The Latinx Theatre Commons National Convening at Emerson College

 

The Latinx Theatre Commons National Convening livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Thursday 31 October to Saturday 2 November 2013 from Emerson College in Boston.

This was the first large-scale formal gathering of the Latina/o theatre community since 1986.

To contribute to the conversation use and search for the Twitter hashtag #cafeonda. Additionally, use the hashtag #howlround in your tweets if space permits.

Conversation during the convening in Boston—and as well as with the satellite convening sites in New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles—was conducted on the Twitter hashtag #cafeonda.

Follow @HowlRoundTV for updates about the livestreaming events and follow @HowlRound for updates about new published content coming out of the convening.

See the main information page about The Latinx Theatre Commons National Convening here. For the full convening agenda and list of participants, click here.

The following was the livestreaming schedule on HowlRound TV:

Thursday 31 October

Session 1: Convening Welcome & Blessing, Latinx Theatre Commons & Convening Purpose
3 p.m. PDT / 5 p.m. CDT / 6 p.m. EDT

Karen Zacarías, P. Carl, Tlaloc Rivas, Anne Garcia-Romero
Participants will be introduced to the master facilitators—Olga Sanchez, Clyde Valentín, and Kinan Valdez—who will serve as “shepherds” of the three-day convening. Members of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee and HowlRound will briefly discuss the notion of “the commons” and offer a vision of how a Latinx Theatre Commons can make a major impact on the future of the field. Finally, the master facilitators will provide a contextual road map describing the full convening process—from purpose to outcomes.

 

Session 2: Ceremony & Council
3:45 p.m. PDT / 5:45 p.m. CDT / 6:45 p.m. EDT

Olga Sanchez, Luis Valdez
This session uses the ritual power of a “four directions” framework to introduce the convening participants to each other. The participants will be grouped according to the four geographical directions—North, East, South, and West. As each direction is called, participants will introduce themselves and place their offerings (items of personal inspiration) on an altar created for this session. The ceremony ends with a blessing of this council and the good work to be done.

 

Session 3: Latina/o Theatre Family
4:45 p.m. PDT / 6:45 p.m. CDT / 7:45 p.m. EDT

Kinan Valdez, Juliette Carrillo, Dr. Jorge Huerta
During visual mapping exercises, the participants will be spatially organized around the room to create a visual understanding of the participants as an expansive community. Next, members of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee will present key moments of contemporary Latina/o theatre history that will have been placed on a timeline created for the convening. Participants will then be asked to mark their own personal and professional highlights along the timeline in an interactive, collage-making session to build community around shared history.

 

Friday 1 November

Listening Session 1: The Creators
8:15 a.m. PDT / 10:15 a.m. CDT / 11:15 a.m. EDT

Playwrights, Ensemble Members, Devisers & Dramaturgs, Moderator: Diane Rodriguez
In this two-part session, a small group of Creators will form an inner circle surrounded by an outer circle comprised of the full participants. For fifty minutes, the larger group will listen to the Creators address obstacles, inspirations, big dreams, and future visions. The forty minutes following will be a full group discussion in response to what they’ve just heard.

Full Group Response
9:05 a.m. PDT / 11:05 a.m. CDT / 12:05 p.m. EDT

 

Listening Session 2: The Translators
10:30 a.m. PDT / 12:30 p.m. CDT / 1:30 p.m. EDT

Directors, Designers, Artists & Actors, Moderator: Karen Zacarías
In this two-part session, a small group of Translators will form an inner circle surrounded by an outer circle comprised of the full participants. For fifty minutes, the larger group will listen to the Translators address obstacles, inspirations, big dreams, and future visions. The forty minutes following will be a full group discussion in response to what they’ve just heard.

Full Group Response
11:20 a.m. PDT / 1:20 p.m. CDT / 2:20 p.m. EDT

 

Listening Session 3: The Pillars
12:15 p.m. PDT / 2:15 p.m. CDT / 3:15 p.m. EDT

Leaders, Producers, Administrators & Scholars, Moderator: Abel López
In this two-part session, a small group of Pillars will form an inner circle surrounded by an outer circle comprised of the full participants. For fifty minutes, the larger group will listen to the Pillars address obstacles, inspirations, big dreams, and future visions. The forty minutes following will be a full group discussion in response to what they’ve just heard.

Full Group Response
1:05 p.m. PDT / 3:05 p.m. CDT / 4:05 p.m. EDT

 

Conocimiento Group Reports
2:30 p.m. PDT / 4:30 p.m. CDT / 5:30 p.m. EDT

Each conocimiento group will report back to the larger group the implications and inspirations they have drawn from the day’s conversations, with an emphasis on creating a shared vision for future action.

 

Saturday 2 November

Day Three Welcome
6 a.m. PDT / 8 a.m. CDT / 9 a.m. EDT

Plenary Session: Expanding Our Environmental Analysis
6:15 a.m. PDT / 8:15 a.m. CDT / 9:15 a.m. EDT

Moderators: Kinan Valdez, Clyde Valentín
During this two-part session, selected participants will share current experiences, initiatives and models addressing four key fronts:
• Leadership in the Field
• New Collaboration & Play-Making Models
• Technology-driven Communications
• Festivals

In part one, a national field leadership narrative will be woven with examples of Latina/o leadership within Americans for the Arts, American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), and Theatre Communications Group (TCG). Artistic emphasis will be placed on understanding the new opportunities presented by National New Play Network (NNPN) rolling world premieres, National Performance Network (NPN) collaborative commissions, and the Latino Play Project (LPP) at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Examples of technology-driven communications platforms No Passport, TCG Conference 2.0, and the ATHE-Latino Focus Group listserv will inform the introduction of Café Onda as a new initiative of the Latinx Theatre Commons in partnership with HowlRound.

In part two, an expanded discussion on festivals will present structural models and best practices from The Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, the International Hispanic Theater Festival, NET Microfest USA, the RADAR L.A. Festival, and the YO SOLO Festival to inform the Latinx Theatre Commons’ new initiatives—the LATC New Company Works Festival and the DePaul New Play Festival.

 

Listening Session: Voices From The Regions
9:45 a.m. PDT / 11:45 a.m. CDT / 12:45 p.m. EDT

Moderators: Tlaloc Rivas, Olga Sanchez
This virtual participatory session to explore the use of technology for cross-regional organizing and conversation through video conferencing diverse regions around the country: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. The regions will connect to the national convening and each other, contributing to the conversations by sharing the visions, initiatives, and challenges for their specific regions.

 

Strategy Reports: Towards A New Movement
12:15 p.m. PDT / 2:15 p.m. CDT / 3:15 p.m. EDT

In this strategic session, the eight working groups will report back on their ideas to the whole convening, presenting three specific strategies and suggested action items responding to their particular articulated fronts of future action.

 

Strategy Selection: Next Steps
1:30 p.m. PDT / 3:30 p.m. CDT / 4:30 p.m. EDT

Through a participatory selection process, the large group will identify and discuss one chosen strategy per front as a foundational action platform to ground immediate organizing efforts of the Latinx Theatre Commons. The eight strategies will then be organized into four strategic directions of future action to advance the field. Convening participants will personally choose the strategic direction that speaks to them, and join other champions of their new direction—the distilled expressions of new collective commitments.

 

Closing Ceremony
3:15 p.m. PDT / 5:15 p.m. CDT / 6:15 p.m. EDT

Olga Sanchez, Luis Valdez
The closing ceremony echoes the opening ceremony organized by the “Four Directions.” Each new direction will return to the altar to collect their offering. After all the offerings are collected, participants may present their inspiration offerings to other participants as gifts, declaring and sharing their personal commitments in the process.