Community-Engaged Theatre

In this virtual keynote, Todd London reflects on the nature of new work and the social cooperation inherent to making theatre.

Through the lens of developing his show Gasping Whiteness, Will MacAdams talks about the value of creating theatre in partnership with community organizers.

Mihai Mateiu discusses his trajectory as an arts organizer in Cluj, from open-air music festivals to running a bookshop and cultural venue, to working to build arts audiences by partnering with businesses.

Summer Robinson interviews playwright Lynden Harris about her work creating theatre with men on death row across the United States.

Carlos Murillo and Kira Obolensky talk about their National Playwright Residency Program residencies, creating work for a specific theatre’s audience, playwrights not being part of the sea change of artistic director turnover, and more.

Isaac Mafuel talks about Malawi’s most prevalent form of theatre, its history, and its impact and challenges.

Cultural organizer and producer Joon Lynn Goh speaks with Janna Graham, a research-based practitioner, curator, and lecturer, about connecting cultural work with political organizing.

Goran Tomka looks at what audience development is, the phenomenon of an implied or implicit audience, decolonizing institutions, and more.

Dr. David Stevenson talks about audience diversification, confronts the dominant hierarchy of cultural activities, and looks to create space for valuing everyone’s chosen cultural experiences the same way.

Zoë Svendsen discusses working with fellow theatremakers to build and present imagined realities of London and Oslo in post-capitalist and post-fossil-fuel cultures.

Part II of the conversation between Michael J. Bobbitt, the recently appointed artistic director of Boston’s New Repertory Theatre, and Raymond Caldwell, the new leader of Washington’s Theater Alliance, who talk about post-show conversations and self-care.

Michael J. Bobbitt, the recently appointed artistic director of Boston’s New Repertory Theatre, and Raymond Caldwell, the new leader of Washington’s Theater Alliance, sit down to talk about race equity work, the guilt they felt leaving their previous posts, and more.

Playwrights Will Power and Jonathan Norton talk about what being an artist in residence looks like, championing local playwrights, rejection letters, and more.

Michaela Goldhaber, current artistic director of Wry Crips, talks to the founding and early members of the disabled women’s theatre group about their history.

Jordan Schwartz discusses gentrification in developing neighborhoods, how artists moving in need to work with the existing communities, and what kind of change that can bring about.

Several months after Pittsburgh’s Quantam Theatre programmed The Gun Show, there was a mass shooting at a synagogue in the city. TJ Parker discusses how the company responded to the crisis, both through the play and through community engagement.

Members of the Detroit-based artist collective Complex Movements discuss the connection between technology, performance, and social justice community organizing.

Amelia Parenteau, along with theatremakers Eva Doumbia and Marie Houdin, explores the similarities and differences of parades and protests.

Farai Mabeza offers an overview of theatre in Zimbabwe, from the major theatre in the capital city, to smaller community theatres, to the country’s festivals.

Anne Hamburger, founder of En Garde Arts, talks about the beginnings of her company, and, with it, the beginnings of site-specific theatre in New York City.

Artistic directors Marya Sea Kaminski, of the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Chris Coleman, of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, talk about board relationships, connecting with new audiences, budgets as moral documents, and more.

Lucy Latham talks about the work London-based organization Julie’s Bicycle is doing in encouraging the creative community to act on climate change and environmental sustainability.

Goran Tomka looks at how arts and culture organizations can best engage with their communities.

Nan van Houte expresses a desire for funding bodies to take their responsibility and support cultural democracy without compromising the existing subsidies for the arts.

Lyn Gardner, theatre critic for the Guardian, looks at how several British theatre companies are redefining their mission and expanding in ways to be of greater benefit to their communities.