Victor Vazquez joins Yura Sapi to share his experience creating X Casting, a casting company that spans theatre and film in the United States and worldwide through a shared purpose of collective liberation and anti-racism. This episode’s topics include thinking about our role in the political landscape, globalism, and a curiosity for generous solutions.
Abundance Zaddy joins Yura Sapi to talk about creating Cause Reign, an oral history project that connects Black people—with a focus on Black trans and queer folks—to their histories through dreamwork, the practice of remembering, recording, and activating the healing potential of dreams. Topics in this episode include prioritizing love and sweetness, transcending time, and asking for consent.
How exciting is it to transform our future and be the future ancestors we dream for? Yura Sapi opens the space with a gratitude ritual and shares about what’s to come on the new season of the Building Our Tables podcast. Topics for this season include evolutionary times, the four elements, and sounds of nature.
The Wildcard Workbook: Why Forum Theatre and Why Now?
15 November 2022
Theatremakers Sulu LeoNimm, Liz Morgan, and Katy Rubin discuss the process of co-authoring The Wildcard Workbook, a guide designed to help others in the field delve into Theatre of the Oppressed practices and devised theatre processes.
Art2Action and Animating Democracy presented Art, Race, and Dialogue, the second event in the series Animating Democracy: REFLECTING FORWARD, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 13 October 2022 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Erasure is Not an Option: Intimacy Advocacy Through a Transgender Lens
A Conversation with Raja Benz
30 August 2022
Ann James sits down with intimacy choreographer Raja Benz to discuss her experience implementing cultures of consent in rehearsal rooms, cultivating a localized approach to intimacy work, and centering trans perspectives in theatrical processes.
Balancing Power Through Intimacy in the Rehearsal Space
26 August 2022
Ann James chats with Rocio Mendez about her work as an intimacy director, connections between intimacy choreography and fight direction, and getting excited about theatre’s fieldwide trend toward including intimacy specialists in production teams.
Ann James introduces the Rebuilding for the Future: A Convergence of Thought Leaders in Intimacy Practice series with this call for intimacy professionals to build a foundation of equity in the industry by interrogating available mentorship and training structures. This essay begins that work by highlighting the need for a diverse pool of training ideologies and methods; and the interview-based series that follows takes up that need by highlighting the perspectives of eight practitioners who navigate the intimacy industry in a variety of ways.
Writing Detroit: Dominique Morisseau’s Practice of the Possible
10 August 2022
Jordan Ealey and Leticia Ridley interview award-winning and acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau about her recent Broadway productions of Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations and Skeleton Crew; the future of Detroit theatre and performance; and reckoning with American history. Ealey and Ridley discuss Morisseau’s practice of reparative creativity and the ability for theatre to serve as a rehearsal for true change.
In this episode, Leticia and Jordan finally explain what they mean when they say Black feminism, especially in theatre and performance. They engage Lisa M. Anderson’s tenets of Black feminist drama, alongside other contemporary scholars and artists expansion of Black feminist theatre. They discuss Black feminist theory, black feminist practice in creative work, and black feminist theatre theory.
Seeing Double: Double Consciousness as a Black Theatre Practitioner
14 July 2022
Ekemini Ekpo applies W.E.B. Dubois’ concept of “double consciousness” to the experience of performing Blackness for a predominantly white audience that may or may not be interested in disturbing the primacy of their own lived experience.
From Awareness to Action: Facilitating Change in the American Theatre
13 June 2022
Lauren E. Turner, producing artistic director of No Dream Deferred, sits down with Amelia Parenteau to discuss their recent experiences in anti-racist facilitation work through No Dream Deferred’s service, Equity and Justice for Institutional Change.
Developing and Sharing a Values-Centric Accountability Plan
Representatives from theaters engaged in anti-racism work share their experiences of creating an actionable plan
Monday 4 April 2022
United States
The Playwrights Realm presented the panel Developing and Sharing a Values-Centric Accountability Plan, livestreaming on the commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Monday 4 April 2022 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 21:00 BST (London, UTC +1).
Sarah Plummer kicks off the puppet series by introducing the series contributors and exploring the way their work highlights puppetry’s capacity to form solidarities among humans and nonhumans.
Thinking Through Racism: Nigerian Theatre’s Response
11 January 2022
Eseovwe Emakunu sits down with theatre practitioner Israel Wekpe to discuss how he and other Nigerian theatre artists use theatre to address racism and discrimination.
Why the Argument That Fiscal Sustainability is More Important Than Investing in Racial Justice Needs to Go Away
16 December 2021
Ryan Ferrebee discusses the disadvantages of theatres attempting to balance fiscal responsibility with anti-racism work from his perspective as a white fundraising professional.
Imagining a New Federal Theatre Project with Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne
24 November 2021
As a part of the New Deal, the Federal Theatre Project of the 1930s funded theatre in the United States at an unprecedented level, providing paid work for trained theatremakers and low-cost performances to audiences all around the country. Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne discuss the history of the Federal Theatre Project and its potential to act as a model for a New Federal Theatre Project formed in conjunction with racial justice, climate justice, and Land Back movements.
A Robust Discussion of Some of the Most Pressing Issues in Theatre’s Move Towards a Decolonized Model
Saturday 20 November 2021
London, United Kingdom
Dramaturgs' Network presented a panel on Anti-racist Strategies in Dramaturgy livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 20 November 2021 at 9 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 12 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 17:00 GMT (London, UTC +0).
Reappraising the Legacy of Ernie McClintock with Dr. Ibby Cizmar
6 October 2021
Dr. Ibby Cizmar joins the Theatre History Podcast to share her research on Ernie McClintock, who worked to develop a system of training and performance that could serve the specific needs of African American actors in the mid-twentieth century. A significant influence in the Black Arts Movement, McClintock’s methods continue to influence institutions and theatremakers today.
A Cohort of Theatre Professionals Discuss the Many Ways They’re Embracing a Values-centric Approach to Putting on a Show.
Thursday 23 September 2021
New York City
What does anti-racism look like when applied to the theatre’s core activity — producing plays? In this panel, a cohort of theatre professionals discuss the many ways they’re embracing a values-centric approach to putting on a show, from first rehearsal all the way to closing night. Livestreamed on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thursday 23 September 2021 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 21:00 BST (London, UTC +1).
Public Access Archives: The End of the Theatre Industry
7 September 2021
Taylor Leigh Lamb and Sabine Decatur share emails, letters, social media posts, and more from the future that represent the period of profound change in the theatre industry beginning in 2021.
Yura Sapi sits down with Iyvon E., artistic director of The Parsnip Ship, a podcast play company that amplifies bold artists for audiences who crave accessible stories and storytellers.
Memorial Concert and Celebration of the Life of Robbie McCauley
Sunday 15 August 2021
New York City
A memorial celebration of Robbie McCauley who was an American performance artist, writer and director who often put race at the center of plays and other works. Livestreamed on the commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Sunday 15 August 2021.
Yura Sapi sits down with Kyoung H. Park of Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, a peacemaking theatre collective dedicated to working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform experiences of oppression into peace messages through public performance.