24th TCG National Conference

 

 

The Theatre Communications Group (TCG) presented 24th TCG National Conference: Crossing Borders, in San Diego, California livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thurday 19 June - Saturday 21 June. The 24th TCG National Conference: Crossing Borders will live up to its title in literal fashion when some sessions cross our national border into Tijuana, Mexico. However, that boundary-defying spirit will be present through every aspect of our programming. At each step, we will be challenging assumptions and dismantling barriers to strengthen our field's vitality. Above all, the TCG National Conference is an opportunity to see old friends, make new connections, and engage in frank discussions with peers and expert presenters. Join this essential gathering of diverse theater-makers from across our country—and world—for model sharing, knowledge exchange, and a journey across our many borders. Events that will be livestreamed on HowlRound TV are as follows. In Twitter, follow @TCG, @HowlRoundTV and use #TCG14.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19th
Plenary | To the Mountaintop | 4:30-5:45pm PDT/6:30-7:45pm CDT/7:30-8:45pm EDT

 

 

As we continue to take action on advancing diversity and inclusion, it’s time to take in the big picture and ask: How do we define success? What would a truly equitable theatre field look like? Sound like? Who sits at the table? (Is there even a table?) Who is in the audience and what do they see on stage? How is it funded? What is the view from Martin Luther King’s mountaintop, and how can get there together? These questions resonate in the unfulfilled promise of our country and world, as well as our theatre field. That’s why we’ve asked four cultural leaders to take that visionary climb and imagine what our world could look like—will look like—when we achieve true and lasting inclusion and equity.

Featured speakers include:

• Sarah Bellamy, Co-Artistic Director, Penumbra Theatre Company

• Peter Brosius, Artistic Director, Children's Theatre Company

• Kristoffer Diaz, Playwright

• Naomi Iizuka, Playwright/University of California-San Diego

• Matika Wilbur, Photographer, Project 562

​

FRIDAY, JUNE 20th
Plenary | Game Design and Theater | 9-10:15am PDT/11-12:15pm CDT/12-1:15pm EDT

 

Featuring Jane McGonigal, world-renowned game designer, Inventor of SuperBetter, Author of the New York Times bestseller Reality Is Broken, Fast Company's 1000 Most Creative People in Business 2014. For her full biography, click here.

 

Breakout Session | Radical Outreach: New Directions for Activating Underserved Audiences | 10:45-12:15pm PST/12:45-2:15pm CST/ 1:45-3:15pm EST

 

Companies are expanding their programming and artists are creating new toolboxes for reaching and activating underserved communities that have potential for being not just robust new audience bases, but storytelling resources and surprising hubs of artistic inspiration. Hear from an artist who has taken his performance art to new communities in the form of a taco truck, and from organizations creating initiatives to develop new plays that are born from and speak to specific populations around their theaters. How have they all engaged with community partners to serve these communities? Where have these partnerships flourished, and where have they faltered?

Featured speakers include:

• Zak Berkman, Producing Director, People's Light and Theatre Company

• Alison De La Cruz, Individual Artist

• Kelly Miller, Literary Director, South Coast Repertory

• Jesus Quintaro, Producer/Director/Actor/Design, Tijuana Hace Teatro

• José Torres-Tama, Artistic Director/Performance Artist, ArteFuturo Productions

• Roman Verdugo, Producer/Director/Actor, Tijuana Hace Teatro​

​

Breakout Session | El Movimiento will be Digitized | 1:15-2:45pm PDT/3:15-4:45pm CDT/4:15-5:45pm EDT

 

The Latina/o Theatre Commons (LTC) is a movement made up of passionate, articulate, driven Latina/o theater artists, producers, and scholars from across the country. Since 2012, this movement has gained momentum and made strides in its organization through the use of technology, which has supported its practical needs as well as its philosophical principles. With guidance from tech-savvy HowlRound leaders, the LTC is creating National Convenings, championing Regional projects, and sharing new ideas through Café Onda, its online gathering place. Learn how a variety of tech instruments, used in concert, have nurtured a revolution.

Featured speakers include:

• Jamie Gahlon, Associate Director, HowlRound

• Lisa Portes, Head of Directing, DePaul University

• Tlaloc Rivas, Director/Assistant Professor of Directing, University of Iowa

• Chantal Rodriguez, Programming Director/Scholar, Latino Theater Company/Los Angeles Theatre Center

• Olga Sanchez, Artistic Director, Milagro

• Abigail Vega, LTC Producer/Teatro Luna

 

Plenary | A Conversation with Taylor Mac and Craig Lucas | 3:15-4:45pm PDT/5:15-6:45pm CDT/6:15-7:45pm EDT

 

Craig Lucas wrote & directed Ode to Joy at Rattlestick, the movie The Dying Gaul & the world premiere of The Light in the Piazza (scored by Adam Guettel). He won an Obie for directing Kondoleon's Saved or Destroyed. Other works include play and film versions ofBlue Window, Reckless & Prelude to a Kiss, films Secret Lives of Dentists and Longtime Companion & plays Small Tragedy (Obie Award, Best Play), Prayer for My Enemy, Stranger, Missing Persons, The Singing Forest and God's Heart. He has twice been nominated for a Tony and has been a Pulitzer Finalist.

Taylor Mac is a theater artist (who uses the gender pronoun, judy), which means judy’s a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, cabaret performer, performance artist, director and producer. Time Out New York has called Mac “One of the most exciting theater artists of our time,” naming judy the best cabaret performer in New York in 2012, and a future theater legend. American Theatre wrote “Mac is one of this country’s most heroic and disarmingly funny playwrights.” The New Yorker says, (of Mac’s acting in the title role of Brecht’s Good Person of Szechwan), “One of contemporary theater’s more unforgettable performances.” Village Voice named judy the best theater actor in New York (2013), andThe New York Times says of Mac in general, “Fabulousness can come in many forms, and Taylor Mac seems intent on assuming every one of them.” Judy's work has been performed at New York City's Lincoln Center Theater and The Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, American Repertory Theater, Stockholm's Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, Dublin's Project Arts Centre, London's Soho Theatre, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, cabarets, and festivals around the globe. Judy is the author of sixteen full-length plays and performance pieces.

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 21st

Breakout Session | Audience Research Series #1: Culture Track 2014 - The Expanding Definition of Cultural Engagement | 11am-12:30pm PDT/1-2:30pm CDT/2-3:30pm EDT

 

 

This session will present findings from Culture Track 2014—the largest national study on the attitudes and behaviors of U.S. cultural consumers, including trends in attendance and motivators and barriers. Developed by LaPlaca Cohen and fielded since 2001, Culture Track is the product of over a decade of research and dedication to producing a current, highly-actionable resource for the leading cultural organizations across the nation. The 2014 edition of Culture Track arrives at a critical moment for theatrical organizations. The world has continued to change drastically since Culture Track 2011, with ever-multiplying options for leisure time and the ascendance of mobile technology changing the way that we interface with our world. This year’s study delves deeper than ever before into not only the “WHO?” of cultural participation—but also the “HOW?” and the “WHY?”.

 

Plenary | Towards an Ideal Theater | 1:45-3pm PDT/3:45-5pm CDT/ 4:45pm-6pm EDT

 

 

“Without knowing your past, you don’t know your present—and you certainly can’t plot your future.” —Boy Willie in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson

Our closing plenary will feature visionary writing from our resident theater movement’s founders read by a roomful of current theater leaders. This community reading will draw from the essays, manifestos, and speeches collected in An Ideal Theater: Founding Visions for a New American Art, edited by Todd London and published by TCG Books, and from new letters written by living elders of our movement to present and future leaders. How can the courage and wisdom of these pioneers inspire us to reach the mountaintop envisioned in our opening plenary and embolden us to “plot the future” for the next generation of ideal theaters?

Featured speakers:

• Teresa Eyring, Executive Director, TCG

• Todd London, Artistic Director, New Dramatists

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world's performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected], or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.