Sean Daniels dishes on the role of the associate artistic director, legendary poker player Marc Masterson, and being the sheriff/Interim Artistic Director of Actors Theatre Louisville.
2026 National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation
Thursday 4 June 2026
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
This panel discussion explores the role of theatre artists in times of war, occupation, and state-sanctioned violence, in multiple contexts and locations around the globe, from Minneapolis to Palestine.
How can a director decenter themselves while still fulfilling the role of “director”? Kimberly Senior found an answer to this question in Facilitative Leadership, a practice of redistributing power that transformed her recent rehearsal process.
This month’s diarist is in rehearsals for a theatre for young audiences (TYA) show and prepping for her next freelance project. The busy work week doesn’t stop her from enjoying a winter festival with her family or hosting a fourteen-person holiday.
After moving his family cross-country to be closer to other relatives, this month’s diarist is balancing especially full home and work calendars. His tight schedule has him taking meetings during his young daughter’s naptimes and fitting in marathon training after teaching undergraduates.
Technological innovation is outpacing labor protections, and theatre is not immune to this phenomenon. Kate Brennan, Rachel Anderson-Rabern, and David Lee White discuss what’s at stake when we decenter humans—especially playwrights—to embrace large language models (LLMs) and other artificial intelligence (AI).
On 9 March 2026, TORCHES will continue with a conversation with award winning artist James Scruggs who creates live and virtual large-scale, topical, often interactive theatrical productions.
It only took ten days for ODIN HOME to upend Melvin Ningyao Yen’s approach to making theatre. They detail what they learned at Odin Teatret and the tools they took home that gave them a new way to start.
Every four years, Catholic seminaries across Nigeria come together for the All Saints Seminary Festival of Arts and Culture, which features theatre rooted in the cultures of Nigeria’s various ethnic groups. Israel Wepke sits down with Eseovwe Emakunu to discuss the process of making theatre with All Saints Seminary, Uhiele.
Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio
The Latinx Theatre Commons Designer and Director Colaboratorio was a five-day series of learning opportunities in Portland, Oregon designed to encourage authentic creative expressions and collaboration between Latinx designers and directors. The Latinx Theatre Commons brought together thirty-seven artists from around the United States to work together with the shared goals of fostering alternative communication models for production teams and challenging the typical director-driven model. This series of essays reflects on the learnings from Colaboratorio, the challenges that arose, and the meaningful ways in which the participants engaged with each other. We hope this encourages others to engage in these conversations, write about them, and continue pushing our field forward.
Series
Master Classes
With the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation
Pangea World Theater and Art2Action present the next installment of the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation.
Who Designs and Directs in LORT Theatres By Pronoun
This is a series of four reports written by Porsche McGovern over the course of five years, looking at who directs and designs set, costume, lighting, sound, and projections in US LORT theatres by gender.
