The 2013 Theatre Communications Group National Conference

HowlRound TV will be livestreaming the following six events from the 2013 Theatre Communications Group (TCG) National Conference in Dallas, Texas. For real-time conversation, use Twitter hashtag #TCG13 and follow @HowlRoundTV for updates about the livestreaming. You can view the entire conference schedule and join the conversation using TCG’s year-round conference community platform.

• Artistic Innovation: Introductory Homeroom Session with Caridad Svich and Howard Shalwitz

Thursday, June 6 at 12:15pm-1:15pm PDT / 2:15pm—3:15pm CDT / 3:15pm-4:15pm EDT / 19:15-20:15 GMT

After introductions and logistics, Caridad Svich, TCG's online curator, will share her thoughts on artistic innovation, and report back from the blog salon on the TCG Circle. Then co-curator Howard Shalwitz will set the stage for the rest of the week, identifying the following goals:

1. To reaffirm the "why"—why make "Artistic Innovation" a personal/organizational priority?
2. To clarify the "what"—what do we really mean when we say “Artistic Innovation”? Does that language mean different things to different people?
3. To identify shared "values" and "principles"—acknowledging the diversity of answers to the questions of #2, what inclusive values and principles can we name to empower our shared progress?

• Moving the Flywheel: Practical Examples and Methods to Take Your Organization from Good to Great with Brett Crawford and David Schmitz

Thursday, June 6 at 1:45pm-3pm PDT / 3:45pm-5pm CDT / 4:45pm-6pm EDT / 20:45-22:00 GMT

Using the foundational learning from extensive professional experience as well as frameworks like Jim Collins' seminal book Good to Great and Delivering on the Promise of Nonprofits by Jeffery L. Bradach et al., the moderators hope to lead a conversation with session attendees on how they can lead their organizations from good to great. The session will encourage attendees to think about their organization's work and structure in a new way, and will provide attendees with examples, worksheets and resources to take back home. Reading: The Perpetual Start-Ups by Dr. Brett Ashley Crawford

• Assembly: Defining a Movement: Exploring Movements of the Past, Present and Future

Friday, June 7 at 7am-8:15am PDT / 9am—10:15am CDT / 10am-11:15am EDT / 14:00-15:15 GMT

We’ll explore the following movements through the perspectives of:

Adrian Hall, Regional Theater movement

Laurie McCants, Ensemble Member, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble & Board Member, Network of Ensemble Theaters: Ensemble Theater movement

Kinan Valdez, Producing Artistic Director, El Teatro Campesino: Latino in Theaters movement

• Blurring Boundaries: Community Participation in Professional Process with Erin Washington, Lisa Mount, Peter Howard

Friday, June 7 at 8:45am-10am PDT / 10:45am—12pm CDT / 11:45am-1pm EDT / 15:45-17:00 GMT

Many theaters are practicing a form of engagement that makes a community the focus of the play. This often entails community members performing alongside professionals or under their guidance, and otherwise participating in the playmaking process. What are the implications of this way of working on the artists and on the communities they are engaging with? A growing body of knowledge exists about professional practice with non-professional performers, as well as plays that endeavor to represent the concerns and characteristics of a place or a group. Is this kind of work the secret to authentic engagement? How are artists and theaters navigating the tension around measuring excellence when the craft of acting is not necessarily paramount? And what kind of impact is this work having in the communities where it is taking place?

• Assembly: A Conversation with: Ayad Akhtar and Gabriel Greene

Friday, June 7 at 11:30am-12:45pm PDT / 1:30pm—2:45pm CDT / 2:30pm-3:45pm EDT / 18:30-19:45 GMT

Ayad Akhtar is an actor, writer, and 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Recipient. He was born in New York City and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the author of American Dervish, published in twenty-five languages worldwide and a 2012 Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, Toronto's Globe and Mail, Shelf-Awareness, and O (Oprah) Magazine. Ayad is also a playwright and screenwriter. His stage play Disgraced played at New York's Lincoln Center Theater in 2012 and won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within. He has received commissions from Lincoln Center and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Ayad is a graduate of Brown and Columbia Universities with degrees in Theater and Film Directing.

• Latinos in Theatre: A National Movement with Anne Garcia-Romero, David Lozano, Kinan Valdez, Olga Sanchez, Tlaloc Rivas

Saturday, June 8 at 7am-8:15am PDT / 9am—10:15am CDT / 10am-11:15am EDT / 14:00-15:15 GMT

Come participate in a dialogue with leaders of the Latinos in Theater movement and the Latino/a Theater Commons. How has this movement gained traction and momentum over the years? What lessons are useful for the entire field? How is Latino/a theater becoming a more central part of the American theater?

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