Organizational Models

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

HowlRound Theatre Commons is excited to lift up the work of The Flashpaper as today’s featured article. In issue two of this print-only publication composed of plays, manifestos, short stories, monologues, essays, and art work, theatre artists imagine what moments of justice could look like in our future. We are excited to share “End of the Lark: The Role of Nonprofits in an Actually Just World,” an essay co-written by Jennifer Haley and Olivia George about New York City’s theatre and lab the Lark.

Ramona Rose King shares learnings from five years of working on the National Playwright Residency Program (NPRP) and argues that if we want to reinvigorate our art form and come back from this lull with vibrant, groundbreaking work, we need to invest in the artists who are making it.

Susan Booth, artistic director of Atlanta’s the Alliance Theatre, talks about how we are currently living in what is referred to as “the carnival” and shares ideas of how artistic organizations ought to react during this time.

Jack Reuler, artistic director of Minneapolis’s Mixed Blood Theatre, reflects on how the pandemic might just be the great equalizer in the American theatre and how it’s time for theatre to move from being something nice to being something necessary.

Tamilla Woodard, co–artistic director of Working Theater in New York, talks about why she makes theatre and offers several “what if” thoughts about how the field should move forward.

While global protests have amplified calls for defunding the police, Chelsea Whitaker shares thoughts on how theatre needs to end its own policing of Blackness as well.

Teresa Coleman Wash reflects on how the current state of affairs has fueled an urgency to interrogate all systems of oppression and argues that it’s past time to stop holding Eurocentric theatres up as the pinnacle of success.

Elsa Hiltner discusses equity issues for designers in the theatre industry and offers tips for how artists can work together to change the system.

Nan Barnett, National New Play Network’s executive director, talks about the organization’s twenty-year evolution; the realization that, as a governing body, they were “really, really white”; and their commitment to turning the organization into a replicable model of a diverse and inclusive ecosystem.

Brídín Clements talks about the accessibility of educational and professional programs, like internships, in theatre administration.

Charles M Pepiton discusses professional theatre’s commercial roots, how mission statements of non-profits today focus on social engagement, community-based development, and more.

Part II of the conversation between Michael J. Bobbitt, the recently appointed artistic director of Boston’s New Repertory Theatre, and Raymond Caldwell, the new leader of Washington’s Theater Alliance, who talk about post-show conversations and self-care.

Playwrights Kirsten Greenidge and Peter Nachtrieb talk about what it means to be an artist in residence, how theatres constantly work on their mission, connecting with the community, and more.   

Playwrights Will Power and Jonathan Norton talk about what being an artist in residence looks like, championing local playwrights, rejection letters, and more.

Michaela Goldhaber, current artistic director of Wry Crips, talks to the founding and early members of the disabled women’s theatre group about their history.

Playwright Peter Nachtrieb and artistic director of San Francisco’s Z Space, Lisa Steindler, talk about the National Playwright Residency Program, getting out of your comfort zone, making a living as a writer, and more.

Zach Donovan discusses how the Shed—the state-of-the-art arts complex in New York City’s recent real estate development, Hudson Yards—has become a point of contention in the downtown theatre community.

Jordan Schwartz discusses gentrification in developing neighborhoods, how artists moving in need to work with the existing communities, and what kind of change that can bring about.