Theatre Communications Group presents the 2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh livestreaming on the commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network from Thursday 16 June to Saturday 18 June 2022.
From 15-18 June 2022, as we enter our seventh decade of serving the theatre field, TCG will join with theatre-makers in Pittsburgh—a city that TCG also claims as its first home—to host our first hybrid National Conference, embracing the duality of both in-person and virtual programming. Whether you join us on the ground or online, you’ll be part of a single conference community on distinct but converging paths of content: the virtual experience from 15-16 June, and the in-person experience from 16-18 June in Pittsburgh.
Thursday 16 June
Making Home: Contemporary & Devised Performance in Pittsburgh
2 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 4 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 5 p.m. – 6:15 p.m. EDT (Pittsburgh, UTC -4)
This session gathers Pittsburgh based theater artists Lyam B. Gabel and Adil Mansoor for a conversation about the intersections of their work, the infrastructures of performance-making in Pittsburgh, and how their work radically creates space for diverse expressions of self. Moderated by Chanel Blanchett, Programming Manager at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, the discussion will introduce attendees to the work of these artists and illuminate processes and strategies for local and regional performance artists to make work both in the Steel City and on the road.
Friday 17 June
THIS IS NOT A DRILL: Climate Just Futures
6:30 a.m. – 7:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EDT (Pittsburgh, UTC -4)
Groundwater Arts co-founders Annalisa Dias and Tara Moses and No Dream Deferred NOLA’s founding Artistic Director Lauren Turner will lead a discussion to connect the dots between the climate crisis and movements for racial justice.
Together We Rise: Dream Session for a Queer American Theatre
7:45 a.m. PDT – 9:15 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. EDT (Pittsburgh, UTC -4)
Transgender people, their healthcare needs, and very existences are under attack in America today. As of the writing of this description, over 240 new bills are being proposed in several dozen states which will strip the rights of trans gender and gender non-conforming people around the country. Some have already passed. Our voices, our stories, our very lives are being erased.
The theatre has been and always will be a theatron, or “seeing place”—a holy temple where people gather in community to see their hopes, dream, fears and desires reflected back to them through the ritual of live performance. This exchange of ideas, affirmation, and visibility is essential to human survival, for it instantly mitigates humanity’s greatest fear: that we are alone.
The theatre needs trans stories now more than ever, and we must dream a future where TGNC writers are identified, invested in, cared for, and sustained by our nation’s stages.
Join New Visions Fellowship Lead Mentor Roger Q. Mason, Mellon Foundation’s Rattlestick Theatre Playwright-in-Residence Basil Kreimendahl, and a handful of playwrights and literary managers as we dream about the future of queer theatre in America. Part discussion, part community dream tank, the goal of this session is to celebrate the present fervor surrounding LGBTQIA+ writing on our country’s stages, identify places where we need to grow, and formulate an actionable plan to sustain relationships that help queer writers develop and produce plays on their creative terms.
Special Session: The Meaning of Juneteenth and August Wilson’s 100-year Journey to Freedom
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EDT (Pittsburgh, UTC -4)
With Juneteenth days away during the first year in which it’s been recognized as a national holiday, this panel of educators and theatre artists—including some from the cast and creative team of Pittsburgh Public Theatre‘s current show Two Trains Running—will explore the significance of Juneteenth as such a holiday and how August Wilson’s Century Cycle reveals the long, complex struggle of Black people to gain freedom in America. Panelists will also offer their experiences and perspectives on the function of theater in liberation movements, and open up to the room for questions and ideas.
Saturday 18 June
American Theatre Offscript Podcast Live
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. EDT (Pittsburgh, UTC -4)
Join the audience for a live edition of American Theatre’s Offscript podcast, where the editors will talk to longtime local arts journalist Sharon Eberson about the Pittsburgh theatre scene, and be joined by two of its distinguished leaders: Monteze Freeland, co-artistic director of City Theatre, and Karla Boos, artistic director of Quantum Theatre.
