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Community-Engaged Theatre

In this section, you’ll find content about making theatre that is deeply engaged—often throughout the creation and production process—with a specific community. Questions are explored around navigating the relationship between the artist(s) and the community, as well as creating meaningful and authentic experiences. The essay “Not Another Memory Play,” about the creation of “a durational, grassroots engagement with the Black community of the Arkansas Delta called Remember2019,” is a great place to start, as is this conversation from CultureHub about collectives devising new grassroots engagement strategies.

The Latest

Can’t Do Theatre by Yourself
Essay
Can’t Do Theatre by Yourself
by Christin Eve Cato, Jorge Piña
23 January 2024
On Theatre, Home, and Housing 
Essay
On Theatre, Home, and Housing 
by Jan Cohen-Cruz
16 January 2024
Perspectives from Two Teatros Doing the Work
Essay
Perspectives from Two Teatros Doing the Work
by Milta Ortiz, Alberto Justiniano
3 January 2024
Photo from How Much Is Enough.
With Whom Will We Play?
Essay

With Whom Will We Play?

Theater and Social Justice in New York City

21 October 2013

RJ Maccani discusses learning through Foundery Theatre’s projects the distinct ways artists and social justice organizers can come together to make change.

Massive Draft is Dead… Long Live Massive Draft
Essay

Massive Draft is Dead… Long Live Massive Draft

20 October 2013

In this installment, Aaron Carter offers a brief overview of The Lab at Steppenwolf.

masscreative logo
Marty Walsh, Boston Mayoral Candidate, Unveils his Arts and Culture Platform at the Museum of African American History
Video

Marty Walsh, Boston Mayoral Candidate, Unveils his Arts and Culture Platform at the Museum of African American History

Friday 18 October 2013
Boston, MA, United States

MASSCreative presented a speech by Mayoral Candidate Marty Walsh on his arts and culture platform livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on ​Friday 18 October 2013.

Creative New Jersey logo.
Using Open Space Technology
Essay

Using Open Space Technology

The New Coffee Break

17 October 2013

Kacy O’Brien wondered what a conference would look like if it was planned as one long coffee break. How would the results compare to traditional break-out sessions?

National Innovation Summit banner.
Strength in Numbers
Essay

Strength in Numbers

Taking Collective Action in New Orleans Theater

15 October 2013

Cripple Creek Theatre has partnered with other organizations in order to better sustain their company in a world that no longer solely depends on traditional fiscal support.

The Archipelago
Essay

The Archipelago

9 October 2013

Dan Swern gives a historical overview of New Jersey's cultural identity and arts access. 

Map view of New Jersey.
A Series on the State of New Jersey
Essay

A Series on the State of New Jersey

6 October 2013

An introduction into the examination of what it means to be “local” or be in the “community” inspired by people’s experience to find home in one to two neighborhoods.

Masscreative create the vote banner
Mayoral Candidate Forum on Arts, Culture, and Creativity 
Video

Mayoral Candidate Forum on Arts, Culture, and Creativity 

Monday 9 September 2013
Boston, MA, United States

Create the Vote coalition presented the Boston Mayoral Candidate Forum on Arts, Culture, and Creativity livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 9 September at 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. EDT (Boston) / 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m. CDT (Austin) / 3 p.m.-4:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco).

A man in a sculpture garden.
Setting the Stage for a New Regional Theater
Essay

Setting the Stage for a New Regional Theater

19 July 2013

The budding identity of American regional theater is fresh ensembles creating devised work that answers why with these people, in this place.

Several stacks of coins.
Practical Applications of the Culture Coin
Essay

Practical Applications of the Culture Coin

28 May 2013

David Dower examines the Culture Coin, and provides a sneak peek into a world where this new currency replaces cash in the theater industry.

A banner denoting a semifinalist in a crowdsourcing competition.
Vote for this project
Essay

Vote for this project

Let's put the "equity" back into not-for-profit "sweat equity"

15 May 2013

Vote for HowRound's CULTURE COIN in the ArtsFwd Business Unusual Challenge

Portrait of Todd London.
One for All and All for One and Every Man for Himself
Essay

One for All and All for One and Every Man for Himself

27 March 2013

Todd London's keynote address at the NoPassport Conference in New York City, March 1st 2013.

Logo for Words Alive.
Working Around the Problem
Essay

Working Around the Problem

28 February 2013

David Weiner writes about his way of combatting the dearth of young theater professionals: introducing students to the arts via Words Alive.

Two performers embrace each other with their foreheads touching.
Towards a Performance Ethics of Cohabitation?
Essay

Towards a Performance Ethics of Cohabitation?

18 February 2013

Brandon Woolf reflects on the cultural clashes and queer-antagonistic responses to the public performance of UtopiaTM by the ensemble of Shakespeare im Park Berlin in Görlitzer Park.

Banner logo for City Council Meeting.
City Council Meeting at Arizona State University
Video

City Council Meeting at Arizona State University

Saturday 16 February 2013
Tempe, AZ, United States

Arizona State University's ASU Gammage in Tempe presented City Council Meeting livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 16 February 2013 at 6 p.m. PST (San Francisco) / 8 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 9 p.m. EST (New York) / (Sunday, Feb 17 at 02:00 GMT).

Several people in penguin costumes in a production of And Then Came Tango.
Ruffling Feathers
Essay

Ruffling Feathers

Theater for Social Justice

29 January 2013

Creating and producing social advocacy theatre faces many roadblocks. Emily Freeman learned that exercising relentlessness while practicing love is the best way to find an audience.

Logo for Network Ensemble Theaters.
MicroFest USA: New Orleans at the Network of Ensemble Theaters
Video

MicroFest USA: New Orleans at the Network of Ensemble Theaters

Friday 18 January - Sunday 20 January 2013
New Orleans, LA, United States

Network of Ensemble Theaters' MicroFest USA: New Orleans was livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Friday 18 January to Sunday 20 January 2013.

The Evolution of The Graduates
Essay

The Evolution of The Graduates

19 January 2013

Randals writes about theatre created by women who have personal relationships with America’s criminal justice system who seek to inform their audiences to incarceration’s effects.

Three actors onstage.
Building Audience Into the Process
Essay

Building Audience Into the Process

17 December 2012

Lana Lesley shares insight on how Rude Mechs has creatively promoted audience engagement in their past productions.

A landscape of Knoxville.
Stats about Knoxville, Tennessee's Arts & Culture Scene
Essay

Stats about Knoxville, Tennessee's Arts & Culture Scene

29 October 2012

Liza Zenni surveys the impact arts have in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Badge for the Female Playwright's Initiative.
How to Build Gender Parity Initiatives and Influence Theater
Essay

How to Build Gender Parity Initiatives and Influence Theater

11 October 2012

Laura Shamas on the steps she and Jennie Webb took to create of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, and the lessons they have learned along the way.

Logo for the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts.
The Northern Lakes Center for the Arts and the Rural Arts Management (RAM) Institute
Essay

The Northern Lakes Center for the Arts and the Rural Arts Management (RAM) Institute

6 October 2012

LaMoine MacLaughlin, Executive Director of the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts in rural Wisconsin writes about the 23 years of the organizaiton, and how it fits into his community.

Two giant shoes with people gathered around.
Abundance and Transformation
Essay

Abundance and Transformation

2 October 2012

Donna Neuwirth describes the integration of culture and agriculture at the Wormfarm Institute in Wisconsin.

Portrait of David Dower.
The Theater of Our Understanding and Enlargement
Essay

The Theater of Our Understanding and Enlargement

17 September 2012

David Dower, the Co- Artistic Director of ArtsEmerson, on the differnece between Art and Entertainment, and the nessisity to create work that includes both.

Four images of Melanie Joseph.
Considering Our Dimensions
Essay

Considering Our Dimensions

13 September 2012

Melanie Joseph, the Artistic Director of the Foundry Theater, examines what it means to be an artist and an active citizen.