 So I'm Devin Berkshire I'm director of conferences in field-wide learning at TCG and I'm so I'm so happy to welcome you back for our third and final day of the National Conference now You might remember our first plenary when an illness forced Cheryl Stray to cancel last minute and Teresa said The show must go on and thanks to the brilliant Lydia Yuknevich. It did well It's a reminder to always be careful what you say in Theater because the gods are listening and They said oh, oh the show must go on, huh? So let's throw a plenary speaker plane cancellation at you then But folks We are theater people and the show will go on because thanks to the generous spirit of our closing speaker Who arrived very late last night? We're gonna flip our plenary order today Anand Gary Dadas will be featured this morning speaking speaking and then in conversation with Andrea Asaf founding artistic director of art to action now You might be expecting p. Carl of howl around but sadly Carl sustained a knee injury that is preventing him from traveling So we thank Andrea Yep for not only stepping in for Carl, but for being ready to jump in here a few hours earlier than planned and Universes fresh off a rescheduled flight will be featured this afternoon in Conversation with a very flexible Che you Planning this conference is starting to feel a little bit like Game of Thrones Don't get attached to anyone All of these all of these near plenary catastrophes have reminded me that The only reason theater has survived the last couple thousand years or so is because it is deeply collaborative Even one person shows don't do it alone And when one of us falters or falls ill or the weather gods intervene we stand in we step up We hold on to each other and the show really does go on and so I just have to thank Hannah Fenlon who on this wild Difficult ride has made this impossible event possible Hannah You I don't know where you are right now, but you are the Wonder Woman of this conference and Everyone here owes you a big. Thank you. So we're gonna say it folks. You're gonna say it with me on three ready We're gonna say thank you Hannah one two three Thank you, Hannah Thank you. Thanks y'all So when it comes to groups modeling shared leadership a particular commons comes to mind To help me honor them. Please welcome Leslie Ishii to the stage. Oh my goodness. Thank you. I Just want to look at all of you. I Am deeply honored and humbled To be presenting this prestigious award. I traveled here to Portland from Los Angeles by car So I'm driving from sprawling Los Angeles Through the Te Home Pass and down into wide rural landscapes the San Joaquin Valley. I See lush greenery The West Coast growing season has begun and As I reflect about this award presentation, I Look at the fields and my mind turns To the start of Zeissler's and Guthrie's not-for-profit resident theater movement of the early 1960s But quickly my mind pivots to West Coast movements already Cultivating the American theater field Along the interstate 5 I see field workers and I recall the enforcement of the Rosero program a series of us Mexico federal laws that dehumanized workers as seasonal migrant workers in these very fields I Think as the Guthrie theater Completed its first season in 1964 The Bracero program was finally terminated. I Drive past rows of grape vines and remember that by 1965 Mexican farm and artistic workers perform octos in the fields on flatbed farm trucks in support of the Delano grape strike These political actions built the and founded the El Teatro Campesino It also built solidarity between the Filipino Filipina Japanese and Mexican heritage workers that formed the United Farm Workers Union That has continued to influence and fight for all workers rights. I Drive past the Bay Area, and I am reminded of the academic field The Third World Liberation Front that rose in 1968 where a Latinx student stood up during the ethnic study strikes in solidarity with other college students of color They fought for our stories our histories to remain chronicled in books curriculums courses That it could be a legitimate legitimate major They fought for the extension the expansion of the Eurocentric history courses, and I think During this time the Guthrie theater has completed its fifth season and Zisler rose as the sole leader of the Guthrie theater So simultaneously the commitment to the regional theater movement was producing the likes of Shakespeare and Chekhov While Latinx artists were also contributing the works from individual artists and the Milagros and the El Teatro Campesinos, the Pagrones Teatro del Pueblos and so many others around the country And it was that commitment to each other the theater field, the revolution that brought together and renewed us in 2012 when the initial meeting of the DC 8 led by Karen Zacarias at arena stage gave rise to the Latinx theater commons With the force of history behind it it gave rise to its incredible body of work From Boston to New York City to Los Angeles Chicago Dallas Seattle and back to Los Angeles this October for Latino theater companies El Centro de las Americas theater festival the LTC has also implemented the El Fuego initiative to ensure the production of Latinx plays They've also committed to preserving and forwarding the legacy of Maria Irene Fornez So in this work Latinx theater commons Has now created a platform for regional movements and to ensure the work is happening locally and Nationally to resist racism and counter forced assimilation with a theatrical tradition That is expanding the American and global classic cannon this cannon is multi-racial and Multilingual and in doing so Inspires us all to remember that the new American theater builds solidarity to honor each other's work and the Revolution that is our ways of life our cultural traditions protocols rhythms intersectionality aesthetics and most of all It reminds us that we are here to connect to each other as artistic and cultural workers to Cultivate and equitable inclusive field together My dear dear colleagues It is my honor and my greatest joy To present the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award To my colleagues of the Latinx theater commons Please join me in honoring and celebrating the work and the peoples of the Latinx theater commons accepting You can keep standing please keep standing. I Now give you Accepting on behalf of Latinx theater commons producing director gale vega Gale Vegas, I'm sorry. Oh my god. Abigail Vegas Please give her and the and the steering committee. Please give her another warm welcome Thank You Leslie I'm Abigail Vega I'm the LTC producer and I am so honored to be speaking on behalf of the steering committee both here in Portland And also all of our members around the country We are so grateful to the TCG staff and board who facilitated this award the artists who nominated us for it and the committee Who chose to give it to us? Many many members of our community have been nurtured and emboldened by a Relationship with TCG over the years and it means so much to be recognized in this way. Thank you There is an irony in being honored as an organization when we intentionally are not one The Latinx theater commons is a living breathing always changing Movement of theater makers updating the narrative of the American theater through collective action and generous spirits But before we get too far. I want to set something straight. I alone am not the LTC To really honor the LTC first look to the 20-ish or so steering committee members standing alongside me along with folks Who are being a skyped and facetimed in right now? Okay, so now imagine the nearly 60 more steering and advisory committee members not here with us today across the country Now look to the audience if you have been involved in an LTC committee helped plan an LTC event or Represent a foundation that has supported our work. Please stand because you're in the commons Stand keep standing keep standing. I'm adding it's additive. Yeah if you have attended one of our in-person convenings or Participated live via howl round TV also stand stand up as well. Okay, so we got more people great You have joined one of our online Communities via social media or cafe onda. Please stand because you are in the commons Keep standing keep standing Now imagine the veteranos and veteranis who came before Max Ferrer medium Cologne Louise Valdez Maria Irene Fornes and all the ancestors on whose shoulders we stand who fought battles against racism and inequity We cannot even imagine Finally envision the countless leaders that are yet to come this is the Latinx theater commons The LTC was seated in 2012 by eight Latinx theater makers and the incredible minds at howl round But the community that makes up our commons is rooted in so many places and programs Conferences and coffee dates gatherings formal and informal We are the late nights of the tenaz festivals of the 70s 80s and 90s The electric hispanic playwrights project and those mentored by the singular Maria Irene Fornes We are the meetings under the trees at TCG conferences in years past the now established TCG conference affinity spaces and The regional alliances supporting and connecting Latinx theater makers all across the country We are the two Latina students in your college theater program who exchange monologues because their professor doesn't know where to look And the knowing glances between folks that say are we really on this panel again We are the theater companies that have survived Thrived and nurtured talent for decades and the gatherings coalitions and visionaries yet to come The LTC is modeling a common the concept of a commons is really very simple It's the basic belief that some resources belong to everyone and this wealth has to be protected Managed and made accessible for the good of the whole commonses have existed and succeeded since the beginning of time No one owns the wealth in a commons because by its nature it cannot be owned That we can inherit commons think like the air or oceans or religious texts or we can create them For ourselves and for future generations Today the most popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia is a knowledge commons and people just like you are using the principles of the commons to protect sacred waters and Natural ecosystems to create community driven crowdsourcing and to promote engaged citizenry around the world by their very nature Commons challenge our transactional market-based ideology and propose an alternative reality rooted in the abundance and the greater good Our commons is an open think tank and brain trust of intergenerational practitioners Our commons is not an affinity space We welcome allies on our steering committee and at our events because we decided early on we needed to show up for each other We are a self-organized collective non-hierarchal structure built on a series of concentric circles and made up of people who raised their hands and showed up We step up when we are needed and we step aside when needed Ideas take off or drop off depending on the pulse of the community The LTC speaks truth to power What we do isn't easy We disagree often However Through a deep respect and trust for each other and our shared belief in the value of the commons We have created something revolutionary We fail constantly and while we are not perfect and we never could be We'll never stop trying The LTC was founded to make our own table instead of waiting to be invited to join one it was It was manifested on the radical premise that we all have the power to transform the American theater and in fact It's future relevance demands that we do With voices raised together we reject those narratives that marginalize us We push back against a system that benefits by pitting us against each other We defy those voices and an administration that seeks to eliminate us and our contribution to this culture We stand together in all of our varied skin tones Languages genders countries of origin or connection sexual orientations and immigration statuses as the Latinx theater commons We have taken matters into our own hands And now we stand among you and ask you to do the same The Latinx theater commons is just one intervention to create the new American theater What can we all do to create a theater that is an inclusive and equitable representation of all the peoples and cultures that make up this nation? Today we ask you to consider What is your intervention? Thank you. Thank you Abigail and thank you to everyone in Latinx theater commons for Advancing equity in our field on so many levels We're now going to move into our third plenary and it's going to be in three parts First we'll welcome Anand Giridardas to share his remarks Anand is an author most recently of the true American murder and mercy in Texas About a Muslim immigrants campaign to spare from death row the white supremacist who tried to kill him Which is currently being made into a movie He is a political analyst with NBC news and a contributor on so many news networks as a voice of empathy and reconciliation in our current political landscape After his remarks he'll be joined in conversation by Andrea Asaf the founding artistic director of art to action After their conversation, we'll have some time for Q&A before we close Please join me in welcoming Anand Giridardas to the stage