fbpx Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | HowlRound Theatre Commons

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Latest

Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation
Video
Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation
A talk with Dr. Julius Fleming on his latest book, followed by a discussion with Hillary Miller
Monday 11 March 2024
Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage, Book Launch Panel
Video
Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage, Book Launch Panel
Presented by The Drama Book Shop, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications and the Dramatists Guild of America.
Tuesday 5 March 2024
New York City
Autistic Artists Should Be Telling Autistic Stories
Essay
Autistic Artists Should Be Telling Autistic Stories
by Megan Lummus
12 February 2024
The International Mobility of Disabled Artists and Culture Professionals Event Poster.
The International Mobility of Disabled Artists and Culture Professionals
Video

The International Mobility of Disabled Artists and Culture Professionals

Join this webinar to collectively investigate international artistic and cultural mobility.

Tuesday 12 March 2024
Europe

For this Cultural Mobility Webinar, On the Move builds upon the two large-scale studies it carried out as part of the EU funded project Europe Beyond Access, Time to Act: How Lack of Knowledge in the Cultural Sector Creates Barriers for Disabled Artists and Audiences and Time to Act: Two Years On, Data-led Insights on Performing Arts and Disability in Europe.

Book cover for Black Patience
Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation
Video

Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation

A talk with Dr. Julius Fleming on his latest book, followed by a discussion with Hillary Miller

Monday 11 March 2024

Dr. Julius Fleming visits the Segal Center to discuss his recent book, Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation. This talk will be followed by a conversation with Hillary Miller.

Decentered Playwriting Book Launch Event Poster.
Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage, Book Launch Panel
Video

Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage, Book Launch Panel

Presented by The Drama Book Shop, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Tuesday 5 March 2024
New York City

Join the Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage Book Launch Panel, with Carolyn Dunn, Eric Micha Holmes, and Les Hunter, moderated by Hunter College MFA Playwriting Christine Scarfuto.

Discovering Contemporary Theater By Italians of African Descent Event Poster.
Discovering Contemporary Theatre by Italians of African Descent
Video

Discovering Contemporary Theatre by Italians of African Descent

The Playwrights, the Stories, the Challenges

Friday 16 February 2024
New York City

Part of the series Black Italia, an event featuring a panel discussion about plays by Italians of African descent.

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. 

Beyond the 2 % – A Manifesto Raising the Bar for Womxn Composers Event Poster.
Beyond the 2 Percent—A Manifesto: Raising the Bar for Womxn Composers
Video

Beyond the 2 Percent—A Manifesto: Raising the Bar for Womxn Composers

Watch as the panel creates and signs a global manifesto demanding immediate change and decolonization in a still deeply entrenched patriarchal field.

Wednesday 7 February 2024
New York City

Vienna Festwochen Festival and the Segal Center host a panel calling for action to address the devastating current state of representation when it comes to womxn composers in music spaces, especially in opera houses and in concert halls. 

Chris Myers sits at a table at the East Village Zine fair.
That Which We Call a Struggle: A Response to Ife Olujobi’s “$5000”
Essay

That Which We Call a Struggle: A Response to Ife Olujobi’s “$5000”

5 February 2024

Theatremaker and political educator Chris Myers writes a companion piece to Ife Olujobi’s “$5000.” He explains the structural reasons behind Ife’s struggle to gain more money for playwrights, why this struggle belongs to us all, and the organizing it will take to change it. 

Nine performers stand side by side on stage and look outward to the audience.
Pinkwashing Islamophobia in Performance
Essay

Pinkwashing Islamophobia in Performance

30 January 2024

Joseph Dunne-Howrie reflects on DV8’s Can We Talk About This?, exploring how the show employs pinkwashing as a vehicle for Islamophobia and racism. Joseph highlights how, rather than espousing progressive values, the show uses similar tactics of alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos.

Three actors sit at a table having a conversation.
The River in the Room
Essay

The River in the Room

29 January 2024

Playwright Star Finch sits down with AeJay Mitchell to discuss their time working as a creative culture consultant on Star’s play, Josephine’s Feast. Together they explore how AeJay’s role functioned as a “river in the room,” a fluid space held for the artists to address their human needs beyond the limitations of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) framework.

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 actors holds a fork over an actor lying on a table, as if preparing to stab him.
Care, Collectivism, Midsummer, and Macbeth
Essay

Care, Collectivism, Midsummer, and Macbeth

22 January 2024

Sophie McIntosh recounts her experience seeing Double Feature’s productions of Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in one Brooklyn brownstone. The directors of the two shows prioritized care and collectivity and aimed to throw away power structures, despite their limited resources. As a person who has historically felt alienated by Shakespeare, Double Feature helped Sophie discover that Shakespeare was allowed to be for her too. 

Promotional Graphic for Kunafa and Shay.
Producing Queer MENA Theatre on the American Stage
Podcast

Producing Queer MENA Theatre on the American Stage

17 January 2024

This season, we have talked about what it means to create characters who break out of boxes and create new queer representations. Once these characters are created, then comes the challenge of having your work produced. In this episode, we talk with Kareem Fahmy who has dealt with the considerations of producibility and what it means to have his work produced on stages in the United States.

Under the Radar Event Logo.
Under The Radar Symposium Keynote Event
Video

Under The Radar Symposium Keynote Event

Visioning Emergent Paths for a Stronger Sector of National and International Performing Arts

Friday 12 January 2024
New York City

The 2024 Under the Radar Symposium convened 250 arts presenters, producers, service orgs, funders, and artists toward rigorous, facilitated small-table discussions, taking a deeper dive into visioning emergent paths for a stronger sector of national and international performing arts.

Promotional Graphic for Kunafa and Shay.
Femme MENA Representation in Lebanon and the United States
Podcast

Femme MENA Representation in Lebanon and the United States

10 January 2024

This season, we further complicate notions of MENA womanhood by exploring the additional intersection of queerness in femme MENA theatremaking. Two queer Lebanese femme theatremakers based in the United States, Lama El Homaïssi and Sarah Bitar, join us to discuss how intersectional identities show up in their work and life, and the social atmosphere for femme MENA theatre artists in Lebanon and the United States.

artsHERE Event Logo.
ArtsHERE Info Session
Video

ArtsHERE Info Session

An opportunity to connect with NEFA program staff about all things ArtsHERE in advance of the Statement of Interest deadline.

Wednesday 3 January 2024
United States

ArtsHERE invests in organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to equity within their practices and programming, with the goal of increasing arts participation for underserved groups/communities.

Three actors in brightly colored clothing and masks perform outside.
Commedia Gets a New Face
Essay

Commedia Gets a New Face

14 December 2023

Mask maker Tara Cariaso details her process for creating new masks for Commedia dell’arte, alongside a pedagogy that removes the harmful stereotypes originally embedded in the form and creates space for more actor agency. 

A promotional graphic for the Kunafa and Shay podcast.
Affinity Spaces for MENA/SWANA and LGBTQIA+ Artists
Podcast

Affinity Spaces for MENA/SWANA and LGBTQIA+ Artists

13 December 2023

Affinity spaces have been an undercurrent of discussion across the three seasons of Kunafa and Shay. In this live session at the 2023 MENATMA Convening at Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, in partnership with Mizna+RAWIfest, Marina and Nabra sit down with artists to discuss the nuances of MENA and SWANA affinity spaces and MENATMA, Mizna, and RAWI’s roles in facilitating national cultural affinity among artists of intersectional identities.

Kunafa & Shay teaser image with guest headshots.
Home and Exile in Queer MENA Theatremaking
Podcast

Home and Exile in Queer MENA Theatremaking

6 December 2023

MENA cultures are deeply familial with a strong connection to home, defined geographically and through close family bonds. With fraught political and religious opinions about queerness throughout the region, making queer art can threaten those deep connections. How do queer MENA artists consider those complications when making theatre? How do individuals change culture in the face of possible exile? Multi-hyphenate artists Zeyn Joukhadar and Raphaël Aimé Khouri interrogate these questions.

Perform Europe Open Call Launch Event Poster.
Perform Europe Open Call Launch Event
Video

Perform Europe Open Call Launch Event

Learn More About the Vision Behind the New Edition of Perform Europe and Explore the Opportunities of the Open Call

Friday 1 December 2023
Europe

Watch the Perform Europe Open Call Launch Event from 1 December 2023. Learn more about the vision behind the new edition of Perform Europe and explore the opportunities of the Open Call.

Independent Theatre Hungary AAPAC Workshop Event Poster
Minorities (Self)Representation in Theatre
Video

Minorities (Self)Representation in Theatre

Independent Theatre Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University, and Színház Magazine invite you to join a roundtable discussion with the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC). 

Thursday 30 November 2023
Budapest, Hungary

Independent Theatre Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University, and Színház Magazine held a roundtable discussion with the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) who shared their experiences related to ethnic minority representation in the American theatre scene and presented the findings of their Visibility Reports: Racial Representation on New York City Stages. 

A group of actors perform a fight onstage.
How Pay As You Are Changed Theater Mu
Essay

How Pay As You Are Changed Theater Mu

27 November 2023

Theater Mu managing director Anh Thu T. Pham and development director Wesley Mouri discuss the ideology behind the theater’s Pay As You Are program, how it works, and what impact it’s having on the theatre six years after its implementation.

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.

Artistic Leadership: Toward Equitable Search and Support Event poster.
Artistic Leadership: Toward Equitable Search and Support
Video

Artistic Leadership: Toward Equitable Search and Support

A Conversation About What Equitable Search and Support Really Looks Like for Artistic Directors

Monday 13 November 2023
United States

Nonprofit professional theatres have expressed commitments to new voices and new visions, and promised more equitable and inclusive practice in building and supporting their teams. But what does equitable search and support really look like for artistic directors?

Three students stand with two chairs in the middle of a circle of audience members outside.
Setting the Stage for Empowerment with Theatre of the Oppressed
Essay

Setting the Stage for Empowerment with Theatre of the Oppressed

9 November 2023

Applied theatre scholars and practitioners Jennifer Schaupp and Dr. Felicia Owusu-Ansah discuss the empowering potential of Theatre of the Oppressed, and how Felicia has been able to utilize it in Ghana and other places around the world.

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.