system. In some ways, my vision for Forge, is also an exploration of individuals struggling against an unjust system. Artists and arts organizations are constantly fighting for resources they need to create art, achieve recognition and sustain themselves. They end up competing with each other for space, for funding, for audience. It is a zero sum game. Through Forge, I hope to change that dynamic, building a micro-economy for mutual benefit.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
So many people have helped me on this long and winding road to founding Forge. Most immediately, Patricia Mazzola has been a huge help in getting the space ready. She’s served as a copy editor on publicity materials and a general consultant. She and I met during COVID while we were both serving on the Board of Ann Arbor Civic Theater. In the long term, my playwriting group, Fifth From the Left, has listened to me talking about this idea for over a decade. They’ve given me great suggestions over the years that I have incorporated into Forge’s membership program. Michael Baker, who worked for A2CT as a office manager, while I was Board president. He had worked for a retail business for years and gave me ideas for Forge’s business model. The staff at the Entrepreneurship Center answered endless questions for me and my family has given me tons of moral support, as well as sweat equity.
Pricing:
- Memberships $225/annual
- Studio Rental $50/hour peak
- Studio Rental $30/hour off peak
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.forgetheatercollaborative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passthehatpromo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Forge-Theater-Collaborative-Studio-Space/61578306194766/#
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-zudak11957/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ForgeTheater
