 configuration just in terms of our sort of presence in the room to sort of create that given our is great. I know many of you in this space. My name is Derek Goldman. I'm the co-facilitating this session with Teresa Eyring, who all of you know as executive director of TCG. I'm based at Georgetown University with the Lab for Global Performance and Politics. My two colleagues in the back, JoJo Roof, is our managing director of the Lab and Teddy Rogers, our communications and local connectivity manager. And GTI Global Theater Initiative is a partnership between TCG and the Lab. Some of you know about it already. We'll share a little bit of what it is. It's been around for a couple years. The last two TCG conferences we've actually done full day pre-conferences, one in Washington, one in Portland, and the whole range of other activities and programs. And the Lab is based at Georgetown in Washington with a mission to harness the power of performance to humanize global politics. We do a wide range of work, we're a little unusual as being a kind of theater-based initiative housed in a School of Foreign Service and the School of International Relations. And there are an awful lot of sort of institutional networks and affiliations and ecosystems that kind of overlap and intersect. It's a lot of exciting work that's going on. I think the biggest hope for this session is less to sort of speak at you about those and really take stock of like who's come into this space and why and with what ideas and projects and to kind of get a sense of what's happening in terms of global work and how TCG is already part of that or might be poised to kind of contribute more. One of the functions of, join us, one of the functions of global theater initiative is that we serve as the, hi Teresa. Hi. Hi everybody. It's a very full room. So excited to see so many internationalists. I was just starting by framing things up a little bit. So one of our functions is we serve as the US Center of ITI, the International Theater Institute. We can share some updates about what that is and opportunities in that area. But I think pretty quickly it would be actually great to kind of just have to go around the space and get a sense of who's coming into the room and from where and then to share updates and to kind of get into a conversation about the global work that's happening that feels like there's a lot of momentum in this area. And the goal of the Global Theater Initiative is really about relationship building and amplifying work and creating networks and opportunities for us. Oftentimes we feel like we're doing this work and without a lot of folks like, oh, there's someone over here who's also doing that and to try, we've been working very intentionally over a couple of years to try to develop some network systems to be taking better stock of the kind of work that's happening. And it's a kind of very happy surprise that this room is as full as this. So I think that's something we should take advantage of and make sure we remind us here. Do you want to? Do you have any background in terms of progress over the last few years? I didn't go into detail about GTI activities. Okay. Going back to Cleveland, how many people are at the Cleveland Conference? So we had a lunch meeting then that also was very, very full of people who are working on internet global, let's say global work in theater. And it was a great conversation because we really had the opportunity to hear from, you know, what people are working on, what things they'd like to work on. One of the things that was requested out of that meeting is that there'd be some kind of website or place where people could put their work, map it out, get to know who's doing what. Thanks to our friends at HowlRound, that website now exists. And you can go there, we have information about it. The World Theater Map. It's called World Theater Map. And you can, you know, create a profile. You can list shows that you're doing. You can help other people get on there. I think they're gradually translating, so it's available in Spanish. I think the next language may be French, but they're trying to create translations. So that's something that's actually happened in the last four years. We then did in Washington, D.C. and in Portland last year, pre-conferences. In D.C., we had 25 countries represented. And it was a really fantastic day. We really focused in on subject matter around refugees. And we followed that in Portland with also a very well attended pre-conference. We couldn't do it this year just because it takes a lot of resources to be able to do it. This year let's, you know, just have some programming such as this. But we look forward to being able to convene again on a larger scale. So that's some of the work that we've done jointly so far. We celebrate World Theater Day in a pretty large fashion every year. We are facilitating a lot of different exchanges. There's a lot of activity happening with young people and with high school and especially college and university students. There's interest in translation. We're also trying to get to a place of really thinking about what unites us as theater makers around the world because we are so connected to each other in terms of why we do the work. And we also are living in a time where the U.S. is so not well represented around the world and where a lot of very long time alliances are being broken. So we feel like theater people have such an important role to play right now. So I like to think about things like what do we have in common around our concerns around human rights? What do we have in common around our concerns about audience? All these things, you know, even funding and keeping the theaters alive, how can we help communities around the world that don't have theater spaces to get them? You know, there's a lot that we can work on together. It really matters to us. It matters to others. So that's what I got. Yeah, just to, some of you were in the university affiliates space yesterday and I think there is a relatively new network for higher education and the performing arts that's a global network that's part of ITI, International Theater Institute, which will announce a Next World Congress soon. They tend to be about every two years and the last one was in Segovia, Spain. But what's one of the most exciting developments out of the ITI space I think at the last Congress has been that it's just getting younger and more vibrant and really more cross-generational in very, very exciting ways. Amelia has worked for years developing the kind of young practitioners wing of it and with this new network there was just a sense and it's very, you know, now as I sit on the ITI board there's a really felt shared sense that ITI is a much more future oriented viewing space and that there's a real, not just a cross-cultural but a cross-generational exchange happening there. And I think there's, I mean there's so many intersections and synergies but one that we've been just, like that seems, there's a lot of discussion about of course how university spaces and the professional theater spaces can continue to build those relationships and integration of practice and training and exploring models for sharing. And I think there are ways, there's energy out of the university affiliate space for thinking about how folks who share an interest in international work, there isn't really a particular network for that but whether formally or informally to build or strengthen some of those relationships so that we can share ideas and practices. I think it's happening informally, but that's something that's coming up. Should we, it's a big room, should we try to quickly go around and then do introductions? Yeah, that would be great. So great. So if you could share just who you are, what brings you into the space, the work you're doing and if there's something just so that, because one could use most of the time in those introductions. So keep it brief, but I think if there's something that you're really, like that feels intentional in terms of like a hope or an idea or something and almost like an agenda item that you want to put out there briefly, that would be great whether we can get to all of them but just so that we can take stock of that. Try at this stage not to share, you know, a long anecdote about, we just won't get all the way around the room. So Aaron wants to ask. Sure. I'm Aaron Jafaris. I'm a hip hop playwright and I'm interested in how audience creation of art at a performance can further the goals of empathy and understanding that I was looking at for sure. Great. And are you working internationally? Yeah, I mean occasionally when, yeah, but more just when I have a show this, let's get out of this. Yeah, I'm not doing it. Great. My name is Virginia Ogden. I'm a full fellow at Northern Stage in White River Junction, Vermont and through our education program I'm interested in how we can get our students to share their work across borders. Abby Marcus, I'm the managing director for Cal Art Center's new performance where we produce work both on a global stage this past season in the Lujan Festival in China, in France and Brussels, in Cuba, as well as in New York and Los Angeles. We also provide residency space for artists to germinate work with us on campus with our students and USERF artists internationally right now from Poland and Mexico and the parts of South America. And so we are very interested in how we bring our work out into the world and what by bringing our work out into the world and collaborating internationally with that relationship is for our students and their study. Let's go this way. Laurie. Laurie McCants, Bluntzburg Theater Ensemble. We are a theater company in a small town in rural Pennsylvania. We've done international collaborations with artists from Zambias and Bobway, South Africa, Japan, Egypt and we have an ongoing training in Japanese No Theater and a theater company has been born out of our company called No Gaku, Theater No Gaku, which is creating new no plays in English. And I think my interest is maintaining the relationship with our local university. Dan Rappenberg, artistic director of the Ion Theater in Philadelphia, lots of international collaborations and P3 visas. Yes. Less so since the founders have more kids and aren't able to go abroad as much. I actually came because we have an exchange that's been informal with Theater Slava outside Stockholm for almost 20 years now. Their training has become part of our training and they've been doing a kind of a social practice. They wouldn't call it that. A pageant with Iraqi and Afghan refugees outside Stockholm for two or three years. And I guess I'm just always wondered about A, if they would love to turn their training into a book and I'm wondering if it would be American University that would host them or finding a partner for that. And also wondering about, we've sent some of our graduate students over there who have always been like, yay, about being there for their intensive with the refugee population and just wondering more about helping them find a American partner or partner or American bridge. Theater Slava. Theater without an H and then Slava. I'm Kelsey Liorvi. I'm Associate Artistic Director for Water Tower Theater in Addison, which is north of Dallas, Texas. And although our work is not typically branched outside of Texas, we have hosted a number of artists and various festivals that we've curated whose work has branched outside of the United States. And I'm interested in how we can get our local Dallas artists and get their work outside of our city and outside of the country and further expanding their reach and how that relates to the work that we're doing. I'm Diane Englert. I'm based in Brooklyn, Oregon. I'm a Director, Producer, and Writer. I'm the newbie in the room. I'm interested in doing some work and internationally in collaboration. Great. I'm Liorvi and I work at RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology. What's a technology college doing at an arts conference? We also have an arm that's the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. And it sort of organically grew by a touring company called Danger Signs, which is deaf and hearing on stage together. RIT has sister campuses in Dubai and in school in Japan and all other places. So I do think that there is potential for Danger Signs to bridge out and to help show that dangerous place, the dangerous signs between cultures, between deaf and hearing, between wherever we're going and wherever we've been. Hi, my name is Sophie. My name is Stefan and I work for Hollaround. So I'm here because one local citizenship is in our values and our mission. But also because I did my master's program abroad and have often thought about how to sustain the collaborations I have internationally, which are some of the longest-term collaborations, specifically what those look like when you're not connected to an institution anymore and when your work revolves around community organizing and intersection of arts and social justice. Hi, I'm Sharon Fogarty. I'm one of the artistic directors of Mabel Mines in New York City. We're going to the Boozian Festival in China. And my question is, it's really hard when there's only one source of funding in the U.S. to go to a festival. And also to be able to host artists, there's pretty much nothing. So what can we do about that? What's the one source of funding that you're looking for? U.S. Arts International Summit Atlantic. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's cool. My name is Megan Jones. I'm also with Pagan Theater Company. And we have several international students with our master's program which is a partnership of U.S. Arts in Philadelphia. But I'm really just here to listen and learn. I'm Janet Stanford. I'm the artistic director at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland. And we are a TYA theater. I've been doing international collaboration for 20 odd years. And my aesthetic as a theater is very much more from what I've seen in Europe as opposed to what I've learned in the States. And recently we've been trying to have artists from overseas interact with our students. Just last week we had a group of teenagers in Italy doing the dance performance with kids from all over the rest of the world. And last summer we took, we were the first ever American performance at the 25th anniversary of the Soul Ascitation for National Art. And that speaks to what you are saying about the absolute absence of money that allows us to go overseas as artists and show our work in a time when diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, should be on the top of somebody's agenda. And I'll shut up now. Hi everyone. My name is Elizabeth Dinkova. And I am a Bulgarian theater director and adapter and creator. And I have, so I currently work at the Alliance Theater where I have a post graduate school fellowship. And ever since I arrived in the States, which was eight years ago and, you know, I'm an immigrant and proudly and happily. So I have found it particularly difficult to convince American theaters and artistic directors that it is worthwhile to actually look to other cultures and other countries with complex histories in order to get more perspective on what is currently happening in America because what's happening here, even though definitely having its cultural idiosyncrasies is not unique in any shape or form. And I think there's a lot of potential in exploring these cultural collaborations and communications in order to figure out how to solve or improve the current situation. But it makes me very happy to see that there's a room of people who are interested in that. So I'm here because I'm curious as an international person in America how I can serve as a mediator or a facilitator for some of those cross-cultural collaborations. We'll wrap around that. Hi, I'm Patrick Seiler. I'm from Upstream Theater here in St. Louis. We are a small but mighty SPT theater that concentrates on international and global work. We've done over 30 U.S. premiers here in town. We choose our material to have local residents even though it's of international. So just kind of stepping up from what you're talking about. We do that stuff. And I guess I'm just here. Our artistic director couldn't make it here. So I'm just here to gather as much information as possible. And yeah, just check it out. Thank you. Hi, I'm Christian Parker. I'm the chair of the Graduate Theater Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. And I think as our program has evolved and we've somewhat desilowed it, one of the things that we have been attempting to do is in line with our mission really to not only educate but plug our students into the profession, to the best of our ability is to do so increasingly with a global perspective. And we've begun to initiate certain and cultivate certain partnerships with international institutions, both schools and peer schools in other countries notably in China and also with theater producing institutions so that our students can see them doing internships abroad or apprenticeships abroad, which we also require for them. In my own practice, I'm a director of geometry, so I've also worked some internationally in that capacity. So I have a personal interest in it as well. But I'm most interested in how, from my full-time job, I can forge more of these relationships internationally with other institutions, but also without resources. It's not like Columbia University is just paying for this either. And it's certainly clear that in dealing with China, for example, that they have resources to bring to the table very often that helps to facilitate this stuff, but not every place does. We have another partnership in Croatia, for example, that we struggle to fund, and they do too. So anyway, that's why I'm here. Hi, I'm Marisa Ford. I'm the associate general manager at the New Theater. We've had some international collaborations, so I'm looking at how we can expand those, how we can make the most of time when we do bring in an international theater group, and how we can give them more visibility rather than our local area, how we expand to regional and national levels and collaborate with other theaters to make it more of an experience for them, as well as developing the message that they're trying to send as well, and also how we can create more opportunities for professional development across the fields. Hi, my name is Morgan. I work in casting at the Guthrie in Minnesota. I'm just personally interested in a different part of my industry, since our theater is extremely regional and it doesn't do a lot of work internationally. And maybe from a Guthrie perspective, interested in where things are with translation. I know Guthrie is interested in expanding what is our idea of the classics, though that work hasn't happened yet, so just hearing about it would be fun to bring back. Hi, I'm Mark Jackson. I'm a company member at Shotgun Players in Berkeley, but also a theater maker based in San Francisco. And the experiences I've had both as an artist and an audience in theaters in other countries have been among the most galvanizing for me. And so a rolling question that I constantly have and why I'm here is, how can we adapt practices and systems that are working in other countries to ours? And I find that that is, question is met with a lot of, well, we can't bother worrying about them and I said to you, we don't. And I come to believe that that's just an excuse to not actually deal with the world, so I don't believe in that statement. Yes, Sarah, yes. I'm Julie Hendren. I'm with Tricklot Company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I'm the director of Global Corridor, which is our ongoing sort of collaborative programming. And we produce artists and do international collaborations throughout the year. We have three ongoing collaborations right now. One in Uganda, one in Colombia, and one in Poland. And then the flagship sort of project of the Global Corridor is the Revolution's International Theater Festival, which is coming up on its 20th year and is for three weeks in March. We produce artists from all over the world, performances, workshops, panels, and every other year we do a Theater Without Borders Revolution Symposium. And I'm here because I like to connect with other people who are doing international work, especially looking at resources. We're really isolated in New Mexico. And so it's like, you know, I produce a lot of artists, and sometimes the only thing they do is come to Albuquerque and then go home, because I can't find anywhere else to produce them. So it would be great to have a network of other producers and collaborators. Hi, I'm Deb Van Drift. I'm the general manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. We're a producing company that periodically shares our work abroad. We also have parallel to our subscription series, a world stage series where we bring in five or six productions each year from all over the globe. And I'm here just to learn more about the TCG initiative. I'm Michelle Preston. I'm the executive director of City Company. We're a 25-year-old ensemble theater based in New York City. We tour domestically and internationally. We teach the Suzuki and Viewpoints method of actor training, and we teach those workshops not only in New York City, but we teach them domestically and internationally as well. And then we have a biennial nine-month conservatory program. And oftentimes at least half of the classes are international students, and so we get to deal with J-1 visas. So anything about visas and touring internationally is what I'm interested in. I'm Beth Lewis. I'm the managing director of Bag & Baggage Productions outside of Portland, Oregon. And I'm here because we just opened a 160-seat studio theater, and I'm hungry for international work and hearing you in New Mexico. I want your tours to come up to Portland. So that's why I'm here is to build that relationship with all of you to get some, because we have a hungry audience. Hi, my name is Jessica Lewis, and I work with a TCG with Theresa and Kevin Bitterman and Emilia Cachapero. I work on the Global Connections program, which is a program that supports reciprocal theatrical exchanges between U.S. theater professionals and companies and our counterparts abroad. And we support collaborations at the very beginning of the relationship through to the research and development process for a new theater work. And I'm just excited to be here to talk about the work that you all are doing and also happy to answer questions about that program. Hi, I'm Irina Krujilin. I'm sorry, I'm late. I'm here, first of all, because I'm a very great admirer of Global Connections and Derrick St. George's lab. They're phenomenal. I don't think that there's anybody else in the world who does that. I'm an individual artist. I'm an international artist. I love your country. Many times, I work all around the world as a designer and visual dramaturg. I think one of the things which I'm trying to do, I teach things which are not taught in this country. In terms of visuals and design, it's one of the things which I'm trying to give to American theater. And I'm trying to be that mediator to bring some art people and the challenge which I faced, I was able to connect great people to a wonderful director, Dmitry Krimov. And what happened when he came here, it feels like many theaters want him and they try to apply it for the same grant. They just bring him. So you see that there is only one funding and there are a few companies who really want to bring him in, but they're applying for the same grant and competing with one another and it feels very unhealthy. So one that there are other ways to sponsor ways and ways and artists because there is so much we can learn from that. My name is Jessica Pradensio. I'm with Ping Chomming Company. I'm also a freelance director based in New York and San Diego. I just got back from the Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship I'm the first recipient of that where I lived in Thailand, Japan and the Philippines and created two projects with my company, which is issue-based and it's on people and issues and interview-based as opposed to the form, even though I study that form, but we created projects one in Thailand on prostitution and one in the Philippines on the war on drugs. So I am now an international artist. I feel it's essential to my work and it's now my process and I'm excited to learn more about the field and how I can continue this work and bring the work that I created here to the U.S. Let's go back to the corner. Oh, hi, I'm Erin Salvi. I'm with TCG and I'm mostly here to listen and learn today but I also work in the TCG books department so a lot of my thinking is publication and book based so I'm particularly interested in availability and access to works in translation because I think the American theater is very American theater focused when it comes to publishing and reading. My name is Renata James I'm the education coordinator at Aurora Theater and we do work with international artists not my department specifically but our theater does bring an artist to work in our Teatro series which is all Spanish speaking but personally I'm just really excited to hear and learn and absorb because I don't know much so I'm excited to learn a little bit more. Could you say your name again? Renata. Hi, I'm Renal Vidal. I'm the assistant manager director at Zach Theater in Austin, Texas and very similar to you. Just here to learn, we don't do really any work globally so here to learn what others are doing and what we can do in this area. I'm John Flax, founding artistic director of Theater Grotesco in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We started as an international company in France and our collaborations were all international. We've done some projects in Colombia and we're doing a project in Spain and it's interestingly enough that it's the international projects that are the most interesting to me. We're talking with the Belgian company there's a Mexican project that's coming and I'm most interested in that insistence on some more funding. Hi everyone, I'm Kevin Bitterman, director of institutional advancement of partnerships at TCG. I've been in this role for about a year. Prior to that I was the assistant director of artistic international programs so really working with all my colleagues here on our international programming. In my new role, one of the many things I'm thinking about is that funding question. Both to renew our support which is really from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and other sources. I don't know if Derek mentioned this at the top but another significant amount of our joint programming that we've been doing together is delegations to various festivals around the world. Several of you have traveled with us, we've traveled with you and those delegations of attending festivals have been transformative because they've led to collaborations, to co-productions, co-people doing tours when they bring a company to the US, cost sharing. So I think some of the, I'm hoping one of the outcomes of this room is just more of the how can this community group work together to share the resources to support and bring artists and I'll trickwax through amazing work in that area too. So great to be back in this room. I'm Jo Jo Rue from the managing director of the lab and alongside Kevin was one of the producers for our global pre-conference the past several years. I've been in delegations with TCG and co-led them and then also served on the panel for global connections grant for TCG as well. And have been working in the international space since the lab was founded about seven years ago and like many in this room are excited about having conversations about the funding world and how we can sort of leverage our resources and I'm just really delighted to see how full this room is so exciting with the conversation. Hi, I'm Pia Haddad. I started my production company called 3k2 Productions which mission is to create new work by multicultural artists. I'm from Lebanon but I was born here and lived in Europe so I'm interested in using my internationality to create international collaborations because I believe like it's important to create like one voice, one global voice, new work, common humanities. But I'm here to learn as well because although I am from all these places I'm not sure how to connect them really. So, yeah. My name is Ali Mahdi. I'm from Sudan. I'm founder and artistic director of a book on theater company. It's a private sector theater. We worked for the last 30 years. We have a lot of projects, especially in the field of humanitarian work with orphan children and the peace dialogue in Sudan, you know, and our neighbor. We have the festival for the last 19 years. We have a good cooperation with TCG for the last 10, 12 years maybe. We're inviting groups from here, from USA to have performance leading workshop like the last workshop with Tracia and we are with the support of TCG. I have my favorite performance in USA at Le Mame Theater. That was very interesting as a chain because they call it out of Broadway. My performance is out, out, out, out. This is what Peter Prook, you know, Peter Prook. I met him many times in Paris, he's a friend of mine. He's from the city and he said, you're changing the whole place of La Mama because we make a circle for like yesterday, you see. So I cooperate very much with your town university. I came many times for workshop, leading workshop, working with the students. I am interested very much in the international cooperation. It's the only way for develop and support young artists especially in countries like our countries. We have a good cooperation with the German. We send about 11 people to Stuttgart for a long time. I'm leading in our regional new initiative for using the performance in the difficulties, in the peace buildings. I live very much in the cooperation, the international cooperation with the other. I'm coming here especially. This is one of my important moments that I attend this workshop because we can exchange information but unfortunately when we leave we forget the emails which is very big problem. But I'm looking forward to make more performance of my group around the world and to welcome more performance from around the world in Sudan who is the difficulty of the Sudan. The two gentlemen are in Sudan and the two is the Excellency and Teresa are in Sudan. They know how it is hot. Our festival is very simple festival, very poor one, but it's very rich with the people you can manage to meet with the people. So I'm sorry to talk too much but I'm so happy that I make it too. I attend these sessions. My name is Teddy Roger. I'm the communications and global connectivity manager at the lab with Derek and Jojo. And I'm thinking about all the ways we work but specifically I'm looking to strengthen and deepen the way we support our lab fellows who are 10 really innovative emerging artists around the world working at this sort of intersection of politics and performance. So I'll be thinking of them and bringing them into the room. I'm Courtney O'Neill with the Alliance Theater and I'm really just here to listen and learn. Can we get everyone? Hi, I'm Kathy. I consider myself international because I was born and raised and worked in international presenting in Shanghai, China before coming to the states for grad school. And aside from that, I'm here to learn that. Great. That's a very full trip around an amazing room. Just a practical question. I just want to make sure that we have some mechanism because I don't know what the app is doing that we're actually capturing everybody who's in the room so we can stay in contact. Can we pass around? I thought about that but then I realized that I don't have a big enough pad. But I have been noting this here. I noted it. Clearly, we're not going to get to everything but there is something about just the very fact of the power of the fact of a session when this title fills this room that I think is actually really directly connected to some of the kind of like appetites in the room for like making a case and for why isn't there funding and for the kind of networking that we're trying to build. And so we need, I think, when this happens to not just kind of anecdotally say it was a very full room and there's a lot of people doing this work but to really be thinking intentionally and I think this is a big part of what we've been talking about with GTI about how we're building a networked community that can advocate on its own behalf and can tell the stories of like what's already happening and thus make the case in our various orbits for resources, partnerships, for foundations and others to be aware that when you put this on the calendar at a TCG conference in St. Louis that the room fills up like this. Yeah, that's great. That's great. We got one. Maybe you start that way too. Yeah, maybe we get two going. We have a business card and we'd rather just leave that. That's a great way. That's fine to me. But don't be shy about doing both just to make sure we get everybody. It seems that, you know, I kind of noted a couple things that are really rising to the top in listening to what people are thinking about. One, on the practical level, has to do with funding and shared resources and this comes up all the time because really actually there is very little funding for international work and there have been a number of studies at one Bank of America US Trust does a study of high network philanthropic people every other year and, you know, if you look at the priorities for giving, global causes are down towards the bottom. If you think about talking with colleagues in the theater field sometimes about the importance of international work, people, at least in the past, are like, why, you know? So we are fighting a bit against, like, the challenge of there not already being this giant amount of support and desire to support the work, but I think we can do it. I mean, I think if we talk a little bit about what those avenues might be and then get a few folks, like having them in your copious spare time, to really start to put together, like, these are actually the sources but how else can we collectively raise some funds? So just the funding piece and then the others, I think if we have time to talk about something more on the values and philosophical side around what our role is right now at this moment in time and having an impact to the world and fighting against what is really so destructive in our country and in our world right now. Just a suggestion. Look at your local corporations, local businesses. We receive funding for our Japanese exchange from a company that's in a very small town, in rural Pennsylvania, that happens to be Japanese and they're very supportive and their executives take our theater classes, et cetera. And I would add to that, sister cities. You often don't know that where you are is a sister city to somewhere else in the world and there is not always arts funding to go with that but it's certainly worth suggesting it. You know, how do you, like Rockville turns out to be a sister city with Xi'an, China but nobody knows that. So there's a reason for that and it's a business reason but if you could get, get at Rockville to recognize that putting up a show and saying we're doing this because we're a sister city it helps, it helps the partnership. That's for mutual understanding and geographically specific and also the other foundation funding. I will say that my frustration this year at least is that we end up doing a lot of collaborations with Eastern Europe because that is where a lot of the funding is between McKayovich and TMU and the fact that we were able to get to China which is also a draw for a lot of our students who come from China. It was harder to do because the funding just isn't there did it with South America where we have a large Latinx program and so it was a great interest in getting there and funding just isn't there for those countries over. Yeah, where economics the economics of those countries are very volatile and change very quickly. Yes. There's the Asian Cultural Council also but they don't necessarily fund tours or that kind of thing but artists have to stand for artists here in Asia. I remember people mentioned connected to universities do you think the funding comes to the university just kind of? No. It's a perception that it should but in general within and it sounds like similar at Columbia these are fledgling remapping initiatives within institutions they're like cool, go for it but it's actually generating it is a core thing of funding there's a lot of obstacles to that even if it's like getting access to prospective donors sometimes even more of an obstacle to be at the university because you're not eligible for some of the kinds of funding. We get a lot of I mean Columbia has in the past 10 years opened all over the world a series of what they call global centers which are basically they're not they're not new buildings they're just sort of, they're found spaces with point people placed in these countries that range from Brazil to Jordan to India all over the place there's one at a global center Reed Hall in Paris for all of Europe and we get a lot of I wouldn't pressure it might be the wrong word but we're encouragement to exploit these global centers for faculty to go to different global centers and present or do a workshop or initiate contacts locally in these places with no resources to do so so if people want to spend their money to go there they can and they'll have a welcome they'll be welcome in these places but there's not it's a strange situation where they've made a gesture towards globalism but there's not there's nothing underneath that in terms of financial support certainly we can't just sort of decide to bring a group of students to a place or even a group of faculty we also find that there's a lot of because it's part of a larger university a lot of competition like you know only one department support at a time so like for like any we just have to be prioritized there is still some funding at the state department periodically there are new programs that are announced there's center stage is still being done I think through NEPA correct and then I'm also finding with some of the consulates that are based in New York that they're very interested in promoting their own countries so you know Sweden Spain Catalonia and so there is sometimes funding to bring the artists to the states and we also have as Derek mentioned we're often taking or maybe it was Kevin or Jojo but delegations to other countries for festivals where the festival can cover the cost of your a hotel and your tickets to see the shows but then you need to be able to get yourself there so to the extent that people can come up with some money for a flight we can sometimes facilitate getting you to a festival just to see the work and then figure out whether the consulate in this country has the money to help you bring artists here so or the home country helps we just got a group from Chile based on the delegation from TCG of going there and so we were able to get the government and through writing letters of invitation etc we got all their flights covered and their visas taken care of and so then we decided to take care of everything on our end and made a huge difference we started in South America to see some of the U.S. embassies helping the presenting partners in a specific country bring us or offset our fees and those relationships are actually not being managed by us or the U.S. company I always get a little utopian in these inspiring rooms and then it gets me thinking about whether I feel like we go around and there's so much genuinely inspiring work and examples of where people are making it happen with limited resources or have done it and I can't help but wonder if somehow we're missing an opportunity to make a collective case better that's self-evident to us but that over years of like this is the same the ripples are actually quite large and that the perceptions that oh it's too expensive there's not enough impact that there's so many counter examples that could be perhaps gathered constructively by the kind of folks in this room to sort of put in front to sort of say there's actually a movement there's not just a series of examples of projects there's a sort of movement that's been going on that there's evidence in all of these kinds of spaces the different types of spaces that come into a space like this and that would take I'm not underestimating this labor and organization that would take but I do feel like there's almost a sense that we're still there's still like a not very well kept secret or something so I don't know how we would just throw that out there I think the big difference between our country and most all of the other countries in the world is that we have no government funding and you know take the case of Ireland they have the okay camera they have a strong international funded artist funded program UK China even Russia I think that's once we are validated in that way that we need to be cultural ambassadors it's important it's necessary then we're just kind of grabbing piecemeal at what little there is out there I don't see that changing I have to say I think our biggest hope is starting in this room and TCG and Kevin convincing the international corporations like multinational corporations and the national funders that there is a social benefit in this kind of cultural exchange, cultural literacy I wish there was just money for Americans of all stripes and travel to other countries you know because I feel like that I mean you always hear those stories about like I was an exchange student in this other place and then I realized they were people one thing that we're starting to do because you know we're a tiny theater in the middle of Vermont and we have no funding for something like this is we're starting to really utilize technology for you know even if we can't get there or we can't bring them there and it's been pioneered by our students too our students in middle school who are like getting on Google Translate or getting on Skype or getting in chat rooms and finding other students around the world that they want to collaborate with so that's one way that we've kind of put our foot in the door with very little money or resources to start those collaborations I was just going to say two quick things one just a funny thing that hasn't been mentioned is through the State Department and often this is embassies in other countries so like the Pakistani embassy will you know you can apply for a grant it's pretty significant it's very laborious it's a pretty hard grant so like forewarned it's like NEA on steroids but there is some funding depending on sort of what countries you're looking at might be interesting and then the other conversation that I think is paired with this is the conversation of visas which I know has been brought up already and I know Janet and Julie I've talked to both of them and I know a lot of you have dealt with this but to get artists to come here we've had productions planned and then their visas were denied some for reasonable grounds some for completely unreasonable grounds artists are being held at the border for hours and hours and missing connections so it's also I think the idea of partnering also helps leverage the power to get artists here too and then also and Kevin and I have sort of worked on this a lot in the global pre-conference where you work on your behalf and then obviously is extremely costly but when you can pool resources to do that that's also really helpful I have just a thought too that I think there's a series of larger conversations that a group formally or informally like this can begin to have with the larger group of certainly PCG member theaters and the theater community at large about barriers to self-imposed barriers to interest in this kind of work which if we can make a sweeping generalization about the American theater still being largely playwright centric like where can we employ without trying to change that necessarily not that we might not want to change that to some extent but without with the acknowledging that how do we then appeal to the playwrights in our community who have a lot of sway to take an interest in working on adaptations of international work not only do we want to have intersections of people traveling from place to place or bringing in tours or sending out tours but we also have a text centric playwright centric theater in this country where we don't have a lot of our writers intersecting with international playwrights and how can we facilitate that conversation so that I think artistic directors who perceive in our resident theaters institutional theaters who perceive a barrier to presenting international work around their usual fears of what audiences will accept we may lower that barrier a bit if we can get American playwrights working on translations and adaptations of international plays I also find that in my work in US regional theaters that many are slow to sort of realize all the ways that I think herself had a plethora that the global is the local by connecting globally you know, you're actually reaching out into your own community of your own communities, the immigrant community and there's sort of like a I think in some cases some obvious opportunities that by sort of assumptions about what it means to think globally can happen in very immediate ways but one other way to circumvent that which is implied in what you were saying is not only to get American playwrights to be interested in international play translations and collaborations but also to get international playwrights in working on things about America which I'm sure will be very illuminating and informative perspectives and many people are already doing it it's just a matter of reaching out to those people and then like artistic directors that these plays in fact exist and might be interesting to these local communities really, you're talking about producing theaters and how do you convince them to do international work YARRAP has the November series which is International Presidential Work which actually I ran last year and it's totally different it's marketed to a complete different audience like we don't even pull the developers to send our e-blast to because we know the audience will be different and so it's not necessarily competing with whatever resources out there that is dedicated to new plays or whatever tech-centric productions I think it's more about expanding the territory so that there's more entryway for other people who may be inspired including the artists already in the field by seeing these very different kind of work and also people who has never been to who feel a little bit disconnected with the traditional American theater that finds some international work that is maybe more transformative in forms or explorative in that way and then maybe starting to bring them in whatever it is I wonder if there are chime entries but just thinking of how to what are the opportunities to build a stronger sense of community out of it feels like it's quite remarkable to me who comes into these spaces consistently and I think there's lots of us who know lots of us but how as we think about GTI and these kind of and other sort of network things that are set up particularly to work on relationship building and network building and kind of knowledge sharing how we talk about the web based stuff we have an annual conference but if there are kind of concrete thoughts on how to you know how to build on what happens in this space before we gather again in a year and create momentum out of that it would be really interesting to me of these we don't do presenting work as much as we do producing but that doesn't mean we were able to collaborate with the Skirball Center this year who were bringing Lugger T-House Toronto South Soul to be presented and then we tagged on a residency for them so we were able to collaborate on the visa but part of that is just knowing that they were going to be doing the LA LA festival and so like part of that is like the consortium building of well yes we can get consortium funding we can go after you know consortium based visa application part of that is just knowing kind of who's and that's so and it's so far out in the knowledge but like it would really help us in terms of supporting international artists and residencies to know who is going to be in the states and how we can continue their journey here in a meaningful way would it be too much for us too much for us to create a listserv a listserv? or like some sort of mapping or message or something something really simple we know a lot TCG helps we do consultation letters for visas and we know a fair amount about who's working on what but people just could have a really easy way that you could just like throw out information we just booked this company to come anybody else interested it can end up with your mailbox getting pretty full and there's other ways like Facebook group or other things just finding what's the easiest, simplest, best way because right now we are so reliant on the artists we met an artist when we were in Chile at the festival that wants to come and start a new work at CalArts but part of that process is you know we have found out for what our tour schedule is in the states and being able to tag on to that and like I would rather take someone as off the artist so we can be a little bit more proactive but I think your question is so right on Derek I mean we have this energy we have this group there may be some folks here that can even say that was interesting maybe I'll get involved but I know there are a lot of people sitting in this room who would like us to be more coordinated more consistently and also I keep thinking this idea of impact and how we start to message what we do you know it's almost a marketing campaign in a way or an awareness campaign that just we claim the space and just do it because it's true we're not going to ever probably see a U.S. government that's going to say we do diplomacy through cultural diversity I'm not sure about that it's a bad situation but I I want to share with you our experience what happened during because I think the aim subject is how to develop this relation for international cooperation yes I'm right so at the beginning we work with TCG TCG introduces us to the Georgetown University and to New York City University also I do some workshop so this is how the things start you deal with one body like TCG and TCG introduce us to the Seattle Without Borders one of the founders and our first performance in USA you can imagine how far I am coming away from to came here I take for me 24 hours one flight you know sometimes people look at difficulties financial or so when we came we covered all our costs but you can imagine an organization company and office find a place for you to make the performance this is very special and the other things you talk about the visa the visa is always difficulties not only here for Europe it's very very complicated at the beginning I don't know the political people they said ok let the artist go and suddenly when we plan to come into another performance in DC they said no you are going for commercial work you have to make another issue another visa they call it SB something I'm not sure so you have to make sure that you are paying which is good this is the new system nobody again is that but the places we are working with they are not commercial the performance for your town university it's not commercial it's for people to know the culture exchange this is the aim of that for the student, for the community but still this is one of this issue at the beginning you have to solve it with TCG because at that time nobody think about people coming from Africa to make performance ten years ago so they accept it plus talking about fun let us talk about facilities political facilities diplomatic facilities you can't imagine the last two lines when Treza was in Khartoum March 2017 2017 in that day I'm not politician someone from the embassy announced the same day all before that all the Americans in Sudan they should not go to any places without somebody taking care and that happened in the news the same day in the morning with our students this is the first time maybe they decide to go a very far place to eat I myself for me is difficult to go so she go and in Sudan the driver said sorry one of my relatives passed away so he lived in that place in that restaurant you can go back to downtown by any since so they take three transportation until they arrive to the Seattle the same time she arrived the TV was there so they speak with her and she said I am in that place the driver what happened and we take three transportation and we arrive here she didn't say that I am safe she didn't that I am secure she didn't say so but it give the meaning so you see how the political sometimes doing something the artist can do the same when we came here we are safe and we have a good performance with a lot of audience and this is how to work not only fun and not only organizing or making network also to support the politician to understand thank you this group of students there were 52 students in a workshop that I did on fundraising and they decided after they had never come together like that before and they were like little mini TCG so they created a WhatsApp group called TCG they talk about everything including theater and I have to put it through Google Translate but you know like when the first announcement was made at US Embassy to Jerusalem there was a lot of stuff anyway that's another way a great way to communicate John I wanted to I think you are right that a marketing campaign is important because I think funders and public don't realize that the rest of the world does cultural diplomacy you go to these festivals there's almost no US representation it's a one man show maybe because no one can afford to go there so I think it's really important yeah I think along those lines I also want to lift up the comment from earlier about technology and it's used in this kind of thing especially normalizing interest in performance in other parts of the world there's already what is that series called where the British shows are getting string you know what I mean exactly so there is that and in other countries for better or for worse there are different rules for video recording of live performances so I think there is a huge opportunity in reaching out to theater is reaching out to artists and then using your theater as a platform to show that work in order to form that in order to generate interest that's that collaborations one thing that comes to my mind also I don't really know how we would make a platform for this but there are an enormous number of international artists who are here after they finish their studies for a year and there's not really any kind of clearing house for those people to be not only to make connections here I mean so that they can do work in this country but also so that anybody who is interested in their cultures and their countries of origin in their own work or who they might know back wherever they came from can reach those people we have a student coming into our program next year assuming she can get her visa from Tehran and you know that's those are the places where we're still able to have contact with some of these countries that are so remote from us now and it just seems like there's there are people in the country already that we can talk to that's why also I think another little tidbit that might be useful for you to know and one of the reasons I'm so grateful to have this fellowship with the Alliance Theater being the second international student who's gotten that fellowship is that these international students for that particular year receive compensation for working outside of their discipline so it is a pretty tricky situation in which you graduate from these elite schools frequently and then you actually can't make ends meet in any other way than through the theater so I just want to encourage you always you're thinking about investing in apprentices investing in fellows investing in temporary staff positions to consider that when making decisions especially for like directors or designers or actors because I'm in management so my situation is different but for other artists who works on gigs it's even more difficult because you cannot go not DM the days that you are not working cannot exceed 90 days otherwise your OPT will be terminated so it's important to have a lineup of work so that people can utilize that even that one year and to support the visas of course and green cards in any way we can I wasn't in the situation years ago it was impossible to get a green card that I graduated so what we can do to support them we'll constantly write letters to those people but there's more Annette, sorry I think especially for young and new and experimental artists as well like that's the thing we run into what we produce in the festival and so first of all the P3 pieces are kind of a nightmare because you have to show so many years of this extraordinary work and all of this press well when you're a political underground clown in Nicaragua they don't have that kind of stuff and that's what we produce and definitely I'm amongst friends we've found our creative ways to bring people in actually and it's just really challenging but what we have found is that a lot of times especially with young companies that were the first time that we've produced it's the first time they've toured it's the first time they've come to the US it's been really challenging to get the P3 but we've managed to get it through we've brought them here and then it opens up a million doors for them even just their hunger to get out and do more and it's a way to fix the visa process either and there's no understanding in this country of the artist visa what artists do it's quite frustrating but again continuing to sort of help support that around the visa as well and those kinds of artists I won't say as well sorry just having talked to a number of immigration lawyers and lawyers who have helped us with visas is that for a really long time I think people really did get around to present for free and that's a really great around it and now artists are going to be penalized if they find that out and will never be let back in the country so just as a what's that? exactly they checked Facebook and we had an issue with one of our artists that we brought for a global pre-conference who had done that and so their online was the only record that they had been part of a previous festival but they didn't apply for the correct visa but it really is becoming more and more dangerous to not as challenging and impossible as the actual process is it prevents future work we had a volunteer that's what he was doing he was volunteering, we were not paying him anything he was not presenting there was no tickets, nothing he was just coming to volunteer for the festival and they took his phone away they went all through his stuff and they found one email from me because volunteering is work but it took them a really long time to find it and they put it back on the plane and sent him back and he was here on a B2 so, you know, it's yeah here we go we're over in our final couple of minutes yeah, I think we need to wrap that up here yeah, just to say I think one of, to be completely transparent one of the challenges in making the case that Global Theater Initiative is for everyone in this room has been sort of just bandwidth there's no actual staff person who is Global Theater Initiative there's just a lot of people with other jobs who are preparing to do it and there's no funding underneath Global Theater Initiative so, at this stage but I think what I'm struck by is there is this kind of, as we've been talking about this kind of larger community and ripples so maybe there are some intentional ways to think about whether it's a working group or, you know, sort of like ways to sort of like move forward some of these articulations and strategies in a kind of collective way by thinking about a group of folks and so as we will send some stuff out to this group that sort of reflects on what got shared here but maybe also we'll do some intentional thinking about some asks as part of that just in terms of ways that that conversation can continue and move forward I know for me, if there was a central listserv I would gladly contribute to that and if it had categories of like, you can put the information of artists coming when, here's some funding I found out about just different things that people could go to quickly because just in organizing my own international activities it's usually by partnering with different people who know somebody who happens to do this and, you know together we solve a problem to get people here to make something happen and maybe some of you are using the World Theatre map at all just out of curiosity so I don't think it's it's an interesting, like I don't think it entirely overlaps, I mean it has overlaps but not, it's not synonymous with things we're talking about here but I'm wondering I have to get a picture of it is that okay? yes kimchi great even a Facebook page would be really helpful I mean like rather than like a listserv it really pops up in your inbox because there is so much amazing work being done a Facebook page that you kind of check in on or sign up to receive alerts for and even just posting like, hi we're at theatre who would like help with this yeah maybe it's super it's like, it's a survey but it's a slack group and you can always come and go one challenge just with Facebook is if there are international artists where Facebook is blocked they can't actually access it and so I would imagine one where, because Slack you can get for free and so that there can be, you can create different channels different channels, right yeah so how does that actually happen because they will go away like that well I think we're taking GTI will take responsibility for some communication out and follow up I think anytime we talk we think about the right network or mechanism it ends up being a little like there's nothing that ends up being entirely inclusive because people have their own barriers like I don't know whether to use that or use that platform but I think we can the bigger mandate I feel like out of this is to sort of like share out to this group with some real opened out kind of opportunities for like next steps in communication that keep us moving forward will take suggestions in terms of what will be the best way to do that and then knowing that not everybody could be in this room even like at this conference or people who couldn't be at this conference that can we like concentric circleize ourselves out and like so connect people to whatever we end up doing and have this feels like actually more than I think we internally anticipated it feels like a lot of momentum forward I think having had the pre-conferences and knowing just really this one dedicated slot I think we felt like oh this might be kind of intimate and a little bit of an ebb and so it's really I think inspiring to sort of sit in this room and see who's here and we'll pick up the ball from here and see how she gets through Thank you all