Happy Black History Month! This month, we're uplifting work from the HowlRound archive that center Black voices, history, and scholarship. For more, make sure to check out our Black Theatre tag.
A series of posts about Los Angeles theatre, the values applied to our art and business choices, and how we collectively address the challenges and the need for change.
LA arts administrator David Mack explores the topic of labor law, proposing that complying with it will help create and sustain a more equitable theatre community—both in his city and across the country.
An Interview with Jill Stevenson from the American Society for Theatre Research
7 February 2019
Cason Murphy speaks with Jill Stevenson of the American Society for Theatre Research about the last-minute cancellation of their 2018 conference due to a strike held by the union workers from the conference’s hotel venue.
Class Consciousness and the Transformation of the World
20 April 2021
Chris Myers talks about the importance of class politics and makes a case for why artists ought to reckon with it, both as creative people and just plain workers.
Theatremaker and political educator Chris Myers writes a companion piece to Ife Olujobi’s “$5000.” He explains the structural reasons behind Ife’s struggle to gain more money for playwrights, why this struggle belongs to us all, and the organizing it will take to change it.
Although theatres depend on front-of-house workers for a smooth audience experience, these employees are often isolated from the rest of the theatre’s staff and subject to mistreatment by patrons. Taylor Hunsberger advocates for organizational changes to promote respect, dignity, and professional development for front of house.
How do you write a union play that doesn’t end in everyone yelling “Strike!”? Abby Schoering explores one answer to this question offered by Gwen Kingston’s Café Utopia, which engaged Notch Theatre’s community-responsive methods, verbatim interludes, and enough juicery puns to keep the laughs coming.
Notes from the Field: A Frank Conversation on Pay Equity in the American Theatre is the first session in a three-part series on Pay Equity with A.R.T/New York.
Genevieve Beller and Elsa Hiltner discuss exploitation and abuse in the theatre field, pay equity, how there should always be space for people to learn and move forward in a better way, and more.
