ATHE TASC Focus Group Membership Meeting

11:30am-1pm Saturday August 13^th, 2011

Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

Welcome – Cathy Plourde

Introduction of Officers: Cathy Plourde, Peter Harrigan, Reid Davis, Chanelle Vigue, Lisa Brenner

- Cathy’s Report: work on awards, not much else to report except.

- Peter’s Report: Workshop panel – open session; Debut Panel was a great hit.

- Facebook Page: Chanelle

- Liz’s work on the New website – Peter/Cathy

o Please contribute, more we use it and add to it the more visibility it will track.

Willa Taylor:

Conference Info for Next Year! ARTS AS ADVOCACY, ADVOCACY FOR ARTS!

o Washington DC, Arts and Arts advocacy.

o Grants: helping people get here, AV support is expensive

o No one-day passes, but you can get session passes to bring in guest speakers.

o All conference passes are very hard to get except for keynote speakers, etc.

o Top 3 panels as we rank them are guaranteed. MD panels: top 3 focus groups

o Cheryl Kaplan Zachariah: Partnership with Applied theatre subcommittee?

o Critical reading and analysis of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

o Other FGs are thinking of performative works as well.

Awards: (Willa Taylor)

This year the Awards Subcommittee worked to formalize the process, suggestions, criteria, voting.

o Decided: Organization and Individual, 7-10 years of operation/practice, in the city where the conference is held, no consideration of budget.

§ Albany park – organization award,

§ Story Catchers – Mimi (last name?)

- The award will not be presented until it is useful for them – an opening night, press release, etc.

- Both 2011 winning organizations have been notified, and are in communication with Cathy and Willa

- Concerns:

o What happens if we don’t have a person to coordinate the award in the city?

- We need volunteers for the award committee this year.

o Ann Elizabeth Armstrong, Doug Paterson.

- Dani Snyder: ATHE Community-Based Theatre Award: This Year – Doug Paterson won this year.

o New rules: Nominations can roll over to the next year, but then that individual cannot be nominated for two years.

o Nomination info will go out on the listserv – and if you know of another listserv that would be interested, please let Dani know.

o Openings on the ATHE awards committee – not a heavy time commitment, email Dani if you are interested!

Other Announcements: (Cathy Plourde)

- If you need documentation of the work you have done with TASC, a panel you have presented, etc. Please contact Cathy Plourde and let the leadership know. You must ask for it, but we will be happy to provide it.

- If you are already committed to bringing an international artist in for the 2012 conference, would you be interested in asking them to come early and having them come to ATHE?

- Cheryl Kaplan Zachariah: Would TASC like to collaborate with the Interactive Theatre Subcommittee to host a Pre-conference?

Elections!

- Focus Group Representative Elect: Jason Bisping

- Secretary: Chanelle Vigue

- Grad Reps: Spike Wilson, Liz Foster-Shaner, Rita Reis, Noah Lelek,

- Member(s) at Large: Mathew Jennings, Lisa Brenner, Cheryl Kaplan, Charlie, Greg Grobis, and Reid Davis.

Discussion:

- Lisa Brenner: Possibility of passes for students to participate in performance at the capital? Willa says that’s necessarily not probable.

- Norma Bowles: when negotiating, please include free wireless at the hotel!

o Laurie: (Rep on Conference Committee) That’s been raised and noted.

- Matthew Jennings: Can TASC support bringing in International artists?

o Interactive Theatre Subcommittee: Pre-con, Partner with TASC? Both ask for money, cooperate to bring in artist?

- Doug: contact Liz Lerman for a possible paid workshop?

- Michael: Heading up the Performance Committee for TASC 2012 Performance Event in DC.

o Other interested parties: Mary, Reid, Chanelle, Spike, Christine

o TO DO: Press release - Christine will be on the committee and help with the press coordination.

o We need a focus: Arts and Advocacy - Can we work with the Advocacy group? Local activists?

o Can we all give a feeling of what the focus should be?

- Lisa Merrill – Hosting the Debates – Frederic Douglas, Lincoln, found documents that framed the last debate.

- Flash mob version of the Declaration of Independence.

- Tourism, Civil Rights Museum, MLK Monument?

- Michael/Doug: 3 months to election: Fight Fascism on the steps of the capital.

- Plenary: AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS.

ATHE TASC Focus Group Networking Meeting:

8am-9:30am, Sunday August 14^th, 2011

Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

1. Discussion of ATHE 2011 TASC Panels and Future Plans:

- Peter: Debut panel, workshop panel discussion:

o Debut panel was successful

o Workshop was unplanned administratively, but successful.

§ SO: Do we keep an “open” session?

§ Or just keep the workshop?

§ Double-session, back to back workshop/debut? And a discussion session the next day?

§ Tasc social justice warm-up?

§ More panels with Shorter/summarized papers and more time for dialogue

§ Follow-up to the breakout/plenary discussion – a forum for follow-up discussion?

o Perhaps we can help to fill in the gap of the Community Arts Network?

o Can PTO fill that gap? Too focused on TO?

o Resources – Who is doing “this kind” of work, where, what programs?

o Can this discussion become a round table?

- Intro to “What I did in CB/TASC” this year – an intro to our work, discussion of new works, ongoing projects

- Performative Event in DC:

- Are we having a pre-con? Is the “performative event committee” that we put together yesterday also in charge of planning the pre-con?

o Are we bringing in a guest artist?

o General acclaim for partnering with a local organization.

o Doug and Michael: Legislative theatre event! Keynote of Pre-con?

Research Interests and Panel Ideas for Conference 2012:

- Spike: Interested in a Theatre for Literacy Panel

- Chanelle: The Critical Performance of Legislature/Electoral Theatre: Theatre, Rhetoric, Politics and Media

- Dani Snyder Young: More conversation on facilitation/practitioner priviledge

o Roll or function of applied theatre scholar in the field writ large.

- Reid: LGBTQA programming – how can we be more intersectional, non-

- Michael Mufson: Building the national network/resources, Dismantling hierarchy that places CB theatre @ the margins, Pre-con/Performance, Teaching Intro to theatre w/ the philosophy of Pedagogy of/TO

- Doug: Practicing CB work: making new work/partnerships; Can we use PO/TO to create an education/curriculum that would support

- Michael: Self as facilitator – personal identity working with groups

- Amy: Rust Belt Identity, Questioning Boal

- Lisa Brenner: Process vs. Product – social change and empowerment or the creation of “shows”

- Cathy Plourde: LGBTQA in religious communities, research on performance impact

- Peter: Working with the oppressors – not becoming one of them

- Lesly: Museums of war, peace, memory

- George Nelson: Applied theatre, esp. w/ prison system

- Spike: Literacy, Theatre and Therapy – TO and Buddhism

- Valerie: Anti-Human Trafficking and Legislative Theatre

- Willa: Offer Training for activists for using arts-based practice for future activism and engagement – possibly an ongoing thing that we can do every year.

- Matthew Jennings: international networks, practitioners but also scholars: Individual practitioners; INDRA, in place of war, International Community Arts Festival, ICAN, etc.

- Jason Bisping (In absentia): Research Interests -Theatre for development; TO; Interactive Theatre. - Panel Ideas: Applied Theatre Applications on Campus; T.O. or Applied theatre dealing with sexual assault and/or underage drinking; Anything with Advocacy!