 Anybody want to start with a little reporting back? Go Melinda Lopez. I'm not going to talk at length. I just think what really our conversation started very safe and demure and talking about our feelings. We really did, we moved at length into much more of a social justice access conversation and whether that's the playwright's job or the theatre's job and how do we open the doors. And so we did sort of leave the world of the residency although we do, we are bringing it back to how our activism or not can be supported by the Mellon Foundation or how our voices can amplify that conversation. So I think all of us feel very motivated to go back to our host theatres and say we need to look at this question of access, ticket prices, availability, etc. How do we open the doors? Great. I'm going to hear some more things but then let's come back to what that means. Other people, I'll hand you mine. I'd like to say since I was comparing this gathering of artistic directors to the first cohort I was really pleased to see how quickly the conversation went to how can we support the work of this cohort of playwrights being produced, workshops supported by all the other theatres in the group which was really great. That is not at all where the conversation went the first year. And so there are all kinds of ideas about how we would all like to know whatever seeds of play ideas you guys are all working on now to share that among us because chances are even with just like a little two or three sentence synopsis of what you're thinking about there may be a couple of other theatres that would jump on board and go yeah and we'd like to have you come out here and do a workshop of it here and so just ways to move the work around and Jack for example is on the National New Play Network and making a stronger connection between this cohort and that organization as a way to just get your work moved around so that was a big conversation. One of the things I want us to think about very concretely and we don't have to figure it out today but I've heard that suggestion more than once over the last two days and I think one of the questions is what is the infrastructure already in existence is it the National New Play Network that would be a partner with a cohort like this in what way, I know there's been a lot of conversation about Hall around being able to share information which I think we can do but just trying to think about in concrete terms not to let these ideas fall by the wayside but to go what role can Hall around play what role can existing theatres in this cohort play and then what are the other organizations at play who would be helpful here and us beginning to sort out which thing is where and one of the ideas I just want to throw out there because I know having been through these conversations before as we get to the wrap up let's make sure we think about next steps for these good ideas We did talk about it being a two headed thing where it would probably be useful for us to give you the information to get out to the other theatres about what each playwright was working on internally but also to have the conversations between the artistic director and the playwrights about what other institutions within the cohort to the playwrights want to reach out to that we can also help you know if Lauren wants to be working with the Alliance or Lauren wants to be working with OSF or wherever that I can also reach out and say if you have an opportunity my resident playwright would like to come spend some time with you if you can make that happen so it might be a two way sort of street Okay, it's like creating a mini-map where this cohort of theatres would be the mini-map where we would know when other people's works are premiering and we could go see it or what's being developed by that writer at a particular theatre that maybe we could help vis-a-vis like greetings workshops even just like drop-ins So that's yeah And would there be one of the ideas that Sparks in my head immediately about this is that you all talking to each other and I'm now I'm speaking to the artistic leaders of the organizations but this would be true for playwrights as well but you all talking to each other about the work for example that you're developing with your playwright feels so critical and would it be valuable for you to all commit to a meeting every six months to update each other through the course of this just to be on the phone together to each talk about projects that your playwrights working on and things you're excited about but anyway just that was an idea that just suddenly sparked into my head like that you're actually talking to each other because it's sometimes like Hal Ron can send out a list oh you know this cohort's developing this play and this person's developing this play but there's nothing more exciting than an artistic director saying oh my god you know so and so is working on this play and you've got to read it and I can't wait to send it to you so anyway just a thought yeah that might be all interesting for the playwrights I know we're all busy but to have maybe every six months there's some kind of coordinated phone meeting I mean we all have our contacts but sometimes Louise might say something that sparked something to me and you know so maybe there could be some kind of every six or eight months we can get together for an hour you know on the phone like that you know coordinate through Hal Ron I know I would benefit from that a lot yeah and that's an I won't say easy because it's scheduling but it's easy to send out a doodle form and get you know maybe 10 out of 18 on the phone or 12 out of it you know what I mean something like that 19 on the phone and so I think that's something we could easily do for both cohorts if you decide that that's something you both you know groups if that's something we decide on so I love that idea other things that came out of your discussion any nuts and bolts kinds of questions that would be useful for the whole group to hear the answer to two things came up that really since bears resonate somebody brought up the notion of what happens when you change and I think that was really great how to negotiate change and how to negotiate the communication of change so let's say your play starts to change or the way you want to make the play or if you're a first-time cohort and there are things you don't want to do inside of those requirements how do you just negotiate that so that popped up in the other with that that was really interesting is the difference between small staff theaters and larger theaters and how they both operate in two very different ways and so I could sense that in our group there are two different ways of working and is there something to be learned one to the other or is it I mean like is that something that you would discuss in six months or was there something that I just wonder if there was like a takeaway that those are things I heard but I would love if anybody wants to address who brought it up that would be great because it would be great to just I don't want to talk for anybody basically and I was kind of asleep no no sorry no I just was curious yes well you know I don't know if there's a takeaway but it was an observation I made that I think that the size of the theater really affects the experience you have with the theater whether or not there's an office you're supposed to go to or the flexibility etc etc so I don't I don't know it was just you know I think an observation and I think it was it seems to be really useful for people of similar size theaters to be able to talk if that makes any sense did artistic directors find that as well is it similar size theaters is more more help yeah anybody want to comment on that or just nod heads is fine too sorry oh yeah Herbert go ahead there was yeah there was a big difference between the big theaters and the smaller theaters but I think overall we all had the same concern that the the demographics the our audience the audience is pretty much the same whether it's bigger or smaller and you know we all get excited when there's a preview and there's a lot of comps and there's a lot of big diverse audience in the previews and then the run starts and you see you know you start seeing the homogeneity of the audience and we were concerned about that great who else is yeah I know who else who else wants who's dying for a microphone it's so much fun other things you learned from each other yeah Nathan no I don't know there's probably reiterating but just the importance of communication and communication between the writer and the organization but as well as the writer and the organization with how around it's just it's very important and and and when things I think we talked about changing things change it's okay to say hey this is not I thought it was going to be this way it's not and can we adjust that and be open to that I think you had mentioned it Jerry one thing was the office because I had an office up with everybody else and at one point I was like I can't write in this office it's too many people in this office the other building has cubicles and walls up and I can write in that building and I think there was a level of what we won't see you as much and I was like well yeah you won't see me as much but I'll get some writing done and that was cool we had that we were able to have that conversation so yeah I think that's a great a great point and I wonder if I can ask this question and you know answer or not but one of the questions I wondered if you addressed it all in either of the groups I mean just what is the X what are your expectations are you going to the are the playwrights coming to the office two days a week or three days a week or one day a week or are they do they have an office do they I mean I just wondered did you guys talk about expectations like that and is there something that would be useful for the whole group yeah it's useful or not because we're newbies but I realize that as well as I feel like I know Christina I don't know her writing process well I kind of do I used to get rewrites at four in the morning but other than that I really didn't know her writing process so one of the first things I asked was can you write in the office I don't know I so I'm I'm trying to be open and just adjust to this new relation this relationship that's been existent but in a new form and you know really ask the question like do you write in an office can you write here and I don't know if she knows that or not but you know these are some of the things that I feel like we're going to try and I I got the sense from my cohorts that that's okay to try those things rather than try to fit her into some kind of box I do actually know for a fact unless you're a Denny's it's unlikely that Christine is that still true do you write at the Denny's still no oh my god alright that's so shocking alright anyway don't you remember yeah yeah I used to get Christina Ham emails at four in the morning from the Denny's so I just want I just that's all I'm saying the that's really helpful anybody else from the artistic director side have commented about that oh yeah sorry Michelle I'm sorry so I'm just again comparing to the the first cohort and it feels like everybody going into this has a much more realistic sense of expectations than that first time where I mean again as I said to our artistic directors at 10,000 things we don't have offices so there's absolutely no expectation that you would come I mean I imagine you right in bed I don't know what you do but like that's just like not an interesting question to me in any sense and yet different cultures have different things but and so the first time I mean I just heard all kinds of artistic directors going they need to be in here five days a week nine to five and nobody was saying that this time so there was a lot more realistic and flexible expectations around office time then I heard the first time which was really great I think it's it we've all learned from this first year and the second second round cohort people were asking really thoughtful intelligent questions so it seems like everybody's going into this with a much more realistic sense of expectations around that it's really helpful I think that's great other feedback Susan Booth do you have anything from where you are the luxury that pearls a long time Atlanta resident but the office time it became really invaluable was as a conscience colleague right as as a citizen colleague and knowing that pearl would be a regular presence in in the building and whether it was me in her office or her in mind or any of our staff in her office it was about conversation not about producing written text and that became a that's been a very important thing and it's sort of like where the therapist's office is and sometimes she's in it and sometimes she's not super helpful thanks for that Susan Nathan real quick because she said Susan said conversation and I was happened to be in Atlanta and I was invited in on a like a like a little conversation that they I think she said to me that schedules are busy and sometimes all we have is Friday to get together and have my God what a great conversation I was a part of and I'm just thinking to myself it's not a matter of how much you see each other work just find that time to sit and they didn't even talk about work they were just talking it was just a matter of talking and I thought it was just so great I witnessed it I wanted to move to Atlanta it was such a good conversation I have heard those so many times the importance of the playwright just being around and what it means for the playwright just to be around and present in whatever what what that means in each context is different so yeah I want to speak to that there's a word that is really important to me as being a citizen of my community that I'm not just somebody who makes plays and sells tickets but I actually live there I care about the health of the community care about the diversity I care about justice I care about the future of the community I've lived in my city most of my life I've done 40 years of theater there I've seen it transform and change become a progressive city that it wasn't before so it's actually manifest a lot of the things I've tried to achieve and all of this is a preamble of saying one of the great values of having someone like Herbert as a playwright is you use the word conscience I also thinks about citizenship you know a lot of the people around me are thinking about production they're thinking about selling tickets they're thinking about other restrooms clean or thinking about what's the Marquisate tonight tomorrow and how about that guy who fell down the stairs that was 95 years old and all the things that go on every day but who's thinking about the role of the theater in the community who's thinking about what we look what we sound like and what we represent and we bring in I expect Herbert to do that and he does do that and he is also thinking of this as a citizen and I have to say not a lot of people in my staff do that I speak about it and they go what's that I said well okay if you don't know then we'll talk to someone else but I think you brought it up that we're there we're there to carry out your mission you know I'm saying we represent your mission and we represent your general mission you know and another thing is that that came up to me today it was funny is that all organizations are dysfunctional like for sure they're all dysfunctional from top to bottom and we're not there to fix it you know you know there's that oh I wish I could you know that's not our role you know that's not our role because that could take a lot of energy that's great that's great I'm remembering back to the last cohort meeting and comments by both Bill and Susan and Susan correct me if I'm wrong but they both said they couldn't imagine programming a season anymore without Louise and Pearl at their sides and we haven't talked a lot about programming here Kevin at a sidebar we started talking about the influence of this program on the aesthetics of American theater and it's a particular issue yeah please there will not be a play that we produce that Herbert hasn't read and commented on I mean bottom line he's part of our selection team automatically artistic selection team in fact part of what we're doing is trying to share plays with him that he may not have read just read a Taylor Mack play the other day didn't know that work so part of our job we think is to play right understanding of the field so it's completely integrated in central other responses to that or other comments yeah our art selection process for resident artists is always a panel process of six to eight people and it always involves at least one resident artist that's current and a former resident artist so it kind of carries the like philosophy of what the art making of the theater forward and so Taylor has served on that panel and then a second part of it is that Kim and I usually interview the finalist that the panel has selected like ten people out of the 150 applicants and then we do interviews with them and pick the two or three that are going to be in the cohort going forward so Taylor is going to be part of that process with Kim and I in terms of making the final determination of the artists so that'll be a new thing that we're trying that's different than what we've done before that's great other as we wrap up the comments about that Peter yeah just just one just one quick thing because we work the same way that Melinda's on the artistic staff and she reads everything we read she's also someone whose work we're programming so in those artistic staff meetings we're also talking about whatever dramaturgical challenges with the plays or you know that's something we talk about as a as a group and so the the challenge becomes how do we not feel like a reality where we have to send Melinda out of the room and then she has to guess what everyone thinks of their play based on if they're looking down at their coffee or making eye contact so I think everyone has to negotiate that in their own way in terms of just how do you begin to talk about the artist's work when the artist is an integral part of the team that chooses and critiques the work that you produce I was just going to say since I just started July 1st part of my responsibility is also being part of our artistic team at Pillsbury House and helping Fay and Noelle with recommending plays because of my dual role also at the playwright center of interacting with a lot of new plays that I think can be helpful in terms of possible programming and also looking to take on the role of curating the new plays series there with playwrights from Minneapolis and New York and what does that mean to now go from still being a theater administrator in a different way but also kind of taking more of a lead role in that so great so we're going to take a break for 15 minutes come back