John O’Neal and his family needs our support. Whether you know his work as a playwright and organizer, or through his founding work with the Free Southern Theater and Junebug Productions, you know his contributions to our field are without measure.That’s why, at our 2016 National Conference, we presented him with our Visionary Leadership Award. If you can, please contribute to his GoFundMe to provide trained and supportive health care assistance as he fights the serious health challenge of dementia. Thank you for whatever support you can give.
Earlier this week, we announced the latest round of Global Connections recipients. These projects are a potent reminder of theatre’s power to humanize, particularly across borders. Global Connections has now supported 108 artists and companies in 39 U.S. states to collaborate with their colleagues in 53 different countries on six out of seven continents (though Antarctica may remain elusive).
Also on the inspiration front, many of you know Gus Schulenburg, who has been on staff at TCG for many years. Gus' work has touched so many in our field, through communications and community engagement work, through the EDI Institute, and through so many one-on-one connections providing knowledge and insight on pressing issues in the theatre field. At our Fall Forum on Governance, we were deeply moved, inspired, and proud when Gus came out as a trans woman and shared her reasons why it felt urgent to come out now. Here is the text of her remarks.
As she also mentioned in her Fall Forum remarks, we’re beta-testing the new TCG Circle and I wanted to feature one of the newest communities to launch. Created and co-led by Kelvin Dinkins, Jr., ORG | 360 will shares holistic approaches to redefining organizational culture through the lens of anti-racist practices, equity, diversity, and inclusion. If you’re interested in joining this community or proposing one of your own, please email Gus. The new Circle is easy as a listserv but with robust resource sharing for those who want more, so please join us in the early stages to help shape this new tool for the field.
Many of you are rightly concerned about the impact of the new requirement for not-for-profits to pay Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) equal to 21% of the value of commuting and parking benefits provided to employees. The new requirements officially took effect beginning on January 1, 2018 without any guidance from the IRS until earlier this week. More information about the newly released guidance from the IRS can be found here. I encourage you to join our Performing Arts Alliance action to push back against this costly new tax.
#IRS#EmergencyFunding#InternationalExchange#LGBTQ