The Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Nationwide Convention

The TCG Nationwide Convention is likely one of the largest nationwide gatherings of the nonprofit theatre neighborhood. TCG has been gathering people this manner since 1976 and annually, the Nationwide Convention creates house for theatre practitioners throughout the globe to get impressed, be taught from each other, and construct towards collective motion. It’s additionally been a approach for TCG and the sphere to get intimately acquainted with theatre communities across the nation, and to channel the actual power of their artists.

In 2020, whereas we supported the sphere in contending with overlapping existential crises, TCG additionally accomplished a brand new strategic planning course of. In our new plan, bolstered by our new mission to steer for a simply and thriving theatre ecology, we’ve dedicated to centering the wants and experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous Individuals of Shade) and BITOC (Black, Indigenous, Theatres of Shade) all through our programming. With that ongoing work in thoughts, it’s our purpose that our conferences could have some, if not all, of the next outcomes:

Members come away with new concepts and instruments for activating fashions of collective care.
BIPOC, TGNC, disabled, and younger theatre practitioners see extra alternatives for management and collaboration open to them all through the sphere.
Incremental but transformative shifts in energy constructions and organizational practices start to emerge in theatres throughout the nation, and people shifts start to create safer, human-centered working circumstances for our freelance artists.
The native theatre neighborhood builds off their shared work on the TCG Convention right into a long run, inclusive strategy of peer help and collaboration, and host metropolis artists are invited to carry their work into different regional theatre communities.
In 1976, TCG convened its first ever Nationwide Convention. For the primary few many years, the Nationwide Convention was biennial, held first on school campuses after which in cities throughout the nation. In 2006, the Nationwide Convention grew to become an annual occasion, and in 2020, we went digital in response to the pandemic. In 2022, we held our first-ever hybrid Nationwide Convention, gathering in Pittsburgh, PA and on-line.

Schedule

Thursday, June 20

ENOUGH! Performs to Finish Gun Violence

9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)

Since 2019 and over three program cycles, ENOUGH! Performs to Finish Gun Violence has introduced collectively 1000’s of artists on the intersection of artwork, activism, and amplifying teen voices in important evenings of theater that enable communities to confront the difficulty of gun violence. Founder and Joaquin Oliver Creative Producer Michael Cotey, together with previous ENOUGH! collaborators in a dialog led by Michael Rohd, will share what has been profitable with this mannequin for calling on submissions from new teen writers, the way it has created a brand new pipeline for younger playwrights; the way it’s nationwide studying has led to significant, lasting collaborations; and what it means to think about approaching theater as an “inciting incident.” This dialog will embrace a presentation of considered one of ENOUGH’s 2022 performs SOUTH SIDE SUMMER by younger Chicago playwright McKennzie Boyd.

Michael Cotey
Loria Perez
Michael Rohd
McKennzie Boyd
Dr. Quenna Lené Barrett
Aaron Nichols

Friday, June 21

Creating Accessible and Values-Pushed Multimedia Content material

10 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)

Be part of HowlRound Theatre Commons for a panel dialogue that includes HowlRound employees members and collection curators. We’ll discover the method of designing, curating, and publishing multimedia theatre content material with a concentrate on values-driven storytelling. We’ll focus on livestreaming occasions, producing podcasts, and creating essay collection, from idea to publication. Attendees will acquire insights into what it takes to craft digital content material that prioritizes progressive and disruptive concepts. This dialogue will equip you with the instruments to create accessible, values-driven conversations in our more and more distant subject.

Julia Schachnik
Ramona Rose King
Vijay Mathew
Jordan Ealey
Leticia Ridley
Chantal Bilodeau

Cross the Torch(es): Navigating Transitions to Expanded Management Constructions @ High quality Arts Constructing, Annex Studio B

2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)

Throughout this time of huge management transition within the subject, there’s additionally an unprecedented variety of theatres and different arts and nonprofit organizations exploring extra distributed and shared management constructions. Some are doing each directly. What does a course of appear like that efficiently navigates a considerate shift in organizational construction and management concurrently? This session will hear from organizations who’ve made such transformations just lately, with each victories and challenges to share, and with helpful takeaways for different organizations present process such modifications now or within the close to future.

Mei Ann Teo
Sara Zatz
Cynthia Fuhrman
Megan Wanlass
Sunder Ganglani
 

Saturday, June 22

Session TBA

9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)

Particulars to return.

Theatre Futures hosted by American Theatre Journal

11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4)

It is no secret that the nonprofit theatre is at a crossroads that has pushed us to reimagine, reorient, and reinvent the way in which we create artwork and do enterprise. To talk to this second, American Theatre journal, with help from the Ford Basis, is publishing a collection of 16 essays written by among the brightest minds in our trade, inviting us to think about vibrant potentialities for our artform. To kick off the collection, Lane Harwell, senior program officer, creativity and free expression at Ford Basis, will average a panel together with Martine Kei Inexperienced-Rogers, dramaturg, playwright, and professor in The Theatre College at DePaul College; Jocelyn Prince, principal at ALJP Consulting; and Michael Rohd, co-founder/member of Sojourn Theatre and director of Co-lab for Civic Creativeness on the College of Montana. They’ll focus on what a brighter future for theatre within the U.S. can appear like and the way we are able to create the place we’re going with new instruments. Be part of us for a dynamic and interesting dialog!

Martine Kei Inexperienced-Rogers
Lane Harwell
Jocelyn Prince
PennyMaria Jackson
Charlique Rolle

Within the origin story of Chicago—and its evolution into one of the crucial vibrant cultural capitals of the world and one that’s frequently named as The Finest Massive Metropolis within the U.S.—a catalyzing occasion that reworked town was the notorious Nice Hearth of the nineteenth century. The Hearth is now generally understood because the consequence of poor city planning, embedded structural flaws that price tons of of properties, companies, and lives. Devastated because it was, town seized the second as a chance for a rebuilding course of that left behind an period of outdated design and resulted in one of the crucial architecturally superior cityscapes and culturally eclectic epicenters of the trendy period. The lore of Chicago’s historical past and rebirth reveals a helpful recipe for metamorphosis: a wholesome dose of grit, a splash of ingenuity, a penchant for collaboration, and a will to at all times do higher by its folks.

The story of Chicago echoes the story of our subject—comprising many tales—that we’re nonetheless telling. “The sphere is on hearth,” we are saying, and we keep. As antiquated constructions smolder round us, we seize the second as considered one of risk, we glance round, and we attempt to decide what we’ll save. From 20-22 June 2024, TCG and the League of Chicago Theatres will welcome theatre practitioners to the Metropolis of the Massive Shoulders, the place collectively we’ll reply the decision of risk, design new instruments, and get to worldbuilding. We’ll take inspiration from Chicago’s energetic and various theatre neighborhood to scaffold new constructions and start telling our tales anew. We’ll work, we’ll play, and we’ll go to new locations; at our first nationwide gathering in two years, and our second hybrid Convention, TCG’s in-person programming will burst out of the confines of a resort, and disperse into town’s many cultural venues, historic websites, and hubs of artistic innovation. Preserve an eye fixed out for each in-person and digital registration to launch in November, and be a part of us in June (together with your sleeves rolled up).