Theatre Bay Area presented three sessions from their annual conference livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 14 April.
Based on an actual photograph, the main action of Lucy Kirkwood’s play is an American photojournalist’s unyielding quest to unlock the mystery of a photograph taken by him during the 1989 student revolution and military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. In the photograph in question a slender man, who goes on to be labeled the “Tank Man,” stands in front of a line of military tanks rolling into the Square. While it is something of a truism that the theater is, as a character in Don Quixote says, “the mirror of human life” sometimes theater can serve as a path-breaking reflection on another art form.
The VORTEX in Austin, Texas presented a performance ofFor Fear the Glass May Shatter by David DeMaris, livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Friday 11 April at 9 p.m. EST (New York) / 8 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 6 p.m. PST (Los Angeles).
We did "Pippi", and we had American Sign Language interpretation every weekend. This is because Wendy Lement, the producer at Wheelock, directed the play herself, and wanted the interpreters to be integrated with the cast. They were signing performers, rather than interpreters. They were each assigned a character in the cast, had their own blocking, and dressed to blend in onstage. "Pippi" was unusual in that the interpreters/sign performers rehearsed with the cast from day one until the opening night. They started from scratch, not knowing who the characters are, and worked alongside the cast to develop them. (This interview was conducted in ASL, and was translated and edited by Ariel Baker-Gibbs.)
The Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston was started by four people: Andrea Genser, Susan Kosoff, Jane Staab, and Tony Hancock. The mission of the theatre was to make a professional theater that would be accessible to everyone, with a multicultural cast, with black, yellow, white, green people. When you start defining people by color, just pull in green and blue and orange, like the Muppets. We just want to widen our embrace. The priority was to be affordable, but from the start, we would always have a show that was interpreted. That was in 1981, and we worked with a lot of people to make that happen. Audio description started around 1990 at Imagination Stage, and Wheelock Family Theatre was drawn to it, as we wanted to cast a wider net, and include blind people.
Suzan-Lori Parks livestreamed Watch Me Work from The Public Theater in New York City on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TVnetwork at howlround.tv on Wednesday 9 April at 2 p.m. PST (Vancouver, UTC -8) / 4 p.m. CST (Austin, UTC -6) / 5 p.m. EST (Montréal, UTC -5) / 10 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 23:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1).
The Dramatists Guild of America in association with Harvardwood presented a conversation with author Soman Chainani livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 8 April at 3:30 p.m. PDT/ 5:30 p.m. CDT/ 6:30 p.m. EDT/ 11:30 p.m. BST.
Bess Rowen interviews Christopher Andrew Loar of the New York Neo-Futurists, creator/director of The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill.
HowlRound is working with playwright residency sites around the country to track the impact of what it means to have a playwright on staff. At each of the fourteen theaters we have a Commons Producer—a theater practitioner from the local community working with the theater and the playwright to tell the story of each residency and make the learning from this experiment accessible as it's happening. Periodically we will post these residency updates on HowlRound in the hopes that it will be useful to field-wide learning on the question of what it means to employ playwrights inside of theaters.
Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville presented The Art of Collective Invention conversation livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 4 April at 10 a.m. PDT/ 12 p.m. CDT / 1 p.m. EDT / 17:00 GMT / 6 p.m. BST (London).
Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville presented Perspectives in Theatre Criticism livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 3 April at 11 a.m. PDT/ 1 p.m. CDT / 2 p.m. EDT / 18:00 GMT / 7 p.m. BST (London).
Suzan-Lori Parks livestreamed Watch Me Work from The Public Theater in New York City on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TVnetwork at howlround.tv on Wednesday 2 April at 2 p.m. PST (Vancouver, UTC -8) / 4 p.m. CST (Austin, UTC -6) / 5 p.m. EST (Montréal, UTC -5) / 10 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 23:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1).
The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) (Dominic D’Andrea, Producing Artistic Director) andPrimary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder & Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) presented the 8th Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 2 April 2014.
NoPassport and Louisiana State University Department of Theatre presented the 8th annual NoPassport Theatre Conference—Dreaming the Americas: The Diasporic Imagination livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 29 March 2014. In Twitter, use #3030NP to participate in online conversation.
Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville presented a conversation with Anne Bogart livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 29 March at 7 a.m. PDT/ 9 a.m. CDT / 10 a.m. EDT / 2 p.m. GMT.
foolsFURY is a theater ensemble from San Francisco that sees advantages in working with playwrights and devisors, and seizes opportunities to become a touring company. As they come up on their fifteenth year, artistic director Ben Yalom sheds some light on their transitions, and lets me in on how they are working toward what is next artistically and financially.
Deborah Cullinan of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
28 March 2014
Listen to weekly podcasts hosted by David Dower as he interviews theatre artists from around the country to highlight #newplay bright spots. This week: Deborah Cullinan, Executive Director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Suzan-Lori Parks livestreamed Watch Me Work from The Public Theater in New York City on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TVnetwork at howlround.tv on Wednesday 26 March at 2 p.m. PST (Vancouver, UTC -8) / 4 p.m. CST (Austin, UTC -6) / 5 p.m. EST (Montréal, UTC -5) / 10 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 23:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1).
Dani Snyder-Young reviews the (now closed) Next Theatre Company production of Kirsten Greenidge’s Luck of the Irish in the context of Evanston, Illinois
The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) and The Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana presented the 1st Indianapolis One-Minute Play Festival livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 24 March at 4 p.m. PDT (Vancouver)/ 5 p.m. MDT (Calgary) / 6 p.m. CDT (Winnipeg) / 7 p.m. EDT (Toronto) / 11 p.m. GMT (London).
Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville presented the conversation 50 Years: An Abridged History of Actors Theatre of Louisville livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 23 March at 9 a.m. PDT/ 11 a.m. CDT/ 12 noon EDT/ 16:00 GMT.
