New Play Blog

The #Newplay Convenings: Next Steps

by David Dower

OK, so we've now completed the first three #newplay convenings of the AVNPI. Thank you to everyone who has participated thus far, both live in DC and online. It's been a real privilege to chair these discussions. And all of us working with the Institute program here at Arena Stage are committed to making sure the energy of so many people over the past three months is a catalyst for action; that it doesn't just evaporate now that the last of the guests have gone home and we've put away the vacuum cleaner.

The plan from here, for those following along:

-- First up, there will be a comprehensive report from each. These will be compiled into a single monograph and released to the public this Spring. We'll include a list of the proposed next steps from each so we've a public record of what was requested. (If you were a participant in any of the convenings, you'll get a draft version of the report for your comments before we finalize.)

-- Then, we'll form a "task force of the willing" around each topic from the people who participated. They'll help us prioritize the "next step" recommendations in each convening. We can't do everything, of course, and not all at once. This step will create a path for advancing as a field.

-- It will be the responsibility of each of the convening producers (Amrita, Travis, and Ronee) to then direct the process of moving through that list of priorities. Over the coming twelve months we will endeavor to make measurable progress on the challenges and opportunities expressed in the priorities.

It is our hope that we will be able to reconvene within the next twelve months-- this time as a committee of the whole that comingles these three groups with the other Institute program participants: the resident playwrights, the Round 1 and Round 2 NPDP folks, and the beta group for the New Play Map-- to chart and celebrate the progress everyone has made in 2010 and to recalibrate the priorities and opportunities in each program area.

That's a huge undertaking of course. And we're not yet certain we have the money to mount it, but I put it here because it's our goal and our intention-- and even though it's hard we want to commit ourselves to the attempt.

Thanks for your interest and support. Stick around. We're just getting started...

Why call it 'Devised work'?

by Ronee Penoi, Institute Fellow

As Travis's blog posts suggest, everyone's heads are full-up with the deep discovery and concentrated conversation made by our wonderful group this past weekend at the convening on Devised Work. So, instead of trying to respond to all of it, I'm going to toss out there one thought that popped up for me in the days following.

'Devised work' is always going to be a tricky term for 'this kind of work.' And that's because any term is going to be problematic. As soon as anyone attempts to unite a collection of work that belongs there because of its uniqueness, it becomes clear pretty quickly that it can't be codified collectively. So why try? A beautiful and  unexpected benefit of the past weekend, is that many artists felt a sense of community that isn't often made apparent. It isn't why we gathered, but it suggests at least to me, that maybe there's more benefit to finding similarities than differences here. Maybe there's a way to unite while still cradling that sense of uniqueness - to expand the sense of what 'devised' means, so that instead of the response being, 'oh, I don't do that' its 'yeah, I'm in that community.'

It may be a little 'kumbayah', but there it is.

Devised Works: Post-Convening

Posted by guest blogger Travis Bedard from the Devised Work Convening

The final formal section of the convening (before the demonstrations) was a moment of reflection on all of the discussions, and then the participants were asked to share conclusions and next steps. Some of those next steps as well as a few important points that got repeated along the way. In nothing like a hierarchical order:

• The fact that there is a “we” is important.
  There is a support network for the work, you just need to reach out (and be available).
• Don’t just reach out to your community when you want to sell tickets, be in the community.
• “We were planning on a potato, but we can use this parsnip”
  Things happen and resources and people come and go. Stay flexible.
• Devised Work artists and supporters need to lobby Equity to that recognize the duration of process on the work to create contracts that allow it.
• “How can we free the product from the architecture?” 
  Theaters are built with a specific product in mind (even black boxes) how can we free the thinking about creation from that restriction?
• There was a desire for more festivals (or even microfestivals) of devised work nationally, both to present work more often and less expensively, but also to keep an eye on what everyone else is doing.
• There was a loud call for a central source listing available resources (space, grants, duct tape, whatever) and ways to connect to those resources.
• Technology. There was no fear of technology in the room, but there was a lack of clarity on how it could best be leveraged, especially social media.

There were three very clear calls for action, none of which were actually raised during the final sharing session, rather they echoed throughout ALL of the sessions.

1. There is a large need for language around the sector. Despite a dislike for labels, communication to funders and audiences requires something.
2. Presenters/producers/funders and the artists need to close the circle and develop audiences holistically as a unified group not as separate units. That sort of repeated engagement doesn’t help the art and can turn off an audience member.
3. Long term relationships need to be forged between all parts of the devised work sector. Those long term relationships will enable better communication less drenched in grant-speak, and fewer outsized expectations about process or product.

I would like to close my reporting from this convening with a pair of questions:

What would you do to improve the lot of devised work artists and ensembles? What is one thing you can do to make a difference in this sector in the next year?

Saturday Night’s All Right for Devising

Posted by guest blogger Travis Bedard for the Devised Work Convening:

After two days of talking about theatre, four of the participants gladly grabbed their chance to get back “into the room” and actually make some theatre.

Kirk Lynn, Andy Parris, Geoff Sobelle, and Barney O’Hanlon each took a turn at demonstrating a process or exercise used in their ensemble work on stage with Georgetown students the eager guinea pigs.

     

Devised Works Convening: Day 2

Posted by guest blogger Travis Bedard for the Devised Work Convening

The second day of the devised work convening was a grueling, giddy day that passed far too quickly. It was a day that lasted from roughly 9AM until midnight. It was tightly planned and the few gaps were filled with introductions and more conversation. I honestly needed to be removed from it all to get any sort of hold on the ground that had been covered.

As David Loehr explained, the participants were exploring the questions posed by David Dower’s four prompts in three circles. The first circle a group composed by Mr. Dower based on the prompt being answered, the second comprised the remainder of the participants cast as active listeners, and the third made up of invited local artists, the Art Dev. staff, and the formal observers. This approach worked wonderfully to focus discussion. It gave participants clear roles during each segment and kept each question from being a free-for-all lost in the larger group. It also served to relieve the tension of participating in a passionate debate for 10 hours.

Day 1 of the Devised Works convening

Posted by Travis Bedard from the Devised Works convening -

I have been an active follower and participant in the discussions around these #newplay convening since the #newplay tag popped up for the Diversity convening. What I can tell you as someone experiencing it “in the room” for the first time is that what hasn’t translated in the online discussions around these meetings is the size of the group discussing these broad topics, and the pure passion that these people have for the advancement of theatre. That’s not to say  that the Diversity or Race discussions weren’t obviously passionate, it’s simply that outside the room, following the interpretations of one person typing on the fly in one window on your computer doesn’t adequately capture it.

Today’s work in the room broke down into two distinct parts, as loosely mentioned in the earlier “in the room posts”, actually getting everyone in the room, and then talking about their upcoming projects. Firmly rooting where we are, so we can look confidently to where we might be headed.

As David Dower mentioned in his post previewing this convening, this branch of the #newplay discussion has been going on amongst many of these same players for years. Many of the participants have worked with one another in one capacity or another in the past and the greetings as they arrived reflected that, as they caught up with one another,

This informal reconnection flowed easily into the more formal introductions of the group with the observers and reporters introducing themselves and then the bulk of the afternoon spent with participants explaining where they (and their groups) are now, and what is next. The breadth and depth of the ambition and collaboration of the participants is breathtaking.

The development process of a devised work that is iterated over and again requires bursts of support in the way that a single author traditional piece doesn’t. A commission at the beginning of the process and a check for production would leave a woefully doughy middle of a devised piece. It was made clear as companies, funders, presenters, and support organizations each outlined their next steps that they are working desperately to get solid footing under each part of that development process. Working in concert with the producing companies to support a work from conception to production.

Introductions finished (and remember that there are a lot more people in the room than you think there are) Mr. Dower began a broad group discussion around the question of whether companies considered themselves “lightly institutionalized”, or “institutionalized” at all (Lightly institutionalized in this case referring to the structure and operation of the companies). It quickly became clear that groups were hesitant to accept the label and the general sentiment expressed was that it was the institutional side of the work that was leading to burnout (or risk of burnout) in most cases.

This segued into a final burst of discussion about the frustrations of the Sisyphean production/funding cycle, and looking for ways to correct the balance of time spent being grantwriters, and fund raisers versus time spent in the rehearsal room building the art…

When the dinner bell rang.

Where does that leave us?

We are set up perfectly for the long day tomorrow. The room is fired up and ready to go; The participants feel safe talking to the group about things that are really bothering them about the system or the process or their situation; and the prompts that lead tomorrow’s discussion are very straightforward. I encourage you to review them for yourselves, and join in in the comments section here, or follow the action on Twitter by searching or following the #newplay hashtag.

Second: Who are you and what are you doing?

posted by Travis Bedard from the convening room -

The beginnings of this convening are about getting a hold on our present to take our steps towards the future. We are hearing from the companies in the room about their current projects and their next steps.

What work are you building from the ground up? What is you next step? Join the circle and introduce yourself and what you do.

First: Talking about talking

Posted by Travis Bedard from the convening room -

One of the very first problems that arises when discussing “devised work” is that there is little established vocabulary around the niche. There is no monolithic style of “devised work” production, indeed part of the success of devised work is avoidance of the pitfalls of the monolithic production styles of single authorial voice pieces. 

But go ahead and talk to folks who create collaboratively about their opinions on devised work. I have. I drafted up a list of questions about devised works and sent them to devised companies in my circle of acquaintance in Texas to begin a conversation and the first answer from all of them was that they “don’t do devised work, they do X”. Which was of course an answer that encompassed how they made what they made not a catch-all term for which specific “bucket” they belong in. The broad questions then become:

If you don’t fit into a category how can systems fund you appropriately?

If, as many devised works do, you produce then iterate, how do you get development money from systems that are built to support finished projects?

How do you get your audience to buy in to supporting iterations of a developing work?

But let’s start at the beginning:

How do you define “devised work”?

The Online Audience of the #newplay Devised Work Convo knows how to Party!

Calling all 'Devisers' in Southern California: For the past two #newplay convenings, there have been three circles of participation. In the convening room, there's a rotating seating configuration where an inner circle speaks and an outer circle listens. The third circle is the online audience that follows and participates in the conversation that is provoked by a micro-blogger who's reporting from inside the room.  Up to now, the third circle participants have been behind their laptops or mobile units, tweeting and tracking alone in twitterverse.  But why be alone? Twitter's not supposed to be anti-'social'. A group of people in L.A. are already asking just that - shouldn't we just hold a mixer, watch the live broadcast on #NewPlay TV together and tweet the Q&A all together? Yes, you can!  This fun mixer going to be hosted by Son of Semele Ensemble in L.A. on Saturday evening. Bring your tweeting gear and tag #newplay. Click here for more information and to RSVP

Look Who's Talking: Devised Work Convening Participants - #newplay

by Ronee Penoi, Institute Fellow Producer: Devised Work Convening

We've got a great group coming up this weekend for the Devised Work conversation - wowzers! - check it out:

The Participants

Neil Barclay, CEO National Black Arts Festival
Rachel Chavkin, Artistic Director, the TEAM
Stephen Earnhart, Artist 
John Eisner, Producing Director/Lark Play Development Center
Susie Farr  Executive Director, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland
Kamilah Forbes, Artistic Director, Hip-Hop Theater Festival
Sandra Gibson, President and CEO, Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Sabrina Hamilton, Artistic Director, Ko Festival of Performance/Network of Ensemble Theatres Board 
Christopher Hibma, Associate Director, Sundance Institute Theatre Program
Dan Hurlin, Artist
Morgan Jenness, Creative Consultant, Abrams Artists
Melanie Joseph, The Foundry Theatre
Andrew Kircher, Under the Radar (NYC)
Kelly Kirkpatrick, Center Theater Group Los Angeles
Thomas Kriegsmann, President / ArKtype

Jim Lasko, Resident Artist Redmoon Theater
Kirk Lynn, Co-Producing Artistic Director, Rude Mechs
Sam Miller, President, OAM Company, Inc
Jennifer Morris, The Civilians
Barney O'Hanlon, SITI Company
Andy Paris, Artistic Associate, Tectonic Theatre Project
Ann Rosenthal, Executive Director & Producer/MAPP International Productions
Dan Rothenberg, Co-Artistic Director, Pig Iron Theatre Company
Steven Sapp, Universes
Vincent Scott, Program Producer/National Museum of the American Indian
Leigh Smiley,    Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at University of Maryland
Geoff Sobelle, Co-Artistic Director, Rainpan 43
Lisa Steindler, Executive Artistic Director, Z Space
Nick Stuccio, Live Arts Festival
Alex Torra, Associate Artistic Director, Pig Iron Theatre Company
Meiyin Wang, Under the Radar (NYC)
MK Wegman, President and CEO National Performance Network

We're also thrilled to have Travis Bedard blogging at the convening, and David Loehr tweeting all weekend long. Follow online here, on twitter at @NEW_PLAY_BLOG, and use #newplay

"What Are They Talking About?" The Devised Work Convening

by David Dower

Next weekend we'll be completing the Convening Trifecta here, with the gathering of people engaged in the development, production, presentation, and touring of devised work. Here's a [long] introduction to the conversation we'll be having over the two days.

This conversation will build on a whole range of discussions that have been taking place in a variety of settings over the past several years.

Time Out NY series on the #newplay Black Playwrights Convo

Helen Shaw has interviewed the bloggers from the Black Playwrights Convening here. Three separate interviews.And a picture of J. "99 Seats" Holtham in the bargain! 

#NewPlay TV

Watch the LIVE BROADCAST public event: "How the Devising's Done: Theater Mavericks Talk Process" at 8pm EST / 5pm PST on Sat, Feb 20 on #NewPlay TV at http://livestream.com/newplay 

Add this event your calendar.  

In this free public lecture-demo, four artists will talk about and demonstrate their ensemble and devised processes and techniques. These artists include Kirk Lynn from Rude Mechs, Barney O'Hanlon from SITI Company, Geoff Sobelle from Rainpan 43 and Andy Paris from Tectonic Theater Project. Click here for more details.

Whaddya mean: "Devised Work"? Countdown to the next #newplay convening starts now...

<--Kirk Lynn, Rude Mechs

posted by Ronee Penoi, Institute Fellow

It's been so long, hasn't it?  Yes, the Institute is ramping up for the next conversation, and it's on DEVISED WORK -- February 19th and 20th. "What do we mean by 'devised'?"- you might ask. Well, that's one of the things we're hoping to discover, as well as what the challenges and obstacles are to championing, supporting, and talking about devised, ensemble, interdisciplinary, and [insert your adjective here] work in a system that's primarily built on a playwright-driven model. 

As with 'Defining Diversity' and 'Black Playwrights' - we'll be on Twitter all weekend, so remember #newplay to add questions and follow along. We'll also be live broadcasting on #NewPlay TV a free public event on Saturday, February 20th, at 8pm. We have a line-up of fabulous theater mavericks doing a lecture-demo on their processes and techniques, such as Kirk Lynn from Rude Mechs, Barney O'Hanlon from SITI Company, Geoff Sobelle from Rainpan 43, and Andy Paris from Tectonic Theater Project. Click here for more details.  

<--Barney O'Hanlon, SITI Company, Geoff Sobelle, Rainpan 43-->

Stay tuned...

Headed to The Valley - Black Playwrights #NewPlay Convening: Part 3

by Adam Thurman, guest blogger

Since J. Holtham covered the recommendations that came during the end of Day 2, that leaves me a bit of room to talk about my favorite part of the weekend, the evening performance where playwrights read excerpts of their work.

The evening began with Jennifer Nelson reading Suzan-Lori Parks "The New Black Math".  Parks words reminded the audience that there is no such thing as a "black play".  It was the perfect way to start the evening because, one after another, the playwrights demonstrated an incredible range of stories and viewpoints.

I'll highlight three that really stood out to me.

Lydia Diamond read a piece from her yet untitled play.  After five minutes of preamble about how she was still working through the play, how unfinished it is, etc. Lydia then proceeded to deliver a stunning ten minutes excerpt of her work.

The untitled play revolves a white neurosurgeon who is actively pursuing a "genius grant" for his research.  The only problem is that his research conclusions are just a tiny bit controversial.  His research concludes that white people are inherently racist.

The scene Lydia read featured the surgeon and his wife discussing the explosive impact of his work.  Two minutes in and I could see the entire scene in my head.  When the play is finished, it is going to be incredible.

----------------------------

I had heard of Rha Goddess but had never seen her perform.  I was in awe as she used a single prop - a chair - to present the story of a mentally ill drug user, her pain and the fantasy world she escapes to. 

Rha broke past the stereotypical addict image to present a fully fleshed out human being.  I know people like the woman she portrayed.  Maybe you do too.  But I rarely get to see the mixture of humanity and despair that I saw during her performance.

-------------------------------

And then we went to the Valley.

Pussy Valley.

Yes, Pussy Valley.

Katori Hall's look into the world of pole dancers - call them strippers at your peril - had the entire room laughing out loud.  As Katori bounced back and forth between four characters, all with distinct voices and personalities, I could see the vivid world she created.

It's the sort of play that many theatres wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, not because the piece isn't good, but because they don't have the courage to produce it.

So often when we talk about new plays and why they are, or are not, produced we place the blame on the writers.

The plays aren't good enough, we say.

If you would have been in DC that night you would have realized how ridiculous that statement is.

From the neurosurgeon to the addict to the dancer, writers are creating plays worthy of the stage.

To me the real question is this:

Is the stage worthy of those plays?

Do theatres have the courage and commitment to broaden their range of what a "black" play is?

We shall see.

Reflection on the Black Playwrights Convening, Part 3 #NewPlay

From J. Holtham, guest blogger

October 2^nd, 2009 marked four years since the death of August Wilson. Like I mentioned here a couple of days ago, the thought of that sent me reaching out to other black playwrights to get a sense of the community and the field. It’s so easy to feel disconnected from other writers, to feel like you’re the only one pounding your head against walls, to feel alone.

At the Black Playwrights Convening, I found the answers to a lot of those questions and feelings, and many others there did as well. At the end of the weekend, six of the participants read sections of their works-in-progress for a packed auditorium. The excerpts were funny, passionate, smart, engaging and all radically different, in tone, style, voice, subject matter. Each told a vital story, stories we haven’t heard, stories that were powerful and human, and all very black. (Whatever you think that means.) After a long weekend of passionate discussion, some argument and a fair amount of frustration, it was a great finish.

In the final session of the convening, David asked each of the participants to come up with ideas for moving forward. The responses were wide-ranging and comprehensive, from editorials to festivals to the very personal commitments to each other and our own work. It was a powerful list of ideas and a swirl of energy, that may be best summed up by advice Robert O’Hara got from a mentor: “Do what you do and if they run you out of town, lead the parade.”

Some of the other ideas and questions were:

-   How to connect black theatres to black wealth? With stars like Usher, Jay-Z and Will Smith providing support for Broadway shows.

-   Lobbying African-American art museums to accept plays as art (It was noted that there are 254 African-American art museums in the country).

-   Build bridges between black theatres and help figure out ways to connect the theatres to new work

-   Encourage a publisher like TCG to do an anthology of black plays of the 20^th Century to introduce them into the “canon.”

-   More critical and scholarly writing about the work

-   Look at what is working in terms of black theatre and try to emulate that

-   Cultivating black directors by choosing to work with them as often as possible.

It was an incredibly fruitful and exciting weekend and I was glad to be there.

This was my second straight MLK weekend in Washington, D.C. On Monday, I went into the city and, for the first time in my adult life, went to the Museum of American History. I went to an exhibit on African-American culture in D.C. as photographed by the Spurlocks and then, in the next room over, saw the flag that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner. I watched the crowds, walking the Mall, the sea of human faces, all colors, all races and kinds. After the weekend, I don’t know if I ever felt more a part of it all.

What's Working - #NewPlay Observations from Day 2 of the Black Playwright's Convening

by Adam Thurman, guest blogger

As Day 2 began, David Dower selected a group of Playwright's and asked a powerful question:

What's working?

It was an important way to start the roundtable discussion.  It's so easy for people, myself included, to talk about what's not working in theatre.  It was nice to begin the day on a positive note.

Here's what's working:

1.  Mentorship is alive and well - Often, participants in the room mentioned how someone else in the room had provided career guidance, advice and much need words of encouragement.  It's cliche to say that no one can make it alone, but it's also very true.  Informal mentorship does exist in the field and it's helping many people find their way.

2.  Some theatres get it - Playwrights mentioned several theatres, both large and small, that were building healthy relationships with playwrights, building relationships with diverse communities and marketing work effectively.

3.  Interesting work is being written - One of the highlights of the conversation was playwright's talking about projects they are working on.  Both the conversation in the room and the presentation that happened later on in the evening served as a reminder that people are writing the sort of work that will move the art form forward.

Reflections on the #NewPlay Black Playwrights Convening, Part 2

by J. Holtham, guest blogger

After the foundation was laid on Day #1, the conversation really took flight on Day #2 of the Arena Stage Black Playwrights Convening. We’d had an outing the night before to see Lydia Diamond’s play, Stick Fly, currently being produced by Arena Stage, which I enjoyed very much. The next morning, my head was still spinning from the first day, a terrific dinner, the play, a long, slightly odd cab ride back to our hotel, the conversations that were spilling out all over the place. At that terrific dinner, the talk had bounced from the history of minstrelsy, the state of indie theatre in New York, marketing and (I think) the films of Jerry Bruckheimer. To say that I was primed to come back to the circle would be an understatement.

The next day turned out to be, in many ways, the meat of the weekend. We came into the rehearsal room to the sounds of some very cool tunes (provided by Christina Anderson, whose DJ skills are second only to her playwriting skills) and you could feel the energy bubbling up. We were all ready to get into it. And into it, we got!

RTWT #NewPlay

by David Dower

I'm going to push at the boundaries of my "positive inquiry" mandate here at the New Play Blog to spout off a bit for a moment.

I've been watching the theater blog world all week with a growing sense of dismay. I love the energy- it gives me energy to see people all over the country and all over the terrain (aesthetic, generational, cultural) writing with passion and regularity about new plays. And to see what Isaac has organized at Parabasis around Outrageous Fortune, and the thoughtful, wide-ranging contributions of his guest bloggers on the topics raised in the book.

Reflections on the Black Playwrights Convening, Part 1 #NewPlay

J. Holtham here, the formerly anonymous blogger of 99 Seats. Arena Stage invited me and Adam Thurman of Mission Paradox Blog to join them for the Black Playwrights Convening and blog about our thoughts, responses and reflections. Here's the first installment from me...

As I wrote here, when I got the invite for the Arena Stage’s Black Playwrights Convening, and I saw the list of participants, I pooped my pants a little bit. It was the most incredible collection of playwrights, artists, storytellers, administrators I could imagine, all in one place. (On the train down, Isaac Butler joked that, if a missile hit the train, that would be the end of black playwriting in America.) But I wasn’t prepared for actually being in the room.

It was simply the coolest room I’ve ever been in. Well, okay, being at the inauguration last MLK weekend was pretty cool, too. Not a bad yearly tradition.

Crowded into a rehearsal room in the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University, first there was meeting and greeting, catching up with old friends. Playwrights had come from all over the country (well, mostly New York, but more on that later). Most knew each other from festivals, theatres, schools, but hadn’t seen each other in a while. Finally, we settled in to the work at hand.

Arena Stage gathered us as a part of a series of convenings on the state of new plays in America. This is obviously much on the minds of, well, everybody these days. This particular convening was about black playwriting, but it became much, much more.

Interestingly, a few months ago, I sent the following e-mail to a group of black playwrights I knew, many of whom wound up in the room with me here:

Tomorrow marks the 4 year anniversary of the passing of August Wilson. A lot has gone down in the last four years, a lot has changed and some things have very much not. This summer, a kind of mask slipped aside, again, and we got a glimpse at the underbelly of our country, still there, still angry, still ready to bite.

I've been thinking a lot, in the last few months, about being a black playwright in America today and what that means, both for me personally and for the field at large. What is the state of black theatre and black playwriting today, what's changed, what hasn't. How do we confront these turbulent times in our work?

And that, it turns out, is what was going on in the room this weekend. We started off with a rollicking discussion, bouncing around the room, responding to an excerpt from Outrageous Fortune, The Ground on Which I Stand by August Wilson, and New Black Math by Suzan-Lori Parks, some of the suggested readings. It was a day of questions, first principles, some anger and frustration, a lot of agreement and shared experiences, a lot of overlap and a lot of divergence.

One writer made a distinction between "African" plays, steeped in African-American storytelling traditions and aesthetics and "American" plays, appealing more to the "mainstream." Another wondered if we were being "ahistorical" and not looking enough at the writing of figures like Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, who were wrestling with these very issues in the '30s and '40s. As his grandmother told him, "You ain't the first black man to read." Others, though, spoke eloquently and passionately about finding their own voices and stories to tell and having to fight to be heard, in particular the female playwrights, one of whom has been told that "black women playwrights have a problem with structure."

So, yeah, there was some frustration in the air. Frustration at institutions that are happy to have a black writer in the house, happy to have a black audience in the house, but won't market to their "regular" audience for those shows. Frustration at the coverage in recent Playbills and other places about how Broadway is addressing race...solely in plays and musicals written by white men. Many folks, though, even rejected or challenged the notions of "white vs. black," asking if, when Kenny Leon became the artistic director of the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, did it become a black theatre?

Out of the frustrations, though, one of the major themes of the weekend began to emerge early: self-reliance. We would come back, again and again, to the idea that a black artist needed to find their own audience and bring them into the institutions. At least one person said there was a crisis in marketing to black audiences. So much of that affects the audiences and so much of that falls on our backs. There is work there, and an obligation, but also a lot of control and empowerment. We can and should develop our own audiences, know who they are and how to reach them and bring them along with us. It was something we would keep coming back to over the weekend.

We laid a good foundation to start off the weekend. There was much, much more to come.

Time For Some Action - Black Playwright Convening - Day 1 - #NewPlay

posted by Adam Thurman, guest blogger for the Black Playwrights Convening

As the room began to fill for the first day of the Black Playwrights Convening, there was a shadow hanging over the room.

That shadow has a name, Outrageous Fortune, the book that chronicles the life and times of the American playwright.The book is, to put it mildly, a bit of buzzkill.  So I expected a bit of a damper in the room because of it.

I was wrong.

Over the course of the first day you could feel a spirit of optimism and - dare I say it - hope, from many of the participants in the room.

That's not to say the participants didn't present a myriad of issues that they have with institutional theatres, here are just a few:

1.  The relationships between theatres and playwrights - One participant said it best when she said "I want to work with a theatre that loves my work".  Many participants noted that it's become more and more difficult to build healthy, mutually beneficial, relationships with theatres.

2.  The burden of expectations - When a black playwright sits down to write, do they have to produce a "black play".  What in the world is a black play anyway?  Are theatres and audience members putting subtle, but very real, pressure on these playwrights to conform to a standard of what black writing is . . . and isn't? There was a complex and challenging discussion about when and whether black playwrights are writing American work. And whether American work by black playwrights was black work at all. And whether the Obama era changes the expectations and perspectives of black work.

3.  Unclear marketing - Many participants observed that theatres still struggle with how to "sell" black playwrights to their audience, particularly if that audience is majority white.  They also observed that many theatres still struggle with consistently bringing black audiences - and other audiences of color - into their venues.

Despite these issues, I could feel a warm and positive vibe in the room.  There was a feeling that things could get better, not just from advocacy but from action.

Some playwrights discussed actively building their own audience and producing their own plays.

Others discussed the merits of working within institutional theatres and promoting change from within.

It became clear to me that there are a thousand different paths to "success" that these playwrights could take and that it would be important from them to not only pursue their path but to help others with their own journey. "My father always used to say to me 'Don't sleep on your brother's dream'", said one writer. "As long as we share vision, we can support each other's dreams."

As Day 1 ended and everyone headed out to dinner I couldn't help but feel encouraged by the energy, good ideas and passion of everyone in the room.

Day 1 set a very high bar. It was going to be interesting to see if Day 2 could surpass it.

Photos from the Weekend #NewPlay Convening

While we wait for the notes from the convening this weekend, here are the group photos from the two days. More to come...

Day One: 

Day Two:

 

Top Blog Sites (besides this one) to Follow the Defining Diversity #NewPlay Conversation

by Amrita Mangus, Institute Fellow

Weeks after the Defining Diversity Convening concluded, I'm still dwelling on the fantastic roundtable discussions, insights, and next steps to push this conversation forward. Thankfully, I'm not the only one. Like Alice venturing down the rabbit hole, I started to identify all the blog sites and bloggers who are commenting, questioning, and debating on the defining diversity convening and the numbers kept on growing. Curious? Here's my list, David Letterman style, of the top ten blog sites to follow the defining diversity conversation.

10) CultureFuture - A response to Scott Walters' and 99 Seats' posts on the "quality" of diversity that tackles the MFA stats presented after the convening by David. I'm all for more opinions on the table.

9) Tarhearted - I dig Joshua Conkel. His blog on "Theater and the Real America" really touches on geographic diversity and aligns wells with Scott Walters' commentary on a lack of rural themes, characters and productions in new play development.

8) A Poor Player - Tom's blogs always leave me enlightened and curious. His post on why he's not jumping into the diversity fray featuring the social entropy of ideas by Robert L. Payton reveals a new layer to the greater diversity conversation and the theater ecology as a whole.

7) The Flux Theatre Ensemble -  Gus' "12 Holiday Wishes for the Theatre" would give any cynic a boost of optimism, and his thoughts on increasing diversity are right on ticket.

6) On Theatre and Politics - Matthew Freeman's insights on affirmative action in the theater emphasize the role of the individuals in the theatre and not counting colors. Be sure to read the comments on this blog post, which are equally as provocative as the post itself.

5) Cambiare Productions - Travis Bedard has remained an avid blogger and tweeter for the diversity convening, with his stake in indie theater evident to all of his readers. He articulates and analyzes his opinions on theater very intelligently, stimulating my mind long after I've perused his posts.

4) 99 Seats -  J. Holtham has maintained and fueled the diversity conversation, particularly on racial diversity, exceedingly well. I can't wait to meet him at the Black Playwrights Convening.

3) Theatre Ideas - Scott Walters' blows my mind on a daily basis with his compelling work on CRADLE and mission to empower rural and local communities. He shines a light on an element of diversity most people ignore is easily one of the most  brilliant conversationalists I've ever met.

2) & 1)  Mission Paradox and Parabasis - Ok. So I just couldn't choose one blog since Adam and Isaac have been consistent with moving the diversity conversation forward, even after their work during the convening. They introduced this discussion to more people than I could have ever imagined and help maintain a solid progression of idea on diversity from multiple facets.

Be sure to stay tuned for a white paper on the convening, detailing more of the internal conversations that took place.

This is Amrita Mangus, signing off for now.

Watch Out World! Here Come the Black Playwrights #NewPlay

By Travis LeMont Ballenger, Institute Fellow

The second convening of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, focused on Black Playwrights is fast approaching, on Saturday January 16, and Sunday January 17th.  This convening will be hosted at the Davis Performing Arts Center on the campus of Georgetown University as part of our continuing partnership with Georgetown. Participants of the convening include: 

Christina Anderson, Neil Barclay, Daniel Beaty, Pearl Cleage, Kia Corthron, Lydia Diamond, Karen Evans, Kamilah Forbes, Farrell Foreman, Marcus Gardley, Sandra Gibson, Danai Gurira, Katori Hall, Paul Carter Harrison, Jackie Lawton, Jennifer Nelson, Paul Anthony Notice, Lynn Nottage, Robert O'Hara, Psalmayene 24, Rha Goddess, Nikkole Salter, Dominic Taylor, Regina Taylor, David Emerson Toney, Shay Wafer, Talvin Wilkes, and Tracey Scott Wilson.  

On Sunday, January 17th at 7:30 at Georgetown University's Gonda Theater at the Davis Performing Arts Center, selected playwrights will read excerpts from their new plays. The playwrights include:  

Rha Goddess, Paul Anthony Notice, Lydia Diamond, Marcus Gardley, Daniel Beaty and more... 

Can't make it to DC for the reading? Then watch it live at New Play TV

Adam Thurman, Isaac Butler, and J. Holtham will be joining us to blog and tweet the entire convening, both Saturday, January 16th and Sunday, January 17th. Search the hashtag #newplay on twitter to follow along and let your voice be heard.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "And now....Audiences!" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: Question number four revolved around audiences, what it meant to have diverse audiences or to create audiences for diverse work etc.  --IDB

The Question of AUDIENCES

A community-based theater person noted that when they started getting the Times reviews, people outside of the community came, and that was the moment they became diverse. But since their mission is to serve the community, they still have to represent those people or they are violating it.

A producer said: “A lot of corporations and for-profit orgs I worked for struggled actively to make the customer feel welcome, no matter who they were.”

A looming trap: Us Vs. Them. Us the makers vs. them the audiences.  I invite you to my house.  Maybe site specific work offers a way to get other peoples to the work.

When we ask “where does the audience fit in” how are we defining audience, entry point etc?

A marketing director: Churches that are able to build and thrive are churches that see themselves as the nexus of the community. The sermon isn’t the only point, it’s the connecting point, the thing people connect through. The church exists Monday-Saturday. That’s how they earn the audience they get on Sunday. In theater, we’re awesome on Sunday, but Monday through Saturday, we don’t exist.

How do the social norms of going to the theater—don’t talk on the cell phone, don’t whisper, don’t move etc.—how does that impact participation in our art?

Audiences are smart.  If we talk down to them, they know.  And they see through our bullshit.

A person who runs a multicultural org said that his goal is to create a container for the work that people can interface with it. So if they’re bringing in an asian performance artist, but the audience is predominantly white, how do you prepare both sides for that?

There’s an idea that if you just do some work that’s “hip-hop theater” or whatever, new audiences will start lining up.  But that’s actually a challenge to accomplish.

A marketing director said getting black people to see a “black play” isn’t hard. What’s hard is getting them to trust you enough to come to the next play, and the next, to come to all the plays. That’s a real challenge, because seeing a bad play is really horrible.

Social media is not a way to sell tickets, it’s a new way to express yourself.

Again a marketing person said: If we treat our audiences as just consumers, they will respond likewise. That’s what we’re doing right now.  So audiences respond in a 'oh, I like this, I don’t like that, I’ll see this, I won’t see that’. Instead of having an ongoing dialogue with them.  If it’s a series of random experiences, we turn people into consumers.

Are we failing our audiences by not providing enough context?

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "Next Steps" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: The final breakout and whole-group sessions focused on next steps. I actually participated in these conversations, and thus don’t have comprehensive notes on them. One point that I tried to make that might not be reflected here relates to "workplace discrimination". That discussion is open on my blog:  --IDB

On another note, this is the last post from me, so I just wanted to thank Arena Stage, and particularly Amrita Mangus, Vijay Mathew and David Dower for bringing me down and organizing such a great event and inviting me to be part of it. And I’d also like to thank Adam Thurman for being my partner in crime. --IDB

Next Steps

We did this through several breakout sessions into groups.  Here are some highlights:

Diversifying grant panels and taking a broad definition of diversity.

Diversity of staff

Artists as curators, giving artists power instead of resting it in one individual

Equity Reform? reforming Equity to not just be about LORT + Commercial Theater.

“Create the marquee, don’t just follow it.”

Doing away with the idea of slots. Are we there yet?

$$$ reforms. Funding smaller companies that have a history/legacy of doing diverse work and then helping them spend it. As distinct from funding companies that haven't been doing this work effectively in the hopes that they will. Fund the groundbreakers.

Grant guidelines for diversity.

Tithing seats to the community you want to serve

Database online to easily identify artists and administrators who can bring diversity into the mix.

Do we need to redefine what success is?

Where would you like to see this go?

Into curricula! Particularly arts management curricula. People should be having these conversations before they go into the workforce

Legitimizing the places where this is already happening!

Let’s get an action list that we can bring to these places, give speeches etc.

We need better research. What is the reality of what playwrights need w/r/t education to be produced? (And actors and directors etc.) and what is it that they think they need?

Solutions for larger theaters are not going to be the same as solutions for smaller group. Strategies need to be scaled.

There is value in having conversations that has these organizations that work in different ways (LORT, grassroots etc.) in the room together to learn from e/o

People need action items. Solutions. Otherwise there will be hopelessness.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "Five the Hard Way, Con't" #newplay

Reporting by Adam Thurman, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Question Set Four

Where does the audience fit into all of this?  Can we effectively measure the value of a diversified audience around the theatre?  Who’s in your audience?

The participants began to drill in on the idea of community.  Specifically, the group discussed how to build the community around their work and why that is so important.

One participant worried about the “us v. them” dynamic a theatre often creates with their audience.  This can lead to a lack of diversity on stage because a theatre may assume their audience is not as enlightened as they are and thus not ready to appreciate new or diverse artistic experiences.

Another participant talked about how art can be used as a way of connecting audiences to each other, not just to the experience that happens on stage.  The comparison was made between theatres and churches.  A good church connects with their chosen community seven days a week.  That connection peaks on Sunday with a sermon.  The suggestion was made that theatres should find similar ways to connect with their community on a regular, consistent, basis.

There was also a discussion of theatre can be relevant in a world where consumers are looking for cheap, customizable, entertainment experiences on-demand.  The room agreed that a sense of connection to a community that is bigger then an individual play is a way of overcoming those obstacles.  The room also mentioned the power that comes when individual artists are active members of a community.

Question Set Five

What’s the big vision for diversity in contemporary American theatre as you see it?  What next steps would we need to take now to make that future a reality?

1.    Artists that run institutions have to be leaders in the area of diversity.  As one participant put it, they should “create the marquee, not follow it”

2.    Funders have a big role to play in this process.  They should actively reward organizations that are diverse and be vigilant watchdogs of organizations that are choosing not to embrace diversity.  Funders should also be willing to fund smaller companies that are often more “naturally diverse” then their larger counterparts.

3.    There should be an online database that reveals the large number of diverse artists that are available for work.  Many theatres say that they are not diverse because they “can’t find anyone”.  The database could be an answer to that.

4.    Arts organizations should be encouraged to have as broad and inclusive view of diversity as possible.  Again, it isn’t just about race.

5.    Marketing directors should be actively involved in shaping how the art is presented and messaged to diverse communities

6.    Individual artists should be given more power to curate and present work they feel strongly about, even if that work doesn’t fit a particular “slot” or misconception about what the work should be.

With those suggestions the day closed.  The conversation, however, lives on.  We encourage you to bookmark the Arena Stage New Play Blog and visit it often.  We also want you to join the conversation with us on Twitter #newplay

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "Five the Hard Way" #newplay

Reporting by Adam Thurman, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Properly stimulated with ample doses of caffeine and sugar, the participants broke into smaller groups to tackle five sets of questions:

Question Set One

What does it actually mean when we talk about diversity in the context of theatre mission and goals?  If you talk about it in your own for or organization, what do you mean when you do?  Can we define the benefit or value of diversity?

One issue that was immediately addressed was how much fear can be generated when diversity is discussed within an organization.  This can be especially true when diversity is discussed within majority white institutions.  Staff members and artists within those institutions may feel like their jobs will be threatened as a result of the discussion.

The room also discussed how diversity should be connected to a theatre’s chosen community.  One participant talked about how her theatre made a conscious effort to make sure that the art on stage reflected the community where the theatre was physically located.

It’s also noteworthy that the room once again stressed the importance of diversity being more then just race and ethnicity.  They also discussed the importance of diversity being present within all levels of the organization, on the stage, within the Board of Directors and in the administrative offices.

Some participants in the room felt that the value of diversity has been well established.  There has been a strong body of research that highlights the value of diversity within all types of organizations, for-profit, non-profit, arts related and non-arts related.


Question Set Two

What’s happening right now with the state of diversity in the field?  What are the existing practices and applications for advancing diversity that seem to be effective?  What are the obstacles, challenges and confusions impacting efforts to diversify the field?

The participants mentioned that theatres which do a particularly good job with diversity on stage have a stated emphasis on doing the best work possible at all times.  Contrast that with the concept of “token-ism”, i.e. doing a play because it fits into a particular slot.  The room made frequent reference to the African-American plays that theatres do in February as an example of token-ism.

Another concept that was mentioned as a possible “best practice” on diversity was an emphasis on actively scouting and searching for the best plays, artists and other performers in a given region.  Contrast that to the practice some theatres have of waiting for actors to audition for them and scripts to find their way through the submission process.

One obstacle to diversity highlighted during the discussion was the educational system that creates actors, playwrights and directors.  A participant noted that a large number of the playwrights produced in the US received their education from the same handful of MFA programs.  If the bulk of our artists receive similar training, how can the field be diverse?

Question Set Three

There’s this somewhat provocative notion of diversity programs in theatres putting cultural diversity on people who are in many ways working in and from the main street.  Can we have a conversation about what it is to feel yourself part of the “diversity quotient” of a community or organization.

A participant noted how difficult it is to do art under the expectation that their race and cultural will be a part of the play.  For example, would a theatre be in some way disappointed if a Latina wrote a play that had absolutely nothing to do with Latina culture?  Some participants felt that they are unfairly saddled with the expectation that they must represent race in the work, even if that isn’t what they want to do.

Another interesting topic that came up in the room was how artists and administrators of color are represented within an organization.  For example, some theatres produce promotional materials that have artists and administrators prominently featured in them.  Some participants felt like these visuals give the world the false impression that artists and administrators are more prevalent in the organization then they really are.  Others had no issue with the representation and felt that organizations should

Three questions down, two to go.  The participants in the Defining Diversity Conference were getting ready to consider a huge X factor when discussing diversity, the audience.  Then they would have the tremendous task of coming up with tangible ideas that theatres can use to establish and advance diversity within their organization.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 1: "Putting It All On The Table Picture the Room" #newplay

reporting by Adam Thurman, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

There’s a circle of 30-35 chairs, in each one of the chairs is a person ready and willing to tackle the monster issue that is Diversity and The American Theatre.

Normally these sorts of discussions happen as part of big conferences, with hundreds of people trying to get their voice and feelings heard.  The next two days will be different.  The group is small and there will be plenty of time for people to wrap their brains around such a complex and emotional topic.

The day starts with introductions of the participants.  Everybody is smart, skilled and highly respected in the field.  This is going to be an interesting two days.

David Dower, Associate Artistic Director of Arena Stage, officially begins things by asking the room to put all the issues, questions or thoughts they have about diversity on the table.  It’s like he fired a starter’s pistol.  The room begins to weigh in:

One area of consensus becomes clear, diversity is about a lot more then race and ethnicity.  There are other types of diversity that need to be considered:

•    Geographic diversity – We need to ensure that theatre is available all over the country and not just in the traditional theatre hubs like New York, LA, Chicago, etc.
•    The role of the disabled – Are we building theatres that are friendly to those with physical challenges?  Also, are we adequately representing those groups on our stages?
•    Women and their role in the theatre – Many surveys indicate that women are underrepresented on stage and behind the scenes.  How do we deal with as an industry?
•    Diversity in terms of the thoughts and experiences that populate an arts organization.  If you have a room full of people that have different skin colors but see the world in a similar way is the organization diverse?

The room is engaged now and the thoughts begin to fly around the room:

How do we create audiences that are comfortable with performances from diverse artists?

Is the theatre field too hermetically sealed from the outside world and is that part of the reason why we have such difficulty embracing diversity?

Do individual theatres really want diversity or is this whole discussion, and others that have occurred in the past, a waste of time?

What role do institutional funders have in all this?  Should more of them consider whether an organization is diverse when they make their funding decisions?

As the day winds down, everyone has a notepad – or laptop – full of questions, ideas and useful thoughts.  Tomorrow the room will tackle four specific questions related to diversity and theatre, but for now, it’s time for a nice dinner.  There will be plenty of work to handle in the morning.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "Question Three: Let’s Get Personal!" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: After the breakout session and some more carboloading, we moved on to the third set of questions. --IDB

Q: There’s this somewhat provocative notion of diversity programs in theaters putting cultural diversity on people who are in many ways working in and from the main street.  Can we have a conversation about what it is to feel yourself part of the “diversity quotient of a community or organization"

How is it affecting you, personally, right now?

What are the challenges to finding or making a home in an institution for diverse artists?

A playwright of color: “It’s very difficult to make art with a prescribed ingredient list… the funding and interest comes with identity politics strings attached. Does that stand in the way of our imaginative possibilities?… I imagine a diverse cast in my plays, but other than specific demands of the text [like needing to read Sanskrit] the rest is kind of up for grabs”

What does it mean to do a play by a person of color not about their identiy? i.e. Qui Nguyen’s work.  “A play about a black person in space is still about the black experience, even if that experience is never mentioned”

An interesting tangent we’ve gotten on—the visual.  One playwright of color demands that theaters include her picture in the program so that audience members know the play they’re seeing was written by a black person. But some people chafe at this, they don’t want to have two jobs (Job #1 = their titular job. Job #2 = representing their culture and diversity). So staff members of color who end up in all the brochures chafe at representing diversity without their permission.

“The risk is not in doing plays by people of color. The risk is not speaking of those plays as a handout, and going to bat for the play on its own terms”

A playwright of color said that we live in a country that’s not quite ready to let go of the idea that people of color are inferior. Thus, when you work in a Big White Theater, there’s the perception that they’ve given you a gift.

Shifting the gatekeepers will shift the work.  An artistic director who is interested in Ibsen will do a lot of Ibsen, someone interested in diverse work etc.  So what’s the problem with someone who loves Ibsen doing a theater centered on Ibsen?

A really fascinating debate is breaking out that I can’t really describe in real time.  Essentially one playwright of color is saying “Why should we be using money to force organizations who have no interest in diversifying to diversify?” And another playwright of color is talking about racism in America, and that there’s an existing economic reality we have to deal with. 

Example of Lynn Nottage: Playwright who writes very mainstream traditionally structured plays. There’s a lot of playwrights of color who write that way. If you’re hung up on a mainstream aesthetic, people of color write those plays too.

A producer made the point that ideally, artists should be able to order the components of their identity however they want in the work. It shouldn't have to be their blackness (for example) is front and center.

Invisible non-racial barriers in institutions: For mothers. For people with different abilities.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "First Breakout Session" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: So after the first two roundtables, we split up into breakout sessions, being someone who doesn’t work for an organization, I decided to stay in the room that focused on people who work for organizations and institutions and be a fly on the wall. --IDB

Expectation with culturally specific theater that when they do a classic, they will put “something on it”.  So “We’re doing Cherry Orchard”  “Oh really? Where are you setting it?” “Uh… Russia?”

One person from an institutional perspective brought up “the quality conversation” as an elephant in the room. “How do we create standards of what is good and bad and how is that informed by our standards of diversity?”

What about Tyler Perry? Why isn’t he here? Is what he does “good”? What about the urban circuit? Are we willing to have those voices at the table? Those plays come of the assembly line and they’re popular and they make money. Is it a good experience worthy of being at this table?

How big is our tent?

“A tension for institutional people, a spectrum of diversity within the institution itself and having a diverse ecology. If we’re talking about diverse ecology, then it’s about distribution of resources, we need more resources going to companies that support a specific kind of work. But if it’s about within the institution, then it’s about integrating that institution etc.  And we have value judgments about those two strategies without being conscious of what they are”

Defining Diversity Convening - day 2: "Second Questions of the Day" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: The second set of questions revolved around defining the “state of the state” taking a temperature read on diversity issues in our day-to-day lives.  Here again are some things I found interesting from the conversation. -- IDB

Q: What is the state of the field with regard to relationship of theater artist to the institution in the world of diverse work and programming?

What are the existing practices and applications for advancing diversity that seem to be effective or merit close consideration?

Obstacles, challenges, confusions etc.

Specific institutions who are doing this well?

A playwright/performer said that the most diverse orgs he works for don’t talk about diversity.  Younger folks don’t see diversity the same way older folks do.  A story about a young latino is going to involve white folks, black folks, asian folks, probably romantically. One organization he works with is The Lark, which is really interested in the work, and diversity in the work which ends up creating diversities of other kinds.

Commendable org: Victory Gardens in Chicago.  Got grant money to do festival of six up and coming playwrights of color, which a lot of people do, but they folded in a commitment to production. Two of the plays got workshops, two of them were fully produced. That was in the contract.

One playwright/performer said, “We understand that the Roundabout, MTC, The Guthrie etc. are white companies. Creating space for non-white artists and companies to come in and fuck with their audiences and do their thing is a disruption. We have to admit that, to acknowledge that it’s a disruption, even if they claim their mission includes it”

The idea of “Following the Work”. A lot of institutions aren’t following the work, they’re doing tokenism instead.  If you follow the work, that’s a ripcord that creates an opening to diversity in many forms. 

One playwright of color traced through her career the tension between working with smaller companies devoted to works of people of color and larger institutions run by well meaning liberal whites. 

“If you have a choice between your play catering the party at the big house or providing dinner for the community, what are you going to do?”

One performance artist mentioned that theaters use audience attendance to excuse stuff that goes beyond their mission, i.e. Carrie Fischer at Berkeley Rep. 

Lots of discussion of using the work you choose to do to necessitate diversity i.e. if you’re doing a play by a Vietnamese student, you’re going to need to find Vietnamese actors, and if there aren’t any, you need to train them. Or if you’re doing an interdisciplinary work, you’re going to need to draw on people with different backgrounds.

One playwright of color “the only fucking thing I care about is making the work better. Diverse work will make the work better because it will be more reflective of the society around it.”

Institutions try to diversify without tackling first why it’s valuable to them to be diverse.

Lifecycles of organizations—is the longevity of leadership in orgs itself a problem for diversity?

“It’s okay for people to see things that are not like them. It’s okay for an 80 year old to see a 20 year old Queer kid.  But a young Latino has experienced white culture his whole life, maybe he doesn’t need more of it at the theater”

Impact of August Wilson: By being popular and demanding black directors, “we had a traveling bubble of diversity where actors could suddenly be leads, could suddenly direct shows. It had a huge impact on people’s careers. With August’s death, we’re seeing the ends of that impact. And one example of that is Bartlett Sher directing Joe Turner.”

Legacy of slavery etc: The idea that historically, people of color have been reliant on a small group of generous, egalitarian whites and their beneficence.

Theatre as part of and reflection of the tensions already in society. As we become a global culture, what happens with theatre? The vanguard is at the inclusion of international performers into our theatre ecosystem.

Again: The fear is real.  Resources are limited. There are only so many people working in the arts, and so much $$$, so what problems should those resources go to fix?  If we focus on bringing international work here, what work gets shortchanged as a result?

Theaters that rely on philanthrophy to exist now have to rely on stars, star performers, star directors etc.

One journeyman theatre artist said that one way regional theaters have failed is in going out to the communities. Used example of going to communities to do workshops and then expecting them to come to the theater to see the show. That’s not going to work.

“The only way to get a river to change its direction is to change the riverbed. There are times that I feel like we’re throwing really beautiful flowers on the river without changing the bed”

“One of the obstacles to diversity is that we send our artists through the same system and when they come out of that system, they all sound the same.”

Defining Diversity Convening - day 1: "Dialogue!" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: And so, the conversation begins… David Dower opened the floor up for people to just speak their minds, to talk about what they wanted to respond to from the day’s heady conference.  Here, with attribution removed, is a smattering of what was said in the room. You could probably write a whole different blog post taking each of these quotes and responding to it, so you bloggers out there, consider this an invitation to get in on the conversation!  --IDB:

“The way to promote diversity is to hire a diverse group of people. It’s not rocket science, but they’re not doing it. Why not?  Are they interested in diversity at all? I want to know if people mean it. I keep hearing the people in the castle having the conversation, but the people living in the castle, their demographics never change ”

“A majority of the theaters in the United States say 'diversity' but mean 'butts in seats'. So they go 'ooo, look at all these markets I’ve been ignoring and not participating in'.  The case for diversity is usually made in terms of economic viability. 'You’ll stay viable if you reach out to these communities’.”

“It’s not just about getting people of color etc. on your staff. It’s about a paradigm shift in the organization that’s inherent in mission and the values of the organization or else it becomes about outreach to this particular show, like the black play in February.”

“What about the subtle, or rather not-so-subtle dominance of male themes in work?  Plays that don’t have a lot to do with the muscularity of the human condition tend to get relegated to workshops and don’t get mainstage performances even though the numerical majority of our audiences are female.”

“Income stream and money.  The difference between the upper tier where there’s more money and white people and the rest of us philosophically about looking at audiences as an income stream.  The bigger institutions look at the Latino community and say 'oh, look, untapped money' as opposed to us little guys who look at it as a community, as an aesthetic."

“In the 1980s there was all this grant money around to start diversifying. So suddenly these big theaters tried to diversify and they didn’t do anything with the other companies who were already doing that work. So the Guthrie got this money, but didn’t work with Penumbra etc.  And this created a kind of perverse system where (a) they didn’t know how to do that work and (b) it got so you couldn’t do a play by a person of color unless they could get a grant to do it.”

“How to write a LORT play if you’re a person of color: Use your ethnic background and exoticize yourself, but in a nonthreatening way, have female characters but make sure there are strong male roles.”

“These larger theaters are designed for certain outcomes.  The regional theater system is designed for certain outcomes.  So maybe the issue is creating different models where people can make a living, that are sustainable. We’re creative people, but we’re not creative in terms of business model. A different business model could lead to a different outcome?”

“When you want to motivate change and get risk-taking and innovation it takes time. The existing model is to fund change on the margins, and there’s not a lot of way that’s going to create change.”

“Our existing model is to build palaces. It’s a 1960s model. It says: Stay Out. This palace is for us.”

“We have to take the idea of diversity and turn it into the idea of democracy. Democracy in the arts.  The humane social action and process and practice that elevates and promotes the best in individuals. The book has been written on multiculturalism and diversity. We need to change the frame.”

“As a person of color going to these diversity meetings, usually, it’s a sea of white faces + me, so I diversify the group, so whatever I say everyone loves.”

“When you find the organizations that are truly open, diverse, interested in reflecting the world around it, they’re not naming it, they don’t have programs around it, it’s what they do.  So it becomes difficult, if not baffling to try to name success in diversity.”

“Outside of this world of theater is the world. And that world has changed radically over the past few decades to now. And even more rapidly now that we have the web. But our models don’t have a chance. No matter how hard you try to not turn your smaller organizations into a LORT theater, it’s like the only model that anyone ever acknowledges.”

‘We have to bust through but not become the thing we don’t like.”

“There is something going on in that some of the major institutions are getting a little squishy, bringing some interesting people in. Claudia's at Oregon Shakes, David at Arena, Mark Russell at The Public, Diane Rodriguez at CTG, Polly Carl at Steppenwolf etc.  What do we do with this moment of opportunity?”

“Institutionality: Once an institution reaches a certain size, its priority becomes self-presevation.”

“Theatre won’t move to being more democratic until we think about it not as being about money. These major regional theaters dip into communities because they want their money. Without more investment in the arts, especially from the public sector, it’s hard to see this thing improving dramatically?”

“What is happening outside these castles? There’s a lot of really interesting stuff going on outside.  Other avenues around that we can take advantage of.  Are there other ways of doing theater (i.e. not in a black box with fancy seats) that we can take advantage of? Most of the people running these companies, they’re liberal, they want to do good, they’ve inherited these machines with $60-100 ticket, they’re struggling with these questions too, and coming up short. And cracking that is really tricky.”

“We don’t fear the people whose stories we know.” Diversity is a matter of national security.

“Producing the work, doing the work, commissioning the work goes a distance but ultimately what we’ve discovered is it doesn’t actually change the institution that much.  How do you change a theater into a culture of curiosity? Where you’re always eager to learn and have new experiences?”

“True diversity, for a big white institution is expensive, is hard work, takes a lot of time and you face a lot of pushback. It’s huge, ongoing, slow work to transform a white organization into a multicultural one. “

“Diversity can become a shield against action, if you define the issue so broadly that nothing can be done, you ensure that nothing is done.”

“Part of what we’re talking about here is giving up power.”

“It behooves us not to get comfortable in these ruts, so I’m a Latina playwright, but I’m also a mom. I also love science. It’s easy to rail against the power structure and not look inside.  Even if you’re a white guy, theater is a really fucking hard business.  And I think we need to keep reminding ourselves and other people to do that.”

“Is identity put on us like the one dress we’re allowed to wear in public?”

Defining Diversity Convening - day 1: "Issues Arise" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Here are some of the cross currents running throughout the room on day one:

What is the intersection between race and culture? When we say we want a culturally diverse theater, do we really mean racially diverse?  A white hip-hop theater artist, is that cultural diversity?

Outreach. What does it mean to do outreach to different communities? Theaters often hire a person of color to do community outreach to communities they are not, themselves, a part of. 

Who is in the room? How do you diversify the people upstairs so that the work being done downstairs is diverse?

US demographics are changing rapidly but diversity is treated as a spice to flavor the broth rather than changing the essence of the broth.

Whose experience is considered valuable?

Do institutions want diversity? We’ve been having this conversation for a long time now.  Is there, perhaps, a disingenuousness about this whole conversation?

There’s a tension in the room between changing regional theaters and empowering other (grassroots) organizations. The regional theaters get the funding, so does that mean we need to target them?

Defining Diversity Convening - day 1: "Some Background on Participants" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter’s Note: A few members of the convening were asked to speak a little more in depth about what they do and the companies they run or work for.  Here is a sampling of what they said.  Again, these are edited/arranged by my own interest and not verbatim.  Enjoy. Hopefully, you’ll get the chance to learn a little about a company or project you didn’t know about before! –IDB

Sixto Wagan: I am the fifth generation of leadership of DiverseWorks. DiverseWorks was founded by artists for artists to create a space where non-majoritarian work, work from other perspectives, work outside mainstream institutions can take place and be supported.  For the past six years, DiverseWorks has been exploring commissioning and developing new work, particularly work that breaks down barriers between visual and other work.  Particularly work that blurs disciplines.  And we’re also trying to figure out how to promote artists who are queer, transgendered, of many different races.

Right now, most of our artists are of the same class background because that’s who can afford to do work.  Houston is a diverse city, but the problem is getting people to go to the unknown.  The Alley will do a Latino piece that attracts a huge Hispanic audience who then don’t go back and see the rest of their shows, because the rest of their shows don’t speak to them.  Building an audience for a truly diverse performance space is a huge challenge.

The older generation of people who have been having the diversity conversation are ready to pass the torch on. And they want to pass the torch on to me.  And I’m like, “Wait a minute, I’m a first generation Filipino-American, I’m queer, I grew up in suburban St. Louis, I live in the heart of Texas.  My experience is very different from the bulk of what’s out there, what experience can I speak for?”

* * *

Deborah M. Cullinan: Intersection for the Arts was founded out of faith-based responses to the Vietnam War.  It grew out of conscientious objectors doing their service work with youth.  I didn’t come from an arts background, so the idea that art and community organizing should be separate seemed bizarre to me.  So when I came to Intersection, we started doing theater work, because we thought it could bring people together. At the time we had a building and very little else, so we started letting interesting companies use our space because there were a lot of homeless exciting companies.

Then we met Campo Santo. And what we learned with them is that process was as, if not more, important than the product. Working with a group over a very long time, waiting until the work is ready to produce it. We want to engage people and get them up onto our stage, democratize it as much as we can. Our two keys are our community partner program, in which we work with organizations embedded in communities (as we are not a social services organization) and the “open process series” which is about sharing work as it is being developed and coming up with unique ways to discuss the work being created.

We’ve tried to bridge the various parts of the puzzle.  Can we do a show that gets a good review and gets a certain audience member while having the component of community engagement that get other sorts of folk into the theatre. Our audience is very young, majority in their 20s and 30s, if anything we don’t do a good job of reaching seniors. We’re very diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, class etc.

Intersection works best when there are too many people at the table and that discussion creates conflict and out of that conflict comes change.  So the way we do business now is totally different from three years ago. And we always want to bring new people to the table.

*    *    *

Scott Walters: 49% of TCG member theaters are in six states.  28% were in three cities:  New York, Los Angeles, Chicago.  So the majority of theaters are in cities, and the majority of funding goes to them, but the majority of counties in the United States are under 50K people. 

So this lead me to ask some questions, and what I realized is that we’re training people to go to New York when what they want is to go home. But they can’t go home, because there’s the perception that there’s no career there, and that they have to live in New York if they’re going to get work anywhere else.

When I put all the data together, eight states have no TCG theaters at all. And they’re eight deeply red and deeply rural states. We say we’re training theatre professionals, but 86% of actors are unemployed at any given moment. It’s not a profession. It’s a hobby. So why not do that hobby somewhere else where you can have a house?

CRADLE grew out of these questions and conversations between myself and Bill O’Brien at the NEA.  The NEA suggested I write a grant and start doing work to try to help theater grow in smaller areas.  So I’ve been researching the history of these organizations, and meeting people who are doing this work.  I met with one artistic director in a small town in Nebraska, and his company is completely in the black, he doesn’t have to fundraise much because they’re doing okay.

CRADLE’s goal is develop a structure and model that can be used in smaller areas and an educational package that schools can use to teach people how to go to Murphy, North Carolina instead of New York City.  They don’t need auditioning class, they need grant writing class.  And we want to bring these groups together to share lessons learned etc.

An Audience Member Asked: What do you mean by TCG theater? Are you hoping to help promote the existing theaters, to help build a regional theater model there?

Scott: My initial thing was about helping artists build structures in which they could make a living.  So initially I was looking at regional theater model, but I don’t think that’s a good model.  I’ve become enamored of Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper’s Participatory Arts model.  The difference between this and community theaters is that community theaters largely buy into the Broadway model, they reproduce that work on a different scale. I want to create a local restaurant as opposed to their Mall Food Court.  So I want to help theaters grow that have a local flavor.

Audience: My question is, is there a presumed hierarchy? if an audience member likes Guys and Dolls, what’s the matter with that? I like Buffalo Wings.

Scott: Nothing is wrong with that, I just want to give people the option to try other things they might like too. I eat at TGI Friday’s every once in awhile, but I want to eat elsewhere as well.

* * *

Morgan Jenness: I’m trying to find a way to let the random collection of partnerships be less random.  As an agent, I saw a decreasing range of what is possible. Theaters called me and had one slot that was very narrow and so I’d have to go to my clients and fill that slot. 

As a creative consultant at Abrams, I’m now interested in bringing people, disciplines, groups together into collaborative structures like Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge or Marcus Gardley’s new show.  With Gardley’s new show, the old way of thinking about it is, it’s got 11 characters of color in it, it has to get cut down to six. Now, we’re trying to find a way to get it done via collaboration between different groups so it can be done as it should be done.  We also want to start collaborations between arts and service organizations.  So arts isn’t just NEA, it’s the department of interior.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 1: "Introductory Thoughts from Moderator" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: It is perhaps most helpful to think of the following speech as a Joint Stock exercise.  This is not word-for-word what David Dower said, but rather what stuck with me as he spoke, transcribed in real time.  If David were a character in a play about this convening, this would be his opening monologue.  In other words, it is condensed and edited, but done so simply by my own interest.  Take it with a grain of salt.  --IDB

This convening about diversity is one of the first major activities of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage.  It’s important that we start with diversity if we want to build an institution that will truly reflect “American Theater”. The Defining Diversity Convening grew out of a conversation at Humana, responding to some rather strange things.  The room was overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly middle class, overwhelmingly from a few regions.  So the people of color who work for David in Arena became the voice for diversity, whether they wanted to be or not.

My goal then was to create a space where diversity was just a given, so that the people of color didn’t have to be spokespeople for particular cultural perspectives, the idea being that the people of color are there to be themselves, not diversity defined.  In San Francisco, diversity was a term with a lot of density to it, and the way that diversity was created was by creating diversity of aesthetics, which then brought their respective audiences.  Moving from a performance space in San Francisco to a larger institution in Washington, D.C. meant reexamining diversity.

Diversity at Arena when I showed up meant “How many plays by African Americans?” and “How many African Americans in the audience?”  I wanted to examine diversity from other perspectives than simple math.

For me, then, aesthetics are the way in to diversity, where his perspective comes from. By keeping an expansive definition of what kind of work was possible in Z Space (there was no aesthetic prescriptions for curating) different kinds of artists could come in, puppet operas, adaptations, well-made plays etc.  By creating a space where it was supporting people to tell the stories they wanted to tell, the space attracted a set of artists and audiences that was diverse in lots of ways.

Defining Diversity Convening - day 1: "Preliminary Thoughts" #newplay

reporting by Isaac Butler, guest blogger for the Defining Diversity Convening

Reporter's Note: These are preliminary thoughts excerpted from the participant introductions with some attributions removed --IDB

“I’m interested in all the diversities, in class and privilege, artistic role, race, sex, etc.”

“Every conference I go to ends up being about diversity but there’s a dearth of people being real in their conversations about it.”

“I feel like all I talk about is diversity.  I annoy the people I talk to because I’ve been talking about this all my life”

“We do works that are in the cannon. And works that should be in the cannon. We do Shakespeare, but we also do Adrienne Kennedy.”

“This is a conversation I’ve watched happening, but coming from an international background and an ethnically mixed background, I’ve never been able to find an entry into it. It’s fun to be in this room.”

“Having just gotten a degree in arts management, and being a playwright and a school teacher, I’m interested in how these issues reverberate. In the Dominican students who won’t go to Williamsburg because 'that’s where the white people be' and the Nebraskan students who have never seen a person of color”

“In Houston, TX, there’s an issue of regional diversity. Is there a new aesthetic that’s developing in 'non-major' theater markets.  Houston will soon be the third largest city in the nation, and one of the most diverse. How will this impact its theater?”

“I’m interested in figuring out how we take things out of this room that are meaningful”

“There’s a part of me that’s already sucking in my teeth. I’ve been in a lot of conversations about this topic and sometimes a lot happens and a lot of times nothing changes, but I think the dialog is important or I wouldn’t be here.”

“We assume that ethnic populations are homogeneous. Which is crazy.”

“When I was a fellow, I was the first Executive Director fellow of color. I asked why there had never been an executive director of color and they told me they hadn’t been able to find one. That stuck with me. I mean, I’m good, but there are plenty of people better than me. How could they not find another one? I’m now the only person of color who is senior staff at the organization and I think that lends my voice a certain sensitivity.”

“Given that we all have different backgrounds, how do we highlight which diversities aren’t being recognized?”

“I think we talk about diversity so much about race, but I see it so much as about culture. There are people who share cultures but not races, and vice versa, so I’m very interested in the conversation around all of that”.

Some Chewable Nuggets from Defining Diversity #newplay

by David Dower

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Defining Diversity convening, first of all. And I do mean everyone. From the Arena Stage staff (very inspiring to see so many departments represented in the room!) to the thousands of people actively following on Twitter #newplay, it was a lot of people.

There is so much to think about coming off of this intense 36 hours, including the discussions that happened over the cleaning up. I know others who have been involved will be chiming in as well, on places like Parabasis and Mission Paradox, but if you are chewing on stuff and don't have a home for your own thoughts, feel free to leave them here --- we'll keep connecting the conversations through the blog.

For me, there are some powerful takeaways that I'm sure I'll be mulling and writing about over the coming weeks.  Among them:

-- It seems to me that we are in a whole different universe now in talking about diversity in the American theater. Where the Spring convening at Humana invoked diversity entirely along racial/cultural lines, this group easily moved into other dimensions like form, geography, class, gender, institutional purpose, etc. It was powerful to think about following mission and the community purpose/context of any organization to get to a truly diverse ecosystem.

--The room had a mix of the old guard and the newgens. The newgens seem to think about diversity more "thickly" just automatically and in many cases seemed to take it as a given that diversity is itself the way to healthy ecologies, both in terms of local community and institutional health and in terms of the health and sustainability of the form as a culturally relevant forum. The old guard (my generation, in full disclosure...) brought perspective and depth to the discussion but did not proscribe the frame or cling to the earlier narrative.

--In one of Isaac's posts you'll see the mention of a sort of new "squishyness" in some of the major institutions. I find this very exciting. Molly Smith made room for me at Arena, for example, to help advance the vision of the new building as a "Center for American Theater", one devoted to the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. That's a total metamorphosis of one of the original regionals. This Institute is a direct result of that vision. Diane Rodriguez is working at CTG to soften the ground for devised work and culturally (and aesthetically) diverse artists in production, no longer just in the lab settings. Mark Russell is at the Public Theatre programming the Under the Radar Festival, one of those leading labs for proving the "when you follow the artists, the diversity will come with them" axiom-- in one of the highest profile nonprofit theaters in the country. Martha Lavey has brought Polly Carl into Steppenwolf, another leader of the #newplay discussion moving from the "play lab" to the regional theater. Maybe most astonishing of all is what's happening at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where Bill Rauch, Luis Alfaro, Claudia Alick, and Alison Carey are cracking open the purpose and structures of one of the largest theaters in the country-- and making the incredible resources of OSF available to all sorts of forms and artists that would never have even looked for opportunity there.

--The form of the conversation itself was revelatory. Mostly by trusting a swirling and chaotic set of instincts-- it would be lying to say we designed it this way from the start. Amrita pushed to have the discussions blogged. Vijay and Travis pushed the agenda of having the room connected to the twitterverse and to live stream the public portion of the event. I borrowed a dialogue technique (about which I really know very little) from a conversation that happens in New Mexico, The Language of Spirit. The result was shocking in many ways at once. The discussion in the room had a revolving inner circle of about 10 people in casual conversation about each of the prompts you see in the bloggers' reports. Surrounding that was a circle of listeners made up of participants and observers from the DC theater community (many from Arena Stage-- thank you, my colleagues, for your energy and support!). And wrapping all around that room was the cyber-community, with thousands of followers (nearly 100 additional contributors posting their own thoughts). The impact was to have this very intimate, private space for dialogue at the center table that then emanated out into the world in a major way. The discussion could be at once intimate and far reaching, without getting general or masked. What a trip to feel the full synergy of these seat-of-the-pants decisions about the format in real time.

There are many other things to chew on, which Isaac and Adam will spark on this blog with their reports. And Janine Sobeck, who's writing the paper on the whole event will add more in the coming weeks. Where it goes from here, who knows. But we're following the artists, making space for the dialogue, and trusting in the wisdom of this powerful community that has begun it.

LIVE BROADCAST TONIGHT: "Defining Diversity" at 8pm ET #newplay

New Play TV! launches at 8pm ET tonight -- You can participate in our public forum on "Diversity in New Play Development" which will be streaming here: http://www.livestream.com/newplay

You'll be able to login to your Twitter or Facebook accounts to pose your questions and state your comments that will be communicated to the presenters and panelists during the broadcast.  Use hashtag #newplay in your tweets.

How do YOU define diversity? -- Participate in the LIVE EVENT! #newplay

by Amrita Mangus, Institute Fellow and Line-producer for the Defining Diversity convening

So, as evidenced by David's blog on diversity and the comments that followed, our minds have been filled with the topic of diversity in new play development from many angles: the state that it's in, the future of it, and the impact of diversity on both artists and audiences. If you're eager and curious to participate in the diversity conversation, here's your chance to have your voice heard and your mind enlightened!

On Saturday, December 5th, the American Voices New Plays Institute at Arena Stage in partnership with Georgetown University will host What Does Diversity Mean to You?: A Public Forum on Diversity in New Play Development. The public forum serves as the final event in our two-day long Defining Diversity convening and featuring multimedia presentations from Mark Russell (Artistic Director and Producer, Under the Radar Festival), Robert Levi (Documentary Filmmaker, NEA New Play Development Program), and Kamilah Forbes (The Hip Hop Theater Festival) and commentary from notable theater artists and administrators throughout the country (Scott Walters, Debra Cardona-DePeahul, Carlenne LaCosta, Claudia Alick, and Shishir Kurup to name a few . . . .it's a great group of people altogether). The forum will be moderated by Sandra Gibson, President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

Whether you're a local to the DC-metro area or tuning in from California or Hawai'i, you can participate in this exciting forum:

For the locals: What Does Diversity Mean to You?: A Public Forum of Diversity in New Play Development is free and open to the public will be held at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 5th at the Gonda Theater in Georgetown University. If you wish to attend, please RSVP to the Arena Stage box office at (202) 488-3300.

For the nation: Visit this page on Saturday, December 5th at 8:00 p.m. ET to participate in the LIVE BROADCAST of the public forum.  Tweet your questions/comments to the panelists by using the hashtag #newplay and watch yours and your fellow online participants' tweets get answered live! You can also participate in the LIVE BROADCAST on http://www.livestream.com/newplay by using your Twitter or Facebook account.