fbpx Vijay Mathew | HowlRound Theatre Commons
Profile picture for user Vijay Mathew
Vijay Mathew

Vijay Mathew is the Cultural Strategist and a co-founder of HowlRound Theatre Commons.

Vijay Mathew (he/him) is the Cultural Strategist and Co-Founder of HowlRound Theatre Commons founded in 2011 and based at Emerson College, Boston. He is also the Accessibility Producer of Black Heart, a BIPOC worker-owned cooperative agency specializing in digital communications for progressive organizations and collectives. He serves as a board member of Double Edge Theatre located in rural Ashfield, Massachusetts.

In the past decade, Vijay has helped facilitate the solidarity economy characteristics of HowlRound Theatre Commons’ current project design—all within a mainstream educational and arts institution. Through this work, he has contributed to building the organizational capacity for several hundred nonprofit organizations worldwide to livestream their conferences, panel discussions, and performances—with an emphasis on how organizations can prioritize accessibility, inclusion, and degrowth principles in digital work. When using internet technologies, he is passionate about the intersections of accessibility, inclusion, social change, and low-energy, regenerative futures. All of his work in these areas has been informed by solidarity economics and social-justice values.

Vijay has a MFA degree from New School University in Theatre and Directing and a BA in Media Studies from University of Chicago. In the accessibility field, he has earned the IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) credential (2023).

His artistic background is as an ensemble-based filmmaker and theatremaker. He was also a multi-camera Directing Fellow for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at CBS Studios in Los Angeles, and his Broadway theatre credits include Little Dog Laughed as well as multiple nonprofit US regional theatre productions.

More research projects and writing:

Email: [email protected], Mobile/SMS: (+1) 917.686.3185.

Grass growing out of an old laptop computer.
Streaming in the Just Transition
Essay

Streaming in the Just Transition

A Producer’s Guide to Measuring, Budgeting, and Lowering the Carbon Emissions of Livestreams and Video Conferences

7 January 2021

Vijay Mathew asks, and then offers ideas to approach, the question: "How will the performing arts field contribute to climate justice during the sixth mass extinction?"

Cuban woman with headphones talking in a video conference.
How to Produce a Livestream Event, Part 2
Essay

How to Produce a Livestream Event, Part 2

A Beginner’s Guide to Using the Commons-based OBS Studio Live Broadcast Software

14 October 2020

HowlRound’s cultural strategist, Vijay Mathew, offers a part two to his guide on how to produce a livestream, this time focusing on the commons-based OBS Studio.

a screen capture of an ASL interpreter and live captions for a presenter on a Zoom video conference that was livestreamed
How to Produce a Livestreamed Event
Essay

How to Produce a Livestreamed Event

A Producer’s Guide to the Tools and Embedded Values

14 April 2020

Vijay Mathew, HowlRound’s cultural strategist, offers a guide to producing and livestreaming events online.

A group of theatre artists sitting around a conference table with a projector screen in the background.
The Promise of the Commons
Essay

The Promise of the Commons

10 October 2019

In honor of World Commons Week 2019, a working group of eleven US-based arts and cultural makers share their vision on how adopting a commons-based approach can help transform the arts into a more equitable and just field.

Thousands of airplane icons covering the continents and oceans on a 2-D map of the world.
What’s Your Vision for a Post-Carbon Arts Sector?
Essay

What’s Your Vision for a Post-Carbon Arts Sector?

17 April 2019

Within the context of the new emergency climate change deadline of 2030, Vijay Mathew encourages the nonprofit arts sector to completely divest from fossil fuels by no longer using air travel for conferences, shows, or any other programming while offering models and solutions to help our thinking about transitioning to a post-carbon arts future.

Accessibility icon. A figure of a human with their arms and legs spread in an open position representing universal accessibility for the web
Making Your Website Accessible is Vital to Your Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Efforts
Essay

Making Your Website Accessible is Vital to Your Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Efforts

31 March 2019

Vijay Mathew discusses how the HowlRound team has worked, and continues to work, to make HowlRound.com an accessible platform.

college ambassador logo
Welcome to the New HowlRound
Essay

Welcome to the New HowlRound

2 October 2018

Today, we are proud to welcome you to a brand new HowlRound website!

Seven Years in
Essay

Seven Years in

HowlRound Theatre Commons Evolves

9 January 2018

HowlRound staff articulate HowlRound's mission, vision, and values, and discuss how folks can participate in creating the commons. 

Video
Essay

Video

Culture Coin—Watch, Share, Vote Daily!

23 May 2013

HowlRound presents a video on Culture Coin, a peer-to-peer digital currence and resource sharing economy for all

The H logo for HowlRound.
Modeling a Theatre Commons
Essay

Modeling a Theatre Commons

14 February 2013

P. Carl, David Dower, Jamie Gahlon, and Vijay Mathew define their visions of HowlRound as a not-for-profit theatre commons.

The New Play Map Scavenger Hunt on Facebook Starts Now! Become a Beta Tester This Week Only
Essay

The New Play Map Scavenger Hunt on Facebook Starts Now! Become a Beta Tester This Week Only

15 October 2012

Vijay challenges you to help beta test the latest Map iteration!

Howlround's New Play Map.
Build with Us
Essay

Build with Us

New Play Map Version 4—Update # 3

10 October 2012

The New Play Map can now display key information on relationships between organizations, artists, and events.

Build with Us
Essay

Build with Us

New Play Map Version 4—Update # 2

2 October 2012

Vijay answers some questions about knowledge commons and brings us the latest updates of the New Play Map

Howlround's New Play Map.
Build with Us
Essay

Build with Us

New Play Map Version 4 — Update # 1

23 September 2012

HowlRound wants your help in the development of the New Play Map. Read up on how we are innovating it to suit your needs and how to give feedback to ensure our goals are being reached.

A Rapid Conceptual History of #NEWPLAY TV
Logo for Howlround.
Video

A Rapid Conceptual History of #NEWPLAY TV

15 February 2013
Washington, D.C., United States
Goal of a Knowledge Commons
Essay

Goal of a Knowledge Commons

Transformation and Innovation?

27 January 2012

Vijay Mathew provides the latest update from the HowlRound office, in which the staff and some special guests start defining "knowledge commons" and "community sourcing" through videos.

How to Produce a Livestream Event
Cuban woman with headphones talking in a video conference.
Series

How to Produce a Livestream Event

Guides to the tools and embedded values.

A series of guides on how to produce your livestream events which prioritize accessibility, inclusion, low carbon practices, and the commons.