BUILD Forward: Advocacy, Artistry, and Adaptability

foolsFURY Theater presented BUILD Forward: Advocacy, Artistry, and Adaptability livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 15 October and Saturday 16 October 2021.

About BUILD Forward
Under the leadership of artistic director, Debórah Eliezer, partnered with the TGNC Advocacy Collective, LMDA and alongside guest facilitators Claudia Alick of Calling Up Justice, Ely Orquiza of The Living Document, and Pamela Capalad and MC Dyalekt of Brunch & Budget, foolsFURY Theater is gathering the field of ensemble theatremakers in its second field-wide digital convening. This year’s sessions will focus on trans advocacy and organizational adaptability. Returning Art Share format brings twelve new performances that negotiate the nature of digital liveness responding to the theme “uprooted” with curation coordinator, Anita Holland of Philadelphia-based theatre company Applied Mechanics.

Advocacy: Going beyond allyship and moving towards accompliceship. Demonstratively using privilege and agency to move marginalized voices to the center.

Artistry: Innovative storytelling at the intersection of aesthetic equity and artistic excellence.

Adaptability: The humble recognition that real change takes time, resilience and iterative, long-term commitment.

BUILD Forward is a two-day event featuring interactive townhalls, Art Shares with Microturgs, and discussions designed for artists, activists, culture workers, educators, theatre professionals, and anyone interested in building effective, long-lasting systemic change.

The field of ensemble theatre is moving forward. Join us.

Registration gives you greatest access. Link to Register (Pay What You Can) and Join the Conversation on CrowdCast.

15 October: Advocacy

Digital Lounge + Networking / Opening Remarks
9 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share I
9:30 a.m. - 9:37 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share II
9:37 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

What We Need: Testimonies and Demands from the TGNC Theatre Community
9:45 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12:45 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
Panelists: TGNC Advocacy Collective
The TGNC Advocacy Collective (TAC) discusses queer and TGNC community testimonies and findings from surveys collected in August and September of 2021, followed by a discussion about how the Bay Area theatre community should move forward with more inclusive practices. What can theatres do to be better? What resources can we provide for our queer and TGNC community for self advocacy? What does safety and inclusion look like for the TGNC community within the theatre industry?

Art Share III
12:15 p.m. - 12:22 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share IV
12:22 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

INDIGENOUS DIGITAL: Contemporary Native Storytelling
12:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)
Panelists: ié chié (Muisca) and Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Costanoan Ohlone) in conversation with foolsFURY company member Nicky Martinez.
How are native artists using digital platforms to decolonize the internet? What are the ways native artists use short form videos and visuals to resist the settler colonial lens and disrupt notions of power and knowledge? How are queer native artists creating new contemporary forms of culture bearing?

Art Share V
1:30 p.m. - 1:37 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share VI
1:37p.m. - 1:45 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Closing Remarks
1:45 p.m. - 2 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

16 October: Adaptability
 

Digital Lounge & Opening Remarks
10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Chasing the Money: Economic Equity and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)
Panelists: Pamela Capalad and MC Dyalekt of Brunch & Budget
Ensembles are often created to make art from a shared vision, but disproportionately more time writing grants and raising money. In times of crisis small orgs tighten their belts and do more with less in order to survive. Who is truly being served by the non-profit model? How can small and midsized companies consider how money is used and flows? Are there benefits of staying small and resisting budgetary growth? What if economic security and artistry went hand in hand? How can individuals and organizations raise the bar and change the starving artist ethos? Join Pamela Capalad and MC Dyalekt of Brunch and Budget as they shine a light on the shadows of non-profit industrial complex.

Art Share VII
11:30 a.m. - 11:37 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share VIII
11:37 a.m. - 11:44 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share IX
11:44 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Things Fall Apart: Looking Back To See Ahead
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 PM (New York, UTC -4)
Panelists: Claudia Alick leads an interactive community round table
As the experimental wing of the American theatre, how do we reckon with the field-wide challenges we have been unable to meet? What have we been unable or unwilling to acknowledge? What is the civic contract between artists and community? How do we “pass the torch” to the new leaders our field needs to transform? In the midst of pandemic and economic crisis what are the new structures we must imagine? When is closing the most liberatory practice? What and how do we dismantle as we build forward?

Art Share X
2:30 p.m. - 2:37 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share XI
2:37 p.m. - 2:44 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Art Share XII
2:44 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)

Closing Remarks
2:50 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7)