After being asked to share his thoughts on the future of international touring, Why Not Theatre founder Ravi Jain offers some of what he’s learned about engaging “new” audiences and building lasting relationships between artists and presenters.
Rex Daugherty offers a guide for theatremakers who want to produce theatre in nontraditional spaces, sharing the experiences of Washington, DC’s Solas Nua.
Film reaches a larger public than theatre due to the way it is produced and disseminated. In this way, it has a large and lasting cultural impact. In this episode with Mike Mossalem and Amin El Gamal, we discuss the ways the film and theatre fields influence each other as they both contribute to culture change and performance methodologies.
Performance and Climate Finance/Sustainability, Capital and Planetary Justice
Addressing the Elephant in the Room
Wednesday 9 August 2023
Nigeria, Kenya
The concept of climate finance refers to monies provided by those responsible for climate change to ease the burden of the crises on those who bear the brunt. This is a situation whereby the polluter pays as much as they pollute. The attention placed on climate finance dominates the narrative of climate change mitigation since polluters are able to pay monies allocated to them as climate finance. Climate finance has not fully addressed the issue of the elephant in the room.
Information Session on the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant Application
Reviewing Criteria and Changes to the Application and Answering Questions About This Year's Application Process
Thursday 3 August 2023
United States
For the first time in its more than ten-year history, New England Foundation for the Arts' (NEFA) National Theater Project (NTP) has moved its flagship Creation and Touring Grant application to a summer cycle. This information session with NTP staff will break down what the National Theater Project is; review the criteria and eligibility requirements for the Creation and Touring Grant; explain changes to the timeline, criteria, and process that have arisen from NTP's ten-year evaluation process; and discuss what makes for a competitive application.
On Producing an International Tour During a Global Pandemic
24 July 2023
Amelia Parenteau chronicles the process of translating Eva Doumbia’s Autophagies from French to English and producing its tour in the United States, a project that unfolded across four years.
Conversation with the Original María Irene Fornés Design Team
Reuniting for the first ever revival of Evelyn Brown: (A Diary), Scenic Designer Donald Eastman, Costume Designer Gabriel Berry and Stage Manager Peter Littlefield discuss their long time collaboration with Fornés
Wednesday 7 June 2023
New York City
Dramaturg Gwendolyn Alker engages in a post-show conversation with Donald Eastman and Gabriel Berry—two members of María Irene Fornés’s design team—about the various shows they designed for Fornés, as well as their current work on the first-ever revival of Evelyn Brown (A Diary). Peter Littlefield, the stage manager for the original 1980 production, will also join.
Taking Care: Supporting Delegates with Invisible Disabilities at Festivals and Showcases
15 May 2023
Second Hand Dance embarked upon research on support for artists with access needs after artistic director Rosie Heafford had to pull out of a festival that did not provide sufficient accommodations for her invisible disability. She shares takeaways from that research in the form of actionable steps that festivals, showcases, and industry events can implement.
Communications manager Ramona Rose King chats with Abigail Vega on her last day as HowlRound’s creative producer to reflect on her work with HowlRound and the Latinx Theatre Commons, producing using commons-based practices, and advice she’d give to aspiring producers.
Miranda Wright, producer and executive director at Los Angeles Performance Practice, and Jeffrey Mosser discuss how Miranda has developed a presenting organization for sharing ambitious, collaboratively created work over the last ten years, as well as what she’s learned from some major arts funding research.
The Closing of San Francisco’s “Anti-Theatre” Theater Venue
18 April 2023
Artist and producer Rose Oser interviews Rob Ready and Duncan Wold about the closing of PianoFight, the San Francisco company and venue they co-founded that shuttered in March 2023.
Our Trauma Twin Siblings: Building Creative Spaces for Queer and Trans Tamil Community as Teardrop Collective
31 March 2023
Hari Somaskantha and Gitanjali exchange letters discussing their work with Teardrop Collective, a Toronto-based group that centers stories of queer, trans, Deaf, and hearing people of Tamil, Sri Lankan, and South Asian descent.
Intentional, Relational, Consensual: A New Framework for Performing Arts Contracts
30 March 2023
This dynamic summary of a panel co-curated by Rachel Penny and Nikki Shaffeeullah as part of Parallel Tracks 2.0 brings together several artists, producers, and lawyers in a discussion about contracting, how it has been impacted by COVID-19, and interrogating power dynamics within the contracting process.
Community Engagement, Anti-Oppression, and Digital Space
27 March 2023
Artist, facilitator, and cultural innovator Nikki Shaffeeullah kicks off this series by sharing her journey to creating Undercurrent Creations, a Toronto-based arts organization, and Parallel Tracks, a gathering of BIPOC artists that offers training in visioning, producing, and facilitating community arts projects.
The International Presenting Commons Convenes at Last
6 February 2023
The International Presenting Now convening brought a collective of US-based presenters of international work together in physical space in January 2023, following almost three years of virtual conversations and events. Janice Paran details the conversations that arose around the convening’s key question: how might international presenters want to work differently?
Every Production Is a Moonshot: Research on Improving Repertoire Selection
19 January 2023
For three years, Kristin Patton and Nick Rabkin worked with five case study theatre companies to study the often fraught, high risk, and complex decision-making process of theatrical repertoire selection. The result of their research project, the Moonshot Report, offers insights into their process and practical recommendations for strategic approaches to season planning.
A Symposium Focusing on the Future of Producing and Presenting Independent Theatre
The Under the Radar Professional Symposium
Friday 13 January 2023
New York City
The UTR Professional Symposium—one of the core activities of the Under the Radar Festival—will focus on the future of producing and presenting independent theater as we transition fitfully to a post-Covid world. The many challenges facing performance programs now are amplified in the section of the field made of independent companies, often emerging artists, or those not fitting into a regular category.
In this episode, co-hosts Bíborka and Zsófi are joined by visual and performance artist and environmental activist, Éva Bubla; dancer, choreographer, researcher, and founder of the performance research group SVUNG, Kinga Szemessy; and culture manager, event organizer, curator, founder of the PLACCC Festival, and the Hungarian liaison for the IN SITU Network, Fanni Nánay. Drawing from their individual experiences, they discuss the current climate crisis and how different artists engage with this complex issue.
How to Produce a Podcast Series: A Beginner-Friendly Guide to the Art of Podcasting
7 June 2022
Tatiana Hernandez-Mitchell, a podcast consultant for HowlRound, offers a guide to the technical side of producing podcasts. This guide focuses on equipment, software, and best practices.
Connecting Collaborative Passion to a National Network
15 February 2022
Tony Award-winning producer Mara Isaacs discusses how she puts collaboratively creative work in front of national audiences through her producing organization, Octopus Theatricals. This final episode of season two holds hot takes on boards, theatricality, and the connective tissue around artist-centered producing.
Ronee Penoi and Shanta Thake discuss their transitions into new leadership roles as Director of Artistic Programming at ArtsEmerson and Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center, respectively—including their work to shift narratives on stage, see institutions as community resources, and keep deep listening at the core of their leadership practices.
Founding Program Director for the Arts at Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Olga Garay-English and Jeffrey Mosser discuss the revolutionary process of getting ensemble work in regional theatre spaces including her unprecedented partnership with Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Other topics include touring models, festival culture, and her experience as an international arts consultant.
The Future Requires Faith: A Conversation on Trust, Transparency, and Transformation
8 October 2021
Rika Iino and Marc Bamuthi Joseph talk about the way trust and transparency have shown up in their work, both individually and as a duo, and how theatre practitioners and organizations can use those elements to work towards a more equitable future.