 My fun responsibility to pivot us into the official welcoming remarks. So we're here. Hi, everyone. So I bet some of you, or some of you I think know me from, you know, it's been a number of years that I've been in and around the HowlRound world. But some of you are like, who is this chick and why is she speaking? So I am pleased to introduce myself. I'm Rani Pinoy. She hers. I am Laguna Pueblo and Cherokee, as I mentioned earlier. And I am the interim executive director for the Office of the Arts as well as the director of artistic programming for Arts Emerson. And I'm going to pick up my notes because you all don't want me to completely speak extemporaneously because then we'll be here all day. So the Office of the Arts that I have the privilege of being in an interim position with encompasses Arts Emerson. It encompasses the incredible work of the HowlRound Theater Commons whose leadership and care you're seeing on display day after day over this weekend. And we also steward seven theatrical venues on campus for the benefit of our Emerson community and for the Boston community at large. So that's what we do at Office of the Arts. So for the past 10 years, the Let Next Theater Commons, LTC, has been an integral flagship program for us here at HowlRound. We couldn't be more proud and excited to be with you today and to just embrace you and welcome being here in space with us. I also need to take a moment to acknowledge the most incredible partner I have at the Office of the Arts, the most wonderful interim senior director of OA, associate vice president and director of the HowlRound Theater Commons, Jamie Coloon. So everyone give her a big round of applause, please. So y'all know she loves you because she's officially on parental leave but just couldn't let a 10-year anniversary of the Let Next Theater Commons pass by without making an appearance. So big love, so grateful that you're here and thank you for all the ways that we're sharing leadership together. So I also want to just take a moment to say that for me, HowlRound and especially the LTC feels like the cousins who you would kind of like group in the same neighborhood with that you kind of have the same childhood memories and you kind of grew up together and have school stories and now you're in your teenage years going, oh man, did I really wear that? So my years ago I first met, I mean, many folks in this room at Arena Stage and that was really the birthplace of HowlRound and of relationship and such an education for me. I mean, Karen Zacharias in this room really taught me how to be a producer. I think I learned okay. And so many individuals in this room are just shaping, not even as individuals but as a collective shaping the conversation that we're having in the American theater field and sharing what it looks like to operate not from a position of singular leadership but through a commons model. So this work is incredibly personal to me. It feels like it has educated me and now I just could not feel so, I feel so privileged to be in the position of getting to say, oh yeah, as part of the work that I get to support now in this position, that this is part of that work. It just feels like coming full circle. So thank you for your work because the field needs it, we need it and we're so happy to be here for you. So I also just want to say, you know, so that it just goes, it is explicitly said that to watch HowlRound and let next theater commons grow together to what it is today, consistently upholding values of generosity and abundance, community and collaboration, diverse aesthetic, equity, inclusivity and accessibility and global citizenship has been such an honor and I really wanted to make sure I didn't leave out any one of those things. Lastly, what I'll say is that I know for our students at Emerson College having the opportunity to engage with HowlRound and with that, the incredible work that the LTC is doing has just been integral to their education and understanding what is the field that they are really going into. Like this is the work, this is the world, you are the world. And I think that is just such an incredible value to students and it got to see it first-hand this semester with the HowlRound seminar that is continuing to be taught which I'm so delighted is happening and as I like make sure that I come on, get to the next page. Anyway, I know what I want to say. So the work that's happening here, it's field-wide. It is having resonance here at the college in classes, in the fabric of everything we do every day at Art Summers and because what is written about at HowlRound is the reflection of the people working in the theater, not even just in this country but beyond and this is really modeling the future. So I can't thank you all enough. Please know how aggressively we love you and want you to feel good and be hosted. So if there's anything you need, I hope you don't hesitate to let us know and it is in fact my incredible honor to welcome a special guest we have today just to really convey to you the degree of support that we have at every level for the work that you all are doing. It's my incredible pleasure to introduce Emerson College's President, Jay Bernhardt, who's going to share a few brief remarks but I am so honored to have him with us today to welcome you all with that, Jay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Rani. And we really appreciate you being here and we're honored that you help us model the future and where we need to go. So thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with all of you today and good afternoon. One of the really exciting honors I have as President of Emerson College is to come together for events like this once in a while to really on behalf of the institution and our history since 1880 through the present and our many years into the future, it's my great honor and pleasure to welcome you all here today on behalf of all of our faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends. And to welcome many of you back to Emerson because I know many of you have been here before and many of you may have been here 10 years ago when this incredible program was kicked off. I understand this is the 10th anniversary. Not everything gets to 10 years. I will share and so it is quite a milestone and one you really should celebrate and we celebrate with you to make it to 10 years to celebrate this moment. I want to start by thanking Rani Pernoy for her leadership bringing us together today. Thank you, Rani, for your great work. It was incredibly, this was my first smudge ceremony and a quite moving experience I'm sure for many of you too. For those of you who know me well, smudge is usually what I have on my shirt. And so this was a very deeply spiritual activity. I'm glad we could bring that with us today and hope we can do that more. I want to thank Jacqueline Flores and Abigail Vega who spearheaded this celebration. And I particularly want to thank Jamie Galoon for coming back with us today and for your leadership and vision for HowlRound for so long. The Latinx Theater Commons really does do incredible work. It amplifies Latinx stories and voices in theater. So thank you for all that you do to advocate for equity in the arts and to ensure that Latinx stories and narratives are reflected in theater and in performance. Your work over the last 10 years has been critical to this endeavor. Your work for the next 10 years and far beyond is even more important. So thank you for that. I'm really honored for our role to be your host and hope you have a terrific event through the weekend. Here's to another decade and more of discussion, of deliberation, and of disruption. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. All right. Let's continue the fun. Hola a todos. Bienvenidas. My name is Jacqueline and I am the LTC producer. Again, welcome to the Latinx Theater Commons 10th anniversary convening. It's an honor to wear the producer hat for this movement and to serve you all in this capacity. Over the weekend, you will hear from many people, so I'm going to model how we will be introducing ourselves and how we encourage you to introduce yourself. We will be using the following format, names, pronouns if you choose to use them, and then what was your entry point to the LTC? This can be when you joined the Facebook group, when you read a Latinx Theater content article on HowlRound, when you attended your first convening, anything in between. So again, my name is Jacqueline Flores, my pronouns are she, her aya, and my entry point to the LTC was when I wrote about it in my college senior thesis in 2017. For those that don't know, the LTC stands for the Latinx Theater Commons. We are commons, which means we are a digital virtual and public square. By being part of this event, you are a member of the commons. If you post on our Facebook page, read a piece about Latinx Theater on HowlRound, you are a member of the commons. Anyone with anything to say or do related with Latinx Theater that chooses to use our public square is a member of the commons. There are no do's, there is no acceptance process. If you're here, you're in the commons, and we're so happy you're here. A commons is a resource owned by no one that benefits everyone. In a commons, we all manage these resources. And in the LTC, our resources are managed by a steering and advisory committee. The LTC uses a horizontal rather than vertical power structure. Our programming is decided and curated by a steering committee of 38 people, with a little help along the way from yours truly. And the steering committee is made up of volunteers who believe in the mission of the LTC and help continue to push it forward. The LTC also has an advisory committee made of 48 members. And the advisory committee is for those who have served on the LTC steering committee before and who I am grateful to lean on for guidance and advice. If you are part of the LTC steering or advisory committee, can you please stand or wave? Thank you, thank you all for your work and commitment to the LTC. If this is your first convening with the LTC, or if you want to learn more about what we do and how, please go up to any of these wonderful people, introduce yourself and start a conversation. They are also all the ones with the blue name tags. So they're easy to spot. Ten years ago, I was a senior in high school. Okay, no. Okay, the hold for laughter was not in my script, so I'm just gonna keep going. I was grappling with what to major in college. And when I was a kid, I told my mom that I wanted to be a billionaire when I grew up, so naturally I chose to major in theater. I will forever be indebted to the artists and change makers who gathered in D.C. and dared to imagine a world that did not yet exist, so that future generations could not only reach glass ceilings, but break them. And so that a Latina like me could one day stand in front of all of you under shattered glass. In 2017, I attended TCG's National Conference in Portland, Oregon, where the LTC was awarded the Peter Seisler Award. I sat in the audience as the LTC producer, Abigail Vega, said, the LTC was created to make our own table instead of waiting to be invited to join one. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to now get to see this work firsthand and to have worked so closely with Abigail over the last year, but over the past few years as a convening champion. Abigail? Thank you, Jacqueline. Thank you. I'm Abigail Vega. She, her. And my entry point to the LTC was that I came to the first convening here in Boston. It's been an honor to champion this convening along with eight, eight other volunteer co-champions. So as I call your name, I want you to raise or raise or wave your hand as you're able, rise or wave your hand as you're able, and keep it up. And we're going to hold our applause till the end. I also want to acknowledge that we have people who are on flights that are delayed or they're coming in later, and they're just going to come in. And that's awesome. And we don't need to, like, it's great. Just, if you have a seat next to you, tell them to sit next to you. So some of these folks are not quite here yet, but they will be here soon. So our convening design co-champs, Lisa Portes and Pedro Chamale. I, I, I got a hold. We got a hold. Sorry. Okay, great. Our matchmaking co-committee co-champs, Tiffany Vega Gibson and Laura Moreno. Our host committee co-champions, Kevin Becerra and Natty Hustiano. And our social committee co-champs, Jayzy Moreno and Juliana Clice-Mendes. Yay. Each of these folks were joined by others. So if you worked on any of their four committees, please also rise or wave your hand as you're able so we can see you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now we can clap. As Jacqueline shared, the LTC is administered and led by a producer, but peopled with volunteers passionate not only about Latinx Theatre, but about stewarding our unique resources towards interventions that other organizations and institutions often cannot. When the LTC selects a project to work on, we ask ourselves, is this our work to do? Are we uniquely positioned, more than any other company or institution, to do that's work? Ten years ago, I was the 76th participant of a 75 person convening, right here in this room. And if we're telling on our ages, I was barely two years into my professional career. I came here with Alex. She was invited and I had a hotel room with her. And so I said, well, can you email how around and say, I'll stay in your room and I don't eat very much. And then she did that. And they were like, don't be crazy, just come. I was young, I was hungry, I was wrinkle-free. And I was also already jaded by what I saw as the stickiness of the institutional gears in our field. And then the LTC. The LTC as a movement has no imperative to continue but for the passion of its steering committee and people like you who gather, who seek community and who enter into conversations with generosity and who ask not, what will those people over there do? What will we do together? This gathering is like no other and this room will never gather again. This room was built for all of us to move forward together. And so for the next three days, we invite you to co-create the best kind-hearted, fun, and honest room possible. Let us not talk around the issues, but name the roadblocks with acknowledgments that most likely we all want the same things. So how will we get there together? We often start our convenings with some form of intention setting. So I'd like us all to take a moment and if you feel safe and comfortable, close your eyes. And over the next 60 seconds, we're just gonna breathe, next, I don't know, 15 seconds, we're just gonna breathe together. You will breathe for the next three days, but for the next 15 seconds, we're gonna inhale together and exhale and inhale and exhale and one more time, inhale and exhale. And in your mind, I'm gonna invite you to set an intention in silence and ask yourself that question. What will we do together this week? When your intention is set, take one more final breath. Hold on to that over the next couple of days. Thank you so much, Jaclyn, back to you. Thanks, Abigail. As Abigail and I have shared, this movement is the result of individuals with an undeniable passion for change and the will to transform and disrupt structures. And to continue my analogy, glass ceilings aren't shattered alone. So I would like to introduce you all to one of the original co-conspirators of the LTC and Garcia Romero. I have, yes, yes, we're gonna clap for her. I have the distinct pleasure to work with Anne as part of the Fornes Institute. She is also a playwright, translator, and scholar and the co-editor of the forthcoming volume, Maria Irene Fornes in Context that contextualizes Fornes's life and work, which will be published digitally this summer. Thank you so much, Jaclyn. It's such a joy to be here to see all of extraordinary. I have the great pleasure to introduce Karen Zacarias. I'm gonna read for about five minutes. I've timed it, it's five minutes. And then you'll hear from our wonderful Karen. So Karen Zacarias is an award-winning playwright. She was one of the top 20 most produced playwrights of 2022-23 in the United States. Her plays include Destiny of Desire, Native Gardens, The Copper Children, The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela and the Desert, The Sense of Sarhuana as well as the adaptations of The Age of Innocence Just Like Us into the Beautiful North and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. She's the author of 10 renowned TYA musicals and the brightest of several ballets. Her plays have been produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Arena Stage, Goodman Theater, Roundhouse Theater, Denver Center, Alliance Theater, Gala Hispanic Theater, Glass, Cleveland Playhouse, Milagro Theater, Theater of Vista and many, many more. But that's not all. Her numerous awards include the Francesca Primus Prize, the New Voices Award, the USA Artist Fellowship, National Latino Play Award and the Helen Hayes Award for outstanding new play. She is the founder of Young Playwrights Theater, an award-winning theater company that teaches playwriting in local public schools in Washington, D.C., YPT won the 2010 National Arts and Humanities Program Award from the White House as one of the most... as one of the most innovative arts programs in the nation. Karen was the first playwright in a residence at Arena Stage and has taught playwriting at Georgetown University. I first had the pleasure of meeting Karen when I was a dramaturg on a stage reading of her beautiful play, Marielle in the Desert, at the Hispanic Playwrights Project at South Coast Repertory. Years later, I wrote about Karen's marvelous work in my book, and I also wrote about Karen's extraordinary play that explores the legacy of Maria Irene Fornes and the work of five Latina playwrights. Karen's extraordinary plays explore a wide range of topics including Mexican artists in the 1950s, Mexican nuns in the 17th century, telenovela narratives, gardens that become borders, devoted book clubs, remarkable female scientists, and many, many more. Her plays offer a vibrant exploration, a complex vision and a profound Latinx experience. When Karen was at Arena Stage as playwright in residence, she met with David Dower and P. Carle who were then leading the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena, and she suggested that the idea of having a small group of Latinx theater artists come together to form a focus group, to talk about the ways to move the dialogue in our field forward around the issues facing Latinx theater artists. So, in early 2012 in April, I was fortunate to receive a email from P. Carle, accompanying the invitation from Karen, and I quote, amigos and amigas. As we all know, a series of events in the last year, several in my hometown of D.C., have made it clear that there is still a lot of ground we need to cover, and it sparked some important conversation. I wonder what would happen if we got a small group together to see what we can build, talk, discuss, tear into if we are in a room together. How do we get more authentic work by diversity of voices in our Latino community on our stages? How can we support each other in taking risks? How and what do we write? What plays do we dream of directing? What are the real and unreal obstacles? What can we do to prompt, connect, or enhance the local national dialogue into something that translates into action on stage? I would love to organize a small focus group to talk about the challenges and possibilities of being us in the U.S. We will talk, eat, drink, and get to know each other better, and let's see what happens. So, on May 18th and 19th, 2012, Karen, along with David Dower, Pete Carl, Jamie Galoon, Kevin Becerra, and others welcomed eight of us to Arena Stage. Over two days, Karen convened a calzone-quitado conversation, a bold, honest, unspearing discussion where we connected, reflected, dined, dreamed, and planned what would become the Latinx theater comments, that in the subsequent decade has updated the narrative of Latino theater, Latinx theater, Latinx theater, and transformed the field in marvelous ways. Karen's generosity began this movement. She is the reason we are here today. So please, help me give a warm LTC welcome to our colleague, founder Mikegheri the Amiga, Karen Zacarias. First of all, I can't tell you how nice it is to be alive in a room with live people. Thank you for being the circle with us today. We're all look hotter and sexier and more fun than we did ten years ago. And, whoa, see? And I'm so happy to welcome all the new people here to keep building. It's so nice to hear that it feels like an imposter syndrome because you asked me what was my entry point into the LTC. It was an imposter syndrome. I was one day Arena Stage reached out to me. I've been working with Young Playwrights Theater. I've done some work with them. And they said we're going to have five playwrights in residence here. The other four fabulous people who've done all this stuff in New York and blah, blah, blah, and we'd like to invite you. And I was like, oh, that's wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And then I was like, shit. Because I wasn't just going in as a playwright. I was going in as a Latina playwright. I was going in as a local playwright. And I was going in as a mother. And all of a sudden I felt this tremendous amount of responsibility. And I don't know if it's the Catholic upbringing or the fact that my father's no longer Catholic and now is an activist, which is maybe worse because his idea was always it doesn't matter if you're happy is if you're useful. So how do you do, how when you get something do you multiply? He works in public health. So it's never just about the individual. It's always about how do you do the most good for the most people. But that's hard if you're an artist, right? Because you have an individual voice. So trying to measure that together, the idea that maybe it's selfish to tell one story and how do you tell it in a different way? How do you walk through knowing who you are and having a responsibility to your community? It's not an easy issue. And I like messy things. And so the first thing I did when I became part of the Mellon Foundation is all these other playwrights were like traveling to Greece and doing research and all of that. And the first thing I said is I need to become a better at my craft. The first year that they gave us a little bit of money, I used that to rewrite every single play I had already written. I was like if I'm getting this focus I cannot let people down. I have to try to be as good as I am at my craft. The second one is I started writing plays that later on became Destiny of Desire and Native Gardens and The Age of Innocence strangely enough were the beginning of the sparks of that. And the third one when I had that money is when I was looking around the community is like how do I feel? I'm pretty feel pretty isolated. And I see there's pockets of people in different places of the country. And HHP was gone. There's so many things that the brown swan had been taken away. I had not seen people that I had met and had been part of my network in years because there was no way of gathering us. There was a certain power with that. And so I had this opportunity that taught me three things. I had a little bit of money I had a little bit of access and now what was important was to open that door as widely as possible. So I talked to Jamie and David and all of them and I remember it didn't go the first time it was like oh that sounds complicated there's a lot there was a lot of things going on and what exactly would be happening? And I was like I don't know because I don't feel I can set the agenda. Like what I do think is there's American concept of build and they will come. What happens if we turn that around come and let's build together? Because I don't know I only have questions I had no answers. And what we did sit down and talk about is that we wanted to reach people who maybe we've never met and we really wanted to have representation regional representation from all different parts of the country. That was really important. And we only had like $15,000 which was the money which was my workshop and what had been matched with the Mellon Foundation. So I gave my money for my workshops into the pot the Mellon matched it and said how many people can we fly in and put in hotels and feed with this amount of money. And it was eight and so that's what we did and it wasn't easy it was random it was that type of thing we had gender represented all types of things and we came in and sure enough we spoke to the calzone and you don't speak Spanish like it's to speak without your underwear on and that means that you just talk without fear without repercussion about what the possibilities were. And what was really exciting and we'd seen it before in different meetings that we had because there's always been an energy but then we go back to where we are and we get overwhelmed by our work our families and other things like that and we had this kismet of being with HowlRound that was giving and that had a structure that we could lean into and it became a magical moment of two organizations who were birthing at the same time to lean on each other with our ideas and their structure and that's who I became in the beginning that was my entry point into the LTC and it has changed my life it has changed my friendships it has broadened our world and so from a personal point of view really I just started this to make more friends and so thank you so much for becoming my friends and I just wanted to read before I left a poem that is one of my favorite poems and I think it will hopefully guide us through this and this is from James Baldwin the longer I live the more deeply I learn that love whether we call it friendship or family or romance is a work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light gentle work steadfast work lifesaving work in those moments where life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view but there is still a clear eyed loving person to beam it back in our best moments we are that person for another so remember we are a circle we're beaming it's not a pyramid we're breaking different paradigms I see you and I hope you guys see each other thank you for inviting me here today should we all take a breath let's all take a breath ready thank you all I'm going to continue moving us along and also say that we are live streaming opening ceremonies and sometimes we're speaking a little bit too fast for our interpreters so we want to make sure to just speak a little bit slower so that those who have those X's needs while we're live streaming and the interpreters can make sure they're interpreting everything we're seeing alright Clyde I see you I was like where did you go it is now my pleasure to introduce three of the 2013 also say that we are live streaming opening ceremonies and sometimes we're speaking a little bit too fast for our interpreter we're also on a 20 second delay are we good I'm going to keep going so Olga Sánchez-Saltvite is the assistant professor of theater at Middlebury college and the co-artistic director of the dog team theater project and she's the artistic director Emerita of Milagro an artistic advisory board member of PICT international classic theater Clyde Valentin who is here in person with us today is a creative producer cultural entrepreneur and strategist and most recently he co-founded one nation one project which is a national arts and health project inspired by the WPA's federal theater program back in 2013 Olga Clyde and Kinan Valdez who may be joining us shortly asked these three questions to the conveners why are we here how did we get here and where are we going and those are the questions that formulated throughout the time together in 2013 so today we've asked them this question what have you seen happen in Latina theater from 2013 to now Clyde take us away what's up Olga can you hear me thumbs up I got to stand next to you in the camera I'm going to do this look good to see you Olga so what have I seen first of all my name is Clyde Valentin my pronouns are he him and his and I came into the LTC by way of invitation from I believe to the 8 who called me Christopher Diaz who has never come to a meeting or anything shout out to Chris I love Chris and Kinan Valdez who like there's this thing happening in Boston you got to come to it Chris particularly was adamant about that I remember and the rest is history I had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful incredible human beings some of who are with us in this room some of whom are no longer with us but are with us so what have I seen over the last 10 years there was a moment at the very end of that first convening we had a similar wall like this against this wall and you know it was a very organic timeline that we collectively populated based upon you know our respective histories of Latinx theater and Luis Valdez was sitting next to his wife Lupe and Kinan's dad and he said something at the very end of the convening that I remember vividly I still am in that room to some degree some respect and he said we are the American theater we are the American theater and it was this expansiveness he wasn't just talking about the United States he was talking about the western hemisphere he was talking about the plurality of our identities and our experiences and our cultural backgrounds and what I've seen over the last 10 years with respect to the LTC and to the growth of this is that we have only doubled down on that reality we are the past the present and the future all at once at the same time period point blank punto the LTC as a national movement in the American theater has no rival in producing leadership especially leadership amongst our sisters right and a pipeline of creation simply unparalleled it's safe to say that our funders and our investors have received a pretty good return on investment and probably owe us a little more money still so for y'all carrying it forward hold that come with the IOUs and the invoices and the bills I'm going to share a little something I know I have five minutes so I'm going to be brief there's a piece I've read recently by Miriam Kaba and Kelly Hayes who are both exceptional organizers from a piece called how much discomfort is the whole world worth bear with me y'all I don't have everything on my phone where's my phone oh it's right here so organizing is not a process of ideological matchmaking most people's politics will not mirror our own and even people who identify with us strongly on some points will often differ sharply on others when organizers do not fully understand each other's beliefs or identities people will often stumble and offend one another even if they earnestly wish to build from a place of solidarity efforts to build diverse intergenerational movements will always generate conflict and discomfort but the desire to shrink groups down to spaces of easy agreement is not conducive to movement building and LTC represents this effort and this energy of sitting often in discomfort or disagreement or people we don't necessarily like and still believe in because it is bigger than ourselves all called to service in some way shape or form and over the last 10 years we have represented and ideally continue to represent an effort of true messy democratic processes that continue to build leadership and represent America thank you and now I have the pleasure of introducing Roxanne but first we're going to hear from Olga next sorry sorry Olga is this me now? sorry it's hard to hear although I was able to hear Clyde really well hi everybody can you hear me? thank you so much I appreciate that okay hi so I am Olga Sanchez Saltfight she her I am speaking to you from Endakina the traditional homelands of the western Kentucky this portion is known as Vermont I'm in Middlebury Vermont I was I was invited to serve on the initial steering committee back in 2012 and I served as a co-planner and co-facilitator alongside Clyde and Kinanvathis for the first convening my heart is bursting I've been watching since the stream started and I I'm just inspired and my heart is full I wish I were there in person I will be there in person soon the Latinx theater commons has been an amazing journey I serve on the whatever the other thing is there's not the steering committee anymore the advisory board so anyway our circle, our familia my thoughts were one of the things that I've been thinking about is how we as theater makers are collaborators and as Latinx we thrive on on collaboration on gathering on celebrating together on creating together and I think one of the things that was so present when we first gathered was the feeling that we were in silos in different parts of the country and kind of working without knowing that there was Latinx, Latino theater happening in other parts of the country not really knowing who else was sharing this work and that the movement the Latinx theater commons, the movement has inspired I think a greater sense of familia around the country but I think we have a lot of communication, more projects that have brought people to go yes let's do that let's do that and yes it times really well with the fact that we have tools that makes that kind of communication possible but we're taking it by the horns and just like and riding it it's gorgeous to see I'm thinking about being together and seeing each other celebrating and then we'll go back but then we'll come back and it's gorgeous I'm thinking yes about things like productions, about our playwrights just all over the place I'm thinking about frankly congratulations and where that's popping up all over the country and just going like splash I'm also thinking about collaborations like La Gente this is the Latinx Latine theater production network that was created by Tara Houston and Regina Garcia and others to put forward the collection, the assortment the over 500 designers technicians, stage management folks who identify as Latine who want to support that theater making and who build bridges amongst these so that they're not just the only one in a production and who start working with us with the Latinx Playwright Circle launched by Guadalista Garmin the Soul Project launched by Jacob Adron all of these ways in which collaborations are being formed I want to shift gears a little bit because the other thing that I've been thinking about is that the LTC inspired me to join academia as many of you know the LTC has four tenets and one of them is scholarship, the other is convening art making and advocacy the others but academia was one of them and when I was kind of thinking about what next I thought oh you know what was missing when I was coming up more than ten years ago was anything about Latine theater in the academy and in higher education never mind high school so I wanted to go infiltrate I want to love this word disruption that's popped up in the conversations and and be part of going going in and saying Latine theater is a thing and trust me when I went back to school and sat in a room where they were teaching Latinx theater that was the name of the course and students around the room said oh I didn't know it was a thing and that my heart went like you know so I went okay I'm doing this and the thing that I have that I've been inspired by most recently is watching all of this scholarship scholarship books that and yes there's always been books coming out but there's just been this deluge of writing I'm thinking about and I have a list sorry Mika Espinosa's monologues for Latino Latina actors which has amazing histories on our playwrights it's like 50 playwrights Mika and Cynthia Mika and Cynthia decures scenes for Latinx actors and Latinx actor training Latinx actor training is a collection of essays on what it means to train Latinx actors to train in the aesthetics Luis Valdez's book on theater of the sphere Marisa Chivas's mythic imagination and the actor of course the collections of plays Trevor Bafones Teresa Marero, Chantel Rodriguez's anthologies that emerged out of the encuentros and then there's others there's 50 key figures in Latinx and Latin American theater Carla de la Gata's Latinx Shakespeare staging U.S. intercultural theater Patricia Ibarra's Latinx theater in the times of neoliberalism El Profe Jorge Huerta's upcoming biography on Luis Valdez Dr. Beatriz's risks epic two volumes set on the history of Latinx performing arts in the U.S. and then upcoming in Garcia Romero and Brian Herera's Maria Irene in the context yes I'm plugging it but I'm not plugging it it's just it came out of the LTC is knowing Monteses and my co-edited Rutledge companion to Latinx theater and performance it's 50 chapters written by 50 of us and it's just this sense of what we can do together is what the LTC has always been about us not owning a thing but collectively taking ownership of it and saying yes I am part of building this with us and stepping forward and that has just gone beyond what the LTC does to branch out as a tree as a seed maybe the LTC is a seed and this is a tree that has flowered in so many different ways around the country and I am excited to come back and kind of ground myself again among the community of the familia in person and also to be here in virtually in your midst and so I think to the question that that started the beginning that Abigail posed about what are we doing this week and to me my thought was like create more history envision create together the future a powerful future together so thanks thank you Olga and on that note of scholarship it is my pleasure to introduce Roxanne Schroeder-Arseth the Associate Dean of Fine Arts Education at UT Austin thank you Clyde and thank you all I am so excited to be here with you all truly excited truly excited to get this mic too okay so Roxanne Schroeder-Arseth I entered she her I entered the LTC in 2014 Abigail just told me so if you don't know when you entered ask Abigail because she knows in LA at the Encuentro so and I also am on the steering committee honored to be so and I was a co-champion the Sin Fronteras festival and convening in Austin Texas which was a TYA festival so some of our TYA folks are in Atlanta right now but some of TYA folks chose to be here and I'm grateful that we get to be together so I am honored to lead us in a little exercise so we're going to move a little bit as we are all able and get to know some folks so that's one of my favorite things about the LTC is getting to know people and you have some colors right so I love this exercise so that's a way to get to know each other and yeah you don't have yours Abigail okay we can get them but we're not going to use those right now but just know that you have those but what we are going to use is I know okay so let's start there then turn to someone near you what color that matches yeah if you can hear my voice say 10 if you can hear my voice clap 4 times thank you alright no one can remember what the colors are but that's okay the point is not to know what the colors are it's to talk to somebody that's okay but now we're going to try something else in a moment we are going to be getting into a circle and that's going to be one circle so we're going to start here and the circle is going to go around the outside so all around here we'll be in a circle and I'm going to give you a specific I'm going to I feel like I'm playing duck duck goose okay and I'll give you a specific order right of what we're going to do we're going to get into order so did Karen leave she's coming back alright we'll start with a different one then so this one is we're going to get in alphabetical order by your first name our first names and so for example Rose and Roxanne who comes first Rose, okay you're good, you're doing great so we're going to start here right actually let's start here A, if you have an A name you'll start here and we're going to go around and Z is going to land right here so A is here all the way around to Z, how quickly can we do this okay so come this way A's come this way a little bit you're going to turn to someone near you and you're going to have a two minute conversation yeah let's scoot this way just a little bit yeah we're stuck, we got stuck there's a lot of A's and B's here I love it the conversation you're going to have we get everybody in nice big circle okay the conversation is where did your name come from how did you get it what is your name, where did it come from and you have a two minute conversation that means each person gets a minute go, that was only one minute you didn't have time do you need another minute okay you two tell your story go ahead hey they did it okay this next one we are going to ask Karen to come over and we're going to start with Karen is going to be right here right, Karen has been around the LTC the longest and where's one person who's here for the first time entering LTC okay yes if you're new to the LTC you're going to come around here right and we'll be to the folks who've been around for a couple years longer right all the way up to those who were here in Boston with Karen 10 years ago how quickly can we do this okay go, young people have been around and if we collectively add them up at the end that's going to be amazing but we won't probably so we're going to start with you John and what we're going to hear as requested by Jacqueline we're going to hear your name first name and the year you're entering right and that's it really quick can we do this okay John 2024 Anna 2024 Blanca 2024 Carla 2024 Demian 2024 Allison 24 Tell 19 but really 2024 Sandy three hours ago Yes, 2024 Eddie 2024 Graciella I heard about LTC last year but this is my first time so 2024 Sylvia 2024 by way of 2014 Susanna 2024 but I don't know 2023 last summer this past summer Jaime 2024 Pauline 2024 Rose 2024 Monica or Monica 2024 Rula 2023 Nady 2023 Jay-Z 2022 Becca 2022 Giancarlo 2022 Fran 2022 Tessa 2022 Erysa and 2022 but I feel like there was something before that Juliana 2021 Laura 2021 Jacqueline 2021 Carmen I'm definitely in the wrong place so moving on James 2019 Christine 2018 I think Carnaval in Chicago Dylan 2019 but kind of crashed 2018 it's fine I couldn't remember if it was 2019 or 2018 Maria Tanya Andrew 2018 Benito 2018 Claudia 2018 Denise 2018 Pedro 2017 Erika 2017 Mateo 2017 but I just remembered I wrote something for Cafe Onda in 2016 so I'm sorry Alex 2017 Victoria 2017 Patrice 2016 Damoso 2016 Megan 2016 Carlos 2016 Cristia Milda 2016 Alisa 2016 Jorge 2016 Tony 2016 Tara 2015 Crystal 2015 Joanne 2015 Carla 2015 Daphne 2015 and 2014 2015 in New York I got to attend for the first time 2014 I couldn't attend but I helped me Lorenzo 2014 Lilian 2014 Oscar 2014 Cynthia 2014 Adriana 2014 Roxanne 2014 Miranda 2013 Abigail 2013 Alex 2013 Rose 2013 Marisa 2013 Daniel 2013 Noa 2013 Maika 2013 Melinda 2013 Jorge 1492 I'm sorry that's what you all did Anthony 2013 Georgina 2013 Ivan 2013 Cly 2013 Evelyn 2013 Kevin 2012 Anne 2012 Rosa Luis 2012 KZ 2012 Alright do we have time for one more or should we a short one a short one how do we do a short one okay who thinks in here that you traveled the farthest to get to this convening who thinks it might be you who thinks it might be you who thinks it might be you who thinks it might be you who thinks it might be you you did you did where did you come San Diego anyone further than San Diego San Francisco which is farther Pedro there you go I think you might have won okay so who's from Mexico City did someone travel from Mexico City no we heard that there might be okay Jose Luis where did you travel from Jose Luis where did you travel from well you won you won amazing okay so what we're going to do is from Norway yeah yeah that's farther than I'm like wow okay so you won alright so what's the name on the red line anybody blue line you work in this building okay so Kevin you start here so Kevin you're here and Jose Luis you're there right and we're going to go the least amount of traveled all the way up to the most traveled go groups that you're near you're going to make Boston group you might be right so you're going to make a group name of your group and in a moment we're just going to hear Boston or Texas we have our own group over here so you have one minute to make your group menu alright in a moment we're going to have folks introduce themselves by your group in whatever way you just discussed so we'll start from the closest yeah okay and the rest of us are being really good audience members aren't we I think our Boston group is ready to go and a hush fell over the crowd we're listening and last but not least Jose Luis won and I don't know but if that didn't give you something to ask people about then think of something else so it was really nice to get to play with you all I look forward to getting to know you better this week could Roxanne have been anything other than somebody who teaches teachers unbelievable Roxanne incredible thank you so much can we sit can we can sit back down alright yeah sit back down right yeah yeah everybody take a seat checkity check check check check check check beautiful great right as we are taking our seats and continuing this magical journey Natty take it away sure alright everybody while you're having taking your seats just introduce myself my name is Nathaniel Justiniano I go by Natty I am one of the co-champions of the host committee here with Kevin and I was going to mention a couple things that we are here for in terms of the host committee we selected some of the restaurants you'll be going to including tonight's dinner we also are trying to connect this community with the Boston community I've been here for 6 years how long have you been here I've been here for just over 10 years that's right so we know all the cheese may about Boston where to go where not to go where to drink where to where to drink and then where to drink so you can ask us at any time if you need anything like where to drink so some other things to look for in terms of stuff that we prepared for you are two local artist events tomorrow night we're going to have a playwright we're having a Latin a playwright initiative in partnership with a powerhouse bilingual local company from Chelsea called the Theatro Chelsea the co-founder of which is right here JJ thank you so much for all your organizing work with us also in partnership with that is the Huntington Theater and we'll be highlighting two playwrights having amazing food provided by Veggantes a local Puerto Rican restaurant they're fucking awesome so that's right so come to that and then on Saturday during the day we're going to be having some creative workshops with some local Latin a artists here in the space and throughout the space is here and on Saturday night a big party with music with a bar at a place called Chroma which is an amazing organization just down the street it's walking slash staggering distance so let's make let's have some good times I'll pass it over to Kevin thanks Natty alright so my name is Kevin Masera he him I'm so excited to be here as we said around the circle I was part of the producing team supporting Karen's original meeting in 2012 so it's just really amazing and beautiful to be here speaking of Boston and Bostonian forces before the 2013 meeting there was some press to be done to let the Boston scene know that a bunch of crazy people were coming from around the country to discuss Latina theater I was asked by my new employer Emerson College at the time to do an interview for Boston neighborhood news about this convening and I was going to be doing it with a local playwright and legend by the name of Melinda Lopez what happened was the most problematic cringy truly unbelievable and absolutely hysterical interview that has ever happened to this day as I meet people they will call me and be like I googled you which is so flattering by the way and they will say I googled you and I found this insane interview where this old white man asked you and Melinda how you feel about Ricky Ricardo and he says like Melinda what does that mean like you write these plays is it like Mades and the aye aye aye which I'm still trying to figure out what that means but I received such a lesson in grace and stiff upper lip and not committing violence on public television from Melinda Lopez as she paused and said that's such an interesting question and engaged this journalist as though he wasn't a completely insane person and answered something else so Melinda Lopez is an actor, a playwright, a teacher a leader, an advocate a mentor and a friend perhaps you know some of her work Midnight Sandwich, Midya Noche Sonya Flu, Mala, Yerma they go on and on and on Melinda has been a touch point for me since the moment I moved here every time we've gotten to collaborate whether it's a play in this very space or just a couple weeks ago around the corner I become a better person a more compassionate person a more lit and on fire person those of you who know her know that to be in her presence is to be in the presence of just complete divinity and serenity so please join me in welcoming into the circle Boston's own Melinda Lopez completely block that out completely and funny because I'm talking about memory which things I did and did not remember so um um my name is Melinda Lopez my pronouns are she a series and my entry point to this amazing group was October 31st 2013 my memory as I said is really unreliable but a few things I remember very clearly I remember what I wore um multicolored peacock feathered dress and thigh high grey suede boots I remember I was late como siempre um I remember the altar which was covered with uh rebosos photos flores programs books a glass of rum I brought a handful of basil because I couldn't get Yerba buena uh and I remember Josefina Lopez put um um a beautiful uh Milagro a sacred heart at the center which symbolized I thought our passion our corazones our Sangre um I remember standing in a lot of circles dancing stretching howling crying singing and circles within circles and post it notes all along this wall I think it was this wall okay um all this back wall every single color that a post it note is made in was on that wall like a million little flags saying estamos aqui we're here um I remember meeting Jorge Huerta who I had only known from college textbooks in the flesh itang handsome um I remember the invocation by Luis Valdez who inspired me to write plays uh and José Luis Valenzuela who was over the regional theater insisting that we can't wait we need our own theaters I shared sorry I have a cough drop because I'm yeah um uh I shared the room with Luis Alfaro and Diane Rodriguez rest in power and was Richard Montoya actually rapping with Juan Amador and Mira I'm a medallia cruz and Caridad Savich and uh Quina Valdez and so many of you in the room now we're here and then friends I reconnected with Juliet Carillo and La Sandras from Chicago Marques and Delgado um Marisa Chivas and Daniel Haques and La Divina Karen Sacarias and so many names I heard for the first time Noé Montes and Brian Herrera and Lisa Portes and Georgina Escobar and Stephanie Ivara and Jacob Padrón folks who are leading the way now and names I'm so happy to speak out loud to you now I remember Daniel Serracho asking as we sat in circles within circles yes but how do you make money how do you afford how do you afford to stay in the theater right and then I remember Octavio Solis saying marry a lawyer now did I dream that I was in the room with Octavio Coco Solis and La Showrunner Daniel Vida Serracho I don't know if that was a dream or not um after lunch on the second day we were invited to form a group based on how long we've been working in the theater if you're under five years five to ten, ten to fifteen, etc we were supposed to join the group that most closely aligned with our time in the field but we're to start I can't remember that there wasn't a time in my life where this wasn't the only thing I wanted to do after school I used to go door to door in my neighborhood knocking on door saying do you want to see a play and then I would make up something which was probably my first solo show um but I asked for payment and cookies so when did did my career start when the maids and gypsies that I played in college or the time that I was told by a producer that I would never play Ibsen because I was too Latina but I auditioned anyways or the day I wrote my first monologue or taught my first class or the first residual check I cashed so I finally chose when I got my equity card and this put me in a circle with Irma Mayorga and Luis Alfaro and Josefina Lopez and I am definitely in the wrong circle I don't know what I'm doing here what can I possibly offer these titans of the American theater I'm scared about the future I'm scared I have no talent I am scared I am an imposter that I'm not Latina enough to be in this room I am not American enough to thrive outside this room I haven't done anything but I am a good listener and I listened on the last day I got assigned a Loteria card and it hung on my office wall at the Huntington for many years until during one of several office moves it was trans papelado but I remember it was the card of connection and my assignment was to make connections others connect people actors, designers, directors and always have a Latinae playwright, scholar actor, producer, student right at the tip of my tongue to speak into the room if I'm in the room where things happen that that's my charge and it's yours I pass it on to you you'll get your own Loteria card but it's yours too my insecurity my fear, lack of faith it doesn't matter if I hang on to the importance of lifting all of you up so my memory is not so good I remember the first day of our convening there was a blizzard and that's why I was late but the snow was beautiful and there were huge flakes falling slowly and the city was quiet I remember it so clearly and Boston is really pretty in the winter in the snow so I thought I would read you the weather report and I googled it and in fact there was no snow it was a totally normal day it was like mid-fifties it was a good day for trick-or-treating so maybe none of this actually happened and maybe I totally dreamed it at the towards the end of our last day we took apart the altar folks took back their sacred objects and as I was getting my bag ready to leave Josefina Lopez found me and she took my arm and she handed me her sacred heart her heart and she said I think you should have this and she put it in my hand I think that's what happened but here it is welcome to Boston I hope you have an amazing time thank you thank you Melinda what a beautiful way to close out our opening ceremonies I do want to mention that we've heard from several folks bringing names of people who have passed on and we are going to have a time to remember those people at closing ceremonies so I just want to name that we have not forgotten them and we're going to continue to bring up their names throughout the weekend and then also have a specific time during closing ceremonies to remember them as well so now we're going to have a 10-minute break and we're going to come back into this room and take a look at this timeline behind me and the work we've done to fill in the last 10 years so this is your 10-minute