ATHE TASC (Theatre and Social Change) Focus Group
Membership Meeting
Wednesday, August 4, 2010: 11:30 – 1:00 pm
Malibu Room – California Level
Hyatt Century Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
Current Officers:
Focus Group Representatives - Lindy Bumgarner (Outgoing),
Cathy Plourde (2010-2012)
Conference Planner - Peter Harrigan (2009-2011)
Secretary - Chanelle Vigue
Graduate Student Representative – Liz Foster-Shaner
Members-at-Large - Megan Alrutz, Suzanne Burgoyne, Robin Stone
Members Present:
Cathy Plourde, Adverb Productions
Norma Bowles,
Petra Kuppers, UM
Kelly Howe
Petra Vuppers
Jason Bisping
Matt Freeman
Georgia McGill
Micheal Muffson
Laurie Muffson
Abigail Leeder
Doug Paterson
Susan Proctor
Julie Holston
Benjamin Pursewell
Janna Goodwin
Kimberly Dark
Nancy Kendolin
Brian Brophy
Matt Omasta
Lisa Brenner
Martine Greene
Liz Foster-Shaner
Chanelle Vigue
Peter Harrigan
Reid Davis
Tom Joiner
Dahlia
Jason Price
ITEM: WELCOME (Cathy Plourde)
Announcement: Outgoing FG Rep Lindy is unable to attend, so Cathy (incoming FG Rep) is stepping in.
- Pass Agenda, Pass Report
- Peter: Networking Meeting, Tomorrow at 5:30
- TASC Panels: 16 proposed, 10 panels presenting; 6 MD cosponsored panels
ITEM: 2009/2010 REPORT, as submitted by Lindy
ITEM: 2010 Conference information
1. Peter, update
2. Cathy, new GC information, if any
a. New Webpages for ATHE - Focus Groups can have as many pages as they want; hits are big. We need someone to take the lead on that. Open to non-members.
b. Liz Foster-Shaner volunteered to take the job of updating and posting to the website.
c. Religion and Theatre Survey: Interesting info…
Perhaps we should do a similar survey...Forthcoming request on SurveyMonkey will be arriving on the listserve, please forward to others!
Tenure and Promotion: White sheets, specialty concentration for tenure and promotion white sheet...looking for someone to work on the white sheet for TASC practitioners.
VOLUNTEERS: Petra Kuppers; Jason Bisping, Doug Paterson, Reid Davis
ITEM: 2011 Conference Planning
1. Establish guidelines and review panel for Debut Panel & Workshop for Emerging Practical Work
2. Announce Submission Dates, Other
3. All panels get submitted electronically on a form through the ATHE website, should be available by September 1st, November 1st is the deadline (midnight EST). They compile a list of our Panels by Dec. 1st, and notifications generally happen in Feb.
4. Next year: TASC’s first Debut Panel!
AND a new panel for Emerging practical work, demonstrations/descriptions of what you do, your practical work: Workshop for Emerging Practical Work. Double Session.
5. Next year: A second Plenary; 1 plenary, then 2 hour breakout sessions led by Focus Groups
a. Topic: Interdisciplinarity in global context (?)
b. Breakout: Interdisciplinarity in local contexts. Led by 5-10 people form a focus group.
6. Moving back to the Thursday thru Sunday, 11-14th of August at the Palmer Hotel in Chicago.
VOLUNTEERS to Organize: guidelines, review panel, respondents. Conversation and Input!
Debut: Peter will Chair, Jen Purswell, Jason Bisping
Workshop Panel: Lindy will Chair, Chanelle Vigue, Lisa Brenner
Plenary Breakouts: Cathy will Chair, Matt Omasta,
3. Updates from Chanelle and Liz?
Liz: Handing out flyers about new panels! Debut panel has generated good feedback.
Grad Student Participation: no grad rep meeting.
CATHY: Lost money on grad student housing, too expensive city, registration cost, Lisa Brenner: Possibility of including Undergrad students? Some want to come, no way to fund them through ATHE.
Martine: Planning committee is cracking down on funding even more, would be difficult to fund them w/o being connected to a panel; especially pushing for MD panels, combined theory and practice. Interdisciplinarity is the theme, so that will definitely get more attention. One undergraduate (speaking) Found a university grant through her own university to get here
Dani Snyder-Young
(Announced by David Kaye)
- Retiring as Chair, Dani will take over as Chair for the selection committee
The selection subcommittee reviews nominations and selects a winner for the ATHE LCBTCE award. I was on the committee last year, and it involves reading nomination letters and supporting materials and participating in a few email exchanges in February/March or so. If anyone new would like to join the selection committee, can you send me their information so I can get in touch with them?
I'd also love for folk in TASC to nominate artists & companies, and I'll send a call for nominations out on the TASC listserve in September or so.
Here's the description of the award:
The Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement is reserved for an individual or theatre company that has worked in the field of community-based theatre and civic engagement for a minimum of ten years. The following is a list of criteria for judging the candidates:
1. Innovation of approach
2. Artistic quality
3. Contributions to the field
4. Regional impact
5. Demonstration of community need
6. Depth of civic dialogue
Emphasis may include focusing on individuals or theatres who help facilitate communities in creating theatre that reflects their constituents and/or on those who develop lasting relationships with those communities. Theatre companies that are nominated must have an operating budget of $150,000 or less. The award should not go to an artist already honored in a major way by the mainstream but to an individual or company that does important work but is less well known.
ITEM: 2011 TASC AWARD
1. Continue with this? Establish local coordinator for Chicago? Need local Chicago nominees, and must vote on in time for Fall Conference Proposals.
2. Discussion:
- Chicago People: Willa Taylor, Kelly Howe, Martine Greene, Amy Sarno
- Yes or No?
- No one comes, that’s embarrassing.
- Publicity. We need it.
- In Denver: they performed, it was awesome, six people saw it.
- The Award does mean something to the company, it helps with funding.
- Could we present it at the networking or the business meeting, rather than making an entire panel or session around it. (Doug and Michael)
- Paid Workshop? We can suggest that...timing is late.
- Precon Paid Workshop? Move toward this? Too late for next year.
- Why not given at the Award Ceremony? B/c its an FG award, and if every one of the 24 focus groups had an award it would be chaotic.
- MOTION: Present award at Networking Meeting, move toward a paid workshop or precon. (PASSED)
- GUIDELINES and Critera: Willa, Martine Greene.
- Discussion: No money awarded, we can’t give enough awards (heirarchy, best, etc. Spread it around!!), loose criteria, who we know has been the way we’ve done it in the past...and we do have some expertise within this room…
- Q: Why don’t we do an onsite delivery of the award; A: Martine: working on local programming - work it into the local programming schedule.
- Name of the award?
- Coordinate press!! Local papers etc.
JOSH: Conference Planner for 2011; putting money into getting people here from around the world and underrepresented countries.
- intergenerationality, etc. For next year. Local w/in ATHE, institutions, and Focus Groups. For award nominees, think outside the US.
- Q: Working with ITI? A: Working on it.
- Q: Names of guests and speakers so we can suggest panels that may relate? A: still waiting on confirmation, but those will be rolled out to the planning committee as available
- Theme of the conference, 25th anniversary. On page 12 of the booklet: Performance Remains Imagined.
- Q: Imaginary Futures, thinking globally, and about cultural theatres within the US, is that something that will be included?
- A: Really thinking about theatre in higher education
ITEM: ELECTIONS
1. Conference Planner Elect to serve 2011-2013
Willa J. Taylor
2. Secretary
Chanelle Vigue
3. Graduate Student Representative (or more than one)
Liz Foster-Shaner, Melissa Dickman, Benjamin Purswell
4. MALs
Kelly Howe, Reid Davis, Lisa Brenner
ITEM: MEMBERSHIP ITEMS? CONCERNS TO TAKE BACK TO GC?
Panel Rankings:
- From Martine on Planning Committee: Last year our recommendations were closely followed by the Planning Committee. Next year they are looking for panels with multiple institutions, meld of theory and practice; how closely are they tied to the theme. Does this have broad appeal to our membership? Does this panel involve more than one of our members?
- Number of panels for the “size” of a focus group...no way to measure, number of proposals.
- Standing Committee on Interactive Theatre, under the governing council. Not a focus group or officially associated with TASC. What will this mean for us in the future? Born from the Advocacy VP.
- Doug thinks it was an ill advised move, may cause concerns for us in the future, maybe not.
- David Kaye: Confusing. What/where does that mean, interactive, community based/ theatre sports, theatre for social change...blurry lines. Should social justice be a part of that?
- Jason Price: New website/ database for theatre and social change/ CB theatre, if you are interested in getting involved, get in touch. (insert email)
ATHE TASC (Theatre and Social Change) Focus Group
Networking Meeting
Thursday, August 5, 2010: 5:30-7 pm
Malibu Room – California Level
Hyatt Century Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
Present - Interests and Panel Ideas:
Cathy Plourde: Acting, directing, writing for health education, professionals, and health issues; youth work, specifically cultivating allies; Grant for research on long term impact of two primary shows
Michael Mufson: Using CB theatre and techniques to build community on the community college campus; American Dream 2.0 festival - to critique and revise the American Dream. Facebook dialogue as source text. Systemic change - rather than smaller concrete change. Change mission form tradition to laboratory.
Doug Paterson: Promoting PTO; US Social Forum in Detroit in June 2010 - over 15000 people; More Workshops!! Basic Intro to TO.
Laurie Mufson: Grant to develop programming around the environment both on campus and off...not funded, but school interest. Starting a small troupe for TASC. Katrina Project Co-Chair, develop a database of people doing community base work, esp. Of people doing work w/ at risk youth.
Jason Bisbing: Theatre for development to introduce new energy technologies - guatemala; interactive theatre troupe; TO in multiple languages; collecing data from perfromances to record results. When Administrators help write content - censorship and rules from on high….
Christine Young: promoting women in playwrighting and develoing work with playwirghts, devising work w/ students; how to involve students in CB work and making it stick w/in the practicalities.
Reid Davis: Student generated TO troupe in development; queer youth; queer advocacy on Catholic campus; the role of the ally, building alliances across groups;
Neil : what is a human life?
Jen Purswell: LGBT, TO, Shakespeare and other classic lit to empower, adapt, transform minority youth, esp. Lgbt youth; lambert house in Seattle - drop in center; autobiographical writing workshop.
Chanelle Vigue: 1930s Political Theatre - reclaiming our roots; Student response/ involvement in TO troupes, especially non-theatre majors/gen eds.
Peter Harrigan: Bread and Puppet, Theatre w/ Queer Youth, Campus Programming
Amy Sarno: CB Theatre, Oral History w/ African American Community, Media and Performance for Public advocacy
Norma Bowles: School and Community collaborations, Precon w/ Labor unions! Activist and performance techniques!
Jewel (Norma’s Partner): Coalitions on campus, unusual pairings and collaborations, death penalty work w/ Kelly Howe
Robin Stone: Political and or human rights issues in theatre; post-bosnian production,
Petra Kuppers: Experimental edges of community work and the avant garde scene, shamanistic work, healing, outside predominantly verbal work; new project: somatic practices? Self-organized art-communities. Seminar: Performance of Writing.
David Kaye: Getting TASC out of the fringe and into the heart of Theatre in education
Amalia Howard: Empathy in participants and audience, TASC on an international scale, tolerance redemption and hope.
Marietta Hedges: reimagining of red riding hood in a war zone; fairy tales as TASC? Making TASC more central
Thomas Joyner: Menennite University; peace building; work w/ Robin Stone? Labor Union interest.
Liz Foster-Shaner: Theatre for social and cultural awareness; undergrads - ethnic studies - graduate TA diversity workshop. What happens when you bring these techniques into a room where the “training” is mandatory? When you’re not welcome and the audience is reluctant. Aesthetic implications of community performance - value as social work rather than theatre, needs to be valued aesthetically.
Didn’t catch his name? : The word Oppressed - and its reception. Off putting…
Kelly Howe: Legislative Theatre; billionaires for wealth care; backlash and protest performance.
Absent contributors:
Lisa Brenner: CB Theatre in the inner city, Youth/high school students? Collaborating with community, non-university institutions
1. Welcome : Peter Harrigan
2. Announcement: (Cathy Plourde) Newsletter Schedule; anything you have going on you can send into Sean Sewell yourself. Anything the membership should know, we can submit through the focus group. Lots of people actually read the newsletter, especially news submitted through a focus group. So do it!
3. Panel Submissions (Peter):
Next Year’s Conference info (page 12 in this year’s program)
- Multidisciplinary panels are very important for next year...will probably get priority.
- Very simple online form available on the website - DUE November 1ST.
TASC Selection committee ranks, Planning committee approves, and you will be notified in February.
4. Introductions/Ideas from the group (see above list of participants and notes)
5. Announcements/Discussion:
- Keep in mind working with the Applied theatre focus group, lgbt FG
- (Jason) Theatre without Borders - check out the website - conference in New York
- (Petra) Psi in November next year. In the Netherlands.
6. Small Group Discussions on Panels/Topics
Group A: (Norma, Amy, Chanelle, Laurie, Kelly, Jewel, Pam, others?)
A1. Labor Unions:
- precon/ panels; bringing in the history.
- Labor unions w/ current issues
- Labor unions with great history
- Teacher’s union;
- Athe member expertise panel or workshop, 2 labor unions, historic practice and current practice.
- Possible source? Victoria Lewis - University of Redlands
- Chanelle: talk to contact @bg
A2. The San Francisco Incident - ATHE Protest 2005
- Oral history/performance/documenting the history of the organization and the various perspectives.
- Interdisciplinary panel (playwrighting?); Devised Performance Project (with New Works series??) Amy Sarno, Pam
A3. Panel Ideas
- FTP Living Newspaper on Labor (Injunction Granted - Chanelle)
- (Legislative theatre - kelly howe?)
- Performance Studies - Cavalcade of Greatest Hits
- The best Labor Union performances/protest as performance
- Wobblies and work to improve worker Education, education links back to performance, links back to protest, protest as performance and education?
Group B: (Peter, Reid, Christine, Marietta)
Catholic Colleges, Social Justice, and Student Activism
- intersections/collisions between the college’s “mission” and their willingness to be proactive on issues of inclusion.
Group C: (Jason, Cathy, Others?)
- How do we engage bystanders and create allies in Interactive theatre performances ?
Group D: (Petra, Niel, others? No names given to me)
Disability theatre out of Victory Gardens theatre?
