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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

Blessings and Provocations from the 2024 Under the Radar Symposium
Essay
Blessings and Provocations from the 2024 Under the Radar Symposium
by Ashley Malafronte
8 April 2024
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
Portrait of Michael T. Williams.
How We Allow the Allowing
Essay

How We Allow the Allowing

Access for Emerging Artists

21 February 2013

Michael Williams offers his perspectives on how to make the current theatre landscape more accessible to emerging artist.

The H logo for HowlRound.
Modeling a Theatre Commons
Essay

Modeling a Theatre Commons

14 February 2013

P. Carl, David Dower, Jamie Gahlon, and Vijay Mathew define their visions of HowlRound as a not-for-profit theatre commons.

How Will ObamaCare Impact Artists, Arts Businesses and Arts Not-for-Profits? with the Actors Fund
Video

How Will ObamaCare Impact Artists, Arts Businesses and Arts Not-for-Profits? with the Actors Fund

Saturday 9 February 2013
Atlanta, GA, United States

The Actors Fund presented a talk by Jim Brown about how the Affordable Health Care Act will affect the arts commmunity livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 9 February 2013 at 9 a.m. PST (San Francisco) / 11 a.m. CST (Chicago) / 12 p.m. EST (Atlanta) on Saturday, February 9.

Portrait of Jane Chu smiling.
What History Can Teach Us About Arts Philanthropy in the Age of Obama
Essay

What History Can Teach Us About Arts Philanthropy in the Age of Obama

31 January 2013

Julia Bumke discusses the vital role governmental support plays in achieving the funding necessary to revitalize theatre in America.

Five actors pose for a group photo in front of a white wall with a window on the left.
13P
Essay

13P

Easy to Revere, Tough to Recreate

24 January 2013

Alex Barron on the challenge of finding leadership to make collectives like 13P work.

The cover for Outrageous Fortune by Todd London and Ben Penser, which features two dice with tragedy and comedy masks on their sides.
Playwright Residencies
Essay

Playwright Residencies

Success on Whose Terms?

10 January 2013

David Dower traces the landscape for playwright residencies in the American theatre, advocating the need for redefining what success looks like in these programs.

Header reading L3C and the Arts.
Investing in the Arts
Essay

Investing in the Arts

The L3C (Low-Profit Limited Liability Company)

15 November 2012

Michael DiFonzo explains L3C (low-profit limited liability comapny) and why theatre companies should adopt it as their business platform.

Book cover of "In The Intersection".
In the Intersection
Essay

In the Intersection

Partnerships in the New Play Sector

16 October 2012

Diane Ragsdale summerizes her report on the meeting between US Non-Profit and Commerical Theater Producers in Washington, DC in 2011, and what she learned there.

13P Logo.
13P
Essay

13P

Why Implode?

9 October 2012

Rob Handel, co-founder of 13P, explains why the playwrights' collective needed to implode after its final performance. The answer? It simply couldn't happen any other way.

The Twitter logo.
Twitter Conversation using #newplay on Thursday, Oct. 11
Essay

Twitter Conversation using #newplay on Thursday, Oct. 11

13P & Alternative Producing Models

8 October 2012
Logo for 13P.
The Finite Animal
Essay

The Finite Animal

13P's End Days

8 October 2012

Maria Goyanes on the conscious imploding of 13P, death, endings, choice and the lessons to be learned from the closing of a curtian.

Portrait of P Carl.
Truthiness in the Politics of Theater
Essay

Truthiness in the Politics of Theater

10 September 2012

P. Carl on the process, and consequences, of defining the insitutional truth in Non-for-Profit Theaters in the United States.

Image of Marlin and Coral from Finding Nemo.
Part Two
Essay

Part Two

Dialogue in the Age of Industrial Storytelling (Or, A Defense of the Theater)

6 September 2012

Ayad Akhtar responds to the train of thought he began in his previous essay Dialogue and the Age of Industrial Storytelling (Or, A Defense of the Theater) by critiquing the thought processes which go into creating the mass produced story.

America’s Next Top (Fringe) Model
Essay

America’s Next Top (Fringe) Model

How a Big Little Fringe Became the Oldest in the Nation

30 August 2012

Michael Marinaccio, the Producer of the Orlando Fringe Festival, on busniess models for Fringe Festivals, and how to define that tricky little term.

The Boomerang Effect
Essay

The Boomerang Effect

9 June 2012

Cory Tamler suggests innovation in the conversation with, to, and how playwrights create will spur development in Pittsburgh’s new works theatre scene.

Portrait of Christian Parker.
The Art of the Breakup
Essay

The Art of the Breakup

26 April 2012

Christian Parker on the necessity of a hard "no" in the new play development process.

 

Portrait of Jacob Loewith.
In Case You Missed the Revolution
Essay

In Case You Missed the Revolution

20 February 2012

Jason Loewith discusses the opportunities at work that are making mid-size theaters the home for effective new play development.

The Twin Cities
Essay

The Twin Cities

15 February 2012

Sha Cage talks about the Twin Cities, and what does (and doesn't) make it an ideal climate for artists.

The Twin Cities
Essay

The Twin Cities

How Are Theater Artists Living in the Livable Twin Cities?

13 February 2012

The HowlRound City Series continues with this look at the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul

A watercolor art piece in which a blue figure and an orange figure interact with each other.
A New Revolution?
Essay

A New Revolution?

9 February 2012

Jaan Whitehead addresses the revolutionary attitude necessary for artists to reclaim the theatre from the institutions that produce it.

Getting to the 'What' of it
Essay

Getting to the 'What' of it

28 January 2012

Aaron Malkin debriefs on TEDXBroadway, and ponders the "what" of Broadway's future.

A portrait of Zelda Fichandler.
Address to the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society in Celebration of the Third Annual Zelda Fichandler Award
Essay

Address to the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society in Celebration of the Third Annual Zelda Fichandler Award

14 November 2011

Theatre should stop serving the function of making money, for which it has never been and never will be suited, and start serving the revelation and shaping of the process of living, for which it is uniquely suited, for which it, indeed, exists.

Five people stand on a stage with two large black squares on the floor.
Theater as a Collective Experience
Essay

Theater as a Collective Experience

6 October 2011

The Workhaus Playwrights Collectivewhich disbanded in 2016 — came from a desire to create a playwright-driven theatre company, where no administrative infrastructure chooses the plays or plans the seasons.

One of Those People
Essay

One of Those People

26 September 2011

After 24 years, Florida Stage — one of the largest LORT theatres dedicated to new and developing works — filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Nancy Barnett, who served as Managing Director, reflects on how the company fell in the wake of the 2007-2008 economic recession.

Multicolored social media logos on a black background.
Opt In
Essay

Opt In

31 August 2011

From social media posts from interns, to the "important stuff" institutional leaders handle, what in orgnizational culture needs to change, so aspiring and creative minds are not stifled by rigid hierarchies.