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Process

Content in this section dives into the work of making art. Whether you’re interested in creating digital work, writing a new play, blending performance and activism, or anything else specific to process, this is the place for that.

The Latest

Suzan-Lori Parks’ Watch Me Work
Video
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Watch Me Work
A Playwriting Masterclass
Monday 20 May 2024
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Watch Me Work
Video
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Watch Me Work
A Playwriting Masterclass
Monday 13 May 2024
On Devising in the Classroom
Podcast
On Devising in the Classroom
by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Andy Paris, Emily K. Harrison
16 April 2024
Black Women Got Something to Say: A Conversation with Pearl Cleage
Podcast

Black Women Got Something to Say: A Conversation with Pearl Cleage

27 July 2022

In this episode, Jordan and Leticia interview playwright Pearl Cleage. They discuss the way she has navigated her career as a Black feminist/womanist playwright often working in Black spaces; how she found her home in Atlanta, Georgia; and her most recent play, Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous.

Actors performing a stage reading.
The Cimientos Experience: One Playwright’s Perspective
Essay

The Cimientos Experience: One Playwright’s Perspective

19 July 2022

Playwright and designer Tommer Peterson reflects on his experience participating in Cimientos, IATI Theater’s play development program.

An audience member being tucked into bed by an actor on stage.
Playable Plays: Toward a New Interactivity
Essay

Playable Plays: Toward a New Interactivity

18 July 2022

Theatremaker Drew Paryzer discusses the creative potential of interactive art and the impact that the “playability” of a show can have on audiences.

Two actors pointing at the ceiling.
Theatre as Laboratory: Exploring and Forging Humanity with Les Inachevés / Théâtre comme Laboratoire: Explorer et Fabriquer l'Humanité avec Les Inachevés
Essay

Theatre as Laboratory: Exploring and Forging Humanity with Les Inachevés / Théâtre comme Laboratoire: Explorer et Fabriquer l'Humanité avec Les Inachevés

A Conversation with Moïse Touré / Une Conversation avec Moïse Touré

5 July 2022

Michelle Haner interviews Moïse Touré, artistic director of Les Inachevés, about the company’s ongoing project on the theme of hospitality and the decision to reframe the company’s work as a laboratory.

Two visitors admiring a wall mural.
How We Did It: Collecting Oral Histories to Preserve the foolsFURY Legacy
Essay

How We Did It: Collecting Oral Histories to Preserve the foolsFURY Legacy

30 June 2022

As a part of their permanent closure, San Francisco-based theatre company foolsFURY embarked upon an ambitious oral history project. Emily Weak, the archivist employed for that project, shares the process and insights of an initiative that worked to collect dozens of individual experiences of the company and provide a sense of closure.

Audio file for a podcast.
How to Produce a Podcast Series: A Beginner-Friendly Guide to the Art of Podcasting
Essay

How to Produce a Podcast Series: A Beginner-Friendly Guide to the Art of Podcasting

7 June 2022

Tatiana Hernandez-Mitchell, a podcast consultant for HowlRound, offers a guide to the technical side of producing podcasts. This guide focuses on equipment, software, and best practices.

Kunafa and Shay Teaser Image.
Multihyphenate Artists
Podcast

Multihyphenate Artists

With Denmo Ibrahim and Sarah Fahmy

25 May 2022

Artistic identities can be complicated, and many theatremakers work equally within two or more disciplines simultaneously. The most interesting work is rarely created in a vacuum. These multidisciplinary artists create diverse projects in all senses of the word, broadening our idea of what theatre can and should be. Today, two such multihyphenate artists, Denmo Ibrahim and Sarah Fahmy, converse about their multiple identities, how they reconcile and manage their myriad expertise, and the role of multihyphenate artists in today’s theatre landscape.

Seven actors on stage talking amongst themselves.
Designing Collaboration: In Search of a Taxonomy of Collaborative Methods
Essay

Designing Collaboration: In Search of a Taxonomy of Collaborative Methods

17 May 2022

Emily McConnell calls for a common language to categorize designers’ collaborative relationships with directors. To find that common ground, theatremakers will have to reject the notion that each production requires a unique approach to collaboration.

Six people standing together for a photo.
"The Molecules Changed in the Room": Creating a Play from Real Asian Women’s Desires, Dreams, and Heartaches
Essay

"The Molecules Changed in the Room": Creating a Play from Real Asian Women’s Desires, Dreams, and Heartaches

3 May 2022

Danielle Iwata sits down with Amy Zhang to discuss the creation and significance of her show Ascend!, which featured a cast and crew entirely made up of Asian women.

Three actors performing outdoors.
On Hauling Water: Outdoor Theatre as Re-Enchantment amidst Climate Crisis
Essay

On Hauling Water: Outdoor Theatre as Re-Enchantment amidst Climate Crisis

2 May 2022

Theatre artist Elle Thoni shares their experience working on the outdoor theatre production of a futuristic musical, Queen B, and challenges institutional ideas on how and where theatre can take place.

Four people kneeling around bowls of water.
Teatro Preto do Candomblé’: The Art of Eco-Reconnection
Essay

Teatro Preto do Candomblé’: The Art of Eco-Reconnection

21 April 2022

Onisajé shares the creative process of Teatro Preto do Candomblé, which trains actors using the rituals and liturgy of Candomblé as a method of actor training. Through immersion in this African diasporic religion, Teatro Preto do Candomblé’s methods center reciprocal relationships with the environment and activate individuals’ connection to their Blackness.

A performer on stage with white, out-stretched wings.
Stories: Mirrors of Identity
Essay

Stories: Mirrors of Identity

12 April 2022

Theatremaker Sonia Carmona shares the impact storytelling can have on empowering marginalized groups of people from her own experience working on Roots and Wings, a HUMAN library from the Poligono Sur.

Cast members standing side by side in a field.
Theatre on the Street: An Independent Theater Hungary Case Study
Essay

Theatre on the Street: An Independent Theater Hungary Case Study

11 April 2022

Rodrigó Balogh and Márton Illés discuss the process of creating outdoor theatre performances and share their experience producing them with Independent Theatre Hungary.

Kunafa and Shay Teaser Image.
Representation Behind the Scenes
Podcast

Representation Behind the Scenes

With Betty Shamieh & Tracy Francis

6 April 2022

Last season we talked about on-stage representation in contemporary theatre. But what does representation look like behind the scenes and why is it important? How does the process change when there are MENA creative team members, production staff, directors, and playwrights involved from the inception of a project to its closing night? What role does this representation play in new work development? We will discuss all of this and more with playwright Betty Shamieh and artistic director of Boom Arts Tracy Francis as they share their past experiences, insight, and ideas for the future.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 9: On Being a 'Trans Trailblazer'
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 9: On Being a 'Trans Trailblazer'

With Scott Turner Schofield

30 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, consultant, educator Scott Turner Schofield. They trouble the TV/film industry's framing of Schofield as a singular "trans trailblazer," since as he notes, trans actors were, indeed, carving out spaces to make and support one another’s art long before we were invited into Hollywood or mainstream theatre spaces. The conversation dives into the shifts that Scott has noticed in audience response to his work over the course of the last twenty years and how those are in direct conversation with national politics.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 8: QTPOC Comedy: Connecting, Communing, Creating Compassion
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 8: QTPOC Comedy: Connecting, Communing, Creating Compassion

With D’Lo

28 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, and comedian D’Lo to talk about his career and how he uses comedy and storytelling as tools for connection, education, and compassion.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 6: Putting on the Trans Educator Top Hat
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 6: Putting on the Trans Educator Top Hat

With Rebecca Kling

21 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with storyteller, educator, and advocate for transgender rights, Rebecca Kling. Their conversation addresses Rebecca’s work as a solo performer-turned-activist, the importance of consent in deciding to take on the trans educator role, and her radical and hilarious approach to the post-show talkback: the Strip Q and A.

A collage of several pictures of people's faces placed side by side.
Remembering Ways of Knowing
Essay

Remembering Ways of Knowing

A Conversation between JD Stokely and Javiera Benavente

16 March 2022

JD Stokely and Javiera Benavente discuss the ways the navigate they complexities of commoning while embracing listening, unlearning, and care in their creative practices and educational paths.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 5: Queer of Color Devised Performance, Disidentification, and Spirituality
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 5: Queer of Color Devised Performance, Disidentification, and Spirituality

With siri gurudev

9 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with siri gurudev to talk about their devising practice which blends queer of color theory and performance techniques, popular music, and spirituality and to chat about their dissertation research on ritual, trauma, and healing in QTPOC performance.

3 Actors pose on stage.
Step One, Collaborate: Emerson Stage Plans a Season
Essay

Step One, Collaborate: Emerson Stage Plans a Season

1 March 2022

Annie G. Levy shares how Emerson Stage works to make their season selection process as open, collaborative, and student-driven as possible.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 3: Building Black Queer Worlds Onstage and Behind the Scenes
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 3: Building Black Queer Worlds Onstage and Behind the Scenes

With Azure D. Osborne-Lee

28 February 2022

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with playwright Azure D. Osborne-Lee to talk about their play, Crooked Parts; building Black queer worlds onstage; and the mentorship, community-building, and production practices that go into bringing those worlds to life.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 2: The Case for QTPOC Slice-of-Life Drama
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 2: The Case for QTPOC Slice-of-Life Drama

With Dillon Yruegas

23 February 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with playwright and performer, Dillon Yruegas to talk about two productions of his play The Brunch Crowd. They talk about what a slice-of-life, kitchen sink play full of trans of color characters looks like and what kind of intervention that makes in the theatrical landscape. They dive into the importance of trans joy and queer friendship and its absence on stage. Finally, Dillon reflects on how expansive approaches to casting trans and non-binary characters and how identity-based casting might open up dialogue and create space for a much wider range of faces and experiences to be seen on stage.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 2: Transgender Legibility: Have We Really Reached the Transgender Tipping Point?
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 2: Transgender Legibility: Have We Really Reached the Transgender Tipping Point?

With Joshua Bastian Cole

16 February 2022

Nicolas Shannon Savard and Joshua Bastian Cole continue their conversation about transgender representation. They critique Time magazine’s 2014 declaration of the “transgender tipping point” of cultural visibility and explore the ways in which Hollywood’s handling of trans narratives bleeds over into the theatre, politics, and daily life for trans and gender nonconforming people.

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.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 1: Transgender Legibility beyond the Tropes
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 1: Transgender Legibility beyond the Tropes

With Joshua Bastian Cole

9 February 2022

In episode 1 (part 1) of Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with Joshua Bastian Cole to talk about popular tropes in transgender representation, gender legibility on stage, and the implications of each for trans and nonbinary theatremakers.