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
Essay
Facilitative Directing Centers the Art
by Kimberly Senior
1 June 2026
Essay
Artists Lead the Way at the 2026 Under the Radar Symposium
Ezra Ezzard talks about the rich history and bright future of Harlem, and the necessity of keeping it an affordable place to make art and develop artistic voices.
P. Carl's keynote from the 2012 CityWrights: Weekend for Playwrights enbolden artists to focus on making good art, rather than being overwhelmed by transactions.
Rob Orchard reflects on his professional career at the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre, leading to his new position and excitment for Emerson's Office of the Arts.
As the New Play Institute transitions to Emerson College as the new Center for the Theater Commons, we celebrate the accomplishments of the previous year with our annual report.
Welcome to the New Play Map, an innovative, crowd-sourced way to track all the new work being made across the nation. But for our newest project to succeed, we need your help.
As part of the 36th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, the Actors Theatre of Louisville presented the first of four panel discussions livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 10 March 2012 at 11 a.m. EST / 10 a.m. CST.
#NEW PLAY TV is innovating how TV develops community. Changing the power from capital producers to pedestrians will decentralize content and reinvigorate local culture.
Vijay Mathew provides the latest update from the HowlRound office, in which the staff and some special guests start defining "knowledge commons" and "community sourcing" through videos.
P. Carl asks if the virtual connectedness of the twenty first century theater community can provide the place for artists to move beyond the brick and mortar settings of the current regional theater movement, and into greater creative freedom.