Today a white supremacist committed acts of terror at the Al Noor and Linwood Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. As our hearts break, we stand in solidarity with our Muslim colleagues against Islamophobia and all forms of oppression. In that spirit, we lift up a moment of witness from our 2017 TCG National Conference led by Malik Gilani of Silk Road Rising.
Last week, Laurie Baskin took a delegation of theatre leaders to Capitol Hill for Arts Advocacy Day. You can read some of the highlights of their trip here and learn about key arts advocacy issues here. These delegations are always magical! After John O’Neal’s passing, Laurie shared a memory of a visit to Capitol Hill with him back in 2009. They journeyed to Representative John Lewis’s office, where the two Civil Rights icons shared stories of working together as part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
With both the resident theatre and Civil Rights movements gaining critical momentum in the 1960s, there are powerful resonances in the March issue of American Theatre, “The State of Black Theatre in the U.S.” While no single issue could render its full scope, the authors and editors have done great work in service of the complexity and vitality of Black theatre.
This week has marked a slew of important announcements from TCG:
The 13th round of Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships have been announced;
We’ve shared some details on how the 2019 TCG National Conference in Miami is taking shape (and a gentle reminder about the early bird deadline); and
12,000 Voices invites hosts to present a reading of “12 Angry Men” performed by 12 Impassioned Women as part of a National Voter Registration Initiative taking place April 5-8.
Finally, I wanted to offer a note of congratulations to Robert Barry Fleming and Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) on their naming of Fleming as incoming artistic director. ATL is a place of pilgrimage for so many of us who love new plays, and I’m excited to watch where Fleming and our friend and former TCG Managing Director, Kevin E. Moore, will take us.