Global Offerings

 

 

Overview  Global Theater Initiative  International Theatre Institute

World Theatre Day  Global Offerings Resources

 

The Global Theatre Institute hosts and supports many global gatherings, festivals, conferences, conversations, collaborations, and experiences in solidarity with global communities working towards peace and equity. Our work seeks to connect people. Check this page often for updated events.

 

Convenings

ITI-U.S. has a long history of producing convenings to foster interconnectedness among theatre makers worldwide. Convenings included:

  • A Hyperlocal Meets Universal: Community-Fueled, Globally-Connected Theater in the City of Bridges session at the 2022 TCG Virtual Conference: Pittsburgh, PA in June 2022;
  • The Lab produced The Gathering in May 2022 on Georgetown’s campus in Washington DC, curating a full roster of in-person and virtual programming featuring world class artists who engaged with our Global Lab Fellows and students. The Global Lab Fellows were the centerpiece of the convening and led the 4-day festival through performances, panel discussions and workshops around themes of indigeneity, climate, racial and social justice;
  • The Americas meeting via Zoom in February 2022 to facilitate conversations among ITI centers throughout North, Central, and South Americas;
  • A Global Roundtable at the 2021 TCG Virtual Conference: Our Theatre Ecology;
  • A Global Roundtable at the 2020 TCG Virtual Conference - Re:Emergence;
  • A Long Table working session about Proud Performing Arts in collaboration with ITI-Sweden in January 2020, New York, NY;
  • A Cultural Exchange and International Producing: Ethics and Problem Solving session at the 2019 TCG National Conference: Miami, FL;
  • In 2019, The Lab inaugurated its CrossCurrents Festival and The Gathering in Washington DC, which welcomed 400 artists from 40 countries and included artists such as Wole Soyinka with work presented at the Kennedy Center and other leading DC theaters;
  • A Global Theatre Initiative: Collaboration and Exchange in Polarizing Times session at the TCG 2018 National Conference: St. Louis, MO;
  • A Global Pre-Conference: Beyond the Four Walls at the 2017 TCG National Conference: Full Circle, Portland, OR;
  • A World Theatre Map: Creating A Global Theatre Community session at the 2017 TCG National Conference: Full Circle, Portland, OR;
  • A Global Citizenship through Theatre: Winning a Fulbright Grant at the 2017 TCG National Conference: Full Circle, Portland, OR;
  • A Global Pre-Conference on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 in the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

 

Artistry

ITI-U.S. also has a history of artistic programming. Productions included:

  • The Lab has been awarded two grants by the National Endowment for the Arts for its innovative work on Here I Am, an original multimedia production developed at The Lab by Mélisande Short-Colomb, descendant of the GU272 — enslaved people who were sold by Georgetown University and the Maryland Jesuits to southern Louisiana in 1838. HERE I AM challenges participants to bear witness and to reckon with their histories, and to imagine the future of racial justice in America. The live, in-person version will premiere on the Georgetown campus in early 2023;
  • Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski: An original play about the legendary Georgetown Professor and Holocaust witness, starring Academy Award nominee, David Strathairn, and written by Derek Goldman and Clark Young. After celebrated runs in DC, Chicago, the play this season ran Off-Broadway at Theatre for A New Audience’s Polonsky Theatre, and at leading theaters in the U.S. and abroad.
  • The play also inspired the feature film Remember This that has received multiple awards at Woodstock Film Festival and will broadcast nationally on PBS Great Performances in Spring 2023. An ongoing course curriculum Bearing Witness: The Legacy of Jan Karski Today, which is being offered at Georgetown University.
  • In July of 2017, The Lab presented the play I Pledge Allegiance, devised and created by Lab Fellow Velani Dibba, Cristina Ibarra, Lab TrailBlazers Ben Lillian and Aly Panjwani (SFS ’19), and Lab Fellow Devika Ranjan, under the advisorship of Lab Executive and Artistic Director Derek Goldman of the ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts initiative in Segovia, Spain at the UNESCO International Theatre Festival and World Congress
  • Inspired by the 2016 Global Pre-Conference in Washington, DC, the Global Theater Initiative (GTI) is hosting an essay salon on the theme of the Pre-Conference, Finding Home: Migration, Exile, and Belonging. The following essays are curated by playwright and writing program chair at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ruth Margraff.  In addition to Margraff's essay curation, we will also be posting works from writers who submitted essay ideas in an open call to the theatre field.

 

Grantmaking

ITI-U.S. has a long history of developing and administering programs that speak directly to the needs of the field and that have far-reaching impact on individuals, theatre organizations and communities in the U.S. and abroad.

  • The Global Connections grant program was designed by TCG and funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The program encouraged reciprocity and cultural exchange throughout the world and concluded in 2020;
  • In January 2017, The Lab launched the inaugural cohort of our Global Lab Fellows Program that is fully funded by the Mellon Foundation. The residency program brought together 3 cohorts of path-breaking artists from around the world who were working at the intersection of performance and politics for 18 months each. We are looking ahead to expand the program past 2023.

 

Exchanges and Visits

ITI-U.S. has a robust history of regularly facilitating delegations of U.S. theatre practitioners to travel to other countries as well as global exchanges and visits. These travels played an integral role in strengthening theatre’s power and relevance as a universal art form and enhancing ITI-U.S.’s ability to unite theatre workers globally. Travels included:

  • NEAP Fest 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
  • Santiago a Mil International Theater Festival 2023 in Santiago, Chile;
  • ITI-Germany visit in 2022;
  • The WellBeing Summit 2022 in Bilbao, Spain;
  • The Global Lab Fellows in residency at LaMama Umbria, Italy in 2022;
  • ITI World Congress 2017 in Segovia, Spain;
  • Leadership (U)niversity grantees meeting with theatre leaders and artists in Cuba in 2018;
  • Santiago a Mil International Theater Festival 2017 in Santiago, Chile.

 

Publishing

ITI-U.S. brings new voices to public attention and cultivates individual relationships with artists that nurture their careers. Publishing work included:

  • TCG Books, as a publisher of new plays and emerging playwrights now representing over 1,600 titles, partners with the UK-based Drama Online and serves as the exclusive U.S. distributor for Playwrights Canada Press of Toronto and London publishers Nick Hern Books. TCG playwrights based outside of the U.S. during this period include Enda Walsh, Jez Butterworth, Lucy Kirkwood, Caryl Churchill, Conor McPherson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Peter Brook;
  • TCG’s American Theatre magazine (print and online) features a regular Global Spotlight column;
  • Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski: An original play about the legendary Georgetown Professor and Holocaust witness, written by Derek Goldman and Clark Young. Georgetown University Press released a special volume of the script that includes original written contributions by Secretary Madeleine Albright, Ambassador Samantha Power, Timothy Snyder, Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, among others.

 

Climate Actions

Climate change is inherently a global issue, which has been a central topic in our programming for many years. Activities included:

  • The Lab will be represented at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, November 8-10, 2022 by Caitlin Nasema Cassidy and Ashanee Kottage. We Hear You performances will be woven throughout the New York Times’ Climate Forward program to take place over the course of three days at the Park Regency Resort;
  • Climate action as a major programmatic focus of the 2022 TCG Virtual Conference: Pittsburgh, and the 2021 TCG Virtual Conference: Our Theatre Ecology;
  • The Lab continues to deepen its partnership with the Earth Commons at Georgetown University on creation of performance-based curriculum and artistic projects including We Hear You - A Climate Archive, a global performance project centering youth artist and activist voices in the climate justice movement, and Ferry Tales, in collaboration with The Kennedy Center’s RiverRun Festival;
  • TCG Climate Action Monthly Meetings have taken place virtually since September 2021. The Climate Action Community is an open community for all theatre people committed to climate action and environmental justice;
  • TCG Climate Action and Environmental Justice Summits (virtual) in April and December 2021;
  • A track of climate action programming and a climate artist-activist in residence at the 2019 TCG National Conference: Miami, FL.

 

Young Professionals

ITI-U.S. takes an active role in the development of early-career arts professionals:

  • ITI-U.S. provided financial support to bring young professionals to NEAP Fest 2023.
  • The ITI-U.S. team at TCG provided guidance for ITI’s Network of Emerging Arts Professionals (NEAP) and facilitating 12 planning meetings since March 2021;
  • ITI-U.S. highlighted a U.S. Emergent Artist Author in addition to a veteran U.S. Author on World Theatre Day 2022;
  • Georgetown has become a destination for students wanting this experience. Students can engage with the Lab through The Student Fellows Program, a student-led collaborative cohort supporting the creativity of students working at the intersection of politics and performance;
  • The Leadership U[niversity] grant program for early-career arts leaders was designed by TCG and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The 2016-18 grantees traveled to Cuba and met with fellow theatre practitioners and arts leaders;

 

Artists Rights

ITI-U.S. promoted artists’ rights worldwide by:

  • Ongoing advocacy for international artists with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), specifically regarding performing artist visas;
  • Continuing to issue peer consultation letters for international visa petitions;
  • Amplifying ways to support theatre-makers facing violence and oppression across the globe since 2020, e.g. Ukraine, Palestine, and Afghanistan;
  • Uplifting ways to support theatre-makers facing disasters across the globe since 2020, e.g. Haiti and Lebanon;
  • Co-hosting an online webinar on U.S. Artist Visas and International Travel in the Age of COVID in September 2021;
  • Participating in ITI Action Committee For Artists Rights (ACAR) meetings in April 2021.