From a financial standpoint the show is doing ok, but ideally we want to hit max capacity on all remaining shows. Besides our fundraising efforts this year, Lunastus is our only real source of income to keep the company afloat. So yeah, from my standpoint there’s never an end to the pressure.

There are a lot of kindred spirit animal organizations around the world that we’ve been introduced to over the years in various ways that share some kind of ideal with us – Meow Wolf in Santa Fe; Starkid Productions in Chicago; the Space Pirates in Philly – but I wouldn’t say that BROS has had an influence on them, it’s just cool to know there are weirdos everywhere.

The biggest challenge of creating a BROS show is the last week before the show opens and you’re exhausted and bruised and barely functioning and everything is bad and why do you drag yourself out of bed in the morning to go to your job just so you can drag yourself to rehearsal and build all night until you repeat the cycle until opening night happens and everything is amazing and you’re crying and you’re on the biggest natural high of your life and you realize you did this with all of your friends and it’s the most beautiful and rewarding thing and suddenly it’s all worth it and no one ever understands except the people around you who are all dumbstruck at what just happened.

Alternately, the biggest challenges to creating something at this scale is achieving harmony between a large group. We can have a hard time understanding and respecting each other’s visions. Sometimes we forget how to talk to each other because we’re too scared of hurting each other’s feelings, but we have to remind ourselves that we are all coming together to work on this one show – and that show is the most important thing. What the audience sees and feels is the most important thing. Everyone is putting down these amazing pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and sometimes our own human nature causes the pieces to get stuck.

Lunastus was a part of the 2011 BROS Double Feature, which also produced “Amphion” – a rock opera set in the Byzantine era. Back in 2011 we were also revamping an entire theater while making both full-length rock operas, and to be honest we always felt like neither show got as much attention as they deserved – and two BROS shows are a lot to sit through. So in 2016 we decided to bring “Amphion” back, and we’re stoked to be able to give “Lunastus” the same love and attention. When we decided to try touring in 2014, we opted to remount our very first production “Gründlehämmer” – because we figured it would be the easiest way to let us figure out how to tour a show, by doing a show we already knew front to back. Some BROS members don’t like the remounts, while others love them; we make decisions based on what our Artistic Council thinks is best for the creative direction of the company.

The BROS motto is “In Panton Redundo” which loosely translates to “In Everything Excess” – which basically means every show needs to have a big jaw-dropping face-melting moment. We’ve gotten in arguments about saying “no” just as much as we’ve gotten in trouble for saying “yes.” At this point, we know when something has the potential to fail, and we see how far we can push it, but there’s always a backup plan nowadays, just in case.

The Brothership is currently rotting away in the backyard of the Bell Foundry for the past two years and it breaks my heart everyday I walk by it. After one exceptionally cold winter the back stained glass window shattered and I had to replace it with sheet metal. This past year in particular we couldn’t keep the neighborhood kids out of the backyard, and they smashed in the windows and ripped the wings off. I think our little buddy is going off to the Dragon King sooner than later.

Which authorities? The cops? I don’t really think we’re much of a blip on their radar. The only time we’re out and about being obnoxious is Artscape, and at least then we do it in style.

Artists need safe spaces to create art. This issue is much bigger than BROS and much bigger than Baltimore. There has been and still is a constant cycle of artists finding use for discarded spaces and turning them into bright beautiful hubs of creativity and positivity, only to be lost in the shadow of economic development. The shutdown reminded us how dangerous it is to get comfortable and how easy it is for something to be taken away. It reminded us to be a part of THE community, not just our community. If we don’t have districts or organizations that are truly willing to stand up and fight for the artists that are so vital to a cities marketing strategy then we need to band together and stand up for and support ourselves.