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HowlRound Journal

Essay
18 September 2024
Three people stand onstage with protest signs.

The former community engagement director of the Guthrie Theater, Rebecca Noon, reflects on the early years of the theatre’s Native Advisory Council and the steady relationship building that led to powerful collaborations with Indigenous communities across the Twin Cities. 

Essay
16 September 2024
A group of teenagers perform a rock concert onstage.

Unlike most artistic events geared towards young people, the Youth Producer Program (YPP) in Austin, Texas produced a festival for teens that was also led by the youth. The YPP team reflects on the event, and shares what is needed to facilitate youthful production experiences.

Essay
09 September 2024
A woman in a black hat cuts fabric in a costume shop.

Theatre departments now face steady, targeted closures and downsizing nationwide. Jacqueline E. Lawton and Rachel Pollock speak to professors impacted by these cuts and lay out actions to preserve theatre education at the university level. 

Essay
05 September 2024
A black and white photograph of a group of writers and artists sitting on desks.

Through a Wallace Foundation grant, scholars from the Latinx Theatre Commons co-authored a concept paper comprised of histories, strategies, and suggestions for archiving Latine theatre in all its forms and technologies. Carla Della Gatta introduces the paper with an executive summary and highlights from the report.

Essay
04 September 2024
A dancer performs on stage in front of suspended grey masks.

In the summertime, the city of Berlin is alight with artistic festivals of all kinds. German theatre scholar Thomas Schmidt reflects on some of the theatre festivals of this past summer and posits what makes the Berlin theatre scene so special.

Essay
29 August 2024
A woman wearing white stands on stage in front of projections of different words.

Cori Thomas convenes playwrights based in the United States for a roundtable discussion about working internationally. They parse the differences in new play development and theatregoing cultures in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic.

Essay
28 August 2024
A group of students listen to a radio play in a crowded room.

Through experimental dramaturgy that privileged sound over visuals, Neo Muyanga created the Visual Radio Plays project at the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this essay, Tonderai Chiyindiko explores the histories, theories, and personal connections that inspired the project.
 

Essay
26 August 2024
 Four actors read from a book on a dimly lit stage.

Carmen Salvador shares about Fundación Quien Cuenta Eres Tú’s Children’s Participative Theatre program in Chile and the way they used Playback Theatre to facilitate a space for under-resourced children’s creativity and reflection on their experiences.   

Essay
19 August 2024
Two actor wearing black actors perform on stage in front of a projection of a concrete backdrop.

Lane Michael Stanley offers a toolkit of questions to consider for those who seek to have a community-embedded artistic practice, based on his own experience in recovery housing and his time developing plays with unhoused people.

HowlRound TV

Upcoming Video
20 September 2024
Book cover for See Me: Prison Theater Workshops and Love.
Conversation with Jan Cohen-Cruz about her new book exploring the impact of theatre workshops in prisons on those involved.

Join renowned scholar and community arts practitioner Jan Cohen-Cruz for a conversation about her new book, See Me: Prison Theater Workshops and Love. Jan will share from the book and then facilitate a conversation about the impact of the arts in carceral spaces and on those involved.

Upcoming Video
23 September 2024
headshot of director milo rau.
Screenings and Conversation with European Theatre Artist Milo Rau

Two screenings of productions in Rau's myth meets modern-day activism trilogy will be accompanied by a conversation about art and resistance with Rau and Cameroonian/Italian activist and writer Yvan Sagnet.

Upcoming Video
23 September 2024
A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
A Playwriting Masterclass

Watch Me Work, facilitated by Suzan-Lori Parks, is a virtual communal work session for nurturing creativity. Hosted by the Public Theater, these Zoom and HowlRound livestream sessions are accessible worldwide, allowing participants to join from home, school, or anywhere with internet access.

Upcoming Video
25 September 2024
event poster for the Mobility Webinar: “Internationalisation and the Caribbean”.
A Cultural Mobility Webinar organized by On the Move

This webinar by On the Move and ACP-EU CULTURE examines cultural mobility in the Caribbean. It draws from a forthcoming Caribbean Cultural Mobility Funding Guide (Sept 2024) and the 2022 report on European Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories mobility flows.

Video Available
15 September 2024
event poster for the puppets in the green mountains 2024 festival.
A Crossroads of Invigorating Arts Exchange in the Field of Puppetry

Join international artists and local leaders for three panels exploring festival themes through literature, traditions, history, and social change. Access Through the Arts panels create dialogue between guest artists, community figures, and the audience, offering diverse perspectives on festival topics.

Video Available
12 September 2024
shadow puppets on stage.
Reviewing the Application Process and Updated Guidelines for the Creation and Touring Grant

Staff will break down the application process, timeline, and grant guidelines, then close the info session with a Q and A.

Video Available
09 September 2024
A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
A Playwriting Masterclass

Watch Me Work, facilitated by Suzan-Lori Parks, is a virtual communal work session for nurturing creativity. Hosted by the Public Theater, these Zoom and HowlRound livestream sessions are accessible worldwide, allowing participants to join from home, school, or anywhere with internet access.

Video Available
07 September 2024
event poster for celebrating the life of philip arnoult.
Sharing Our Stories About Actor, Director, Producer, and Global Theatre Connector Philip Arnoult

Join us this Saturday, 7 September, as Philip Arnoult’s family, friends, and collaborators gather at the Baltimore Theatre Project to celebrate his life and work through his way of connecting: telling stories.

Video Available
26 August 2024
A promotional graphic for Watch Me Work.
A Playwriting Masterclass

Watch Me Work, facilitated by Suzan-Lori Parks, is a virtual communal work session for nurturing creativity. Hosted by the Public Theater, these Zoom and HowlRound livestream sessions are accessible worldwide, allowing participants to join from home, school, or anywhere with internet access.

HowlRound Podcasts

Podcast
13 August 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring art from previous episodes.

In the last episode of the fourth season of Kunafa and Shay—which was a historical and classical Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) theatre season—Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson reflect on the season, give some additional insight, and provide a broader overview of their…

Podcast
06 August 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring Samer Al-Saber.

Dr. Samer Al-Saber joins hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson for a conversation around resistant ventriloquism and postcolonial courtesy. Dr. Al-Saber also shares stories from his upcoming book about the Palestinian theatre movement in the 1970s and 1980s.

Podcast
30 July 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring Amir Al-Azraki

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson learn from Dr. Amir Al-Azraki about Iraqi theatrical traditions, the birth of modern Iraqi theatre springing from church drama in Mosul in the late nineteenth century, Iraqi plays in translation, and Afro-Iraqi theatre. 

Podcast
23 July 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay.

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson are joined by Fidaa Ataya, a Palestinian storyteller who talks with us about the tradition of the hakawati and how she and her work are looking at different forms of storytelling from ancient traditions to new ways of storytelling in Palestine.

Podcast
09 July 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring Mazen Alaa.

Nubia has a long history of theatre, both before and after the displacement of the 1960s. In this episode, hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson highlight Nubian theatre, including the only Nubian opera, Opera El Aml by Mohy El Din Sherif. With special guest Mazen Alaa from Nubian Geographic, this episode focus on Nubian…

Podcast
02 July 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring Sarah Fahmy

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson look at MENA and SWANA puppetry traditions with guest artivist Dr. Sarah Fahmy. They talk about her production of the first recorded full play in English of Ibn Daniyal, The Shadow Spirit; the Aragoz Puppet; and, coming more into current puppetry practice by MENA folks, Fahmy's own…

Podcast
25 June 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring Ottoman Art.

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson discuss Ottoman theatre, emphasizing its significance in global theatre history. They highlight the Ottoman Empire as a pivotal point of cultural exchange comparable to the Greek and Roman empires. They focus on three major forms of traditional theatre—Ortaoyunu, Karagöz, and Meddah—and…

Podcast
18 June 2024
A promotional graphic for Kunafa and Shay featuring ancient architecture.

Hosts Marina Johnson and Nabra Nelson talk about Egyptian playwright Tawfiq al-Hakim and his “unstageable” classic play People of the Cave. They provide historical context of the play, al-Hakim’s career, and the Christian and Islamic stories that served as al-Hakim’s inspiration.

Podcast
13 June 2024
Promotional graphic for building our own tables featuring Malia'Kekia Nicolini

In this final episode of season four, ​​Malia'Kekia, co-founder of B4 The Other Creations, explores how play and vulnerability drive transformational breakthroughs. Malia'Kekia shares their journey as an educator and leader, emphasizing the power of releasing perfectionism and embracing the unknown. The episode highlights…

HowlRound Recommends

As we gear up for our series on Translating Theatre, check out some pieces on translation from the HowlRound Archive, hand-picked by series curator Amelia Parenteau!

Video Available
16 June 2020
Aya Ogawa and Jeremy Tiang headshots.
Featuring Aya Ogawa and Jeremy Tiang

PEN America, the Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library presented Translating Plays and Playing With Translation livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 16 June 2020 at…

Video Available
15 September 2020
Anton Hur, Sevinç Türkkan, and Jen Hofer.
A conversation with Anton Hur, Sevinç Türkkan, and Jen Hofer

PEN America, the Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library presented Activist Translation livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 15 September 2020 at 9:00 a.m. PDT (San…

Essay
11 December 2023
A group of actors perform in a dimly lit space.

Amelia Parenteau sits down with Sarah Cameron Sunde, who has translated and directed six of Jon Fosse’s plays, to mark the occasion of Fosse being awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. Their conversation pays tribute to Sarah and Jon’s longstanding creative relationship, examines the plays’ Norwegian context as it is…

Essay
04 September 2012
The word translate and its equivalent in various languages.

Adam Versenyi propses a national effort in the US to translate plays into English, and what this initation would look like

Essay
27 October 2020
a photograph laying on an open notebook

Amanda L. Andrei discusses learning Romanian—her father’s native tongue—for her play Lena Passes By and shares methodology for dealing with translations, identifies unique issues of heritage language learners who are also writers, and reflects on the pain of being separated from language.

Essay
20 May 2018

For the last few years, professor Catherine Coray has been helping create collaboration opportunities for theatre artists in Arab countries and the Americas. Arab Voices: Stories of Palestine is the most recent iteration, and has taken place in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Beirut.

Podcast
10 July 2018
actors onstage

Dr. Cobina Gillitt joins the Theatre History Podcast to introduce us to the work of Putu Wijaya and his Teater Mandiri and to explain how modern Indonesian theatre has developed amid the turmoil of its recent history.

Essay
23 May 2017

Arlene Martínez-Vázquez discusses the rise of bilingual, Latinx plays produced in Seattle, Washington, advocating for hiring bilingual, Latinx artists involved in the programming and decision-making for these shows.

Essay
26 July 2016

Edward Einhorn describes his experiences as a director, adaptor, and translator, and the similarities and differences between them.

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