Commons-Based Approaches

Here is a brief quip from the design team in addition to the final list of goals for the new play map.

P. Carl and David Dower outline thier plan for what HowlRound will look and function like moving forward.

Melia Bensussen examines how the arrival of The Commons will intersect with the theater professionals that populate Emerson College's faculty.

Student Nick Medvescek writes about the synergy of HowlRound and Emerson College's student-led theatre community.

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.

The next big jump for the new play map is the ability to control the look of a new play’s journey.

A video introducing our big move!

President Lee Pelton welcomes The Commons to Emerson College!

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.

Next iteration of the New Play Map is coming along! We are updating it with the current mapping system to make the process quick and easy to use.

Isaac Butler argues for a re-thinking of the way we as theater artists approach and apply copyright and intellectual property.

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.

Jaan Whitehead addresses the revolutionary attitude necessary for artists to reclaim the theatre from the institutions that produce it.

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.

Molly Smith reflects on the transformations of Areana Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater over the past year.

Deborah Cullinan asks how the theater community can create work that crosses the fractured lines of our contemporary communities and truly converges with the outside world.

The Workhaus Playwrights Collective — which disbanded in 2016 — came from a desire to create a playwright-driven theatre company, where no administrative infrastructure chooses the plays or plans the seasons.

Reflecting on the 2011 TCG Conference, P. Carl asks “What if we could get over ourselves?” at both the individual and institutional level.

Tracing the family she's created artistically and socially, Virginia Grise writes about art-making as a process of survival, self-actualization, and community building.