THRIVE! Learning Labs

Beginning October 2025

Join us for one session or the full series. Each Learning Lab offers tools and insights for BITOC theatre leaders.

THRIVE! Learning Labs are a series of virtual workshops and sessions curated for all U.S.-based Black, Indigenous, and Theatres of Color (BITOC) as part of TCG’s THRIVE! Initiative. These 75-90-minute sessions will focus on sharing knowledge and generating discussions on a variety of topics related to theatermakers working at BITOCs and BIPOC theatre organizations. Aimed at meeting the current needs and interests of BITOCs, session topics include budgeting, organizational safety and privacy, funding, sustainability and discussing field data as it relates to TCG’s THRIVE! Study. THRIVE! Learning Labs will provide a space for collective learning and discussion to work towards a sustainable future for BITOCs.

Schedule of Sessions

Digital Defense: Protecting Art and Artists in an Online World

Date/Time: Tuesday, October 7, 2025 · 3:00–4:30pm ET
Speaker: Thea Rodgers, HowlRound

Join us for specific tools and strategies to protect your communities online, opt out of surveillance, and decolonize the internet. We'll look at tech services that your team can use to protect artists' identities, as well as the ethos and practice of maintaining a privacy mentality. Big tech has built its empire on collecting our data and selling it to the highest bidder—whether that bidder is an advertiser or a government—and it's time we take our data back. A better internet is possible. We just have to choose it.

Scenario Planning for Theatre Leaders

Date/Time: Thursday, October 9, 2025 · 3:00–4:30pm ET
Speakers: Justine Townsend, YPTC · Jyoti Iyer, YPTC

In an ever-changing environment, nonprofit arts leaders must anticipate challenges and seize opportunities to ensure their organizations remain resilient and mission-focused. In this session, we will explore practical scenario planning and revenue diversification strategies that support financial sustainability.

Learning Objectives:

Illustrate and define strategies for building scenario plans that can help your nonprofit continue to focus on its mission.
Introduce revenue diversification solutions that support financial sustainability.
Review best practices and questions to ask during the scenario planning process.

Making Meaning: Creating Mutual Understanding Between Grantmakers & BITOC Theatre Leaders

Date/Time: Tuesday, October 14, 2025 · 3:00–4:30pm ET
Speaker: Emilya Cachapero, TCG

This session will provide BITOC theatre leaders and grantmakers the opportunity to be in dialogue with one another to candidly discuss the current state of funding and grantmaking in the theatre field. Through smaller breakout room conversations, we will touch on knowledge and idea-sharing as well as deepening collaborative relationships between grantmakers and theatres. Topics touched on will include changes and shifts in current arts funding and grantmaking practices, gaps in funding areas, and new ideas on ways to approach funding/producing theatre that meet this current moment. Due to the nature of this session prioritizing small group conversation, there will be a limited number of spots available to attend. Because of this, we ask that you only sign up for this session if you know you will be able to attend.

Budgeting for Artistic Priorities

Date/Time: Thursday, October 16, 2025 · 3:00–4:30pm ET
Speakers: Justine Townsend, YPTC · Molly Yoon, YPTC

Aligning financial planning with artistic vision is often a challenge for theatre companies; especially in this ever-changing environment, leaders must remain resilient and mission focused. This session will explore strategies for budgeting that support artistic excellence while ensuring long-term financial sustainability. We will illustrate and define strategies for building budgets that support your artistic priorities, examine funding trends and industry benchmarks, and discuss how these factors impact financial decision-making.

Learning Objectives:

Identify and examine funding trends and industry benchmarks.
Provide an overview of the best practices in nonprofit theater organizations.
Explore strategies for balancing artistic priorities with audience demand to achieve both mission and long-term financial sustainability.
Share best practices and the importance of evaluating financial and artistic outcomes.

Counting What Counts: Co-Creating Data Frameworks for Theatres of Color

Date/Time: Tuesday, October 21, 2025 · 3:00–4:15pm ET
Speakers: Martha Steketee, Dramaturg, critic, researcher and author of Women Count report series, Pun Bandhu, AAPAC, Rachael Hip-Flores, TCG and Raksak Kongseng, TCG

Theatres of color across the US hold vital stories, practices, and leadership, yet too often lack visibility in sector-wide data. In 2022, TCG gathered survey responses from theatres of color to begin addressing this gap. Before finalizing our upcoming report, we want to pause and listen: What framing, definitions, and approaches to analysis will make this aggregated data most useful for the field — and for theatres of color themselves?

This session begins with context from Counting Together on why aggregated data on theatres of color is so critical where sector data has been sparse. The TCG Research team will then share preliminary findings from the survey. The heart of the session will be an open conversation where participants can help shape how the data is disaggregated and reported — for example, what budget and regional cutoffs make sense, and how to balance specificity (such as breaking down by race/ethnicity) with statistical reliability.

Facilitator Bios

Justine Townsend
Justine Townsend is a lover of the arts and has worked with many arts organizations, she leads YPTC’s Arts & Culture Specialization. She is also an adjunct professor of Financial Management of the Arts for the University of Houston’s Master of Arts Leadership program. She has served in financial leadership roles and as an auditor for nonprofits for over 18 years. Justine uses her in-depth knowledge of nonprofit financial management and passion for service to the arts, to achieve her life’s work of saving all the arts, everywhere, forever, through sound financial management.

Jyoti Iyer
With over 18 years of experience in corporate and nonprofit accounting, Jyoti Iyer is passionate about helping mission-driven organizations thrive through strong financial stewardship and aligning financial operations with strategic goals. Jyoti graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business with a membership in the Honors College. Known for integrity and building relationships, Jyoti is committed to supporting nonprofits with transparent, accountable, and sustainable financial practices. Currently, she serves as an Associate in the Houston office and on the Arts & Culture Specialization team.

Molly Yoon
Molly Yoon holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Troy State University. With over 10 years of experience in accounting, she began her career in public accounting, gaining exposure to industries such as retail, oil and gas, real estate, and more. Currently, she serves as an Associate in the Houston office and is the Performing Arts Lead of YPTC's Arts & Culture Specialization.

Thea Rodgers
Thea Rodgers (she/her) is a writer, actor, space nerd, and HowlRound TV Producer. She grew up in the Bay Area through the tech boom-and-bust of the early 2000s and, before joining the team at HowlRound, worked as tech support at her college's IT Desk. These experiences gave her a superficial interest in how technology works and a deep, deep interest in the ways it's used to shape and change society—some ways that feel beautiful and exciting, and other ways that are driven by an insatiable desire for profit. Thea is a proud union member of the WGA-West. She is not a coder, programmer, hacker, or console cowboy. She's just a girl, standing in front of her computer, asking it to stop trying to sell her something and help her build a better future.