 different conversations that are going to happen, and you're going to migrate from conversation to conversation. Patricia's group is going to start. Well, Jesus's group is going to talk about startup and how we came about and that sort of model and are organizing how we do that now through Facebook and email and the spaces that we use and that sort of thing. Patricia is going to be talking about next steps and how we can connect our regional alliances so that we can communicate with each other and hopefully try to affect some national change or a national movement of some sort. And then my group on that end will be talking about programs and what we do is our convening, our writer circle, and the workshops that we try to offer our colleagues in the field. So that's going to be how today it works. We're in the smaller group so that you can get to the meet quicker because each group only has 10 minutes. We're going to try to get everybody out in time for their show that at 8 o'clock. And is there anything when I am? So yeah, right now it's a little uneven so we're going to count off because those aren't faster. So this will be group one, I'll be group two, and then Armando will be group three. OK, so one, two, three, two, one, three, two, one. One, two, three. Just kidding. Like for a package. One, two, three. One, two, three. All right, if you could go to the group, so Jesus is one, Armando is three, and then don't worry, you'll get to participate all the way through. Super. Thank you. Next page. I'll take a picture of you. I'll take a picture. Right. I'll be in the middle. Right. Michelle, I knew you would meet again. How are you? I'm just a scrap chair. I'm doing it. I mean, I'm tired. I'm just a scrap chair. I'm just a scrap chair. There's three. Armando. Oh. Armando. Armando. Yeah, I'm coming over here. Yeah. I'm just going to go over the camera. Sorry. Over here. Don't get your hands used to being a live camera. So if you can, I'll just go over that. Do you have a good scene? Thank you. I do. You have to open up to me. So, so the programs that we do with The Alliance, And so we sort of developed them. It was a quick contest. We held town halls around the city, and people came, and we listened to what they were talking about and what they needed. And then part of it was not knowing each other or not knowing each other's work, and that sort of thing. So we developed a cohort that saw work at the different theaters during one season. And then we put together a small meeting, a little conference, which about 120 people came to at East LA College, and that was in 2013. And then so we talked about the work. We had a scholars group, an artists group, a producers group, so we engaged in conversation from those entry points. And so we surveyed them, and then we called the results of the survey, and we saw that writers wanted a space to write about whatever they wanted. It didn't necessarily have to be Latino theater or about Latinos or whatever. They just wanted a room to play. So then that's how the writer circle came about. And so I'm welcome Christina to talk a little bit about the writer circle. Yeah. Because if anyone interested in joining the writer circle, send us a proposal of a new play that we wanted to start. And it's from a lot of applicants who we got, but now it's an eight. And we wanted to make like kind of a polo around it. So it's people that have very experienced playwrights to re-merge their playwrights. And what we did was meet twice a month for three hours any time that they'd rotate, bringing in about 10 pages and share. We had different activities and exercises. They developed that new play. So we also had different guests come in. Just so everybody could join in with them. So we had Lilliana, Joel, Evgenia Hernandez, Ali Hach, but they were coming in to work with them for one of the sessions. So they had a total of 14 sessions and they had seven artists. So they had one artist a month. And each one served to maybe respond to the work and give them exercises or advice on being a playwright in the field or have stuff with this one scene or challenges that might just happen to them for working playwrights. Because all of the playwrights didn't happen to be that big. We each had some production of that season. So something that was really cool was getting playwrights out of getting produced now. So that was that. Then we closed the sessions where we all get together. And right now we're leading towards a reading series that we're going to do in January here at the LTC. Over one weekend, all eight plays are going to have a directed reading. So we're each going to pair them up with the director and they're going to have the day rehearsals and we'll read them over one weekend. It's going to be a marathon weekend of readings. I just realized that we didn't all introduce ourselves. So I'm Armando. I work at Red Cat. I'm the administrative coordinator there. I'm number three. My name is Nancy Garcia-Lulza. I'm with the ATA Chicago, one of the alliances as well. And I'm in Seminero and our first launch of the writers group. And I'm the newest person in there. So I'm writing my first play as part of this. It's called Chicago Beast. I'm Fado, Garcia-Crow. I'm from Austin, Texas. Director, actor, writer, teacher, artist. And I have run, been at LTC director since years past when I'm an independent artist again. Really? I'm Daniela Tullo. I'm an actress, writer a little bit, a little directing, little producing. But you know, in New York, that's where I live. My name's there, so awesome. But they tend to compartmentalize there. So it's mostly acting there, but also directing, a little things. And we started a group there a couple of weeks ago. We're starting to form a New York alliance and it's exciting. So they're all moving meetings a couple of times and trying to form some sort of a group that'll do various things, sort of pull us together and provide support and a place where we can show people our work and also support each other and check into like issues with casting and different things, making sure that we have a place to get support as well as whether it be actor, director, writer, just like that. Carlos Uriona from Buenos Aires, Argentina, originally. All right. Now in Massachusetts with our theater in Argentina, I was a member of an ensemble called Diablo Mundo and I was one of the founders of the Teatro Popular which started during the dictatorship and then extended. In Rosario we had Campos, Norberto Campos. Now we created this group and it's mostly rural, it's a mix of people from all over the world in rural Massachusetts. We mostly do physical theater and we integrate the land and we also too, we have indoor spectacles for the sake of time, we'll do name and organization or group that you represent and if there's a regional alliance in your region, we'll stick to that. Oh my goodness, name, regional alliance. I'm Kat Rodriguez or Catherine Maria Rodriguez, depending. And I'm at Baltimore Center Stage right now and the artistic and dramaturgy fellow, so I'm in my second year of two. I'm also a freelance dramaturg. Yeah, and I'm from New Orleans originally, so connections there as well. I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm a resident artist with the Cotton Fire Theater Company. I'm a teaching artist there and I'm also a member of a group that's just starting up in the Bay Area called, we call ourselves Balkan, which is the Bay Area Latino Theater Artists Network started by Maricela over there. And so we're here today to try to figure out how to really massage this and bring it up to something. Thank you. I'm Madeline Garcia. I'm at UT Austin. I'm primarily a dramaturge. I'm graduating in May. And so, yeah, yeah, it's who I am. It's what I do. I'm Kamal Marofi from New York. I work for representing Yachty Theater in New York. And we have an alliance over theater companies. We have 19 of them in New York. My name is Jaime Martínez Rivera. I'm from New York. I work for a theater communications group. It's a national service organization in theater. And apart from that, I'm also a lighting designer and an actor. Carlos Flores, founding director of Yachty Theater de Laredo. Been around six years. We produce our own original work, a lot of work and issues. And right now, we've been doing the last two, three years, we choose our alliances with Alta, Almas, Austin. Yachty Rigo, also a high-party theater. And a number of other theaters in the Austin area, also San Antonio and the Valley. And one of the reasons I'm here is, of course, the network. There's not any companies So Jesus will be covering how we started out. So you'll get that information there. Any questions on how we do, what we do? We're doing conferences annually now. And we survey the group and see what's sort of coming. And then we start working towards the next year to have it be that, thematically, that's how we handle that question. Just to add to what you said, we had started this weekend in Chicago, so I'm part of that first cohort for lack of a better term. But it's identical to what you guys are doing. It was eight people. We set this mission to meet people who got in, same thing, twice a month, same time, three weeks, or three hours. I feel like, could we talk to it? I don't think we actually connected, but Isaac and I have spoken about how he saw the program. It's like identity. And as a participant, my first word is that it's awesome. And my background is not like, I don't really have a good background. So to be in there with a range of writers, it's been as well as education that I didn't have to pay $50,000 for each year. Are we done? Yeah, we're done. But we won't have to do the introductions every time. So... Yes. When you talk about your organization, is there a problem? Are you okay? I'm with Red Cactus professionally. That's like my day job. Our model now is, we're all volunteer-based. So we get together on our free time on the weekends. And just sort of put together what we can. The conference takes up a lot. So we plan that further ahead of time. And we divide up the work. So it doesn't always work out that way. We try to divide up the work so that it gets executed. But the writer circle is one that's been taking up the most time. Christina's been great. And she's volunteering her time. And so, you know... Can I get everybody's attention? This is so exciting. Everybody's like, I know we don't want to switch, but we're going to make you anyway. This group is going to shift over to programming with Armando. And then this shift is going to move to Jesus. Oh my God, wouldn't it be easier if you got Jesus? Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. Like, seriously. Yeah. Wait, but like seriously. No? It's not easier? Okay. I mean, I really think it's easier. I think because they're taking things together. Yeah. Okay. This way. Listen, Lisa. Okay, I see you. Okay, I see you. I live on Monday. This is the three guys here. We have like the power down here. Okay. Put the mic down. Okay. We're going to do that. Okay. Okay. Yes. Okay. So there are three arms to the programs, what falls under programs that Latino Theater Alliance LA does. And they are conferences and convenings. So, Kenan came down and we held these talent halls. And we gathered questions and listened to what people were asking for and what they needed. And so we, one of the things was that they didn't know each other's spaces and they didn't know each other's work. What people are doing and what the shows are about. So we formed a little cohort with artists and scholars and administrators, producers to engage with conversations from those anti-points. And we took a break from the town halls and then it shifted and formed into a conference. So in 2010, we held a one day conference sort of event where the cohort reported back on the kind of work that happened in the season prior. And then they were able to talk about sort of the kind of questions that Hosea Luis is trying to engage with this festival, it's like aesthetics. And what themes people are talking about, what people are creating. And so that was the first one. And then we sent out a survey asking what people needed and what they wanted. And one of the things was a space for playwrights to sort of explore what they wanted to. And then just have that safe space and not necessarily the work has to be Latino based or Latino named, but they wanted a room to play in. Where that was a given and that they could explore and play. So that's how the writers started looking about. They over 7 months did 14 sessions, 3 hour sessions and we had 7 visiting artists coming. We had Luis Alfaro come in and listen to work and respond and then give feedback and advice Evelina Fernandez, Rose Portillo, Alice Tuan from 12 Arts and I feel like I'm missing something, but I feel like we're going rapid fire. So that's the circle is closed to our regular sessions and now we're Christina is working with them more one-on-one. She's a facilitator drama attorney of it and so we're pairing them up with directors and doing directed readings of them in January. We're looking on relaunching the program. We had 8 playwrights this round, which is probably a little too much for the room to handle that much reading of pieces that last because we would read work pages every session. So the next go around we're looking at 6 playwrights, 4-6 playwrights and the visiting artists who have been really excited about the program. They like being there. A lot of them wanted to come back, but all the sessions and like structure it. So we're looking forward to having some of them retoured and cycling with new people next round. And then we handle the conferences in a similar way where we survey and we see what people want to talk about and then we start working towards building that for the next year. And so this last year the themes that arose were LGBTQ having that space for Latino and LGBTQ performance artists to talk to. Theatre for your audience and Spanish language theatre and design. So we had a session that was for designers where they actually they formed 3 groups and one of them had a lot of resources but not a lot of people like so sort of emulating the fields and non-designers came to that session and learned a lot more about what it is that designers go through and that sort of thing. So that's sort of what we do if we have any questions we can talk about those but let's jump in. So is there anything anybody would like to say? So this is programming? So what's the what we want to talk about or the topics that we want to what we want to see? So I think we're research sharing. That's our model. About how we do what we do we can talk about those. If you have a regional alliance in your region we can listen to yours or what's similar, what's different what's working for you and if there's something that you need advice on we can do that. So when you're saying programming is it how we affect the Latino theatre commons? No, it's how the alliance like our alliance has programs that we're sort of falling into putting up. So those are our programs. So with these are models that we've done in Chicago within the last year we saw a search it's okay, Alta, Chicago yeah the Alliance of Latino Theatre Artists Chicago although it was founded several years ago by Tanya Saracho and Ricardo Gutierrez within the last year we saw search of young and emerging Latino theatre makers come into the city so within the last year we had a town hall and conference much like the LTAs where we took the temperature of Latino theatre in the city of Chicago from there we had a general unified audition where we pulled in all Latino actors into the room and have casting representatives from all of the major regional theaters in the city in addition to casting agents and representatives so we had how many actors? Total we had about 15 and then we also had a Camiero and so we did that including the Seven Wolf and Goodman whatever and then the same thing with the LTAs we also wanted to create a space for early career Latino playwrights so modeled off of the Goodman's playwrights unit we created a Latino writer circle to develop a new play over the course of nine months we are in their midpoint reading right now and then we just had our town hall convening 2.0 where now that we've had a year between identifying what the temperature was in Chicago now we identified action items created task forces focused on visibility and awareness artistic community and unity and mentorship and fostering to help create actionable things so that within the next year we have something to report back on what's working and what's not what has been beneficial for us is that we found a large institution to be to house us so Victory Gardens Theater houses out the Chicago so all of our meetings all of our convenings everything is held at Victory Gardens which alleviates like a huge amount of stress and strain from the organization so we're able to focus on the activism yeah so we're working with East LA Rep Jesus's organization so all of our meetings are held at East LA Rep and the writer circle is at East LA Rep and we're looking into migrating some of that here to the LATC and sort of sharing the live around to the different spaces I'm Sara I'm from Bravo Theater in San Francisco and Bay Area Latino Theater Artist Network and the network we're almost a year and we're kind of at a point where we're trying to two minutes figure out where we're going to start like where's the best place to start like they're live streaming so they can see yeah can you shoot and so I'm really curious really hearing more about house different programs where you like where the start is do we want to do a big audition or are we building a director like where do we go we are starting at a great place because Brava is housing us because Brava identified there's a huge gap in San Francisco there's no theater company that we can really identify you know and then it's we're not just saying it's Bay Area you know it's the greater Bay Area so we have members from The Atravision in San Jose we're trying to reach out to like you know we're trying to be really broad um but really like we're really curious you know we're going to be meeting with uh one of our friends who is a consultant she's going to help facilitate the meeting we're kind of like get some goals and mission and vision and that can start steering us you know because we were having potlucks and we're getting together um we circulated a survey that asked like very specifically like what do you need or like in your in your professional experience like what sort of all we can know those weren't the questions but like those were the kinds of things that we were asking and then we looked for resources and the way to fill those in and so um that's how I sort of developed it could be different for you the questions get taken in a different direction so I thought it would be um great to connect with you because um Seattle is sort of in the same situation there's a lot of things in common I think between Bay Area and Seattle so there's all the beautiful water everywhere um but um so today I'm interested in starting in Northwest Regional Alliance but it would be great to learn about the starting off point so the theater company that I'm artistic director for did it the first um Northwest Latino Regional Theater I think that's something that's naturally original Alliance we did it because there was not original Alliance and we also participated in the 33 fast forward as a nationwide Latino reading so I think there are some concrete initiatives like that like regional auditions which I hope to see become a national mob maybe those are jumping off points to kind of give give you an injection you know a start off point but um it's next to afterwards you just see what we could learn as other starting off alliances because you guys already have two years on this right well I wasn't all right shifting yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm moving just look at the camera yeah yeah its good looking cause you're good looking like you know So the programs and services that the Latino Sierra Alliance at LA is able to offer is meetings. We have the writer circle program and then we do workshops that people are able to offer. So the meetings that those came about was at first we held town hall meetings that traveled to the Latino spaces that are operated by Latino companies. And then with that we started to gather questions what people wanted to talk about. They were really open-ended meetings and really sort of took off in whatever direction the group wanted to take them. And Kinan did a really great job of coming down into the Bay Area and planning for those and facilitating those. So we took a break from those because one of the questions that kept lingering was the kind of work that people were doing. So we were gathering together but we didn't necessarily know what things people were exploring, what kinds of designers were working with, design aesthetics and all of that. So we formed a cohort that had artists and scholars and administrator producers to go view a season of work and report back. So that's how we did our first convening that happened in 2013 last summer. And we had the report back and we let people discuss the findings. And then we surveyed that group and we called the themes out and that's how we designed this year's convening, which centered around LGBT theme design. We created a space for designers to come together and talk. And non-designers would talk with them about the challenges of being a designer in the field and TYA, theater for young audiences and Spanish language theater. So just creating those rooms and people in the steering committee were able to champion those rooms and design those conversations. And then next year we're gathering information to see what the community wants to talk about. So we sort of listen and then try to gather resources towards what people are asking for and what they need. So another result from the first year's survey is writers wanted a space to get together and write and explore whatever theme they wanted to, just have their Latino identity be a given and then just play from there, right, whatever it was. And so that's how we developed the space. Over seven months, two sessions a month, they had 14 sessions total and we would meet ages and Christina here is our facilitator for the writer circle. She's the dramaturg that's been helping them with their plays. And we had eight playwrights and we had visiting artists coming once a month about. Bruce Alfaro came and visited, Linda Fernandez, Alice Twan from the Arts and the Postport field about production. So we had visiting artists come in, listen to pages, give feedback and then give advice on working in the field. And then the workshops, people on the committee, if an actor or a member is able to offer a workshop, we'll help them with finding the space and getting the people and just putting it together. So it's very volunteer, zero budget, sort of, we're able to do what we do. So that's what we do. If you have a regional alliance and you want to talk about how you came up with programs that you're able to offer or have questions about how we do things, we can jump in. Really quick, and it's funny because I can't really call it a regional alliance but it's sort of kind of like in Seattle. She might have talked about it earlier in our session, but she created, she had this vision of creating regional auditions for the public because it's a very small pool in the Northwest surprisingly. And she also wanted people to be seen by other theaters that might not cast a lead. So she did a lot of work in contact with a whole bunch of directors mostly in Seattle and directors kind of in Oregon as well and other states and just basically just put it together and did it. Since then, not the invitations, it got some press behind it and got a bunch of actors on the stage and made it happen. So I mean, it's an essence, it's like it was regionally minded but driven by one person's passion and energy and time to make it happen. Sometimes it's about collaboration and sometimes it's just about one person going, I have this thing and I think it's going to be open. In San Antonio, we have an action committee that's made up of five people which is not volunteers, all volunteers. And so what we do is then we, if we're going to be in the action committee, we commit to one month of programming. So depending on what the interest of that particular person takes, like you said, the passion you have to have a buy-in or something with the community that we're going to address. So we've had this past year three play readings of new works. We had a finance workshop which a lot of us didn't want to really talk about money but it was a really practical session about money. And then we had the play readings. We've had two separate models, one where it's sort of just like a pep rally for the playwright in terms of just having an audience and not really a critical feedback. And then another playwright wanted a more intimate, critical response. So it was a more sort of invited sort of, and so we just helped to work with the action committee. We need some of that help us out. So the budget thing, the conversation at LTA is around like capacity and what the differences are between, you know, running a thousand dollar organization or three million dollar organization or thirty million dollar organization. So that's something that we're looking to talk about. It's a big question and a lot of information has to be gathered, I think, to have that. And it's information that people hold close to how they run their business personally. I have a question just for the group. Does anybody ever explore it in your different groups? You're doing like membership fees to allow yourself to have like working capital just for explorations? I don't know if there's, or do people like freak out when you like ask for like twenty-five dollars for a year. You know, like, is that something anyone's ever experienced, or tried, or older? The conference is something that we felt we were able to, you know, attach a fee onto here just, you know, for booking a space or whatever. And that's how we've been able to make like a little bit of working capital. It's very small. It's about a thousand dollars is what the sort of like we have. And we put it out there and we make it back. So the entry to a lot of these is like five dollars, ten dollars. Something really low and nominal, but so that people feel like, hey, so that they show up. If you sign up for a briefing, people don't always show up. So it's sort of that sort of nominal. We still fairly knew that in past organizations where there was no membership fees, when they tried to institute them, the pushback was a little idea, so we're pretty sure of it. And if you don't have a real strong plan on what members are going to say, I like what the benefits are. So it sounds like you're charging for an event. You're almost charging for a membership. It's immediate. I'm going to get this. Yeah. I was doing a membership and then what's going to be what to take for comment. But regarding your question on how to have, regarding your question of how to have money in order to try and do some of this work, we recently in the Bay Area kind of found like a home, like Brava Theater has actually invited us to kind of use them as a home base so that we can go have our meetings there. And one of the things we want to talk to them about is like, that's great. And they've even talked about possibly giving us some staff assistance to do admin work. I think the conversation we want to have next is, well, what if we could write a grant together? That way this position could be, you know, really funded and they could really do that work and drive things because we find even though we have a core group of people that are committed to making it kind of come together, really busy and sometimes really hard to even get us to kind of do things. Yeah. Yeah, it's like for us it's garnering. So like we produced World Theater Day last year, which was great. And so we've committed to make that happen again and we've garnered with the community college. And so now people, another university asked us, okay, where are you going to do this this year? And consider coming to, you know, with us. So right now we're sort of shopping around and seeing what then might be a possibility. So the next step is, like you said, sort of trying to make sort of grant writing happen with that partner in order to sort of, since we're all volunteering, you know, trying to make our own living and writing our own, you know, sort of making our work happen that we need that sort of infrastructure. Yeah. And that's where we're at sort of that, because it's really good. Our team is very ad hoc. So everybody has their own jobs. We have people that work at CTG. I work at Red Cat. And people come to several Latino theater companies around. We have the Colo or bilingual foundation of the arts or the Latino theater company. So we get together, this is like our weekend thing. We get together on Sundays, volunteer time and whatever we can handle, we'll go for it. And so we don't, at the moment, we don't really feel like we need to constantly be programming things. When it feels needed. Or when we feel like we can execute it. When those two being, oh, women. Yeah. That's time. Ugh. Damn. Yeah, so. I'm interested in finding out if there's any alliance in theaters that you might want to work with. Patricia, should we open up the circles again? Wait, don't hold me for too long. So if everybody can grab your chair and open up the circle to a big circle. Big circle. Or an old long. Yeah. Your name and I love it. I've read your heart-shaking note. It's so beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, it didn't work for our casting and stuff but I just wanted to share that. Oh yeah. Yeah, no, under her bride, right? Yeah, she's very beautiful. 10 more minutes to have an initiative. Congratulations, it should be. We want to let people go over shows. So what we're going to do now is the facilitators will try to call the different themes that popped up in our groups across the three conversations. And then we'll open it up. So in my group, the programming group, things that came up were institutional partnerships for acquiring space to put on programs. And the membership thing came up. Passive memberships, we felt, didn't really work in any of our cases but perhaps these attached to a specific program, a specific, you know, like convening or a workshop or something of that way. So that's how we've been able to acquire a little bit of working capital to operate. Very small, so mostly. And a lot of it, it's all volunteer, right? So we all have our day jobs and we take the time. On our weekends or in the evenings to get together and put all the people on. Ryder Circle, Ryder Circle and El Semino and also Chicago, it's something that's coming up in regional or auditions. It's something that several groups are also doing. And I think that's what I want to report out of mind. Patricia? Sure, so this is about connecting the regional lines to one another and then also kind of pushing forward this story nationally. So I love what Carlos said about, you know, not losing sight of the face-to-face but there was a lot of technology ideas which are fantastic, so maybe potentially not losing the face-to-face with a yearly conference for all the alliances to come together. But a monthly webinar check-in where we can go to one platform and share live video conferencing also potentially with the conference idea, maybe because of travel we do like a north one, we do a west coast one, the east coast one so people wouldn't have to travel so far happily and simultaneously. Another really interesting idea that came up was this idea of scheduling like a Twitter talk or one specific time every Thursday that's like moderated by the Latino Theater Commons and so everybody participating in that. In case people are not aware we do have a quarterly email update by the Latino Theater Commons so if you need to be adding to that please do. And then also talking about websites for regional alliances that every regional alliance should have a website that really tells people what they're doing and maybe we can pull funds like Armando was saying with our little bit of fees and get a web designer to help everybody build a website that would be great. Also having Latino Theater industry nights go into your local theater so everybody can see each other face to face in your local communities and maybe potentially also doing Skype meetups or broadcasting videos right of our meetings because you never know what can spark interest for somebody else. So those are just some really good kind of starting ideas that we had so I'll pass it over to you. So unfortunately that was so little bit time right we can talk forever over drinks but I thank you for sharing I want to say that hearing listening to all of you there's some sort of obvious stuff that we all are working tirelessly to create our own networks. Some of us are farther along some of us are just starting like two days ago I heard or something to that which is unbelievable just know that we all are resource already so don't feel that you're in the dark and don't feel shy about reaching out to me or the person directly across from you I think we're all here to support each other Latino not Latino it's about just doing great work so we are all on the same boat as far as getting started we all have to get started and some of the things that I've heard that I love is that many of you met over food right you all went and ate and drank and talked and probably vented so it's phenomenal and that is not a culturally specific thing I think we all live to eat and so I love yes I love that so many of you have done that and you came together informally and you had drinks and you talked about what you wanted what you dreamed for so continue those conversations and just make sure we count our points while we're doing it because we're very good infrastructure is very difficult I heard somebody say infrastructure is very difficult for which who thinks infrastructure is very difficult raise your hand it is difficult but we have to do it so for those of you who have started talk to some of us a little bit further along and ask us where we went wrong so you will not do it you probably will but just come to us and trust us we don't want you infrastructure is hard but we got to start somewhere we need it if we want to you know we want to create a building to stand a lifetime or a pyramid we need the foundation so that's our infrastructure some of you said you meet by monthly some of you have a goal of becoming it's hard some of you said archiving is important thank you for saying that I think Isaac you said that archiving archiving archiving writing writing stories we need to get it out some of you are already doing it and those of you who are not even the ones beginning start and they have to be good good pictures can raise the money when you go looking for money some of you guys talked about working your day job and then working on this duh somebody called it a labor of love is this a labor of love raise your hand see it's a labor of love till death do us part some of us discussed this this thing that we all get excited about what we're doing and then we start to realize there's really a core group there's really a core group starts to take the lead so do not be afraid to be part of that co that leadership group that core group if people fall out they will come back when they're ready but you are ready so you lead it that's what we're talking about take the reins don't get upset some of you have town halls, writer circles consortiums about training training was really important informal workshops about original works somebody talked about working with a university if you don't have a space go to university and talk to them they came around finally right with you so there are many spaces I provide at my space there's a university what's your university? community college Jesus Christ there are high schools what can we give back social mingles I love that oh finally these are some of the great names I heard Latino comments that's not really original L-T-A-L-A but the names are phenomenal so I thank you all very much what are we doing now so we want we only have 40 minutes for this session so we try to stay creative with our time so I know it's hard for people to move but yeah we wanted to just until you have to go we wanted to open the space for dialogue and conversation with each other I just wanted to say that Cafe Omda is out there so connect all of us and it would be really wonderful if we can just join each other to actually send in one picture this month at my theater what's going on you don't have to write anything write to send that picture we need visuals send it in are we talking about maybe the alliance is also if you create an alliance do you just a paragraph profile and put it on Cafe Omda so people know you are out there three sentences thank you yeah go ahead I want to align with what Indian does a base camp kind of talk that if you can but the fact that it happens monthly on a set date and a set time and that the conversation is I am based and very easily just distributed to anybody on a list so even if you don't participate or you can't make it that time it's archived and it's just automatically distributed would be great and then also Twitter I'm tweeting I'll see a few other people tweeting we can continue to tweet use the same hashtags and then store by them that's also a great way to instantly archive I got you Cafe Omda and Encuentro 2014 we'll go around I was interested in exploring regional Encuentros so we're here at a national Encuentro of sorts right basically that's what it is so regional Encuentros one for each region and some initiatives that individually we have done is a theater Latino regional theater audition I think the first ever and I think that would be a great national model and I was talking to Cafe Omda about if we can store a database of all these wonderful headshots of Latino actors to be able to share it with Latino and non Latino theaters regionally to really find a way to promote our young artists and then you know there could be a playwrights page whatever take on those really concrete initiatives but I think in a regional Encuentro there could be workshops there could not only be showcases of work but also workshops and training so that's what I'm going to explore now two things one is that what I was saying the face to face in conference but also to make the effort outside of conference to visit other people and on that track and honoring our passion for food which I shared I thought for me you said I was about to say in an old Argentinian way yo como la carne I put the meat, you come with the wine, black bread meat at the coast at the embers I feel Argentina Vengan a la granja First I want to reiterate the importance for those of you who are starting alliances or are actively working on those that currently exist is finding a home base whether it's with a theater institute or university or high school as someone who works for a larger institution trust me when I say there is at least one theater in most large area cities who in some form or fashion community engagement is a part of it audience development is a part of it and or diversity is a part of it in terms of their mission and if you come at it with some of these angles it just looks good for these institutions and having a home I mean we've only been with Victory Gardens for the last eight months but that the growth that our alliance has had within that short time span it could not have happened had we not had a consistent place to meet and then the second thing I just wanted to say is recruitment something we didn't talk about but I think that's also important as most of us are volunteer basis and as all of us have very specific individual career goals and objectives as you as those of us who are in our leadership roles right now will likely at one day leave just so you know our founders are off doing awesome and amazing things and so recruiting younger Latino theater makers who are just moving to the cities and that implies like seriously making an effort one of the big things we just had our second town hall and something brought up was we need to we need to have a better welcome hug for our young Latino theater makers because there's still a sense of like exclusivity among the Latino theater makers in Chicago so what can we do to help people who are just moving current college students within the universities in your cities have them come have them join because they're so like hungry to do something that like even just time make an internship program whatever so that's hashtag welcome hug this is a little bit less about regional a little bit more about national although I think it can have regional impact and I just wanted to invite everybody to sign up for the facebook page the Latino Latino theater commons facebook page it is a way to communicate across just kind of put the call out you know so northwest or southwest or wherever and just because a lot of people on that now that are just coming from all over and signing up and you may reach that person that doesn't know what's happening that needs to connect and facebook is so ubiquitous everybody so many people are on it and if you aren't on the email list to receive information from the quarterly report that we've been talking about there's a box there are boxes there's two boxes two boxes and one is down in the vault where the big historical display is and the other one is by the information table where the sign up for dinner is and there's index cards and just at the very least the contact information there so you can get on the email list and please spread that word around and then and if there's something in particular you'd like to address we'll see this kind of a list of things go ahead write those comments down so I'm just inviting this is a national conversation it's like oh man we'll go down there there's a rehearsal that starts in here so we can say like a couple of comments but I think we can there's one more thing I have to say to the women in the room I also represent an organization known as women of color in the arts it's meant for women who are arts administrators and we have a mentorship program meant for people like myself for a middle career who can mentor someone as well as we need mentors so at any point in your career it's a national organization so if you're interested come talk to me and pass it along Tiffany I signed up for that I haven't heard anything maybe every month maybe every month oh that oh no it happens we just collected thank you yeah we collected