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Porsche McGovern

Porsche McGovern is an anti-oppression facilitator. She works as a facilitator for Nicole Brewer’s Anti-Racist Theatre and Anti-Racist Creative Practice offerings. She has also co-facilitated trainings for the Stage Managers’ Association with Katherine Freer. She was a consultant for Year of the Stage Manager 2020/21. She is a frequent panelist, speaker, and facilitator at regional and national events for conversations on social justice in theatre.

Porsche is the author of the HowlRound Journal series “Who Designs & Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun.” She also interviewed people of color working in production and/or design jobs for the Illuminations blog at Stage Directions Magazine from September 2016 to March 2020. She is also the co-curator of the HowlRound Journal series “Design (in a Time of Reckoning),” and co-wrote the essays “Design with an Equity Lens: Cultivating a Theatre Ecosystem That Can Hold Us All in Our Full Humanity” and “Seeding Change” with Katherine Freer.

She has been honored to attend the artEquity National Facilitation Training, the Berkshire Leadership Summit, workshops with Equity Quotient, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond Undoing Racism Community Organizing workshop, the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute Immersion, Race Forward’s Building Racial Equity and Organizing Racial Equity: Shifting Power trainings, the Empathic Facilitator training, the UALE Summer Institute for Union Women, AORTA’s Facilitate for Freedom Fundamentals and the Skill Up! trainings, and the Emergent Strategy Facilitation Training.

She is pleased to have served on the TCG Programming council (2017-18), the IATSE Local USA 829 Diversity Committee (Nov 2015 - Jun 2020), the curation team for the United States National professional exhibit for the Prague Quadrennial 2019, the artEquity Alumni Navigation Team (2020), the HowlRound advisory board (2020-22), and the IATSE Local USA 829 Local Union Executive Board (2020-23).

Porsche McGovern is a lighting designer. She designed Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre), The West End (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Skeleton Crew and We Are Proud to Present... (Playmakers Repertory Company), The Thanksgiving Play (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), A Single Shard (People's Light and Theatre Company), and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). In New York, she designed Mothers (Playwrights Realm), Ghetto Babylon (Dramatic Question Theatre), many shows with Spookfish Theatre Company, among others. She has an MFA from California Institute for the Arts and a BA from St. Lawrence University.

A chart displaying statistics of gender between theatrical designers
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun, 2012-2020
Essay

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun, 2012-2020

6 November 2023

​Lighting designer Porsche McGovern​ shares the results of the final year of her study on the pronouns of designers and directors working in LORT theatres, how the study came about, and what she hopes for the future.

Porsche McGovern sits at a tech table taking notes.
More Cultivation, Less Crane Machine: Who Gets to Design in LORT Theatres
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More Cultivation, Less Crane Machine: Who Gets to Design in LORT Theatres

6 November 2023

Designers Porsche McGovern and Sherrice Mojgani discuss the impact of Porsche’s multi-year study looking at designers and directors in LORT theatres by pronouns, and how theatre leaders can better support and learn from the freelance artists they hire.

Yellow flowers, purple flowers, dark green leaves, and insects surrounding the words "Seeding Change" against a light green background.
Seeding Change
Essay

Seeding Change

30 August 2021

Katherine Freer and Porsche McGovern kick off the second installment of their Design (in a Time of Reckoning) series, which had its first week back in February 2021.

An illustration of protest signs with slogans reading Black Trans Lives Matter
Design with an Equity Lens
Essay

Design with an Equity Lens

Cultivating a Theatre Ecosystem That Can Hold Us All in Our Full Humanity

22 February 2021

Kate Freer and Porsche McGovern begin their series, Design (in a Time of Reckoning), with an opening essay about how theatremakers are currently being presented with a chance to reimagine the way the art form is made and how designers are an essential part of the solution.

Who Designs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun: Positions and People
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun: 2020
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Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun: 2020

22 December 2020

Porsche McGovern shares the results of the sixth year of her study on who designs and directs in LORT theatres by pronoun.

Who Designs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun: Positions & People
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun: 2019
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Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Pronoun: 2019

16 December 2019
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender
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Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender

Phase Four: Part 4

28 November 2018

Porsche McGovern wraps up Phase Four of her research on the gender of LORT theatre designers.

graph of Who Designs in LORT Theatres by Gender: Categories
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender
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Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender

Phase Four: Part 3

26 November 2018

Porsche McGovern shares phase four of her research on the gender of LORT theatre designers.

Six graphs with the title "Who Designs in LORT Theatres by Gender: Regions"
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender
Essay

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender

Phase Four: Part 2

21 November 2018

For the fourth year, Porsche McGovern shares her research on the gender of LORT theatre designers. In this second installment of this essay, Porsche focuses on region.

graph of twelve pie charts with a title that says "Who Designs in LORT Theatres by Gender: Positions & People"
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender
Essay

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender

Phase Four: Part 1

19 November 2018

For the fourth year, Porsche McGovern shares her research on the gender of LORT theatre designers. 

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender
Essay

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender

Phase Three

7 July 2017

Porsche McGovern discusses the third phase of her study on LORT theatre designers.

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender
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Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres by Gender

Phase Two

25 June 2016

Porsche McGovern unveils the results of the latest phase of her study of LORT theatre designers. 

Infographic
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Infographic

Who Designs in LORT Theatres by Gender

10 June 2015

Porsche McGovern gathered information on who designs in theatre, and shares her results in an infographic.

Design (in a Time of Reckoning)
An illustration of protest signs with slogans reading Black Trans Lives Matter
Series

Design (in a Time of Reckoning)

What would it mean to have a culture of justice in theatrical design? This week, we are uplifting the work of the design community, both on stage and off.

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres By Pronoun
Series

Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres By Pronoun