What is Community in Conversation?
To continue the work of recalibration, we present to you Community in Conversation, our effort to break the silos of the audience, the artists, and the space, by engaging in prefigurative conversations with the old and new generations of our diverse artistic community. We aim to focus on the future of the performance space and how we hope to transform it. We hope to capture the socio-political landscape of our industry and take advantage of the global online community. We will elevate our relationships as we’ve learned they are not often on the same plane as the product. We will talk “with” our community, rather than “at” our community, as we are all learning.
Our episodes will include topics such as the future of the theater industry, the existential question of why we do theater, anti-racism and solidarity among BIPOC communities, dismantling anti-blackness in diversity conversations, theatre with a political agenda, & theatre as community care, the happiness and well-being of the artists, creation methods that challenge capitalistic structures, and many more.
Chick Fight Talkback
Join us for our virtual talkback of Chick Fight, hosted by Melory Mirashrafi, with Sara Jean Accuardi (Playwright), Samantha Van Der Merwe (Director), Rebby Yuer Foster (Actor), and Kayla Hanson (Actor). In this talkback, the creative team of Chick Fight discusses how we make monsters of women and then shame them for being the monsters they’ve become, examining the knife edge some women have to walk between glorification and villainization.
Family Talkback
Join us for our virtual talkback of Family by Celine Song! In this episode we talk with the cast of Family & ask them questions about their experience coming back to the theatre during the pandemic, the importance of the play as bi-racial actors, & how this play comments on violence & injustice against BIPOC women. Family runs through November 20th, 2021.
Episode 3
In Episode 3, we daydream about the future of theatre with Claire Aldridge & Ken Yoshikawa, two artists local to Portland, Oregon. We discuss how performance art & theatre have adapted & evolved over the pandemic, what we’re looking forward to creating as we move forward, and how we can more intentionally build community with our work.
Episode 2
In this episode we are joined by Abigail C. Onwunali & Ashley M. Thomas to discuss antiracism in the theatre industry, anti-Blackness, code-switching, solidarity, & dismantling the foundation of supremacy that is embedded in theater and performance.
Episode 1
In our first episode of Community in Conversation, we discuss “how do we return to the theatre?” Focusing on what we’d like to keep from pre-pandemic theatre, and what we’d like to get rid of. We discuss the artist’s requests, and the toxicity we’ve faced in pre-pandemic theatre.
