Connection, Influence, and Impact as a Playwright-In-Residence
11 December 2019
Carlos Murillo and Kira Obolensky talk about their National Playwright Residency Program residencies, creating work for a specific theatre’s audience, playwrights not being part of the sea change of artistic director turnover, and more.
Beatrice Perez-Arche and Livian Yeh have a conversation about their experience in the Young Critics Program, “cancel culture” and criticism, gaining confidence, and more.
Nataki Garrett and Bill Rauch in Conversation, Part II
30 June 2019
Part II of the conversation between Bill Rauch and Nataki Garrett—the outgoing and incoming artistic directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival—touches on inspiring leadership choices, pacing yourself, and cultivating diverse audiences.
Getting Out of the Way So That You Can Listen to the Challenge
Nataki Garrett and Bill Rauch in Conversation, Part I
27 June 2019
Part I of the conversation between Bill Rauch and Nataki Garrett—the outgoing and incoming artistic directors of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival—touches on personal values, gratitude, and how the joy lives in the struggle.
The Importance of Including the Disabled Designers
29 May 2019
Mallory Kay Nelson and Michael Maag talk about the low number of full-time designers working in theatre; the realities of costume, lighting, and projection design as a disabled artist; and how delegation is a skill they’ve both had to master.
Bri Ng Schwartz looks at the importance of companies doing the hard work when it comes to equity, diversity, and inclusion conversations and initiatives.
How to Model a Healthier Professional Culture That Benefits Marginalized Artists and Administrators
1 May 2019
Carl(os) Roa offers thoughts on how organizations can create healthier workspaces, weaving in ideas from artists at Philadelphia Young Playwrights and Applied Mechanics.
Chris Coleman and Marya Sea Kaminski in Conversation
28 April 2019
Artistic directors Marya Sea Kaminski, of the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Chris Coleman, of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, talk about board relationships, connecting with new audiences, budgets as moral documents, and more.
Sarah Rasmussen and Joanie Schultz in Conversation, Part Two
10 February 2019
In Part Two of this conversation, Sarah Rasmussen, artistic director at Minneapolis’s Jungle Theater, and Joanie Schultz, former artistic director at Addison’s WaterTower Theatre, talk about their biggest successes over the past couple of years, the difference in a board’s relationship to a founding artistic director and to a new leader, and more.
Joanie Schultz and Sarah Rasmussen in Conversation
3 February 2019
In Part I of this conversation, Sarah Rasmussen, artistic director at Minneapolis’s Jungle Theater, and Joanie Schultz, former artistic director at Addison’s WaterTower Theatre, talk about the importance of working with a third party during leadership transitions, trusting your gut in decision-making, and more.
Kinan Valdez and Jacob G. Padrón talk about growing up in a theatre family, leadership in the Latinx community, the skills needed to be the artistic leader of a company, and more.
Naomi Campbell, Luminato’s new artistic director, sits down with Emma Stenning, Soulpepper’s new executive director, about theatre in Toronto, reaching communities outside of the downtown core, cross-collaboration, and more.
Johanna Pfaelzer and Lisa Steindler in Conversation
23 December 2018
Johanna Pfaelzer, incoming artistic director at Berkeley Rep Theatre, and Lisa Steindler, executive artistic director of Z Space, talk about creating partnerships with organizations across the Bay Area, the younger generation of leaders, and more.
Joe Melillo, BAM’s outgoing executive producer, talks to Rob Orchard about his thirty-five-year-long time at the company, continuing his work with emerging artists, and more.
Sarah Bellamy, artistic director of Saint Paul’s Penumbra Theatre, talks to Jamil Jude, incoming artistic director of Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, about learning from the founders, the funding disparity between predominantly white institutions and theatres of color, and more.
Lydia Milman Schmidt, founder of the advocacy group Parents in Chicago Theatre, looks at the progressive policies Rivendell Theatre Ensemble has in place when it comes to working with parent artists on production.
Rob Orchard and Susan Medak in Conversation, Part 2
2 December 2018
Susie Medak, managing director of Berkeley Rep Theatre, talks to Rob Orchard about how to best prep staff for a major leadership change, how an outgoing artistic director can work with the incoming one, and more.
Rob Orchard and Susan Medak in Conversation, Part 1
25 November 2018
Susan Medak, managing director of Berkeley Rep Theatre, speaks with Rob Orchard about a board’s involvement with changing leadership, reevaluating a company’s artistic mission in the lead up to hiring someone new, and more.
Following Curiosity and Keeping the Apocalypse at Bay
Tony Taccone and Pam MacKinnon in Conversation
18 November 2018
Berkeley Rep’s outgoing artistic director Tony Taccone talks with new artistic director of A.C.T. Pam MacKinnon about moving from freelancing to running an institution and vice versa, the language used to talk about a company’s vision, subscriptions as economic foundation of theatre, and more.
Director, dramaturg, and founding AD of Crowded Fire, Rebcca Novick, speaks with Marissa Wolf, the new AD of Portland Center Stage—and former AD of Crowded Fire as well—about knowing when you’re ready for change, leaving communities you’ve helped build, parenting in the arts, and more.
Kim Whitener, the former executive director of HERE, and theatre producer and consultant Mara Isaacs sit down to talk about moving from institutions to the freelance world (and vice versa), the generosity of other theatre creators, work-life balance, and more.
Howard Shalwitz, co-founder of Woolly Mammoth, talks with Carey Perloff, longtime director of American Conservatory Theater, about their decades-long tenures at their respective companies, covering everything from the throughline of founding manifestos, to the five- to six-year cycles companies go through, to how lonely it is to be an artistic director, and more.
May Antaki speaks with Brendan Healy, the new artistic director of Toronto’s Canadian Stage, about leadership changeovers happening across Canada, how his approach to being an AD has shifted over the years, his desire to cultivate curiosity inside audiences, and more.