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Commons-Based Approaches

HowlRound defines commons-based approaches as practices that promote relationality, cooperation, horizontal and decentralized decision-making and networks, bottom-up activity, and peer-to-peer sharing of infrastructure, material goods, knowledge, and ideas. Content in this section directly addresses practices of commoning from around the field. Dive in with essays on the promise of the commons, the birth of a climate commons, and how a commons becomes a selection committee.

The Latest

Scattered, but Not Apart: A Two-Sided Story
Essay
Scattered, but Not Apart: A Two-Sided Story
by Carl(os) Roa, Rula(s) A. Muñoz
26 October 2023
Fourth Annual Convening of the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA)
Video
Fourth Annual Convening of the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA)
Conversations About the Present and Future of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Theatre
Saturday 28 October and Sunday 29 October 2023
San Francisco, CA
How Do We Tend to Collaboration?
Essay
How Do We Tend to Collaboration?
by Mateo Hernandez
28 September 2023
event poster for the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA) 2023 convening.
Fourth Annual Convening of the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA)
Video

Fourth Annual Convening of the Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance (MENATMA)

Conversations About the Present and Future of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Theatre

Saturday 28 October and Sunday 29 October 2023
San Francisco, CA

Does a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) leader necessarily mean it's easier for MENA work to get produced? How do MENA theatremakers and educators from K-12 to university settings navigate questions of cultural competency, representation, and omission? How can we work together with other networks of color towards shared goals for our communities? MENATMA presented a weekend of intercommunity dialogues, panels, and keynotes to explore the state of MENA theater and artist sustainability moving forward.

An abstract rendering of a small room.
Scattered, but Not Apart: A Two-Sided Story
Essay

Scattered, but Not Apart: A Two-Sided Story

26 October 2023

Carl(os) Roa and Rula(s) A. Muñoz share a multi-vocal, non-linear account of their group’s work at the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) Designer and Director Colaboratorio. Through both text and images, they document their group’s explorations of non-hierarchical generative process, as well as the challenges they faced.

Artists gather around a table and build LEGOs together.
How Do We Tend to Collaboration?
Essay

How Do We Tend to Collaboration?

28 September 2023

Mateo Hernandez acknowledges collaboration and artmaking as two distinct processes that inform each other in the theatrical process, an observation rooted in their group’s experience of intentionally reexamining the collaborative process at the Latinx Theatre Commons Director and Designer Colaboratorio.

A designer works on the floor
Play as Process at the Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio
Essay

Play as Process at the Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio

26 September 2023

The Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio gathered dozens of Latinx theatremakers to approach collaboration from a place of inquiry, play, and exploration. Carla Della Gatta writes about this event as an alternate story of what is happening—and what could be happening—in US theatre right now.

A graphic that reads "Call for Proposals: LTC Programming 2024-2027."
How Do We Transform the Field We’ve Inherited?
Essay

How Do We Transform the Field We’ve Inherited?

18 September 2023

Designer and Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) steering committee member Tara Houston reflects on the transformation that the LTC inspired in her own career, and how the interventions at LTC convenings are helping Latinx theatremakers transform the theatre field.

Three separate headshots for three artists, stitched together.
Kinship, Solidarity, and Working Towards Everyone’s Survival
Essay

Kinship, Solidarity, and Working Towards Everyone’s Survival

14 September 2023

As part of the Black and Indigenous Futures series, this conversation convenes Samora Pinderhughes, Storme Webber, and Mary Amanda McNeil to consider the ways that kinship and solidarity across broader collectives can coexist and mutually enrich one another through intentional practice.

Gender Euphoria teaser image featuring guest profile image.
The Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree is more of a Galaxy
Podcast

The Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree is more of a Galaxy

With Guest H. May

13 September 2023

Dr. H. May joins host Nicolas Shannon Savard, who introduces the Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree Project, an interactive, open-access digital exhibit visually connecting trans artists across the United States to the collectives and communities who have sustained our work. This episode explores the role of mentorship in both the research for the project and in their own work as gender nonconforming theatremakers.

Two photos merged, depicting a woman and man side by side.
On Black and Indigenous Shared Kinship Futures
Essay

On Black and Indigenous Shared Kinship Futures

13 September 2023

As part of the Black and Indigenous Futures series, Amber Starks and Kyle Mays discuss the siloing of Afro-Indigenous identity, the opportunities and challenges of developing Black and Indigenous solidarity, and the potential to build a future more deeply rooted in kinship.

A man holding cards for a speech and a woman who smiles and claps stand together on stage.
Decolonizing Arts Leadership Through Shared Black and Indigenous Leadership
Essay

Decolonizing Arts Leadership Through Shared Black and Indigenous Leadership

12 September 2023

David Howse and Ronee Penoi, co-leaders of ArtsEmerson, introduce the Black and Indigenous Futures Series with an essay that discusses their commitment to a shared leadership approach that foregrounds solidarity between Black and Indigenous communities.

event poster for the 4th Black Spatial Relics Convening.
The Fourth Black Spatial Relics Convening
Video

The Fourth Black Spatial Relics Convening

A Constellation of Artist Talks, Ceremonies, a Digital Performance Showcase, and Varied Conjures/Facilitations on Black Virtuosic Hope-Building

Thursday 27 July - Sunday 30 July 2023
Philadelphia, PA

Highlighting sacred local cultural institutions including the Colored Girls Museum, the Discovery Center, and a ritual tour across the city of Philadelphia, this gathering is a space for a stirring up of a new hope, inspired entirely by the study of our ancestral and living leaders who have built for themselves and their communities a daily practice of Black virtuosic hope.

Gender Euphoria teaser image with guest headshot.
Making Space for Self-Authorship through Audio Description
Podcast

Making Space for Self-Authorship through Audio Description

With Guests H. May and Liz Thomson

26 July 2023

Host Nicolas Shannon Savard, Dr. H. May, and Dr. Liz Thomson discuss the creative and collaborative possibilities that emerge when audio description (AD) is made an integral part of the artistic process, as opposed to solely an accommodation for individual audience members. They critique traditional models of AD that demand objectivity and propose alternative approaches that embrace self-determination, specificity of lived experience, and universal design.

Collage of the headshots for the members of the Artistic Caucus.
The Artistic Caucus: How Four Theatres Joined Forces to Disrupt Curatorial Practices
Essay

The Artistic Caucus: How Four Theatres Joined Forces to Disrupt Curatorial Practices

13 July 2023

Lauren Halvorsen reports on the origins, development, and learnings of the Artistic Caucus, a collaborative initiative between four regional theatres. By employing a racially and geographically diverse collective of freelance artists to identify new work, scout projects, and facilitate relationships on behalf of all four theatres, the Artistic Caucus seeks to disrupt traditional curatorial practices.

Twelve people sit and stand around a dining table and look upward and smile toward the camera.
Creating Trust Through Money: A Conversation on the Common Wallet Project
Essay

Creating Trust Through Money: A Conversation on the Common Wallet Project

11 May 2023

Tiziana Penna and Anna Rispoli talk about the Common Wallet, an initiative in which everyone involved commits to living out of the same bank account. Together, the group aims to develop more radical forms of solidarity, kinship, and trust, as well as a thorough questioning of and experimenting with different possible relationships to money.

Artists gather around a table and look at magazines and notes.
Meet the Participants of the 2023 Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio!
Essay

Meet the Participants of the 2023 Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio!

8 May 2023

The Latinx Theatre Commons announces the cohort of six directors, twenty-four designers, and seven scholars/documentarians selected for the Designer and Director Colaboratorio in Portland, Oregon this summer.

A large group stands on a stage and smiles at the camera.
El Movimiento Continua/The Movement Continues
Essay

El Movimiento Continua/The Movement Continues

1 May 2023

Latinx Theatre Commons producer Jacqueline Flores introduces the Latinx Leaders at the Forefront Series, which amplifies the history and work of Latinx teatros through conversations between established theatremakers with future leaders of the field.

Event poster for performingbordersLIVE featuring an open mouth in a dark purple light.
performingbordersLIVE: Our Bodies in the Commons
Video

performingbordersLIVE: Our Bodies in the Commons

Reading Karaoke Led by Youngsook Choi

Saturday 29 April 2023
London, United Kingdom

After three years of digital only, transnational collaborations, performingborders is opening a space for movement, sharing, and conversation, to re-center our bodies in the explorations of borders, live art, community, and resistance. This event features live captioning and closed captioning for the video archive.

Headshot of Andreas Weber.
Whole Earth Talk #3: Andreas Weber (Germany)
Video

Whole Earth Talk #3: Andreas Weber (Germany)

The New Role Theatre and Performance Can and Should Play in the New Age of the Anthropocene

Thursday 20 April 2023
New York City

Join us for a Whole Earth Conversation with Andreas Weber (Germany) about the new role theatre and performance can and should play in the new age of the Anthropocene, a geological era shaped by humans rather than by nature. We ask how the significant symbolic, imaginary, and real space of theatre can help artists and audiences realize that a contemporary theatre and performance practice can no longer just represents interhuman conflicts.

A woman stands and gives a speech on a round stage as the audience watches on.
Values-Led, Commons-Based Creative Producing
Essay

Values-Led, Commons-Based Creative Producing

A Conversation with Abigail Vega

20 April 2023

Communications manager Ramona Rose King chats with Abigail Vega on her last day as HowlRound’s creative producer to reflect on her work with HowlRound and the Latinx Theatre Commons, producing using commons-based practices, and advice she’d give to aspiring producers.

From the Ground Up Podcast image featuring Miranda Wright.
Ensemble as Contemporary Commentary
Podcast

Ensemble as Contemporary Commentary

19 April 2023

Miranda Wright, producer and executive director at Los Angeles Performance Practice, and Jeffrey Mosser discuss how Miranda has developed a presenting organization for sharing ambitious, collaboratively created work over the last ten years, as well as what she’s learned from some major arts funding research.

From the Ground Up Podcast Teaser image.
A Living History of Ensemble Theatre (or Bob Leonard’s Ensemble Encyclopedia)
Podcast

A Living History of Ensemble Theatre (or Bob Leonard’s Ensemble Encyclopedia)

12 April 2023

Bob Leonard chronicles his work from the People’s Bicentennial Commission and the Road Company through the founding of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and Alternate ROOTS. Together, Jeffrey Mosser and Bob connect the dots through the middle wave of ensemble-based theatre in the United States.

From the Ground Up Podcast Teaser image.
Maintaining Connections from the Hyperlocal to the International
Podcast

Maintaining Connections from the Hyperlocal to the International

5 April 2023

Carlos Uriona and Jennifer Johnson, co-artistic directors at Double Edge Theatre, connect with Jeffrey Mosser to discuss how working in rural Massachusetts for over thirty years has enabled them to share art on the world stage.

An illustration of a clothesline with a film strip in front of it.
Making Then Is Now During a Pandemic with Our Chinese Canadian Feminist Elders
Essay

Making Then Is Now During a Pandemic with Our Chinese Canadian Feminist Elders

28 March 2023

Julia Hune-Brown and Keira Loughran discuss crafting Then Is Now, a concept album/video playlist they created through conversations with Chinese Canadian women who grew up in Toronto’s Chinatown during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Two women stand next to each other and speak.
On Diane Rodriguez’s Legacy of Mentorship as Reciprocity
Essay

On Diane Rodriguez’s Legacy of Mentorship as Reciprocity

9 March 2023

As the inaugural recipient of the Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award, Patricia Garza reflects on Rodriguez’s embodiment of collaborative leadership. They are joined by Manny Prieto and Nijeul X for a conversation about the potential unlocked by more expansive approaches to mentorship.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image with guest headshot.
Transform Yourself with Tierra Allen
Podcast

Transform Yourself with Tierra Allen

8 March 2023

This week, Yura Sapi is join by Tierra Allen who shares about creating The Real Work, a podcast about theatre culture and transformative justice that is co-produced with We Rise Production. This episode’s topics include learning from non-humans, sharing poems and songs, and being the change.

Four people stand side by side for a photo.
The International Presenting Commons Convenes at Last
Essay

The International Presenting Commons Convenes at Last

6 February 2023

The International Presenting Now convening brought a collective of US-based presenters of international work together in physical space in January 2023, following almost three years of virtual conversations and events. Janice Paran details the conversations that arose around the convening’s key question: how might international presenters want to work differently?