 Who went to the global conference yesterday? And kick it off by introducing the conference team. My name is Devin Berkshire. I'm the director of conferences and field-wide learning at TCG. And your eyes do not deceive you. I'm very, very pregnant. So I'm probably going to sit down in one second. And I'm going to start passing off the mic to my teammates. The core conference team is up here. And I just want everyone to introduce themselves. And we're going to move pretty quickly through a lot of the core conference programming elements. And then we're going to send you off on your merry way to start your session. Okay, here we go. Hi, I'm Gus Schielenberg. I'm the director of communications and community engagement. Hi, my name is Elena Chang. I'm the associate director of equity, diversity and inclusion. I'm Hannah Fenlon. I'm the associate director of conferences and field-wide learning. And I'm Natalie Stringer, the conferences associate. Welcome. We also have some old conference friends with us. And I believe Ty, this is your cue. Would you like to come up and introduce yourself and lead us in one moment? Cool. We'd just like to take this moment to honor the indigenous people of the land here in the Washington, D.C. area. I want to say that I'm humbled to speak on elders' behalf as well as the local D.C. area folks of the Pamunkey Nation, Pasquitawe, the Cherokee people and the Iroquois people, all of the Algonquian-speaking languages, who for many years, many, many centuries have traded stories and songs and art from the Chesapeake Bay along the Potomac River. So it's a great honor that we're here in their lands of Turtle Island, having the conference of a theater nation. So, we glitch. Thank you, Ty. And just to go over a couple of the goals of why we're here together, we're going to do two things. We're going to let you know all the different ways that you can engage with the conference programming with a bunch of exciting cameos from your fellow attendees. And we are going to lay the groundwork for building a shared analysis of our at the intersections arc. Those are the two things that we're going to do in our time together. And it's important that we came together as a conference first before we all split up on our merry ways. So now I'm going to turn it over to Hannah to explain why that's so important. That is so important is because as you know, if you've been here in past years, the conference is both professional and deeply, deeply personal. Increasingly, we're asking attendees to not just bring their professional but also their personal selves to the conference. And we need to provide support on how to navigate that balance. And by provide support, I sort of mean give yourselves time and space. Take the time that you need. Ask questions of the conference team and give each other a little bit of space and support as we move through these three days together. And I'm going to pass it off to Devin to talk a little bit more about the goals of the conference. Okay, some of our overall goals of theater nation. You're in Washington, D.C. in an election year. The theme of the conference is theater nation. And in 1984 at the conference, Robert Wilson said theater people from different countries make up a kind of united nation. A theater of nations. And believe it or not, we found that quote after we had named the conference. Just, you know, works out that way. If that's true, how can we use our time together to work toward a more perfect union? Can we imagine a theater nation whose borders are not bound by walls but opened through affinities of creative practice? Can we create a theater nation that welcomes everyone who shares those affinities and equitably represents them? That's one of our big goals for our time together. And some of our other goals include skills building, networking and knowledge exchange for your professional development, social gatherings, fun and affinity groups for personal connection. Getting to know Washington, D.C. and the awesome theater community, the very large awesome theater community here who have been great hosts to us. And engaging with your democracy through opportunities like the Hill Visits today and to see some theater. So that's why you're here in case you weren't clear on that. I'm going to pass it over to Elena to talk about or to lead us on a turn and talk. Elena, where did you go? Oh, Elena. Hi, how's everyone doing? All right. So we just started and we would like to do a little activity. Speed dating, if you will, just kidding. It's actually going to be a 30-second find someone that you don't know and introduce yourself and share something that you're really looking forward to here at the conference. And we're going to do two rounds of this. So the next 30 seconds, we're just going to find someone we don't know. And I'm going to give you one minute to chat it up. And then I'm going to say, eh, next person. Here we go. If you hear my voice clap once. If you hear my voice clap twice. All right. Folks are meeting in pairs and three people at a time. The next minute, we're going to find someone else or two more people or three more people. Anyway, you have one more minute. Here we go. If you hear my voice clap once. If you hear my voice clap twice. If you hear my voice three times, just don't clap and come back together. Yeah. So we're going to continue on. I'm going to take a moment now. I'd like to bring up Hannah Fenley and Salma Zody to tell us a little bit about why we are an inclusive theater nation. So my friend Salma is going to come up here with me and contribute some of this. But yeah, we are an inclusive theater nation and we're psyched about it. We're so eager to welcome colleagues and collaborators of every sort imaginable here in theater nation. Salma and I are going to outline some of the ways we've tried to make our space a more inclusive one during our time together this week. So first of all, you may have noticed there are four all-gender restrooms. Two on this floor. Two on this floor. And two on the floor above. Right, sort of, nearish the registration and then right off the escalators upstairs. And if you're wondering who those restrooms are for, they're for you. Also notice, you probably noticed our friends, Brittany and Laura. Brittany and Laura, can you wave, please? Sorry, Brittany. So Brittany and Laura are part of a cohort of ASL interpreters who will be supporting our incredible deaf colleagues throughout the conference. If you didn't know, DC is the home of Gallaudet University, which is the world's only institution of higher education devoted to deaf and hard of hearing students. And the city has a robust community of deaf artists. For folks watching at home, howl round, hi howl round. We'll be streaming our plenary sessions and featuring the ASL interpreters in their own little spotlight box. In addition to providing live captioning. So if you have folks at home who want to tune in, you can let them know that. And this is because they are awesome, so we thank them with our whole hearts. We are also providing space for nursing moms at the conference. Hey, nursing moms. And all moms, really. New moms. So the Carnegie Room, which is right near our registration desk, is going to serve as a new mother's room for the duration of the conference. And that is key activated. So you can have privacy in there if you want. So you can see a TCG staff member at registration or you can find a member of the conference team, maybe these two members of the conference team. We can help you out. Finally, kids at conference sessions. We love kids. Any kids ages 11 to 17 are welcome in the plenary sessions provided that they register. So please check them in on your way into the session at our registration desk. And now I'm going to shut up and I'm going to let Salma step up and talk a little bit about our observance of Ramadan here at the conference. Hello, everyone. Just want to say hi. Hi. Just want to say happy Ramadan to everyone who is actually observing Ramadan and have the strength to fast throughout this whole process. My heart goes with you. I tried. Part of TCG's mission is to include all communities. And of course, the Muslim community is not a small one when it comes to theater and it comes to America. So we have specified a couple of rooms for certain windows of time for those who are praying. And also, those rooms could be used for those who are not going to be able to have lunch and just need 20 minutes to just rest their eyes because there's no caffeine. So these are the rooms. So today, for the Doher prayer, we have meeting room one set from 1 to 1.30 p.m. And for the Oster prayer, we have one same meeting room one from 5 to 5.30. As for tomorrow, we have meeting room one for Doher prayer from 1 to 1.30. And for the Oster prayer, we're going to have a room set from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. So this is also a good time to rest or pray or just if you want to take your time and away from everyone, do it. It's going to be at the Lafayette room. It's going to be by registration. As for Saturday, same meeting room one from 1 to 1.30 for Doher prayer and 5 to 5.30 for Oster prayer. And that's pretty much it. You guys keep going and fasting if you can. If you have any questions about that, please come to me or Hannah or anyone else at registration. The TCG staff has the information on hand. Thank you. I'm going to hand it off to Devin and some of our very special guests to take you through the agenda. Okay. Now is the time when we welcome our conference pros. We've identified some old friends who are going to take us through some pieces of your agenda and make some cameos to talk about them for a minute. So first, I'm going to welcome up actually my teammate, Natalie Stringer. Natalie's going to talk to you about trend workshops. Hey, y'all. So for people who are new, trend workshops are sessions led by our wonderful business affiliates and sponsors who are here exhibiting at the conference. You may have seen some of them at their tables. They are 60-minute sessions, and they are today only. So you want to make sure to take advantage of them if you can. They're actually going to be in two different rounds. So there are about five or six sessions happening right at 3 o'clock following this session from 3 to 4 and then another round from 4.15 to 5.15. And the range is spectacular anywhere from topics of subscription models and cultivating donors to how... and to what extent do you design theaters and looping in mobile apps and digital marketing. And so it's a really full... it's part of the full conference experience. So take advantage of it if you can. Thanks, Nat. Okay. Hannah's going to run the mic around to our other cameos. Where's Lisa Mount? She's going to tell us about some skills building. Yeah, well, it's... because I can't turn my back to the front rows. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm talking about skills building sessions, which are happening tomorrow for three hours from 10.30 till noon and then resuming after lunch from 1.30 until 3. My fabulous colleague, Christine Chopiak and I will be leading the visual strategic planning pro tip if you want the swag to get there early. There are a really amazing array of skills building workshops which you will find on the app and in your program. I encourage you to dive deep, but here's the catch. You've got to go to the whole thing. Don't show up for the first half and then not come back for the second half. We might not hand out the swag until the end. Okay, Rachel Grossman, would you tell us about some dine around opportunities? I would love to. Thank you all for coming to Washington, D.C. I'm here to tell you about dine arounds. They're happening on Friday night. What's a dine around? It involves eating. This is going to be longer than 30 seconds. All right. It's curated by... It's a casually curated group conversation around a variety of topics. Some of them... I can't read my own writing. And some of them are prepared with theatrical performances. They occur throughout D.C. They are hosted by a range of theatrical practitioners from a range of D.C. metropolitan theaters. They all start at 615 asterisks. And the way that I mean they start is that you would meet your hosts right by registration. And now we go to the asterisks, except for one which starts at 530. You should go to a dine around. You will find all the information about the dine arounds in conference 2.0, where you will see which one starts at 530. You will also sign up. There are caps to many of these because we had to make reservations and D.C. restaurants talk about reservations. So please sign up. If you have signed up and you're like, meh, I'm not going to go anymore. Sign up because there are caps. And then you're taking somebody else's spot and that sucks. So if you are going to a show that's paired with a dine around, please get your ticket. There's been some confusion about that, but please get your ticket. Also you have to pay for your own dinner. That's why it says fee required. Last, there are lots of discounts. So if you're not going to a dine around, there's lots of discounts for shows throughout D.C. which you can find on the TCG website or by visiting the theater Washington table, D.C. theater table right outside. Okay, I think that's all I'm supposed to say right now. Cool. Thanks, Rachel. So we're excited to bring up Maurice to call TCG's very first Artisan Residence to tell us about lunch salons. Hello everyone. It's great to be here with you. Great to have an opportunity to speak with you. So tomorrow and Saturday we have the lunch salons. They run from 12.15 to 1.15. Yeah, look for those things on conference 2.0. Show up. It should be great. Tomorrow we're going to be running one specifically looking at community engagement in military and veterans' communities. So if you're interested in forming relationships or forming deeper relationships, come to that. The theaters that are involved, La Jolla Playhouse, Steel Globe, Trinity Rep, and Cape Fear Regional Theater will all be in conversation together. We're going to talk about ways to reach out and ways to deepen that engagement if you're already doing that sort of work. So that's tomorrow. Come to that at 12.15. Actually, you don't have to come with that. Go to one of those tomorrow at 12.15. And also Saturday at 12.15. Oh yeah, and also they made me say this. You can bring lunch to this. You can actually bring lunch. You can bring your food with you. So that's fun, I guess. I just wanted to also add that lunch will be available on both meeting floors. So if you're already upstairs and you're going to stay upstairs for your session, there should be some lunch available for you. But if you plan on wandering, you probably want to come downstairs. Most of the lunch will be down here. If you have special dietary restrictions, the lunches will be down here for you. And we were going to pass this to Karadad to talk about bookstore sessions, but Karadad's not here. She's joining us tomorrow, Karadad's Fitch. She is going to be sitting in one of our many bookstore sessions that we have over the course of the conference on Saturday talking about our new audience revolution dispatches from the field book with Larissa Fasthorse. But that is actually our last bookstore session. Our first bookstore session is at 3pm today. We're doing a documentary screening of something called the Penelope Project led by Sojourn Theatre Company. And Victor Vasquez, I believe from Pasadena Playhouse, is going to be in discussion about that film. And there will be pretty much books attached to every bookstore session, which is why they're in the bookstore. There's a lot of book signings. There's a lot of screenings and discussions. And the schedule for that is in your conference booklet in an Infert. It's also all on 2.0. So I think Elena, who I keep losing, is going to talk about the ground at 20 for us for a minute. And I'll give you my mic. Thank you. Before I go into the ground I want to get out to Lisa Mount. You said something about swag. I feel like there are some German markers of swag. Also, Rachel, Dynarounds, did you say cats or caps? Caps. Okay. Well, I mean, either way, they're great. So... Oh. A programming arc that I am very excited and really honored to have been working on is something called the Ground at 20. It's to celebrate the 28th anniversary of August Wilson Seminole remarks at a national conference in the past where hosting something called the Ground at 20. And it's an arc to celebrate the legacies of veteran leaders of theaters of color. And over the next two days, beginning tomorrow, there's going to be some awesome intergenerational conversations that will also be taped. So just to give you a taste of what to expect, we have some branding here. We have some reciprocity. L-A-T-C. Can I get a show of hands really quickly? L-A-T-C. All right, all right. Ground at 20, John O'Neill, Free Southern Theater and Jumbug Productions. This is also aligning with some bookstore programming that we have. And then moving into the final parts of Saturday, the Ground at 20 a forward stands with Jorge Artol, my theater company interviewed by Snohal Desai. Saturday, to close the arc out, we have Ground at 20, a conversation, Native Voices at the Autry, and then, let's see, Ground at 20, Middle East Center Stage. So that will be 1215 to 115, but you'll find the details of everything on conference 2.0. So I really hope that you all will be able to check out one, maybe two, or all of the lovely Ground at 20 arc sessions. Great. And I'm also going to add to that that you can find those Ground at 20 sessions where a hard copy paper person, that's where you can find those. And I'm going to step in here briefly and talk about professional affinity groups, which all happen on Friday evening at 4.45. So you'll all be in a mad rush to find your people at 4.45 tomorrow. If you're unfamiliar with those, those are spaces where you can be with your colleagues of similar professional identity. So we have groups of marketing directors and associate artistic directors and students and university leaders and development staff, and they're all facilitated by one or multiple of your friends and colleagues. So those are safe spaces where you can be in the room and bring up issues that are sort of generating heat for you and your professional lives. So check those out if those conversations are really cruising for you. That's why we put them at the end of the day on Friday. So go get a beer and keep talking or whatever your poison. So I'm going to pass it off now to Gus. So when you give a theater person 30 seconds it means at least two minutes. So we are if you have a question about conference 2.0 you're doomed because there's no time to talk about it. No. Talk to registration, they have a lot of knowledge they can email folks who are experts we will get you going on to conference 2.0 if you need it. And of course any questions or answers questions that you have please ask the conference staff. We're going to move into at the intersections now so I'm hoping Carmen come up on the stage and tell us very briefly this grew out of the need for people from marginalized communities who are at the national conference to come together in affinity space and have the kinds of conversations that could only happen in those spaces. That was happening for many many many years before TCG realized that that needed to be something we put a lot of intentionality around. In 2014 in San Diego we got a lot more serious about it and we learned a lot of lessons about how to communicate the values of at the intersections and the process of at the intersections and Cleveland I think went a little better. We're going to do that again now and I'm going to turn it over to Carmen to talk about what we mean when we mean affinity space what we mean by ally inclusive but just to give the broad overall arc we're going to begin together here we're going to end it how we move forward and in between we're going to be meeting at the intersections of identity of race, gender, disability national identity and so I'm going to turn it over now to Carmen We have come a long way since San Diego How many of you were at the San Diego conference when we launched Affinity Groups for the first time? Wonderful. I just want to give a little bit of a framework background and intentional thinking behind these affinity spaces because there are often times confusions around it people are wondering and questioning why do we have to separate ourselves it seems divisive, it seems problematic and I just want to offer to you some thoughts in the tradition and history of community organizing doing social justice work that might be helpful we don't have affinity space to be divisive and to separate people we have affinity space because it is often helpful for those individuals who have been historically pushed to the margins to have a for us by us space where their voices can be centered and that's helpful in the service of coming back together again in community across identity areas and differences in solidarity to ultimately build the beloved community so affinity spaces are strategic they help us to clarify the ways in which we might need support from one another the ways in which we might need support from others without any distractions I think the other thing I'd like to say that Affinity Groups are also wonderful spaces for allies who want to support folks who have been historically pushed to the margins and allies meet in affinity spaces not so much to talk about the ways that they have privilege and they've been left out of the other affinity groups but to support from a place of privilege equalizing and sharing power does that make sense to folks okay if it does make sense to you I need you to really nod your head vigorously thank you I see that it does not make sense to some of you so because you're not nodding your head you're reflecting and I think that's fine so I'm just going to continue a little bit further the other thing that I want to say about affinity spaces here at this conference the way that we are using them again intentionally to bring communities together so that we can be better agents of change across differences some of these spaces are not open to allies and by that we mean they are only reserved for individuals who identify as a member of that group so we invite you if you identify as a member of that group to be a part of that affinity space if you don't identify as a member of that group and it's not open to you we really are trusting that you'll honor that and if you have never identified in a particular way before and you come to the conference and you're wondering hmm I think now I am such and so don't do that if you have historically never identified that way do not use this as an opportunity for the very first time change your racial identity or your gender identity or your sexual orientation we'd like to encourage you to really speak your truth but again define yourself for yourself the last thing I'm going to say about this two points if you are an ally if you are an ally and you are invited to come into that space we're really going to ask you to show up in that space from a place of support and so just be mindful about how much space you're taking up I'm going to be really particular here because we did get some feedback from well quite frankly we got some feedback last year that one of the affinity spaces that was open to allies was attended by allies some of them I know it wasn't intentional but they took up a lot of space and a lot of the inquiries were well we want to learn more about you people please don't do that we know that that curiosity and that interest really comes from a place of support but when you're on the receiving end of it sometimes it feels hostile so just want to support them so just be mindful and then the last thing I want to say if after all of this I've doubled and worried about affinity spaces the political ideology underpinning affinity spaces and you feel that it's really problematic I want to invite you to take all of that and speak to one Gus Schulenberg mic drop hey moving right along I want to take this time now we're going to take some space for special cameo section to hear from folks that are actually leading so can I invite up here again I'm actually going to put the timer on so you all have 30 seconds Chantal Rodriguez Latin X session thank you hi good afternoon I will be leading the Latin X Affinity Group session with Alex Mehta artistic director of the Atro Luna we will be holding space for reflection about the tragedy in Orlando and doing an activity around that we will be doing a speed dating and get to know you session in San Diego we only had time to introduce ourselves and then the session was over so we're doing a speed dating session and then we're going to have a larger group discussion about how do we deepen community and leverage our collective power this session is open to allies and we invite you to join us thank you fantastic and next we have Emilio Cachapero director of artistic and international programs here at TCG don't start the timer yet just as of yesterday a lot of you were at the pre-conference and I just wanted to acknowledge that we have colleagues here from more than 25 countries around the world delegation from Colombia, from Sweden from Korea, from the UK Zimbabwe and I just want to have you extend a special welcome to those folks who may not understand all of the quirks and the jargon that we have in our world so please be generous in that way a couple of things now that I am being timed on later on today at 4.45 is the intergenerational leaders of color affinity group a tradition that's been going on for years now it is an affinity only space and Elaine and I will be co-facilitating that along with our rising leaders of color and then on Saturday morning and that's 4.45 and then at Saturday morning breakfast early early early 8am to 9am is the theaters of color breakfast and that's specifically for those working in and with theaters of color and that's going to be co-facilitated by Leslie Ishii at East West players in LA and Marshall Jones at Crossroads so that's it fantastic that was 45 seconds great let's see can we have Nigel Porter and for the queer movement building session alright now thank you Hannah I feel like I'm on the price is right how's everybody okay great I along with Lisa Mount who you heard earlier leading the queer movement building session this is an allied open space and it's an opportunity for those who fall under the umbrella of queer under the queer identity to come together and create some solutions and actions around issues based on our theaters every day it's happening tomorrow at 12.15 and I hope to see some of you there great thank you okay and now we have some friends for our deaf culture session we have Kala okay hello everyone my name is Kala I just graduated from Gallaudet University I work with dog and pony DC and we host ASL pickup sessions at Argonaut which is bar in DC that you can come to and we've also brought our ASL pickup sessions here to theater nation and also the deaf artists and hearing artists sessions working together so that's what we have in store for you thank you and we have SK and Lisa for a gender session and Ty oh lord okay 30 seconds I can do this fast so I'm Lisa this is SK and Ty we are going to be leading the calling in and calling on trans gender non-conforming non-binary and two-spirit solidarity in action so really what that's about is thinking about how do we activate personal solidarity and turning that into organizational solidarity for creating trans-inclusive theaters cool wow that was like 10.5 seconds let's take a breath really quickly alright because we bought some time a few seconds we also just want to say that allies are welcome so if you're encouraged in this session if you identify as cisgender if you identify as transgender this session you are welcome hats thank you okay and finally to speak a little bit about our national identity session we have Kita Sullivan good afternoon okay I'm actually talking for Rihanna Yazi who I don't think has made it yet on Saturday there is a session reframing the narrative of sovereignty which is focusing on indigenous First Nations Native American issues through the frame of sovereignty and what are our realities and working toward new national identities centered around justice and equity for Native communities and I'm also going to plug my session which is right after this talking about red face thank you alright and now I want to take a moment to invite up Kanisha Foster I'm going to read from a phone because I'm so 2016 I'm going to ask some people that are going to speak with me to come up as I introduce so if you could come up now to the stage Nelson, Jojo, Carmen, Hannah and David asks if you'd like to come you're invited to come up too so I've been part of the conversation around affinity groups and identity from the beginning and very welcome to be I'm a mixed race black white woman and I'll be leaving the mixed race conversation and last year I was so rebelliously thrilled to hear about all of the action that people wanted to take so in the moment as we closed out last year I asked people if they would tweet out one thing they were dedicated to doing this year so that they could be held to that action and I'm so thrilled to hear that people across the board have made incredible things happen either from that moment or because they saw others dedicated to that moment kept making things happen and these are just a few of the people who did that so I'm going to let them talk about it Hi, I'm Nelson Yusebio I'm co-curating the API affinity space on Beyond Orientalism which happens after this with me and Merida of Crowded Fire. Last year when Kenesha challenged us to do this I tweeted out that I would vow to eradicate Yellow Fist from the American Theater which is laughable yes but this year we launched a national movement called Beyond Orientalism that is dedicated to eradicating this Hi, I'm Joe Giroux for the moment I was the coordinating producer or one of the two for the Women's Voices Theater Festival and in Cleveland there was a lot of talk about gender parity and right here in DC last fall we did the Women's Voices Theater Festival which was two months involving nearly 50 theaters across the DC area doing world premieres by 56 female playwrights so it was very exciting and a cool opportunity to celebrate as we are thrilled to host all of a thousand people here this weekend Hi, and I'm here to plug the Practicing Arts Activism session is Carol McCord here? Carol? Well Carol's here in the hotel, she may not be in the room so I want to plug this if you're familiar with the recent meeting that took place at the NEA on April the 26th that then went into an interesting internet mandate that ultimately resulted in the transition of an executive director at a very large arts service organization Carol was the person who let the match that started that that was the blog right around the internet we're going to have an interview with her about that to talk about what lessons we can learn from that moment at the NEA with that situation there are some ways that we feel that it's an interesting statement on the field and where we're at right now and also an interesting statement on what we expect from people in leadership positions and then lastly it's a really interesting powerful statement on the ways in which white allies in leadership positions are really using their power so we're going to have that conversation, it's happening on I'm sorry, I was told I could plug this it's happening Friday at 10.30, it is not in your normal thing, it's in the addendum sheet thing and I'm here to speak briefly about another recently added session that is connected to but not entirely based around a movement that is a very recent sort of presence in many of our communities but particularly in the Chicago community the Not In Our House movement supporting folks who have been oppressed by gender-based violence in our theaters on stage and off and I encourage you, we've got a team of facilitators who are building some of you I haven't even met yet but I know many things about your incredible gender analysis and so I'm excited to sort of support this conversation and start thinking about strategies to really dismantle this stuff so yeah I just wanted to say thank you so much if others took action in that moment come find me throughout the conference I really want to hear what you've been doing this year thank you thanks everyone okay we're over time and we know everyone has sessions to get to but we've been moving very fast and of all people in this room I can acknowledge the importance of breath when bringing new things into the world so we're going to take a breath together and then we're going to send you on your way so just inhale and exhale with me enjoy yourselves