Content in this section explores leadership in theatre: best practices, aspects that need to change, and more. It contains one of HowlRound’s most robust Journal series: The Changeover: Leadership in Transition, marking the period of unprecedented turnover of leadership in the nonprofit theatre in the United States and Canada from 2018 to 2021. In this series, incoming or outgoing institutional leaders are in conversation with one another about their tenure leading organizations and their hopes for the future.
The Latest
Video
The State of BIPOC Theatre
ArtsBoston's Network for Arts Administrators of Color
Tuesday 19 May 2026
Boston, Massachusetts
Essay
Pink Fang: Inheriting a Legacy, Building a Future, Connecting Islands
Beginning in January, HowlRound Theatre Commons will operate independently and with new leadership, as co-founder and director Jamie Gahlon steps into an advisory role and Ramona Rose King and Julia Schachnik assume the positions of co-directors.
A follow-up conversation between Carmen Morgan, Michael Robertson, and Alexis Green reflecting on the first two artEquity conversations and the lessons they've learned.
Ash talks with Peter Hussey of Crooked House Theatre about the ways interviews and personal stories shape their youth and documentary theatre, and how intergenerational projects connect people across age and experience.
Ash Marinaccio talks with Scott Illingworth, founder of the Verbatim Salon, where actors perform real stories from those navigating the US immigration system. They explore the creative process and how verbatim theatre sheds light on today’s urgent social issues.
On the debut episode of the Nonfiction Theatre Forum, Ash speaks with Pink Fang’s leadership about evolving documentary and community-based theatre, ethical collaboration, sustaining legacy, and adapting programs to meet today’s social, political, and artistic challenges.
In its second and final year, the Artistic Caucus aimed to integrate its collaborative model into the workflows and budgets of four theatres while providing freelance artists with access and compensation. Lauren Halvorsen details the program’s strategies, impact, and significance for a field in need of transformation.
Alexandra Meda, founder of Culture Change Lab, discusses mediation and facilitation at various predominantly white organizations, and championing change work on the professional and individual levels. As an artist, she finds creativity in offering tools instead of ready-made solutions.
Nadia Garzón, founder and executive director of Descolonizarte Teatro in Orlando, Florida, prioritizes a decolonial arts practice by uplifting Latinx, queer, and immigrant voices. Nadia releases the Western-centric ideals that dominate the theatre and uses an ensemble leadership style with empathy at the core of her work.
R. Réal Vargas Alanis, founder of In The Margin (ITM), discusses how they dreamed up ITM and the mentorship programs and residencies they offer as a multidisciplinary nonprofit, how they transition between structures, and how they pivot with the seasons of life.
The founder of About…Productions, Theresa Chavez, highlights the role of the arts in enlightening and moving people and centers equity in her theatre work and youth education. She speaks about creating art with an emotional and historical component and having optimism at the core of artmaking.
Founder of the Black Rep, Ron Himes, was an arts patron as a young man turned theatre founder. Undergoing several name changes since its conception, the Black Rep’s evolution is rooted in resourcefulness and an investment in young people.
Chels Morgan, founder of Intimacy by Chels Morgan, speaks on accessibility within theatre spaces for nueroexpansive and disabled folks, creating your own opportunities, and the importance of intimacy movement education, cultural competency, and a justice framework.
Co-founders Gabi Sanchez and Erlina Ortiz share their journeys of co-founding Power Street Theatre; being lifelong business partners; and creating a multicultural, community-centered theatre company in Philadelphia.
HERO Theatre founder Elisa Bocanegra reflects on mentor-mentee relationships, becoming an ancestor, and healing through the arts. Rooted between the Los Angeles Latine community and Bogotá, Colombia, Elisa’s theatre work is full of hope and trust in the disorder.
Hakawati founder Sona Tatoyan tells the story of her great-great-grandfather growing up during the Armenian genocide, her summers spent in Aleppo, and how art is an inheritance. Tune in and learn more about Hakawati and Sona’s play, AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf).
Aganza Kisaka, founder of Yenze Theatre Conservatoire, discusses being an entrepreneur, a teacher, and an artist in Uganda. She reflects on consistency as key and celebrating the little wins. Aganza speaks on how people perceive the arts in Uganda and invites listeners to learn about her company.
The same set of skills theatremakers use to create transformative theatre are essential in building resilient, equitable communities. National leaders of the One Nation/One Project initiative kick off a series on their work with an essay on these transferable, deeply valuable skills.
Art Management in Africa / La Gestion des Arts en Afrique
Tuesday 20 May 2025
United Kingdom and Uganda
This concluding episode summarizes the key highlights of the previous episode and offers the opportunity to consider the future of art management in Africa.
This livestreamed panel conversation invites leaders at influential Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) theatres—which are often not amplified as part of the fieldwide conversation on shared leadership—to expound on their approaches to power within and beyond hierarchy and org charts.
After nearly a year in their new shared leadership positions, the four co-directors of HERE Arts Center reflect on the ways they’ve learned to lead together.
What does shared leadership actually look like? What makes it successful? The Producing Artistic Leadership Team of The Movement Theatre Company takes on these questions and more as they “bust” a few myths about shared leadership structures.
In leadership transition, structure follows values. Consultant and artistic leader Alex Meda makes the case for values-based cultural transformation as a crucial component of establishing shared leadership in theatre organizations.
Shared leadership is not revolutionary, and it is more than a trend. In this essay, Devon Berkshire and Miranda Gonzalez kick off their series The Evolution of Shared Leadership by exploring the generations of shared leadership practice—especially in theatres of color—and the contemporary push toward more collective leadership.
In September 2024, HowlRound and Company One convened leaders from the theatres in the Mellon Foundation’s Future of American Theatre Cohort. Dramaturg and Company One new work manager afrikah selah reflects on the experience and shares some of the group’s discoveries.
Using Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company as a case study, Michael DeWhatley discussed leadership transition as an opportunity for boards to become more involved and connected to theatre organizations. Through collaborative and relational governance strategies, these organizations can evolve and sustain themselves.
