The Aurora Theatre Company presented WELCOME TO OUR SPACE? A Town Hall on Audience Interactions
livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 2 March 2020 at 7 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC-8) / 9 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC-6) / 10 p.m. EST (New York, UTC-5).
Aurora Theatre Company in partnership with Shotgun Players, Theatre Bay Area, Z Space, and Calling Up Justice produced a town hall-style conversation on how theaters and theatergoers can create a more welcoming and inclusive theatre-going culture in the Bay Area. Panelists Claudia Alick, Leigh Rondon-Davis, and Sean San José discussed the ways in which both organizations and patrons contribute to the performance around the performance.
In collaboration with Howlround they facilitated a conversation with a live audience and remote audience via live streaming. The discussed questions like: How and why are some theatergoers made to feel unwelcome in theatre lobbies and even in their seats? Why are these moments of ableism, racism, gender discrimination, or age discrimination so common? What is a microaggression? Do microaggressions really happen in liberal Berkeley? (Spoiler alert: Yes, they do!) How can we all work together to help decrease the incidence of oppressive behaviors that take place in public spaces? The conversation serves the ongoing culture shift, and positive change in Bay Area theatre.
Panelists
Claudia Alick (she/her/they) is a performer, producer, and inclusion expert. Named by American Theater Magazine as one of 25 theater artists who will shape American Theater in the next 25 years, Alick has served as the founding Artistic Director of Smokin’ Word Productions, is a NY Neofuturist alum, published playwright, recipient of NYC Fresh Fruit directing award, TedXFargo speaker, the Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists, featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and former Community Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is currently the executive producer of the transmedia social justice company CALLING UP.
Sean San José (he/him) is happy to be part of a discussion dealing with creating open spaces and addressing the ever-present issues of “whyte” supremacy. San José is part of the group Campo Santo–a local, new performances company for people of color, which he has been part of since its inception in 1996. Campo Santo recently premiered Richard Montoya’s Translating Selena at Brava Cabaret in San Francisco, and will next premiere Star Finch’s new play, Side Effects, at African American Art and Culture Complex, also in San Francisco.
Leigh Rondon-Davis (they/them) is a performer, visual artist, and dramaturg from both New York City and the Bay Area. They attended Wellesley College and was a member of Oakland’s Laney College Fusion Theatre Project. Rondon-Davis’ stage credits include Crowded Fire Theater, Cutting Ball Theater, FaultLine Theater, Variance Festival, The Curran, and Magic Theatre, Shotgun Players, and Ubuntu Theater Project. They currently work for and is a Company Member at Ubuntu Theater Project in Oakland and Shotgun Players in Berkeley.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based peer produced, open access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and to develop our knowledge commons collectively. Participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected], or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal/WhatsApp. View the video archive of past events.