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Two actors stand onstange, one in a pink dress and the other in a t-shirt using a cane.
Autistic Artists Should Be Telling Autistic Stories
Essay

Autistic Artists Should Be Telling Autistic Stories

12 February 2024

Megan Lummus shares her experience as the first openly autistic director to direct a professional production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. She explores why it is important to have autistic artists taking the lead on sharing autistic stories, and what theatremakers can do to make sure productions are accessible. 

A man stands with his back to the camera and stares at an empty set on stage.
Can’t Do Theatre by Yourself
Essay

Can’t Do Theatre by Yourself

23 January 2024

Latinx theatremakers Jorge Piña and Christin Eve Cato sit down for a conversation about their paths through the theatre field and their advice for future generations looking to sustain this work while caring for themselves and each other.

An actress sings passionately during a performance.
Interrogating the Politics of Oppression in The Struggle
Essay

Interrogating the Politics of Oppression in The Struggle

4 January 2024

Dan Kpodoh’s The Struggle dramatizes governmental and corporate exploitation in the oil-rich Niger Delta by telling the story of a group of militants who sought liberation but became corrupted by financial interests. Eseovwe Emakunu, a Nigerian theatre professional, interviews Kpodoh about the play’s function as protest theatre against political oppression.

Italian and American Playwrights Project Event Poster.
Italian and American Playwrights Project
Video

Italian and American Playwrights Project

An Evening Discovering One of the Most Significant Contemporary Italian Playwrights, Screenwriters, and Directors: the late Mattia Torre

Monday 11 December 2023
United States

The Segal Center Italian and American Playwrights Project hosted an evening discovering the work of one of the most significant contemporary Italian playwrights, screenwriters, and directors: the late Mattia Torre.  The program included a reading of excerpts from Torre's plays, translated by Anthony Sugaar and directed by Kristin Leahey, followed by a panel with Italian theatre critic Graziano Graziani, translator Anthony Sugaar, Valeria Orani, and others, moderated by Frank Hentschker.

A group of actors perform in a dimly lit space.
On Translating Nobel Laureate Jon Fosse’s Works for American Audiences
Essay

On Translating Nobel Laureate Jon Fosse’s Works for American Audiences

11 December 2023

Amelia Parenteau sits down with Sarah Cameron Sunde, who has translated and directed six of Jon Fosse’s plays, to mark the occasion of Fosse being awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. Their conversation pays tribute to Sarah and Jon’s longstanding creative relationship, examines the plays’ Norwegian context as it is translated internationally, and uplifts the need for American audiences to see more dramatic work in translation.

A promotional graphic for the Kunafa and Shay podcast
Queering Film
Podcast

Queering Film

22 November 2023

Film reaches a larger public than theatre due to the way it is produced and disseminated. In this way, it has a large and lasting cultural impact. In this episode with Mike Mossalem and Amin El Gamal, we discuss the ways the film and theatre fields influence each other as they both contribute to culture change and performance methodologies.

A promotional graphic for the Kunafa and Shay Podcast
Art, Activism, and Connecting to the Past
Podcast

Art, Activism, and Connecting to the Past

8 November 2023

Activism and storytelling often go hand in hand. What does it mean for queer art and activism to take center stage? How can we look to the future while honoring the places and people from where we all came? In this episode, Sivan Battat talks about their ancestral storytelling workshops within queer and Middle Eastern communities and how they see the relationship between art and activism.

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.

Six people standing behind a table pose for a photo together.
Holding a Human: Caretaking, Play, and Design as a Social Act
Essay

Holding a Human: Caretaking, Play, and Design as a Social Act

12 October 2023

Dolissa Medina details her group’s expansive design process at the Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio. Engaging with a variety of spaces and art forms opened the group’s creative floodgates, allowing them to reach new perspectives on their work and their ways of relating to one another.

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.

Two actors dressed as doctors lay down and lift the legs of an actor dressed as a patient.
Going “Down to the Roots” to find Healing Through Theatre
Essay

Going “Down to the Roots” to find Healing Through Theatre

31 August 2023

Keelin Sanz discusses the development of WOMI, which she created to explore the healing capacity of art. By rooting WOMI in the work of choreographer Anna Halprin and memoirist Sarah Ramey, Sanz crafted a performance that worked to a mend the relationship between body and sense of self for those with chronic illnesses.

Four actors sit on chairs on a set made to look like a children's classroom, smiling and talking with one another.
How Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play Lays the Groundwork for Native Artists Like Me
Essay

How Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play Lays the Groundwork for Native Artists Like Me

28 August 2023

After directing Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play at her midwestern college, Indigenous theatremaker Sierra Rosetta traveled to New York to see the same play on Broadway. She discusses the way this milestone production—which made FastHorse the first known Native American woman playwright on Broadway—and her own work push for a future in which Native theatremakers’ presence on professional stages is standard, not novel.

A man stands on stage in the middle of a spotlight, with a projection behind him of him as a child.
Composting Queer Trauma through a Collaborative Process in SEAL
Essay

Composting Queer Trauma through a Collaborative Process in SEAL

24 August 2023

As writer-performer Dante Fuoco and director Clara Wiest came together to rework Dante’s autobiographical solo show SEAL, they developed a process that centered intentional care and trauma-informed practices. In this interview with Rachel Pottern Nunn, Clara and Dante reflect upon the production, discuss the relationship between writer/performer and director, and share insights from their generative process.

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.

Gender Euphoria teaser image featuring guest profile image.
Making Space: Consent, Collaboration, and Queer Access Intimacy
Podcast

Making Space: Consent, Collaboration, and Queer Access Intimacy

With Guests J.C. Pankratz and Emmett Podgorski

12 July 2023

J.C. Pankratz returns to the podcast to reflect on the first full production of their play Seahorse, directed by Nicolas Shannon Savard, starring Emmett Podgorski. Nicolas, J.C., and Emmett discuss how the collaborative process, from auditions through closing night, was informed by queer community building, access intimacy, and consent-based practice. They offer behind-the-scenes perspectives and concrete examples of how tools and ideas discussed in previous episodes played out in practice.

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 man stands at a podium on stage and speaks.
Fifteen Lessons on Theatre from Maureen Shea
Essay

Fifteen Lessons on Theatre from Maureen Shea

6 April 2023

Alex Ates honors his mentor, the late director Maureen Shea, by sharing learnings from his time with her.

two actors in suits on stage amid falling papers.
Office Hours: Phelim McDermott
Video

Office Hours: Phelim McDermott

A Live, Virtual Conversation on Directing and Collaboration with Phelim McDermott and Frank Hentschker

Tuesday 28 March 2023
New York City

In advance of McDermott’s upcoming New York Premiere of Tao of Glass at NYU Skirball, they discussed McDermott's work and career, Improbable’s work with Open Space Technology, and McDermott’s long-term collaborations with Philip Glass.

A person sits in front of a laptop watching actors rehearse on stage.
For Some Russian Dissident Theatremakers, the Future Is Unclear
Essay

For Some Russian Dissident Theatremakers, the Future Is Unclear

31 January 2023

Director Vitaly Kogut is one of many displaced Russian men spending this winter in Batumi, Georgia. Daniel Mesta interviews him about his work, in which uses theatre to communicate the complexities of the Russian soul while enduring censorship and cancellation.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation
Podcast

Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation

7 December 2022

Jack Msumba, creative director of Youth Developers Collaboration Theatre, has big ideas for the future of Malawian theatre. In this interview, he shares his plans to eventually build Malawi’s first theatre house by producing work consistently in schools, communities, and commercial settings.

event poster for D G coffee chat: special blend.
(DG) Coffee Chat: Special Blend
Video

(DG) Coffee Chat: Special Blend

The Culminating Conversation of the Inaugural (DG) Convening: Manifesting an Ecosystem for Directors

Monday 17 October 2022
United States

Directors Gathering (DG) presented (DG) Coffee Chat: Special Blend livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 17 October 2022 at 5:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 7:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 8:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

A woman in a blue dress stands in the middle of a crowded room.
Building a Director-Centered Community
Essay

Building a Director-Centered Community

17 October 2022

The team at Directors Gathering discuss their organization’s work to create space for directors that fosters both artistic and human connection.

A woman in a red dress.
We’re Too Fat and Too Invisible to Have a Seat at Theatre’s Table, and Now Some of Us Don’t Eat
Essay

We’re Too Fat and Too Invisible to Have a Seat at Theatre’s Table, and Now Some of Us Don’t Eat

13 October 2022

Jasmine Haley Anderson takes aim at fatphobic standards in the theatre industry, which begin fostering disordered eating in women from their earliest performance experiences.

A person in the foreground with another person behind them.
Minding the Gaps: Making Space for All Identities in Intimacy Work
Essay

Minding the Gaps: Making Space for All Identities in Intimacy Work

24 August 2022

Ann James sits down with Chelsey Morgan to discuss the way their background in multiple intimacy work methodologies informs their work as a facilitator, director, writer, and intimacy specialist. Across all their work, Chelsey curates a practice that individualizes approaches to intimacy based on the needs of both the actors and the story.