AMERICAN THEATRE | 2 Days in April: TCG Goes to Washington

The movers and shakers of Capitol Hill are fixtures on the nationwide stage. It’s rarer that they flip their consideration to the nation’s theatrical levels, however that occurred in early April, when theatre people visited Congressional workplaces in Washington, D.C., as a part of a two-day Theatre Communications Group occasion dubbed “Devices of Civilization.”

The thespians got here armed with speaking factors on six points that TCG had beneficial highlighting: help for the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts; help for arts training; bettering the visa course of for worldwide visitor artists; fixes to the way in which the tax system treats charitable giving; help for arts employees; and the necessity for laws to fight predatory and misleading ticketing exercise. However one aim of the visits was to maneuver previous generalities to resonant specifics, and to ship firsthand accounts of how the problems had affected particular person theatres.

Such specifics got here up when Alex Levy, creative director of 1st Stage in Tysons, Va., and Erica Lauren Ortiz, an entrepreneur and theatre skilled, met with a staffer for Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, as an illustration. At one level, Levy took the chance to elucidate that NEA funding had supported Wanda’s Method, Caleen Sinnette Jennings’s interview-based solo play a couple of Black lady police officer, which 1st Stage premiered in 2022. The Warner staffer took notes energetically.

After about quarter-hour, the appointment was over: Levy and Ortiz beelined out of the convention room to their subsequent scheduled Congressional appointment.

“I used to be nervous, but it surely’s actually inspiring to know which you could go and communicate to management, to representatives,” and, furthermore, “have a significant assembly,” Levy mirrored later.

The Congressional barnstorming was the end result of “Devices of Civilization,” whose title borrowed from Zelda Fichandler’s eloquent metaphor in regards to the enriching energy of nonprofit theatre. Together with governance roundtable periods in addition to the Capitol Hill visits, “Devices of Civilization” was a solution to survey responses TCG had acquired from member theatres suggesting that it prioritize advocacy and create alternatives for expansive conversations about a wide range of considerations. 

“Devices of Civilization” kicked off on April 9 with the governance periods, held at D.C.’s GALA Hispanic Theatre. As further individuals participated by way of Zoom, in-person attendees gathered in GALA’s efficiency house, the place a stage strewn with ladders and what appeared like stylized fruit bushes testified to set constructing for the corporate’s Eva Perón-themed musical Momia en el clóset (Mummy within the Closet).

The dialog unfurled in a fishbowl-style format, with shifting configurations of attendees taking seats onstage to debate points dealing with the sphere. Main themes included tips on how to talk the worth of theatre and the way artists and leaders would possibly take a long-Game method to making sure the sector’s viability. Curtain instances, season planning, viewers demographics, outreach methods, the professionals and cons of the subscription mannequin—these and different matters got here up for dialogue. Offering context, Corinna Schulenburg, TGC’s director of communications and analysis, introduced knowledge on long-term traits in subscriptions and advertising and marketing prices. 

Afterward, Marissa Wolf, creative director of Oregon’s Portland Middle Stage, mentioned she significantly appreciated how the day’s programming “put loads of voices within the room” and enabled peer-to-peer sharing. “I discover it actually significant to zoom out from my very own work and theatre to suppose extra broadly about what’s happening throughout the sphere,” Wolf mentioned.

Occasions on April 10 started at D.C.’s Area Stage with coaching led by TCG’s director of advocacy, Laurie Baskin. Attendees acquired packets containing situation briefs, an at-a-glance doc in regards to the state of the theatre, bios of elected officers, itineraries, and maps of Capitol Hill.

Along with discussing the nuances of the six points, Baskin gave attendees a heads-up on what to anticipate within the halls of energy: tips on how to get from the Home aspect of Capitol Hill to the Senate aspect (it’s walkable, if in case you have sufficient time), who would seemingly take the conferences (Congressional workers reasonably than elected lawmakers), and the way lengthy the conferences could be (temporary). With the assistance of Ortiz, Schulenburg and Baskin role-played methods to speak to staffers. 

The 2-day occasion, which constructed upon TCG’s longstanding advocacy work, wasn’t the one theatre-championing push on the town that week: The Skilled Non-Revenue Theater Coalition (PNPTC) had additionally designated time for speaking up the Supporting Theater and the Arts to Impress the Economic system (STAGE) Act of 2024, laws launched within the Home and Senate to help the nonprofit theatre sector. Given these complementary advocacy efforts, TCG and the NPTC named the multi-day interval “Theatre Week.”

Eugene Hutchins, managing director of East West Gamers in Los Angeles, stopped by Congress with a TCG crew on April 10, then returned the following day with the PNPTC. The double-punch “was a possibility to get in deeper” with essential training and messaging on the wants of the sphere, he mentioned later. An added plus: Wandering round sprawling Federal buildings is train. “I received my steps in,” Hutchins quips.

Wolf, too, was happy with the Congressional visiting she did.

“I discover it to be extremely highly effective and thrilling to return along with a direct line to our representatives across the important want and urgency for funding for theatres,” she says. “Main an establishment proper now may be so isolating—to navigate in such a profoundly tough time. The chance to essentially rise up within advocacy for your entire subject is, I feel, an act of resilience and hope.”

Celia Wren (she her), a journalist based mostly in Washington, D.C., is a former managing editor of this journal.

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