In the span of a week, this diarist goes from a vacation with her family into a workshop for a new musical. Despite the onslaught of notifications from a daycare app and her full-time producing job, she even manages to put the phone down and stay present. 

In this keynote from the 2026 National Theatre Conference, Laura Penn compares the American theatre to the postal service as modes for human connection, civic engagement, and paths to a brighter future.

Kat Kemmet reflects on approaches to acting training that disguise harm as care. What is the impact of these troubling practices, and what does it look like to find safety in studio environments? 

Stories connect us to our past and shape our futures, helping us to imagine alternatives, to envision the dreams towards which we can collectively mobilize. Here, storyteller meets storyer as Fidaa Ataya and Dovie Thomason come together to hear, share, and shape stories for this moment.

zuri arman applies a dark decypherment critique to Jordan Tannahill’s Prince Faggot, surfacing the abjection of Blackness that underpins its narrative of white queer belonging.

This diarist freelances out of state, but this week she is at home beginning her daughter’s transition from educational services to housing for disabled adults. Her week is full of paperwork, pureed pizza, and a commitment to remaining present.  

Nataki Garrett reflects on the May Day activation that kicked off the Doris Duke Foundation’s Creative Labor, Creative Conditions campaign. She shares how the day highlighted the essential labor of artists and poses the question: what do artists need in order to do that essential labor?

How do you expose a country’s most shameful moments on stage in a way that excites the audience, instead of alienating them? Handan Salta and Ionuţ Caras explore that while discussing 9 Shames and other scandalous scenes from Romania’s recent past, which Ionuţ directed for the Lucian Blaga National Theatre festival.