Higher Education Pre-Conference
Empowering the Future of the Field: Changing Landscapes in Higher Education
in partnership with MDC Live Arts
300 NE 2nd Ave
On Tuesday, June 4, 2019, TCG invites you to join us as we bring together higher education faculty, students, administrators, and theatre professionals from across the country to explore themes around changing landscapes in higher education. The format of the day will be experiential and interactive, with opportunities to have cross-pollinating conversation on three main focus areas: 1) Economics of Higher Education; 2) Community, Collaboration, and Partnerships -- both within and outside the field, in the U.S. and abroad; and 3) Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education. This pre-conference will celebrate the diversity of training models in higher education, and aims to foster connection and community across the field.
What are the ways in which landscapes are shifting in both higher education and the professional field, and how do we help prepare students for, and empower them to help catalyze, that change?
Economics of Higher Education
How do we address the financial burden students carry as they transition out of training programs, and the systemic problem of low-income entry points to work in the professional field? How can we challenge old systems and help create new pathways into the field? In light of insufficient funding, how can we support the creation of new work? In the face of budget cuts, how can theatre programs partner with other disciplines?
Community, Collaboration, and Partnerships
As the field is rapidly changing, higher education programs are on the front lines developing and sustaining partnerships and alliances with the aim of furthering the art form and training of students. What are some of the partnerships and alliances we should be forming both inside and outside the field? How can we move our practice and field forward through international collaborations? What are the ways in which we can have a stronger alliance with professional theatres? How are folks in higher education engaging in cross-disciplinary work, and how might professional theatres advance in this area?
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
How can we connect and mutually support the EDI conversations happening in higher education and the field? What are the ways in which higher education and the field are changing? As the entry point to the ecosystem of the theatre field, what are our responsibilities for creating safe and inclusive spaces within training programs? How do we talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and socio-economics in this work? How do we tune in to how our work affects people, while also supporting risk-taking and the creation of work that is challenging and provocative?
A detailed Higher Education Pre-Conference agenda will be coming soon.
Registration for the Higher Education Pre-Conference may be selected as part of the National Conference registration here. If you would like to attend the Pre-Conference, but cannot attend the Conference proper, please register here.