African American Theatre And American Theater - amazonia.fiocruz.br

For more on the current call for increased arts funding, see this story. In fact, when Reiner was later working as executive director of Tectonic Theater Project, it was the FTP that served as an inspiration for The Laramie Project: 10 Years Laterwhich took the idea of opening the same show in multiple cities on the same night and expanded it to cover theatres across the country. FTP put thousands of artists back to work over the course of its four years of existence, from to Tbeatre abrupt end on June 30,when it was Africxn by the U.

Congress, in part amid accusations of political bias that would metastasize into the Red Scare. While the economy in general teeters in an a precarious African American Theatre And American Theater, arts workers are, as The New York Times put it, in a full-blown Great Cultural Depression. Theatremakers desperately need to get back to work.

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But they are also driven by their pursuit of new models outside business as usual; this moment of crisis, they feel, is an opportunity to change the conversation about the arts and its workers. Clarity on how these two urgent impulses—relief now, structural changes for the long term—intersect and support each other is crucial if advocates are to present a unified front and plan of action. FTP also long predated the NEA, established innot to mention the legal framework that allowed theatres to be classified as tax-exempt, charitable c 3 nonprofits. A rallying cry.

A drum for theatre artists across the country to beat. All this is positive. But behind every rally are goals that are being rallied toward. What would something like a new Federal Theatre Project actually look like? How would it work?

SUNDAY, Feb. 7

As Reiner pointed out, recommendations will vary, though every person I spoke to echoed a similar aim: All would like to see a reinvigoration and rededication of theatres to the local communities they serve. After African American Theatre And American Theater, there are major regional theatres in every state give or take. So obviously, a new FTP would just send them money to pay theatremakers to get back to work, right? These take the form of prohibitive ticket prices, inaccessible locations, and even just the lack of a true connection between some theatres and their communities. With local artists offering workshops, performances, and other services in cultural centers and community settings, hundreds of local artists were employed.

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The program went on to inspire many similar models across the country and would later receive funds from CETA, which was signed into law in with the intention of training workers and putting them to work in public service. The beauty in the government supporting this kind of local, community-based work is that it has the potential to break theatres out of a troublesome funding model that necessitates they work to find and keep the support of wealthy individuals to survive. I believe many of our regional theatres want to do this but are trapped. What could they do to actually meet their cities?

Clapp noted one concern worth acknowledging—that if the federal budget for the arts were to increase significantly, it could become a political target when lawmakers search for budget cuts. But, she said, the benefits of such funding would easily outweigh that risk.

Clapp has her own ideas for how theatres could use more robust funding to recenter their work on local communities. Clapp recalled a grant proposal that would have had five pandemic-shuttered theatres in Chicago engage with a theatre artist, be that a director, actor, or playwright.

THURSDAY, Feb. 11

That artist would then be asked to engage with three other artists from any discipline to work collaboratively on a project that speaks to and addresses the current moment. The idea was to Americsn works that were in dialogue with the events going on in Chicago, created and performed by local Chicago artists, and during a time of scarce work for all artists. In the end, the League did not receive the grant. Looking back, Clapp admits that it would have been a heavy organizational lift for their limited staff. For her, as for many, there are long-term foundational benefits to significant dedicated funds from the federal government.]