Amissa Miller

There is power in the gaze. But what burdens of hypervisibility - being overseen - do we place on Black audience members in moments of explicitly racialized performance? This paper weaves my experience as a Black theatre artist, educator, and audience member attending a performance of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s FAIRVIEW with the theoretical frameworks of Lewis Gordon, bell hooks, Simone Browne, Christina Sharpe, and other Black scholars to address the permeability of the hypervisible/invisible line in the experiences of Black audiences, with a particular focus on performances that engage with what Jonathan Markovitz names “racial spectacle.” I argue that this and other moments of racial spectacle in the theatre center the viewing experiences and racial awareness of white audiences, rather than empowering Black spectatorship. When this process is imposed upon Black audiences, we objectify and further alienate those who may already feel implicitly hyper/invisible in theatre spaces. This paper illuminates the impact of these moments and imagines how we as a field might create, contextualize, and resource work that centers the Black gaze when choosing to offer to our audiences the racial spectacular.

Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

Eréndira Itzel Santiago Llamas

Virtual is a word that designates something that only exists apparently and that is not real, or that does not happen in the real world. It is also a word that makes me think about the way dramaturgy has been developed in Mexico City. Most of the people that are named dramaturgs nowadays, here in Mexico, learned about dramaturgy through texts, videos, or interviews. And in the best of scenarios we have learned about the work after getting in touch with a professional abroad, and after that, practicing it. Therefore, in the beginning, dramaturgy was taught and learned in Mexico virtually.

Kristin Johnsen-Neshati and Nicholas M. Horner

This year, 1,001 PLAYS forged its first international exchange of student plays, culminating in two evenings of staged readings and live-chat discussions with their counterparts and distant audiences (the first in Fairfax, VA, USA, and the second in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil). This year's theme was TOMORROW, and our playwrights submitted short works engaging this idea. What are the surprises, challenges, and rewards of working across cultures, borders, and languages in student-centered collaboration? What steps were remarkably hard, or surprisingly easy? What does it mean to value process over product cross-culturally? What did we learn from our students and global academic partner? What insights will we carry forward next year?

Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

Sarah Lee Chic

Let's be real: Dramaturgy needs to be utilized by all theatre artists, but how do designers use it? How do we research light and sound? How does it help for contemporary plays? How are designers dramaturgical research different than the dramaturgs? And how do we work with dramaturgs? Additional discussion includes international work & help an audience member understand the play even if the language in the script is not a language they are fluent.

Shadow D Zimmerman

In lieu of my deeply materialist reading of Jack Kerouac’s The Beat Generation (1957), I hope to use this opportunity to reconsider my object of study in a manner deemed topically necessary by the forced distance of our current pandemic: engaging Michael Chemers’ definition of the dramaturg as one who “[transforms] that inert script into a living piece of theater” (3), I look to interrogate the intersections between dramatic research and literary studies dramaturgically. How do we make the manuscript a “living piece of theatre”? Too often, these pieces of our theatrical past (and potential present) are inaccessible, behind glass or in climate-controlled storage. My original plans for accessing this Kerouac manuscript would have proven difficult, but COVID-19 has now made them impossible. As one with a deep interest in the performatic nature of historical manuscripts -- the ways in which the physical, embodied acts of reading meant something semiotically to the reader -- I will interview materialist scholar(s) at UW and reprographic archivists at the Rose Library to explore any possibility of (re)presenting manuscripts as manipulative objects for the masses, to make suggestions for the treatment of these artifacts as living, interactive documents through reproductive (or other) methods.

Claire F. Martin

During the first week of quarantine, I composed an original two-part stage adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s WAR AND PEACE for a repertory company of 14 actors (7W, 7M). It was an unplanned endeavor, fueled by the timely thematic resonances I detected in the novel, particularly the endurance of communities that are forged in love (i.e. families, friendships, teams, etc). The twofold task I set for myself as a playwright/dramaturg was to update Tolstoy’s narrative for a twenty-first century American audience while maximizing the dramatic potential of theater as the medium for that narrative.

Last week, a group of actors joined me in a full-cast online reading of my two plays. After each reading, a colleague facilitated a ~45-minute talkback via Liz Lerman’s “Critical Response” model. These two discussions yielded such provocative questions and insights that I extended the process into an ongoing virtual playwriting workshop. Now, in collaboration with the three actors who read for the leading trio in our April 7-9 sessions, I am developing my W+P adaptation through a series of online sessions that combine dramaturgical discussion of content and cultural relevance with new-play scene work.

What sets these workshops apart is the necessity of the digital platform to make them possible. I live in Portland, OR. My actors live in San Diego, NYC, and Miami. All three of them directly inspired my reimagining of Tolstoy's central trio, but in ordinary times, I probably would have had to settle for Skyping *one* of them into an in-person workshop with second- choice performers. However, because this project unfolded during the pandemic, bringing all my top-pick actors together electronically was not an artistic compromise but rather just a function of the workshop format itself. We are now deep into this virtual development work and my actor-dramaturgs are revolutionizing the way I engage with Tolstoy's source material. They are responsible for so much new material, so many new moments of complexity and nuance, and so much more clarity in the dramatic storytelling. Quarantine has made geography a secondary obstacle to uniting my theater "dream team." Perhaps that can be seen as one of the pandemic's artistic upsides.

Dr. Janna Segal

In collaboration with Diana Grisanti and Steve Moulds, the Co-Artistic Directors of Theatre [502], the senior Theatre Arts majors at the University of Louisville embarked upon a journey at the start of the Spring 2020 semester to devise a post-apocalyptic performance piece set in a museum in America. Within a few short months, the fictional world we were collectively creating in a classroom became our reality as the pandemic hit and we were required to shift our devised project to the digital realm. As the dramaturg for the project, I served as the curator of what became The Museum of the American Apocalypse. What was to be an on-campus performance shifted to an online stage reading of an experiential performance piece set in 2076, 50 years after the imagined end of the America we currently know. This paper traces the innovative approaches undertaken to dramaturg the end of times before and during what feels like the end of times. Unpacking how a collaborative process initially shaped by the physical constraints of a classroom adapted to the amorphous terrain of the online world during the pandemic will reveal the ways in which we might cross digital thresholds in the future.

Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

Patrick Myers

Members of the Alliance Theatre Education Team will share lessons learned, strategies that worked, and challenges that were raised through the wide range of virtual programs they have launched since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, including streaming performances, virtual spring break camp, online classes, and more. Participants will be able to ask specific questions of the team, and explore the ways their findings can apply to other programs nationally.

Asynchronous Content Coming Soon + Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

Elvira Dimitrova Popova

Hablar del trabajo de dramaturgista en Monterrey, México, es hablar de un proceso de profesionalización del trabajo teatral; de formación, de enseñanza. El estudio de caso se refiere a dos puestas en escena de las que fui dramaturgista durante 2019 y las experiencias de este modo de producción y trabajo. Una obra de autor mexicano y la otra, de autora inglesa. Una – con un equipo numeroso de 10 actores, la otra – de un equipo íntimo de solo dos actrices. ¿Qué aportación tuvo el trabajo como dramaturgista para la vida escénica de estas dos obras?

Diane Brewer

In response to the LMDA call for Dramaturging the Phoenix, CoViDEO ViSiONS assembles people with strong visions about the institutions that will emerge from the ashes of COVID-19. The project takes a cue from Jill Bolte Taylor—a trained neurobiologist—who purposefully managed her recovery after a stroke severed the connection between the left and right hemispheres of her brain. Resisting the temptation to settle into the blissfully isolated innocence of her right hemisphere, she realized she could not reconnect to society without her more practical and stubbornly logical left hemisphere. Through intensive work, she sent the circuits of her left hemisphere through a sieve, trying to consciously choose the practicalities she would allow to merge with her idealism. In this video, we ask participants to consider four circumstances: an experience in the theatre that they’d love to relive, their visions for a theatre they could build from that experience, an experience in the theatre that made them think they should pursue something else, and an opportunity to reinvent that experience to make it better. Their visions pursue the ideal but leave room for the real. They do not offer a uniform consensus. Rather, they delve into the energy of diverse perspectives and encourage us all to envision dynamically inclusive and equitable institutions.

Dramaturgical Coordinator: Diane Brewer is Professor of Theatre History and Criticism at the University of Evansville, where she also dramaturgs and directs. With several other faculty members, she meets regularly with the University of Evansville Theatre Artists of Color. She is a proud member of LMDA.

Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

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Phaedra Michelle Scott

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Vichet Chum

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Finn Lefevre

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Christopher Smith

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Amy Attaway

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Rochelle Torres

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Trey Gray

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Remy Sisk

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Lori Wolter Hudson and David Hudson

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Stephen Buescher

Sarah Johnson

Outpost Repertory Theatre’s 2020 production of Grounded exposed the audiences of West Texas to solo performance with a specific outreach to veteran communities using the online platform of the charity organization Vet Tix. This presentation will explore my work as dramaturg to engage the local veteran community by donating tickets to Vet Tix. Lubbock‘s Outpost Repertory Theatre is in its second season as the first professional equity house in the Llano Estacado region of West Texas with the closest Equity house being 5 hours away by car. This presentation will also discuss the establishment of a professional theatre in such a remote area, the model of partnership with Texas Tech University and outreach to longstanding community theatre organizations. George Brant’s exploration of drone pilots exemplifies Outpost Repertory Theatre’s commitment to expanding the style, content, and modalities of theatre available to our proudly arts-friendly community. I will explore tactics for building an audience with specific community outreach goals in mind using digital and analog tools.

Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

Deanie Vallone

In this round table, we aim to start a conversation about what new play development and producing looks like during and after a pandemic. While this group is by no means comprehensive of the variety of projects and conversations on the subject, we're spotlighting some of the institutional artists currently working on dramaturgically-driven, digitally-focused new play programming that has been shaped by the pandemic. What does new play development and producing look like during and after COVID-19? What challenges and opportunities have we found? What dreams do we have for the future of new plays and dramaturgy? This round table will feature AP Andrews (Seven Devils New Play Foundry), Hayley Finn (Playwrights Center), and Lily Wolff (Alley Theatre), and will be facilitated by Deanie Vallone (Milwaukee Repertory Theater).

Moderated by Jacqueline Goldfinger

Most of us love working in theater, but the reality is that jobs can be hard to come by. However, there is a wide range of businesses that need your know-how to thrive! This video conversation is meant to kick off a larger discussion of how dramaturgs can find work outside of the theater industry. On June 10, Goldfinger will post a video with interviews with dramaturgs who have found jobs outside of theater that use their dramaturgical skills; we'll cover how they found the jobs, what the jobs are, how to frame your skill set, and more. Watch the video. Then during the Conference, we will have a live Q&A panel where you can ask questions and learn more!

Live Q & A at Discussion Groups

Hosted by Brenda Muñoz

A friendly encounter with some Mexican Dramaturgs to hear about their lives, careers, and current projects.

Following the classic Hot Topics format, each participant will get exactly five minutes to answer the questions:
who are they? and what are they doing?

After that, we’ll all meet together for coffee to discuss how dramaturgy lives and breathes in Mexico.

Celise Kalke, Josephine Kearns, Hank Kimmel, Addae Afura Moon, Amrita Ramanan, Dr. Angela Farr Schiller and Pheadra Michelle Scott

Moderated by Amber Bradshaw

This 55 minute panel event was created for the 2020 Crossing Borders 3 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference, moderated by Amber Bradshaw of Working Title Playwrights in Atlanta, Georgia. Re-focusing New Play Dramaturgy for the Future is a roundtable discussion between new play dramaturgs from across the country. Together we will explore how to re-focus new play dramaturgy now and post Covid-19. Advice, wisdom and guidance will be offered to all of our artists during this challenging time.

Lojo Simon

Gabriela Román, César Enríquez, Luis Santillán y Camila Villegas

Hosted by Brenda Muñoz

Sponsored by American Theatre Archive Project

Cuatro dramaturgos mexicanos comparten y discuten de qué manera el proceso de dramaturgismo por el que atravesaron en Nueva York el marco del programa THE LARK US - Mexico EXCHANGE (apoyado por el FONCA y The Lark Play Development Center) fue determinante durante la traducción de cada una de sus obras y para la presentación de las lecturas dramatizadas de:

• Cósmica - Gabriela Román
• La Prietty Guoman - César Enríquez
• Autopsia de un copo de nieve - Luis Santillán
• Jacinto y Nicolasa - Camila Villegas

Four Mexican playwrights share their experience and the dramaturgical process to translate their plays from Spanish to English at The Lark
Mexico - US Exchange 2019.

Fiona Graham, Zainabu Jallo, Adam Lenson, Jonathan Meth, Sarah Sigal, Hannah Slattne, and Catherine Young

Using four case studies from work happening across the globe, artists and dramaturgs discuss the artistic implications and practical challenges of reaching across borders to create and share work. Chaired by Jonathan Meth of The Fence in collaboration with The Dramaturgs' Network.

• Choreographer Catherine Young and dramaturg Hanna Slattne share the challenges of developing Floating On A Dead Sea, about Palestine, in times of Covid-19. Contemplating vantage points across borders, confinement and physical presence in occupied territories.
• Writer Sarah Sigal and director/dramaturg Adam Lenson discuss workshopping Sarah’s play Stills with performer Debbie Chazen, a one-woman show about women, Jews and bootlegging during Prohibition. Sarah and Adam transformed their working process to create a digital performance across the UK and the US due to CV-19.
• Over eleven years the British dramaturg Fiona Graham has collaborated with New Zealand director Stuart Young and Hilary Halba at Otago University working with Talking House Theatre Company. This case study introduces the dramaturgical development processes in three verbatim theatre projects, attempting to cross borders of content, form, methodology and geography.
• The aging diaspora is at the centre of the play We Take Care of Our Own (2019). Three first-generation immigrants ruminate on the interruption of intergenerational practices by the choice to migrate to Europe, Writer Zainabu Jallo will highlight how four distinct locations and production teams enriched the writing process for this play.

Taylor Jane Cooper, Karen Jean Martinson, and Jane Shiermeyer

Tiny Humans, Big Wonder will present the findings of two theatre-for-the-very-young residencies, designed to work with young people as dramaturgs. Using nature as metaphor to explore how we can create a better world together, these very young dramaturgs were immersed in a fantastic theatrical world designed with them, just for them. In this imaginative nature-space, they were empowered to enact their own storylines in partnership with adult facilitators. These residencies were a first step towards creating a dramaturgical theory for approaching theatre for the very young to create safe, inclusive spaces; wonder; and a pathway for collaborative spectatorship. Our panel will begin with a dramaturgical overview of the work and process, followed by a sharing of the performance created from the two theatre-for-the-very young residencies, and culminating in the discussion of our still-emergent dramaturgical methodology and a consideration of the theoretical implications of this work. There is still so much we do not know about the world around us and theatre for the very young. Yet we believe that by empowering very young people as dramaturgs, we can create theatre that allows them the freedom to create, explore, and discover the world around them.

Función de Gala: Homenaje Centenario Amalia Hernández
Dirección: Salvador López López

Esta función de gala es parte del programa “Contigo en la Distancia” de la Secretaría de Cultura y el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura.

SINOPSIS

Amalia Hernández Navarro nació el 19 de septiembre de 1917. Incursionó en la danza desde muy temprana edad. Fue una mujer incansable, visionaria cultural que tuvo el enorme mérito de llevar el baile popular mexicano y gran parte de nuestra historia a los más grandes y prestigiosos escenarios.

Esta gala, organizada por el Ballet Folklórico de México, cerró con broche de oro los festejos del centenario de su fundadora y contó con invitados de lujo como Elisa Carrillo, la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional y la Compañía Nacional de Danza

Función del 17 de septiembre 2017.

#ContigoEnLaDistancia #INBAL #QuedateEnCasa

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Gala show: Amalia Hernández Centennial Tribute
Directed by: Salvador López López

This show is part of the program “Contigo en la Distancia” from Secretaría de Cultura (Mexico) and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (Mexico).

SYNOPSIS

Amalia Hernández Navarro was born on September 19th, 1917. She dabbled in dance at a very young age. She was a tireless woman, cultural visionary who had the enormous merit of taking Mexican popular dance, and a great part of our history, to the biggest and most prestigious stages.

This gala, organized by Ballet Folklórico de México, closed with a flourish the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of its founder and had luxury guests like Elisa Carrillo, the National Symphonic Orchestra and the National Dance Company.

September 17th, 2017 show.

#ContigoEnLaDistancia #INBAL #StayHome