(Diane Rodriguez) Hello!
(applause)
Welcome back everyone!
In answer to the question,
"Cleveland? Really?!"
Yes, really. Yes! Right? Oh, my god!
(applause)
Our host have outdone themselves
and our Conference organizers
have taken us on a deep dive
and we are coming up with amazing
moments to take home.
I was a mess yesterday
during the Story Corps plenary.
Right? Oh, my God!
I mean, I want you play,
and perhaps, at the end,
I will have an emotional experience,
perhaps not,
but in just two minutes,
I was suddenly having
a cathartic experience
because the voices were authentic
and I related in such an unfiltered way.
It was a real blessing and story telling
as was my session with the ball of energy
and wisdom that is Paula Vogel.
That was great.
(applause)
With all the tragedy that has unfolded
in the last year and this week,
I have to believe like [Dave] Isay
in the hope that is that that comes
from the human spirit,
and believe that we will come
together as a people
to say, we are not that country.
And we must do it soon.
(applause)
One of the values that I share deeply
with TCG, is activism.
A generosity of spirit,
that appeals to our better selves.
It has been the underlying
agenda throughout,
and I'd really want to thank
our brilliant, brilliant staff,
and I'd like to acknowledge
the members of the TCG's Board
who has supported our staff,
and thank them for their service.
Could you all stand, please?
Stand lights, let see them.
(applause)
Thank you so much.
(applause)
I have an action item for you all,
and you can help us with it
in the next few days;
the NEA funding will likely go
to the floor this week,
and there is a good possibility
there will be a hostile amendment
to decrease funding.
So, please, please respond
to action alerts
that will come to you in the next week
and urge your members of Congress
to oppose these moves and to hold the line
on NEA funding.
So, please.
(applause)
And now, I'd like to introduce my friend,
an exquisite writer, performer,
activist and all around cool dude,
with an enviable name,
who'll give out 
the Theater Practitioner Award,
Mr. Will Power.
(applause)
(Will Power) Thank you.
When our children, and our leaders
and our elders are being
murdered in the streets,
and in our churches,
the immense body of work
that this person has created
and is still creating,
becomes more vital than ever.
Through her legendary solo performances,
through her directing and producing,
through her leadership,
she has had a profound impact on the arts.
And through her artistry, 
she has sparkled essential conversations,
and created bold action
against injustices that occur
in this place that we call home.
For almost 40 years she has had,
she has been performing, touring,
and adding her critical voice
to the American Arts Movement 
of the 1970s --I'm going back you all,--
the 80s, the 90s, and the 2000s.
Her Medea Project, which works
with incarcerated women through theater
inspiring and encouraging them
to tell their stories,
thus building bridges
amongst separated communities
and healing the storyteller along the way,
had become an iconic
institution on to itself,
and has drastically changed
the entire culture
of the Bay Area for the good.
Now she is taking the project
to South Africa and other places,
working to help empower and give voice
to oppressed women across the globe.
What's more, her artistry has inspired and
influenced a generation of playwrights,
spoken word artists,
and social justice workers,
including me.
Over 25 years ago, in a black box
in The Tenderloin, I saw her perform
her mesmerizing solo work,
"Big Butt Girls, Hard Headed Women".
(applause)
And sitting there, I thought to myself,
"Oh my God! What is this?"
Eight years later, she was directing
and teaching me
as I created my first solo work
that put me on the national stage
for the first time.
I've learned and continue to learn
so much from her about performing
and writing, as well as how to be
a sustainable artist in America.
Just last year, she directed me
in several others,
in a piece called "Blessing the Boats"
at the Public Theater in New York.
And after all this time,
I'm still learning from her.
And still saying to myself, maybe one day
I could be half as good as her.
Maybe I could be the her
for my generation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
please put your hands together
for the great Rhodessa Jones.
(applause)
(Rhodessa Jones) Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you Will Power.
Thank you so much.
Oh my god, those powerful words.
My mother used to say,
"You better walk right,
because you are going to be
walking in the light
and everybody is going to see."
So thank you Will. Thank you so much.
And I forget how much I've done.
So, thank you.
(laughter)
I'm an old broad. Come on!
I'm an old broad, I forget a lot, OK?
Big thanks to Teresa Eyring
for just handing me this honor
and for the hardworking staff at TCG:
Amelia, Daphina, Anabelle,
and Mathew to name a few,
and I am honored to receive
The Theatre Practitioner Award.
Theater saved my life.
Theater saved my life.
And I still wonder what does it all mean?
Who is art for and where do we all enter?
It was Martha Graham who said,
"People from California
believe anything is possible."
I'm from San Francisco.
Jim Hendrix cautioned me, "It gets
a little lonely down this road," he said.
Yet, it was Bob Marley who insisted
and instructed, "Stay alive."
I was set to explore the autobiographies,
starting with my own life, my own family,
gathering around the proverbial camp fire
to share, demand and re-examine
the American character.
Insisting on a place at the table,
telling the truth and teaching,
goodness is the price of the ticket.
Of course, let's not forget
Hunter S. Thompson, who reminds us,
"You buy the ticket
and you take the ride."
(laughter)
What a ride has been!
Life it's a dream inside of a dream,
ladies and gentlemen,
and Bob Dylan promised: "I'll let you be
in my dream, if I can be in your dream."
So, we gathered here
as theatre artists to celebrate that.
And I must thank the folks
that God gave me,
starting with Idris Ackamoor
the Executive Director,
- he would love this -
(applause)
of Cultural Odyssey.
My partner in crime,
who encouraged me to quit my day job,
and make my life
as an artist work, he'd say,
"Quit your day job."
We began to make theater
in his living room,
he loved performing,
and he loved my stories.
We put the words and the music together
spiced with the politics and dance,
and Performance Music was born.
We traveled the world: Amsterdam
to Vienna, to Berlin, to Moscow,
South Africa, and back, and then
America backened.
I was sent into the dark [...] of prisons
where I taught the art of storytelling,
bearing witness, testifying,
and exploring ways
that speak to the hard truths
of our lives,
and it's been so romantic.
It's been romantic, yes.
Life affirming and ennobling as well.
Working with women 
locked down across the world,
assisting and giving them 
a voice to share their stories
it's been priceless.
And The Medea Project,
theater for incarcerated women,
was born and continues to thrive
to this day 25 years later.
And all my love to my daughter, Sandra Lee
and my granddaughter, Chez Nicole,
who've always been there
to remind me that, "Mom,", "Grandma,"
"you have a full, rich life."
And to my brother Bill who said,
"If we can't share love,
let's share information."
(laughter)
And big love to my big brother,
who assured me,
"Even in our dreams we are alone, sis."
Then it was my father who said
"It's a damn poor dog
that can't wag his own tail, little girl."
Daddy also taught me that the hard
it's its own compass,
and all you've got to do is listen honey.
And my sister, Jaharee, that ancient voice
who tells me over and over again,
"Girl, God is trying to tell you
something [inaudible],"
I'll be above advice has helped
shape my theater
and gave light to my dreams to keep.
And so here, this afternoon,
I thank TCG, who's been
one of those elements in my life
that has kept the light on on Earth,
given me a path home; thank you TCG
so much for this honor.
Thank you Will Power,
thank you to all of you
and remember, politics don't work,
religion is a little bit too eclectic,
but art, art can be that parachute
that catches us all.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for this honor.
Thank you so much, thank you.
(applause)
Thank you.
(Teresa) Thank you so much Rhodessa.
For your words
and also for all of your work,
leading this field forward.
It's now my pleasure to introduce
our closing plenary panel
artistic leadership,
how we change the game.
We created this panel
because we wanted to talk about
the game changing power of theater
through a conversation
among five visionary artistic leaders.
Through that conversation,
we will not only be inspired
by their artistry
but discover opportunities
for collective action
to address challenges facing
our theater field and the world.
How can we create
a better world for theater
and a better world because of theater?
Please join me in welcoming
Gregory Boyd,
from The Alley Theatre in Huston,
Michael Kahn, from The Shakespeare
Theater Company in DC,
hometown hero, Laura Kepley,
from The Cleveland Playhouse,
(ovations)
Mina Morita, from
Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco,
Niegel Smith, from 
The Flea Theater in Manhattan,
and our moderator, Mr. Jim O'Quinn.
(applause)
Well, welcome
to the final stretch here,
in this remarkable conference.
(Jim O'Quinn) I can't compete with
David Hawkinson and Woody King,
I wasn't around
for the first TCG Conference,
but it seems to me that Terry Nemeth and I
who joined TCG about, almost precisely,
the same time, back in 1982,
had been to far more than 25 of these,
I just can't imagine that's all they were.
But the truth is that there hasn't been
one of them that I can remember
that produce as many good laughs,
and considering, the essentially yesterday
measure of tears as well,
as this conference has.
But this session that we have here today,
which is about ground breaking
artistic leadership,
I can't imagine that it's going to produce
many laughs or tears, we'll see,
but I think it will bring together
a lot of the ideas and things
you've been thinking about
and talking about over the past 3 days.
I'm going to give very introductions
of these folks, these artistic leaders,
some of them are veterans,
and some of them are brand new.
But they have been handed the task
of talking about productions,
people, initiatives,
that have changed the game
in their theaters and their careers.
To my left is Mina Morita,
who is Artistic Director
of Crowded Fire Theatre in San Francisco.
She's made the rounds in her own town,
she's worked at Berkeley Rep
with their Ground Floor Project,
which I'm sure she'll talk about.
She's been a freelance rhetoric
at Shotgun Players,
at Bay Area Children's Theater,
and other places.
To her left, is a man who needs
no introduction at this conference,
but I will say that Michael Kahn
has been the Artistic Director
of The Shakespeare Theater Company
in Washington DC, for the past 29 years.
During that time, he's been handed
the 2012 Regional Theater Tony Award
for his work there.
He teaches
at the Drama Division of Julliard,
since its founding in 1968.
He's a legend in his own time.
Beside him, is Gregory Boyd,
a representative of the same generation,
who's been celebrating
his 25th anniversary
at the Alley Theater in Huston,
where he's produced over 100 productions
of a wide ranging of repertoire.
He teaches too,
he's been at Carnegie Mellon,
Williams College University of Huston
and the University of North Carolina.
Beside him, is a fellow
I just met, Niegel Smith
the brand new Artistic Director
of a remarkable company in New York
called The Flea Theater,
which is organized differently than almost
any other theater in the country,
that I'll know of; he'll be 
telling you a lot about that.
Talking about making his rounds,
Niegel has worked at an incredible number
of venues in New York City;
he works with the great Taylor Mac.
His little bio, I noticed
it listed him as the Assistant Director
on three of my favorite productions for
the last decade which I have to mention:
the wonderful production of FELA!
that was on Broadway,
the off-Broadway production
of a delightful play
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
which was a fabulous production,
and then he worked with Tony Kushner
on the masterwork, "Caroline, or Change".
So, for goodness' sake,
what a record! Just great!
On our panel on the far left,
and bring this home to the city
that we are experiencing this week
is Laura Kepley, the Artistic Director
of Cleveland Playhouse,
she's a busy Director who came
to Cleveland in 2010
as Associate Artistic Director
coming from Trinity Rep in Providence.
I have to mention that Laura worked
on the development of a play here,
a wonderful play,
Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime
which appears complete in the next issue
of American Theatre Magazine.
(laughter)
And I discovered this morning,
in another session,
that she's married to the remarkable
and handsome playwright George Brant.
(laughter)
Who knew?
That's our team today.
These artistic leaders, as I said,
have been handed the task
of talking about game change
and I guess we'll start with Michael Kahn.
(Michael) You told me I wouldn't start.
(Jim) No, I changed my mind.
(Michael) It's the only lie I've heard
in the entire conference.
(laughter)
(Jim) I think your arrival
at The Shakespeare Theater
was a game changer in itself.
I mean, [inaudible] was
in trouble at that time
and you arrived into a city
that was about to close its only
classical theater, is that right?
(Michael) It was closing.
It's a quick, quick story.
It just was... The people
who were running it
was a University and didn't want to pay
for it anymore, so it was going to close
so there was a community
that wanted to keep it open
and they brought me down to talk.
I had decided I didn't want to be
an artistic director anymore.
I didn't want to look at the budget,
didn't want to look at the program,
didn't want to look at development,
I didn't want doing that anymore.
And the idea of working
in an intimate space,
which I never had the opportunity to do
in the other jobs I had, interested me
so I took the job thinking
it was a short job.
But also, I said very clearly to the Board
that I was very flattered
and honored to be asked
but they should know that I wasn't
interested in saving a space,
or saving a building.
That I didn't think that there was any
need to have a classical theater,
unless they were
the resources of the artists
to be able to do
the best work they could do.
And that if we couldn't do that,
I didn't see why it should be there.
And that was a good attitude
for me to have
because I have left a theater
five years previously
where, in order to save it,
I did things that I didn't believe in.
Like plays I didn't believe in,
or productions I didn't believe in,
- or microphone I need -
(laughter)
I can't repeat any of that, so I hope
that you got something.
So I swore to myself
that I would never do that again.
And I guess that I am here
because I've been doing this all my life.
And I'm a good example
of how you can actually have
an exciting and fulfilling
and overly dramatic, crisis-ridden
thrilling existence, if you stick it out.
And continuously feel that your job
is not to make it success,
whatever that means,
- and I thought the discussion yesterday
about what success meant
was quite valuable -
but whether you and the people you are
working with were doing the best work
you knew how and find a way to connect
that to the community you were in.
That's not the answer
to your question but that's...
(Jim) Well, let's go to you Niegel.
I want you to talk about a little bit
about the Zimmerman verdict Project
that you've done.
This is a very different kind of theater
than the classical theater
Michael's been talking about.
And this is just to emphasize
the incredible diversity,
we've got a wide diversity
of kind of theaters,
and you are coming
to the Flea, which is a--
I mean the Zimmerman Project,
as some will talk about it,
is almost like pop-up theater,
an immediate response
to what's on the news.
Is that going to work for you
in a theater like The Flea,
which is a more structured situation?
(Niegel) Absolutely. It's got to work.
We have to do the work
that needs to be done in the moment.
And as a new play developer,
there is an intrinsic value
to making, and reflecting,
and creating, and stepping back,
much like the scope of this process,
in order to get to a play that resonates,
that will become a part of the canon,
that will be produced multiple times
around the country,
but sometimes we have to put down
that work and do what our country,
what our neighbors are asking from us.
The organization you talked about,
Willing Participant,
came out of a need that me
and my collaborators were finding
that that we could make work
that was esthetically pleasing
in a quick enough way to hit
the pulse of society.
So what we've done was
we tried to simplify the process
as much as possible
and to act as quickly as possible.
So I'll use the last several days
as an example, you know.
Wednesday night, there was
an atrocious massacre
in Charleston, South Carolina,
and same thing happened, when the verdict
for George Zimmerman came out,
that was a disaster; and many 
of us felt that was a massacre.
So this happens, we pick up our phones
and text with the other 
ringleaders and we say,
"Hey, we've got to make
something right now."
This is at the top and forefront
of all of our minds,
we as artists, we need
to be part of the dialogue.
So we then crafted an email,
we sent it out to our constituents,
we believe highly that the performance
begins at the moment of invitation,
for all of those folks who are marketing
and producing folks out there.
The very first time you tell 
the story to someone else,
is the beginning of the performance:
So we sat and we crafted that first email,
and we send it out to our constituents.
We post it on Facebook, and all over
the networks, we might pick up the phone
for those people who 
aren't using email, and we said,
"Come and meet with us."
We've got a framework
for facilitating conversations,
that will lead to an artistic response.
We spent no more than 4 hours
to gathered the room, tomorrow at 2 pm
we will be at the Flea Theater,
--this is how The Flea
serves its role in this mission--
and we will meet in one of the theaters,
we'll talk about what's fucked up
what's this crazy shit going on around us,
and we will start to think
as activists and as artists,
--thank you Rhodessa Jones
for the great leadership and modeling--
(applause)
and we spent those four hours
really wrestling with the issues.
My job as one of the ringleaders
is to bring in the materials
and to bring in guidance
that will allow us to dream
and to dream poetically,
as well as socially.
And after those four hours, we've come to
some thesis around the Zimmerman verdict:
it was that the lives of Black men
in this nation are not being respected.
And we'll have come to some symbology
that works around that thesis,
so we thought at that moment
in our history it was about the hoodie.
And it was about us as a nation,
all taking that on and saying,
"We acknowledge, and are affected by
the atrocities that happen around us."
So the ringleader stepped back
after the meeting
and then create a form, a container,
for that piece, for Trayvon.
The form was a procession
into Time Square.
So once we've built this, we sent out
another email, "join us for the response",
so join us a couple of blocks away
from Time Square,
so the police don't know
what we were doing, just yet.
We meet there, bring a hoodie, bring
a toque, as someone might not have one,
we will all put on the symbol.
And then, one of the things that I think
is most important about our role
as civic activist as theater,
--because when we create
on our stages inside rooms,
we wanted to create a whole event,
that our audiences
are responding to and engaging in--
but when we are in our activist role
our job is to make sure there is room for
multiple perspectives, multiple voices.
So we created an action of response
that led us in procession to Time Square,
we formed a line, this is all in silence,
where we are using the poetry of the body
and this piece, we have our hoodies on,
we line up, and we take a pose.
So the prompt for the pose is,
show a pose to the passers by, that says,
"Respect the bodies and lives
of young Black men."
Now, the individual participants in this,
get to choose what that pose is.
This is where their voice
enters in the piece.
We hold that pose for a minute,
we walk across to 
the other side of Time Square,
there's a line, there's a mass of bodies,
take a new pose; we do this moving
back and forth for 35 minutes.
This is a direct action,
a direct intervention;
it's a poetic intervention,
but what's really exciting for us
as theater makers and performance makers
is that our audience would be
wherever we are.
If we make thrilling, important work
that it is charged with the issues
that we are all wrestling with,
they will stop.
One of the things we considered
in this model,
is what time of day does it happen.
It doesn't have to be an p.m.
So we said, 10.45, the Broadway 
shows are coming out,
so we'll get this wonderful
cross section of America.
I'm done talking.
(Jim) Explain how the Flea is organized
differently than another theater.
(Niegel) Oh yes, so The Flea,
which is great,
we have this Resident Company
of young performers,
who are pre-professionals,
and my job is twofold:
one is to give them work
that's going to challenge them,
and that's going to display
their excellent young artistry,
and to invite in professionals,
and directors, and casting directors,
who were going to cast them,
and make sure they don't need
to volunteer at the Flea anymore.
I was just talking
with Mr. Kahn backstage,
and my producing director and I
were having a conversation the other day,
if one of these young actors
are still in our institution in two years
we've not done our job.
So half of my job is getting them
out into the field.
The other half of my job
is developing their voice as artists.
And so, I think that the kind of work
that I've done throughout my career,
--which is not wait for an institution,
or not wait for a play to suddenly
get produced, but to actually say,
"Alright, this thing has to happen now."--
is one of the things that I have 
to offer to these young artists.
And so, The Flea, is a site.
Is a site and an opportunity
to let them be a part of this practice.
(Jim) Well, that's one kind
of company now,
Greg Boyd can talk about--
I learned talking to him the other day
that he joined ACT,
American Conservatory Theater
in San Francisco at the age of 16,
and that they had a company
of 42 actors at that time.
This imprint of the resident company idea
was a game changer for you in your time.
(Gregory) Yeah, it certainly
changed my life.
In the late 60s, the great Bill Ball
brought his company ACT
at San Francisco, where I grew up.
The idea of seeing 42 actors
doing 16 plays in the season 11 at Rep
I said, this is what it is,
as far as I'm concerned.
And then, something happened
that changed that early on.
And in the midst of all that work,
Bill found the time to let
The Guthrie Theater be the host
for the World Tour
of the Royal Shakespeare Company's
A Midsummer Night's Dream 1972,
directed by Peter Brook.
I'm not alone in claiming that production
as a life changing experience; it was.
But not for the reasons
I think that everybody who knows
and read about it, or looked
at the pictures, might think.
It was a clash of companies cultures.
Here's The Royal Shakespeare Company,
trained in a certain sort of way,
living in a room now, or in a place now,
where a bunch of American actors,
who were trying to forge an American style
of acting that wasn't based
on a kind of British classicism,
it wasn't based on a method of kind
of mumbling, whatever the cliches are,
and finding something else.
Because Bill will do
a wide variety of plays, you know:
Tartuffe, basic six characters,
followed by a new play.
If you looked at pictures
of the Midsummer Night's Dream,
as I am sure many of you have seen,
what you see is the wonderful design
by Sally Jacobs, the bright costumes,
the white set, all of that.
But what was important
about the production
was what it sounded,
not the way it looked.
I've never seen actors
deliver any kind of text
so fast, so clearly,
and with such sexual charisma
it was the sexiest sounding play
I have ever seen in my life.
And Richard Peaslee's music
contributed to that.
So they were there
for three weeks, the RSC.
And we had this kind of clash
of companies cultures
between the ATC's actors, all of whom
I admired, and looked up and love,
and these Brits, not all Brits,
or not all what we think of
as old Vickie kind of Brits.
Because Brook was already on the way
to create the most multicultural theater
company, that will be later, of course,
developed more deeply
in Paris, and elsewhere.
And these actors would be at home
in Stratford and in London,
and we're now on this road tour,
very long road tour,
great American cities, great world cities,
and we were coming up,
and the questions they asked
to the ACT actors were;
"What is it like to be
an actor here, in this place?"
And that's where I began to develop
what a company is.
The term, the acronym that a lot of us
are familiar with was LORT, L-O-R-T.
But that doesn't mean
League of Regional Theaters,
or League of Repertory Theater even;
it means League of Resident Theaters.
And it means simply, or what 
I learned, I thought simply it was
that the artists live in the community
for who they perform.
Very simple.
(applause)
I felt guilty, sorry, today,
when we are all talking about
how long has been since we've been
through a TCG Conference.
Because for some of us,
it's been in the double digits.
And I didn't want to say why earlier,
I'll say why now, and sorry,
just to take the moment to do it,
it's because I got really upset
the last time I was here.
Because I've heard someone Peter Zizler,
talking about the founding of TCG.
And one of the sentences he used was,
"Before 1961, it was impossible to think
that a theater artist could have
a life in Providence," or Louisville.
Or Minneapolis.
Or San Francisco. Or Huston.
And I don't know how good
the institutions have been doing
at putting artists
at the center of the work.
You will never see a modern dance company
change over its entire roster
of dancers between concerts,
or a symphony hire new musicians
for the next concert.
Or a ballet company.
A traveling actor said to me,
"All this talk about artistic home;
-artistic home, what does that mean?"
Well, for a home to have
a set of siblings for eight weeks,
and then another set
of sibling for eight weeks,
it's not a home, it's a half-way house.
(laughter)
(applause)
So, it got in my blood earlier.
I'm obsessed with this idea of company.
We do a lot of plays at The Alley,
probably way too many.
But there are 17 actors
that are with us all the time,
they don't do all the plays,
they do some of the plays,
and other people come in
and do other plays,
and there is a mix in some productions.
Influence by the RSC and ACT
living together at that time.
And that's just the way
that I think it works.
So, I don't know if it's a game change;
that's what the game was.
And I think that we need
to get back to that.
(applause)
(Jim) Thank you.
Laura, talk about what game change
means for you here in Cleveland.
(Laura) Well, first of all,
I feel like we are in the middle
of so many game changes here in Cleveland.
And I just want to acknowledge and
thank all of you for coming to Cleveland
and be a part of this incredible game
we've had here at the past three days,
for really coming in, meeting us,
and I think our Councilman
made it pretty clear,
but you being here, in our city, matters.
And it matters deeply
to our theater community,
who I am so glad that we've gotten
to connect with all of you
(applause)
and I think, your being here
will also change the future
of our community here, in some ways,
and we hope that what you--
for those of you who aren't here,
that your being here will change
your future going forward too.
I mean that I think, I just want
to share with my fellow 
colleagues here in Cleveland,
and I hope you have a similar story,
of how many people have come up
and said, "Cleveland is amazing,"
"I am having such a--",
"I didn't know,", "Cleveland is amazing."
And I hope that a game change
that will come from this,
is that you will take those stories back
and with the young people
who you work with,
the Cleveland becomes on their radar.
Oscar [...] was on stage yesterday,
and he was talking about Bohemia;
he just sort of briefly set that idea
about Bohemia, that time,
when you get to explore, sort of really
find yourself as an artist,
and I was fortune enough, as
an young artist to have that in Chicago.
And I am so proud that I see
that happening here in Cleveland.
So, I want to put that out.
Then, just to switch gears, a little bit,
because I kind of feel that I have to,
it's been an amazing game changing time
for Cleveland Playhouse.
I was lucky enough to arrive
at a time of tremendous change,
founded in 1915,
when I arrived in 2010, that was
the last year in what had been our home
for over 88 years.
In the five years since 2010,
our organization has geographically moved,
our business model has changed,
our semi collaborative 
practices have changed,
I hope that our partnering
and our role in the community
is beginning to evolve,
and change, and open.
And then, of course, there's been
artistic change, huge change
in our education programs,
and I'll stop the Cleveland Playhouse
commercial right now.
But I just want to say that when I was
looking at Cleveland in 2010,
and to see America first Regional Theater
going, saying, "You know what?
If we want to survive, if we want
to make work for another century,
we have to make this tremendous change,
this big game change."
We have, and I feel now at the end of five
years going into our centennial season,
we are just now beginning
to really start the important work,
the important change,
and I know that I was so moved
at this conference...
The work that's been done,
and making that pledge that we did
in the last session; so powerful.
So I thank you.
(applause)
(Jim) That leaves you.
You made the rounds in San Francisco,
working at the at Berkeley Rep,
Ground Floor Project, Shotgun Players.
How is your leadership
of this new company going to work?
What's the watchword for you?
(Mina) I first want to acknowledge
all the ancestors
and all of the great leaders
on whose shoulders we stand,
and whose shoulders I stand;
and it leads me to think about
the first mentor and great leader
that I had the chance to work
with at Berkeley Rep for the last 6 years.
When I started my artistic fellowship
there, 6 years ago,
one of the first things he said was:
"What is your world view?
Because that is going to inform everything
you make, and for whom you make it."
And I took that. I mean, Tony--
and he'll state this, he's an old hippie.
He grew up in the 60s
and he was reared then,
and for him, the original theater movement
was about creating a home,
for artists, locally,
and it was about really
separating this idea
of commercialism, or capitalism
from the theater.
So, I had the great pleasure of working
side by side with him,
in the creation of a new program called
the The Ground Floor at the Berkeley Rep.
I got to started it
with three other fantastic leaders
Madeleine Oldham, Meghan Pressman,
Karina, [unclear], myself and many others,
and it was about following the first
creative impulse of that revolution,
and it was about creating a space
for over 100 artists,
for anywhere from 13 to 18,
a new place in development
and any point in their process.
From just an idea, to a completed script.
And the space that we created was a space
for failure to be OK,
for that to be alright
for not to be connected
to any kind of product,
and that if somebody was to ask for
anything, for any kind of design element,
for a collaborator,
in the moment of creation,
we would provide that for them,
we created this incredible program,
where I learned how much it meant
from the simple thing of handing a prop
to a new play development room,
where they were trying to figure out
how a specific puppet worked,
to getting singers for a new musical,
I mean, it was the entire range of that.
And I carry now with me,
that idea of creating a safe space,
the idea of an artistic home truly
into my new home, which is Crowded Fire,
and the timing is quite perfect,
for I think, both of us,
because what Marissa Wolf,
my predecessor and Artistic Director
had built with Tiffany Cothran
before I arrived
is a space where we are looking at
championing culturally diverse voices,
provocative voices, and really the idea
of developing a canon for the future
for our current generation.
And to make a space, to forcefully make
and deliberately make a space,
where that work can go at its own pace,
where the artist is the center
of every question that is brought forward,
and that the organizations
innexistent for those artists.
And rest upon, also, the shoulders
of our resident artist company,
and our staff, and our board,
and that there is a sense
of entrepreneurialship, innovation,
that hopefully we can design,
that is different from this
more capitalist reality that we live in,
because ultimately,
the thing that changes us
the genetics that need to evolve,
is for us to step away from that,
while still understanding of course,
fiscal responsibility
- I'm not saying to throw that
out of the window -
but I feel like that is my torch that
I carry from all of you into the future
that it is a space for risk,
it is a space for everyone
and it is the space for art
that is going to reflect our humanity.
So, wish me luck!
(applause)
(Jim) Well, talk amongst yourselves.
(laughter)
Go for it.
(Niegel) I will go for it.
One of the things that comes up a lot
is protecting the risk, and the failure,
and the space for the artists to do
the work that they need to do.
And from Diane's lovely introduction
of [unclear],
to the conversation
we've been having up here
around our role as activists,
as game changers in our communities,
as the artists that are going
to light the fire.
I found myself throughout this challenge,
- I literally think of it as a challenge-
through this conference, this conference
has been a challenge, challenging me,
to think about where are
our resources going.
I was up at the Idea Fest
in New Haven recently,
and there is a whole section, roped off,
it had a special back covers,
it had two giant signs that said, 
"These are proud donors", and so,
they got oligarchic at the prime locations
in there, and everyone got to look and see
this really wonderful people, and I think
that part of our job as artist leaders,
while being fiscal responsible, is
to say to say to those people who fund us
what to get instead of that prime location
you actually get to sit at the back
and look at the people you got to fund
to sit in those prime locations.
(applause)
So, how do we have that conversation,
how do we engage in that?
That the value isn't that you are helping
the whole community experience?
(Michael) I thought about this recently.
Because we've just done a play
that probably the Board hates,
but I'll get away with it
because I've been there so long.
(laughter)
But the truth is that
that isn't a good answer.
And it came up the other day
with the staff, and I thought,
this is a complicated issue for the staff,
so why don't they come
and talk to me afterwards.
And we had a lunch, and I was surprised;
there was 2 or 3 people
from each department.
And I said, let's talk
about the production.
And I wouldn't let the dramaturg
talk to explain it,
I just said:" You just talk, whatever
you say is OK, as a matter of fact,
it's actually important.
I want to hear it, we all want to hear it.
So one of the young women said,
"Well, I didn't like it."
"I don't like it," is not an answer.
For anything. That's not enough.
I mean, we are used to it, always,
on Yelp, and everything.
It's not an answer, and it doesn't enrich
anybody, including the person who says it.
So I said, "Let's go further." She said,
"I liked it until this happened."
And I said, "OK. I think that was a large
theatrical moment that could indeed
make you very uncomfortable, but you said
you cut out when that happened.
Why was that?"
"I couldn't deal with that."
"Well, OK. Why do you think it was there?
These are responsible people.
Why was it there?"
And as she began to think that,
and other people in the room started
talking about why that was,
and when that was over, we never got
very far past that moment, in an hour,
as to they began to think past
this yes or no criticism,
this some deeper understanding
perhaps of trying to understand the work
in context of the work, and maybe,
not just in the context of their own...
So I thought, this has to be done
with the Board, because the Board,
- who Lord love them, they are pretty damn
good Board, and I know the other kind -
(laughter)
I thought we never get the chance;
of course with their names on change,
because we never really give ourselves
the chance to force them
to be involved in the art,
and maybe, this question of "Let's just
talk about something that happened,
that you objected to or something,
is a way of encouraging
a different kind of dialogue
and a different kind of emerging into art;
Because finally they have to have pleasure
in something other than just the fact
they've met each other
in different corporations.
That's one response to what you said.
(Gregory) What I hear, too,
is why are we afraid, I know we are,
but why are we afraid
of risky, or edgy work?
(Michael) But we shouldn't be.
(Gregory) Right.
Nothing worthwhile is
embarked on without fear,
so I hope for myself that I'm scared
to have to do that all the time.
What I found, when you do difficult work,
or work that people object to
for whatever reason they object to it,
I'm sorry to sing this song again,
but in tough plays,
it's the actors and the company
who've helped the audience through that,
I've seen those actors,
I own those actors, I've seen them
in that Shakespeare play
or that Arthur Miller play,
and now they are in this play
that I don't quite understand
and I'm not at all sure that I like.
But they are there, or can be
to sort of help an audience
into difficult or challenging work,
and that's something, I think,
--well...no, no. I don't go there.--
(laughter)
Alright.
(applause)
If you want your audience to own
your theater company,
they they have to have 
that sense of proprietorship,
thick or thin, fair weather or foul,
"Hated it","Loved it" like your ball team.
So they are like the 'astros',
or as I like to call them, the disastros,
we are having a great season this year.
But they are owned somehow by that,
and they can say to the actors afterwards
"I don't know why, he or they or you
picked that. But I love doing this."
There's a mitigating factor
when they own the artists somehow.
We did two plays, two new plays
by Rajiv Joseph.
(applause)
From Cleveland.
They were tough on a lot of the people
in the audience, and then I asked Rajiv
because he'd been around a lot,
he'd seen the company actors,
they weren't in the first two plays
that we did with him,
but he'd seen the actors, and I said,
"Write a play for them."
So he has. And it's fantastic,
powerful piece of work.
First of all, the audience, even though
they saw the first two things,
and maybe, you know, they weren't
so comfortable with some of it,
they own him now.
And they looked forward to
the next Rajiv Joseph play,
even if it was sort
of an uncomfortable event twice before,
and it's going to be--
to invite the writer into the company,
and to let the difficult work be--,
here, let me take you by the hand,
in something that's a little bit more
challenging that you might be used to.
I'm not saying it very well,
but there you go.
(Jim) Laura, you are pioneering
some education work
that you wanted to talk 
about today; tell us about that.
(Laura) Sure.
Cleveland Playhouse has been a lead agency
in the united way, wrap around strategy
in our community.
There was a session on this, earlier today
but I think that that has been--
Part of the game change
at the Cleveland Playhouse
is really to go look at our core values
and say, "How are we putting
those in action?"
And what do we mean when we say
we are serving the community?
What does that look like for us?"
I know this is a question that I think
many, many people are having;
and thinking for a long time
the thinking had been very broad,
you know, how many students
are we reaching?
And of course, that's so important
because that's sometimes, that one touch
there maybe be one touch with theater,
so we have to go broad,
but really looking at
where we want to go deep.
I'm going to give a shout out
to our Director of Education,
Pamela Di Pasquale.
(applause)
She really has been the pioneer
behind this and being a part of it,
and I also want to give a shout out
to Nina Domingue, Nathan Lilly,
and Jocelyn Prince, who are the people
who are embedded in those three schools.
(applause)
I should explain
a little better, actually.
What I really love is to let them
explain it to you, but--
So those three folks are,
everyday, in the schools,
they are compassionate theater artists
who are interested in remaking education,
they are in the schools
as a theater artist,
they are also to connect the students
with the social services,
they are running summer camps
at those schools,
and their commitment is to the schools,
the communities the schools are in,
the care givers, and they are 
creating summer camps
where haven't been summer camps before,
and also coordinating all of the social
services needed to support that,
so that means lunch at the camps.
That means, in the winter,
Jocelyn and Nathan telling stories
about handing out more gloves,
needing more coats,
getting more food bags...
So Cleveland Playhouse has been
very fortunate that we can align
with the United Way to do 
this work that expands...
Well, I shouldn't say expands.
The work that we have
a responsibility to do in our community.
And again, that idea of how
we can continue to go deeper and deeper
because that's our responsibility.
(Jim) Let's take questions from you guys.
We have microphone people I believe.
And who wants to talk
to these artistic directors?
Oh boy! (laughter)
Identify yourself, before you talk.
Hi there, I'm Sue Michelle Mann,
I'm an independent artist,
at [Flaxville] with Performing Arts
in Minneapolis.
My question is from this conference
what are each of your commitments
one thing that you are going
to change this year?
(Mina) This is my first conference
and I have to be on stage here,
in front of you, at my first conference
(applause)
I'm honored and has been thrilling.
It was completely unexpected,
and I'm so inspired to not always consider
that I'm just looking for mentors
for myself as I create space
for the work and for diverse voices,
but also to look at those
who are coming into our field,
that every opportunity that I can is
to make space for the people
who are coming after us
because that is the only way
that we will continue to affect change.
In terms of the work that Crowded Fire
is doing, what I love about it,
and I will continue to do,
is to walk to talk, or do the work.
Since 2009, we've done
100% of diverse work,
either people of color, women,
or queer identifying playwrights,
and I'm going to do that work
and them build more space
for that work to grow
so that it can continue to grow,
so it can continue to feed
the rest of our community in
San Francisco and hopefully, nationally.
(Michael) I had made a commitment
to myself for the next three years,
to the theater to bring quite
young directors, who has worked
in small theaters, but had a passion
for a certain kind of material,
to our theater, to work
as directors on the big stage
- I was given that opportunity
by Joe Papp when I was quite young,
and it meant a great deal to me,
and I committed myself
to a group of directors --
but what I came to realize,
and through this conference,
and other conversations, is that I have
to help the staff of the theater
understand different ways of working
by different artists.
And while I felt very good about
welcoming people in, as we start this,
the complications that often come up
when somebody wants it a different way
- and people are not used to that --
is my job to try to help
the culture of theater,
make it possible
for those artists to work.
(applause)
And that's a lot bigger
than just say, "Come on in!"
So I've learned that and I can't wait
to go back and start it.
(laughter)
Oh, you have one.
(Gregory) I think I do.
(laughter)
We are about to open
a new theater building,
we've been off sight for the past season.
So we go back and we get back in August,
and I'm thrilled about that.
It's not just a new theater building,
it transforms everything about the way
we've been doing the work for a long time.
It's been hard in the past to really do
a new play by someone who--
We had two theaters. A 300-seat theater
and a 800-seat theater.
It's very hard to put a new play
in the 800-seat theater,
in a subscription series that has to have
36 performances, if that play is not
by Edward Albee, or Tony Kushner,
or Theresa Rebeck.
So, the idea is to offer the new plays
and the playwrights who work
with the company, the opportunity
to use the big stage, if they want it,
and break the tyranny of the calendar.
Instead of doing 36 performances, we do 10
take it off, put it back in rehearsal.
A couple of weeks later, come back.
Do it again. Take it off. (applause)
It's really scary.
(laughter)
Because it's Dean here, it's really scary,
because you are taking the subscription
model and you are sort of twisting it,
but I think they'll come with us,
I think they will.
And you get to offer then, the writer,
all the resources that you have.
If they want to use that,
if they want to do any characters,
if they want the big stage,
then let them use it.
However, like Michael 
just said, it's, I think,
- and this is what I learned
over the past couple of days -
it's going to be incumbent to all of us
who try to lead the Alley Theater
to explain to the staff
a new way of working.
They come back to a new building
with a lot of things
that we couldn't do before,
but that's only there, in order
to facilitate this way of working
and making the new place much more
part of the company repertoire
the theater that I work in.
(Niegel) I've just been 4 weeks on the job
so everything feels like a change
(laughter)
but I came into a culture where the staff
really just want me to go into my office
and come out with ideas
and things for them to do.
My directing training is very much
about having a very clear vision
in galvanizing those folks' stories,
but yesterday I was
in Leadership for 2042.
And I realized that I was missing
an opportunity
to have a deeper engagement
with some of my staff members.
I have an audience engagement person,
Ellen, who is phenomenal,
and she is a dramaturg,
and she is trained as a dramaturg,
and soon as I heard that I started
throwing plays over to her,
and get her feedback,
but I now know, that actually,
I need to go back
and more deeply investigate
every one on the staff,
and make sure we are all have ownership
over the seasons that are being planned.
Can I just jump on that,
because it's really, what you said,
it's a clear way of saying
of what was bungled in my thinking.
I used to think that the definition
of a director was watching real people
fuck up your dreams,
(laughter)
then I learned a different kind
of thinking about it,
from Brook, in his book, in which he says,
a director is a guided knight
that doesn't not know the way."
But so many people
are depending on guidance
that they look towards that.
But it can't go without saying
in this centenary year of Orson Wells,
his definition of a director, which is
"a person who presides over accidents."
(laughter)
You helped me my friend.
- (Jim) Laura?
- (Laura) Yes, thank you.
I appreciate your question, very much.
My book is full of commitments
but I feel before I can answer to that
to say that these past three days
have made me think
in profoundly different ways,
so, what I can say right now
is that I am committing
to investigating and acquiring
how I can continue to understand
to do the mission of our theater.
(Jim) Folks, that was one long question,
but they are telling me
that our time is up.
I want to thank these artistic directors
for a wonderful conversation.
(applause)
Shall we exit?
Before we leave-- you all can go.
(laughter)
Thank you.
You can go. Oh, wait. You were 
going to say something about DC?
(Jim) I'm sorry, I was supposed
to ask Michael Kahn
one extra question that I forgot,
which is to talk about next year in DC.
So, I'll leave the stage.
(Michael) So, I'm not going anywhere.
(laughter)
So, I didn't answer his first question
because he surprised me.
But actually, this is a thing about DC.
When I got there, 100 years ago,
there were five theaters,
two were about to close, and over
the years, through a lot of work,
and connection with the community,
and all kinds of really innovative ideas
about what to do and how to do it,
and with who, there are now,
60 theaters in Washington, DC.
(applause)
And one of the really interesting 
things is that in many ways,
those theaters collaborate with each other
and although you won't be there,
but next fall in September, in October,
every theater in Washington, DC,
is going to premiere, for their first
or second play of the season
a new play by a woman playwright.
(applause)
So, that also means
that you are going to get
50 new plays on your desk,
next year, of dramaturgs,
but I'm very pleased to announce
that next year's TCG's Conference
will be in Washington, DC.
(applause)
And one more thing:
a lot of those 50 theaters
will be having plays, and we hope
you'll come to see them.
(applause)
(Teresa) Thank you Michael.
We're so excited about that.
So, before we leave, we have
one more visionary game changer to honor
- (Teresa) Hello!
- (man) Hello!
(laughter)
- (Teresa)Can you move over a seat or two?
- (man) Sure, honey.
(laughter)
Is this OK?
(applause)
Set our stage, please.
When [Peter Zizler and Linda Zash]
looked to hire an editor
for TCG's newsletter, in 1982,
they may not have realized
that they were bringing on someone
who would transform
the story of our field forever.
You see, there hadn't been
a general circulation magazine
covering the theater field in decades.
And so, in 1984,
American Theatre was born.
Under Jim's leadership as Editor-in-Chief,
American Theatre has published
thousands of articles
and over 150 full-length plays.
He has transformed
that little theater newsletter
into an award-winning Champion of Theater
and Arts Journalism,
with the print readership of over
50,000 and a new online version
garnering over 100,000 page views a month.
Many leaders in the field have spoken
movingly about the first time
they were featured in American Theatre,
and under Jim's restless commitment
to truly reflecting our diverse field,
the magazine has helped to launch careers
by championing emerging artists
and young companies.
He also made sure to honor the voices
of our veteran leaders and artists,
in a culture obsessed
with the new, hot thing.
Well, he may be retiring
from running the magazine;
we won't let him escape completely,
he'll continue to write for AT.
If theater holds the mirror up to nature,
Jim's American Theatre has given us
our own reflection, showing us
a diverse and evolving field,
made whole by our differences.
Jim, words are not enough to properly
thank a man of such eloquence.
So, we are going to turn to music
from a fellow lover of New Orleans,
Lisa [unclear]
(Lisa) Oh, stop it.
(applause)
(Lisa) You know the end is near,
when they invite out
the consultant with a banjo.
(laughter)
Hey Jim, you are kind of a saint.
And this is a sing along you all,
you'll get the chorus fairly quickly,
it's not hard.
(banjo music)
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ Oh Lord I want
to be in that number ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ He's tried to be
completely fair ♪
♪ That must be why
he lost his hair ♪
♪ Oh Lord, I'm gonna emulate
that number ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ Oh, who will know
where the commas go ♪
♪ Or [unclear]
leaping on the floor ♪
♪ We will love all the dogs
in that number ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
Sing the chorus with me!
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ Oh Lord I want
to be in that number ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ He's been around
since who knows when ♪
♪ Outlasting Peter,
John and Ben ♪
♪ But Teresa is still
in that number ♪
♪ And Terry Nemeth
and Emilia too ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
(audience) ♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
♪ Oh Lord I want
to be in that number ♪
♪ When Jim O'Quinn
goes marching out ♪
(applause)
(Jim) Thanks.
(applause) (cheers)
(Lisa) Thank you very much.
(applause)
(Jim) She's amazing.
(applause)
(Jim) I knew you were going to do that.
(Lisa) Mr. O'Quinn if you want
to rebut these statements,
you would be welcome.
(Teresa) You want to say a few words.
(applause)
(Jim) Oh, sit down!
You know, when we had
the 25th Anniversary party
of the American Theatre magazine
the TCG staff surprised me with a present,
and they didn't tell me 
what it was until the event itself,
and the present was Taylor Mac.
(laughter)
So I have my own drag queen for a day.
(laughter)
It was amazing. Can you beat that?
But, this is lovely, thank you very much.
And I appreciate it all,
and the magazine is in great hands,
and absolutely delighted
that Rob Kent has become my successor.
And we'll be working together
on the September and October issues,
and some great things are in store,
and so, thank you all for that ovation.
(applause)
(Teresa) We have a tradition at TCG
of giving outgoing Board members
a copy of the American Theatre magazine
cover with their picture on it,
and so, what we have for you Jim,
is your own American Theatre cover.
(laughter)
(Jim) But look, I'm wearing
Sam Shepard's hat, alright?
(laughter)
(Teresa) And this is
a brilliant photoshopped version
of the very first issue
of the American Theatre
with Sam Shepard on the cover.
Thank you Kitty Suen
for making that happen,
(Jim) The fabulous Kitty Suen.
Thank you guys.
(indistinct conversation)
(applause)
(Teresa) So, it's time to say goodbye.
We've come to the end
of our three plus days together.
We've danced with Pink Elephants,
and dined with Donuts Trucks,
we've laughed with Baratunde,
and cried with Dave,
we've taken selfies with chandeliers,
and played pretend beer pong
on our parking decks,
and we've had so much fun
that the Cleveland Host Committee
has found a real estate company
to house all the conference attendees
who plan to move to Cleveland now.
(cheers)
But before we go back to our desks,
and our overflowing inboxes,
I want to acknowledge something
we heard over and over again:
stories matter.
The stories we tell matter
and how we tell them matter,
and who gets to tell them matters.
Not in some abstract, theoretical way,
but in how we live together,
and the truths we dare to tell.
And maybe they matter even more
in theater, because of the way
we tell stories is through human beings,
human bodies, alive, together,
in the same place and time.
And just as we know that the consequences
of our cultural stories
of hate and exclusion have been 
inflicted upon human bodies,
so we must believe
that the healing we need,
the liberation we long for,
the justice for which we fight,
must be brought about by stories
of love and inclusion,
told by human bodies, alive, together,
in the same place and time.
And this matters even more now,
because of so many acts of hate,
such as what happened 
this week in Charleston.
Our time together now ends,
but the work continues.
Let's please keep in touch with each other
and hold each other accountable
for the promises we've made here.
And let's be allies for one another,
and lift each other up
when we call out for help.
And, mark your calendars now
to join us in 2016
with Michael Kahn, and everyone,
in Washington, DC.
And thank you.
We'll see you across 
the street, for a party.
(applause)
♪ (gentle music) ♪
