fbpx Organizational Models | HowlRound Theatre Commons

Organizational Models

There are many different kinds of theatre organizations, and content in this section explores the diversity of models. Dive in with essays on shared leadership and restructuring a company as a worker’s cooperative.

The Latest

Towards a Sustainable Theatre Model
Essay
Towards a Sustainable Theatre Model
by Scott Walters, Munroe Shearer
27 February 2024
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”
by Chris Myers
5 February 2024
How Pay As You Are Changed Theater Mu
Essay
How Pay As You Are Changed Theater Mu
by Lianna Matt McLernon, Wesley Mouri, Anh Thu Pham
27 November 2023
From the Ground Up Podcast image featuring Mara Isaacs.
Connecting Collaborative Passion to a National Network
Podcast

Connecting Collaborative Passion to a National Network

15 February 2022

Tony Award-winning producer Mara Isaacs discusses how she puts collaboratively creative work in front of national audiences through her producing organization, Octopus Theatricals. This final episode of season two holds hot takes on boards, theatricality, and the connective tissue around artist-centered producing.

From the Ground Up Podcast image featuring Rachel Dickstein.
Process Performances and the Completion Commission
Podcast

Process Performances and the Completion Commission

15 December 2021

Rachel Dickstein, Artistic Director of Ripe Time, takes us through her experience with Center Theatre Group’s completion commission for their adaptation of SLEEP. She also spotlights some necessary and helpful relationships with tour presenting partners, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, as well as champion and friend Diane Rodriguez.

Event poster for wingspace virtual salon on shared leadership.
Shared Leadership Models
Video

Shared Leadership Models

Exploring Questions About Shared Leadership in Theatre

Thursday 2 December 2021
United States

Wingspace Theatrical Design presented a Virtual Salon on Shared Leadership Models livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 2 December 2021 at 4:30 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6:30 pm. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7:30 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

Glenn Davis, left, and Ken-Matt Martin, right.
Our Versions of Better
Essay

Our Versions of Better

Glenn Davis and Ken-Matt Martin in Conversation

22 November 2021

Glenn Davis, co-artistic director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company, sits down with Ken-Matt Martin, artistic director of Victory Gardens Theater, to talk about shifting relationships with donors, the concept of term limits for leadership, the joys of returning to rehearsal rooms, and their shared experiences as Black men at the helm of Chicago theatres.

The Future is Now
The Future Is Now: Conversations with Leyli Gafarova and Elena Ishchenko
Podcast

The Future Is Now: Conversations with Leyli Gafarova and Elena Ishchenko

11 November 2021

In these episodes of The Future Is Now, two CEC Artslink Future Fellows—Azerbaijan-based filmmaker Leyli Gafarova and Russian art curator and researcher Elena Ischenko—discuss their vision for the future of arts practice.

Three people rehearsing in a theatre.
Cascade of Change: Transitioning in Crisis
Essay

Cascade of Change: Transitioning in Crisis

Regina Victor and Kaiser Ahmed in Conversation

26 October 2021

Regina Victor, artistic director of Slideshow Theatre Company, and Kaiser Ahmed, artistic director of Jackalope Theatre Company, discuss the joys and challenges of stepping into their Chicago-based positions as theatres across the United States recalibrate their programming.

BUILD Forward: Advocacy, Artistry, and Adaptability
Video

BUILD Forward: Advocacy, Artistry, and Adaptability

With Conversations Focusing on Trans Advocacy and Organizational Adaptability

Friday 15 October and Saturday 16 October 2021
United States

foolsFURY Theater presented BUILD Forward: Advocacy, Artistry, and Adaptability livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 15 October and Saturday 16 October 2021.

Seven people sitting on a lit-up rooftop.
Centering Artists and The Development of New Work
Essay

Centering Artists and The Development of New Work

7 October 2021

Miranda Wright discusses the vitality of supporting new work development in the field and shares learnings from her experiences doing so as the founder of Los Angeles Performance Practice (LAPP) and the Live Arts Exchange (LAX) Festival.

Two people standing on stage looking out into the audience. One person is raising their hand while the other is person stands close to a teal backdrop.
Mentorship, Empowerment, and Cultural Equity: Ingredients to Build Community
Essay

Mentorship, Empowerment, and Cultural Equity: Ingredients to Build Community

6 October 2021

Carlos Diaz Stoop shares the impact of mentorship on his career as an arts administrator, educator, and independent producer and explains how the Creative Independent Producer’s Alliance (CIPA) and the International Creative Producers (ICP) are creating organizational environments that encourage co-learning and collective decision-making.

A headshot of the guest, Eric Lockley, against a galaxy background.
Transforming Organizational Structures
Podcast

Transforming Organizational Structures

With Eric Lockley of The Movement Theatre Company

15 September 2021

Yura Sapi speaks with Eric Lockley, co-founder of the Movement Theatre Company. Lockley is a member of the company’s producing artistic leadership team, who work together to create an artistic social movement by developing and producing new works by artists of color. Their work engages audiences in a rich theatrical dialogue, enlightens communities to the important issues affecting our world, and empowers artists to celebrate the many sides of their unique voice.

Money Matters With Ann James of Intimacy Coordinators of Color.
Money Matters
Podcast

Money Matters

With Ann James of Intimacy Coordinators of Color

8 September 2021

Yura Sapi sits down with Ann James, founder of Intimacy Coordinators of Color, whose mission is to support and promote decolonized intimacy education and inclusive hiring practices in the entertainment industry.

A portrait of the guest Ivyon E. against a galaxy background with the Building Our Own Tables logo to the left.
Funding Accountability
Podcast

Funding Accountability

With Iyvon E. of The Parsnip Ship

1 September 2021

Yura Sapi sits down with Iyvon E., artistic director of The Parsnip Ship, a podcast play company that amplifies bold artists for audiences who crave accessible stories and storytellers.

A headshot of the guest, Kyoung Park, against a space-designed background.
Peacemaking Theatre
Podcast

Peacemaking Theatre

With Kyoung Park of Kyoung's Pacific Beat

28 July 2021

Yura Sapi sits down with Kyoung H. Park of Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, a peacemaking theatre collective dedicated to working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform experiences of oppression into peace messages through public performance.

 
 
Ashley Malafronte in a black shirt and kakis painting on a stone wall.
Internships are Dead. Long Live Internships.
Essay

Internships are Dead. Long Live Internships.

22 July 2021

Ashley Malafronte and Michael DeWhatley ask: How can future-minded theatres revolutionize their internship programs to create a more diverse, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial set of initiatives?

globe with connecting lines
Festivals for a New Age: Models of Responsiveness, Flexibility and Resistance
Video

Festivals for a New Age: Models of Responsiveness, Flexibility and Resistance

Friday 11 June 2021
United States

The International Presenting Commons (IPC) in partnership with Global Pillow and HowlRound Theatre Commons presents Festivals for a New Age: Models of Responsiveness, Flexibility and Resistance livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 11 June 2021 at 9:30-11:00 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12:30-2:00 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

A man inflating a mirror with curtains.
What Theatre Do We Want to Return To?
Essay

What Theatre Do We Want to Return To?

27 May 2021

Mike Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza sit down to discuss how COVID has forced a breakup between artists and theatres and what it will take to get back together again.

An illustration of multiple hands assembling a broken art piece.
Reimagining Public Theatres as Collectively Organized Cultural Institutions
Essay

Reimagining Public Theatres as Collectively Organized Cultural Institutions

28 April 2021

Zenkő Bogdán believes public cultural institutions should be redefined from the perspective of the people around it: it’s artists, employees, and audiences. As an exercise, she has begun to reimagine a future public theatre’s rules of organizing and functioning—and wants each and every reader of the document to participate.

Image of two puppeteers on stage using puppets in front of a digital created forest backdrop.
Spaces of Puppetry in Lübeck
Essay

Spaces of Puppetry in Lübeck

7 April 2021

Antonia Napp, Sonja Riehn, Silke Technau, and Stephan Schlafke share learnings about running KOLK 17, a cultural institution in Lübeck, Germany that combines a puppetry theatre company and puppetry museum, and where the goal is to redefine exhibiting the art form.

Red Eye Theater's seven artistic directors.
Collective Leadership
Essay

Collective Leadership

A Conversation with Red Eye’s Artistic Directors

1 April 2021

The co–artistic directors of Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis talk about shifting to a collaborate leadership model with a horizontal structure and consensus-based process, backdooring their way into traditional funding structures and resources, and more.

Kamilah Forbes portrait.
Imagining a Way Forward
Essay

Imagining a Way Forward

Discussions on Theatre and Race

30 March 2021

Kamilah Forbes, artistic director of the Apollo Theater, speaks with Wes Jackson and P. Carl about the American theatre being a very slow-moving ship, genre-crossing for artists and organizations, systemic racism in the field, and more.

A production photo of three actors in front of projections
Envisioning Change
Essay

Envisioning Change

The Future Is Inclusive

29 March 2021

Andrea Kovich argues that inclusive design can be used to change organizations and the work being produced, leading to a more inclusive and equitable theatre field.

Image of four tableaus with people experiencing time passing.
Letters From Warsaw
Essay

Letters From Warsaw

24 March 2021

Marta Keil and Grzegorz Reske share letters from the past and the future, from June 2020 to June 2029, detailing the changes to the theatrical landscape in their hometown of Warsaw, Poland.

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.

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.

four people posing for a photo outside in a city
Sharing the Load
Essay

Sharing the Load

Adapting to the Pandemic in a Shared Leadership Role

2 March 2021

In a conversation that took place in November 2020, Meropi Peponides and Yury Urnov discuss stepping into shared leadership roles, adapting during the pandemic, paying salaries to actors, and more.