fbpx Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | HowlRound Theatre Commons
An image of a hand, and in its palm is a shakespearean actor with his arm extended offering an actor from the Lion King, who is offering a clown, who offers a leaping person. They appear in front of a teal background that is bordered by red curtains.
The Future Becoming
Essay

The Future Becoming

22 March 2021

Deborah Cullinan reflects on the path that enabled us to arrive in a future of shared resources and collective power.

a group of people holding a banner saying "MAD Pride"
The Importance of Centering Neurodivergent and Mad Writers
Essay

The Importance of Centering Neurodivergent and Mad Writers

16 March 2021

Cortland Nesley argues that Neurodivergent and Mad writers should be leading the charge in shaping Neurodivergent and Mad narratives.

three people posing for a photo in an ikea warehouse
Obvious Agency and Creative Cooperative Futures
Essay

Obvious Agency and Creative Cooperative Futures

15 March 2021

Arianna Gass and Daniel Park share their experience restructuring their company into a worker cooperative and what benefits this model offers.

headshots of the authros
Moving the Field Forward Faster at American Regional Theatres
Essay

Moving the Field Forward Faster at American Regional Theatres

10 March 2021

Robert Barry Fleming, executive artistic director of Actors Theatre, and Courtney Sale, artistic director of Merrimack Repertory Theatre, converse about structural racism and systems of oppression, what can be learned from theatre for young audiences, the possibilities in a post-COVID world, and more.

three headshots
Putting Out the American Theatre Dumpster Fire Through White Abolition
Essay

Putting Out the American Theatre Dumpster Fire Through White Abolition

9 March 2021

Ann James discusses the problem with white institutions relying on BIPOC staff to “fix” their issues, shares a radical way for white-led organizations to find healing, and offers a starter list of actions for the “newly minted” abolitionist.

Glod: Political Theatre as a Civil Right event poster.
GLOD: Political Theatre as Womxn's Right
Video

GLOD: Political Theatre as Womxn's Right

Performance followed by a panel discussion

Monday 8 March 2021
United Kingdom

BÉZNĂ Theatre presented GLOD: Political Theatre as Womxn's Right livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 8 March at 10 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 6 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 8 p.m. EEST (Cluj, UTC +2).

two actors onstage
The Perpetual Crises Engulfing British Theatre
Essay

The Perpetual Crises Engulfing British Theatre

An Interview with Migrant Theatre Director Alex Istudor

8 March 2021

verity healey speaks with Alex Istudor, the Romanian-born director who lives and works in the UK, about the challenges of migrant theatremakers, different attitudes towards creating shows between the UK and continental Europe, and more.

zoom video chat of several people
Using Critical Fabulation for History-Based Playwriting
Essay

Using Critical Fabulation for History-Based Playwriting

3 March 2021

Holly Derr and Calley N. Anderson sit down to talk about how Calley adopted historian Saidiya Hartman’s theory of critical fabulation when writing her new play The Story and the Teller about the effect of the Memphis yellow fever epidemic of 1878 on African Americans and immigrants.

a large group sitting in a circle watching a staged reading
How Sustained Support for Playwrights Impacts Artistry
Essay

How Sustained Support for Playwrights Impacts Artistry

National Playwright Residency Program Evaluation 2020

1 March 2021

Alexis Frasz and Holly Sidford of Helicon Collaborative share their findings from the most recent assessment of the National Playwright Residency Program.

Villains by Marquis Ewing
Video

Villains by Marquis Ewing

with LA Writers Center's "Breathe" online play reading series

Saturday 27 February 2021
United States

LA Writers Center presented a reading of Villains by Marquis Ewing as a part of their "Breathe" online play reading series livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 27 February 2021 at 11 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 2 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5).

The backstage area of a theatre, with a red curtain on a raised platform. There are random props and items strewn about. A woman in a 1940s outfit is standing at stage left. Down on the lower level is a ghost light. The entire stage is covered in textured, selective lighting.
Illuminating the Careers of Disabled Lighting Designers
Essay

Illuminating the Careers of Disabled Lighting Designers

25 February 2021

Lighting designers Annie Wiegand and Michael Maag discuss how being part of the Deaf and disability community intersects with their design work.

overlapping collage of plays featuring kate mcgee's lighting designs
Industry or Community
Essay

Industry or Community

What Are We Going Back To?

23 February 2021

Masha Tsimring talks about pay equity in the design world, the upsides and downsides of freelancing, how COVID-19 has affected designers, and more.

An illustration of protest signs with slogans reading Black Trans Lives Matter
Design with an Equity Lens
Essay

Design with an Equity Lens

Cultivating a Theatre Ecosystem That Can Hold Us All in Our Full Humanity

22 February 2021

Kate Freer and Porsche McGovern begin their series, Design (in a Time of Reckoning), with an opening essay about how theatremakers are currently being presented with a chance to reimagine the way the art form is made and how designers are an essential part of the solution.

a colorful illustration
One Day We’ll Realize Our Shoulders Aren’t Raised to Our Ears
Essay

One Day We’ll Realize Our Shoulders Aren’t Raised to Our Ears

Mad Libs for a Culture Shift

17 February 2021

Nia Farrell shares her vision of the future—one that exists now, on this very Earth, and that begins with the declaration: “I am adamant that Blk people exist in the future.”

photo of Hanane Hajj Ali.
The Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award
Video

The Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award

Honoring Hanane Hajj Ali of Lebanon

Tuesday 16 February 2021
United States

The League of Professional Theatre Women presented The Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 16 February 2021 at 10 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 12 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 1 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

Illustration of HowlRound's logo as a mirror, reflecting a colorful performance
Devising Our Future Through a Commons-Based Approach
Essay

Devising Our Future Through a Commons-Based Approach

16 February 2021

Jamie Gahlon, HowlRound’s director, kicks off the Devising Our Future series by reflecting on the necessity of working together now to co-envision and co-create the future we need for the theatre field.

an actor kneeling onstage
A Summer on Fire, a Harvest Moon
Essay

A Summer on Fire, a Harvest Moon

8 February 2021

Caroline Sprague reflects on Shey Rivera Ríos’s recent piece, Fire Flowers and a Time Machine, transformative justice, the nonprofit industrial complex, and more.

2021 Reflections of Native Voices Festival Closing Reflections
Video

2021 Reflections of Native Voices Festival Closing Reflections

In conversation with Reflections of Native Voices artists

Sunday 7 February 2021
United States

Safe Harbors presented the 2021 Reflections of Native Voices Festival Closing Reflections livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 7 February at 1:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 3:30 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 4:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

an empty audition room
Identity-Conscious Casting
Essay

Identity-Conscious Casting

Moving Beyond Color-Blind and Color-Conscious Casting

2 February 2021

Text-based director and adaptor Lavina Jadhwani chats with casting director Victor Vazquez about her shift from using “color-conscious casting” to “identity-conscious casting,” the importance of casting being seen as part of a show’s design and dramaturgy, and more.

a group marching outside with a banner that reads "NEVER AGAIN IS NOW"
Inventing Worlds
Essay

Inventing Worlds

What Theatremakers Bring to Organizing

1 February 2021

Blair Nodelman discusses why theatremakers are well suited to deeply understanding the political machine and work toward dismantling the status quo, creating a more equitable and community-based iteration of governing.

two actors onstage
Investing In Cultural Equity
Essay

Investing In Cultural Equity

28 January 2021

Ralph Peña argues that private foundations play a vital role in sustaining nonprofit theatres in the United States and these funders must better recognize the value of, and make significant investments in, smaller, community-focused BIPOC organizations.

#DeafWoke with Jubil Khan
Video

#DeafWoke with Jubil Khan

A virtual consciousness-raising online talk show, led by Black and Native American Deaf host Mr. Antoine Hunter PurpleFireCrow

Thursday 21 January 2021
United States

Antoine Hunter presented #DeafWoke with Jubil Khan livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 21 January at 4 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

seven actors onstage
"What does it mean to be a woman of color and in leadership?"
Essay

"What does it mean to be a woman of color and in leadership?"

A Conversation with Nicole Brewer and Sophia Skiles

19 January 2021

Sophia Skiles, the incoming head of acting for the Brown/Trinity MFA program, and Nicole Brewer, who recently joined the acting faculty at the Yale School of Drama, dive deep into a conversation about what it means to be a woman of color in leadership.

Two people with speech bubbles, one saying "Can we talk about elitism in American theater" and the other responding "Um, yes please."
Get Off Your High Horse
Video

Get Off Your High Horse

Why Elitism doesn't work for BIPOC Theatremakers

Monday 11 January 2020
United States

Ambiance Theatre Company presented the conversation Get Off Your High Horse livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 11 January 2021 at 4 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

a person handing over a ticket
Pay Equity
Essay

Pay Equity

What’s In It For Theatre Companies?

6 January 2021

Elsa Hiltner examines the value of pay equity in the theatre through a fresh lens: how it benefits companies.