Center for the Theater Commons

MISSION

To build knowledge platforms and align resources for theater artists and organizations. We want our contribution to widen the gates of opportunity for more accessible and relevant models for theater making in the 21st Century. We think theater is for everyone.

KNOWLEDGE PLATFORMS
Convenings: Two-day meetings bringing together leaders in the field of new play development to discuss pressing field-wide issues. Previous convening topic areas include: diversity, Black playwrights, devised work, the non-profit-commercial intersection, and the literary office.

HowlRound: The condition, resulting in a howling noise, when sound from a loudspeaker is fed back into the microphone. An online journal of the Theater Commons featuring bi-weekly articles and a blog with daily content focused on feedback and noise, voices and discourse on the state of new work. To submit a query to contribute to the journal or the blog, email editor@howlround.com.

Microfund for Artists: is a grant program for projects that aim to permanently disrupt our current understanding and practices in the theater field. Micro-grants are provided for artists to investigate new models of theater-making and infrastructure. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

#newplay: A community organizing Twitter hashtag to promote any and all new play related information sharing.

The New Play Map: An interactive map of community-generated data that displays the new work sector infrastructure and maps the journey of plays from conception to production. http://www.newplaymap.org.

#NEWPLAY TV: An international, free shared-resource to web broadcast live events and performances relevant to the new play sector aimed at breaking geographical isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons. It is open-access and open-source. http://www.newplaytv.info.

The Weekly Howl: A Twitter conversation with the #newplay community every Tuesday from 3-4pm EDT. The conversation topics range from the content of HowlRound articles to current hot topics the new play sector. Put the hashtag “#newplay” in your Tweets to get seen.

Get Involved: Interested in volunteering? Email jamie@howlround.com.