The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK, sponsored by the Dramatists Guild Foundation

In our final episode of Season 3 Christine sits down with celebrated director Leigh Silverman about her ongoing commitment to form teams that have intersectional inclusion. Leigh shares candidly both her own efforts to create parity on her teams, and her personal learning curve.Leigh will be a part of New York City’s Vineyard Theater 2021/2022 season. Visit (vineyardtheatre.org)TALKBACK is a production of the Dramatists Guild of America. It’s produced by Amy VonMacek, Sarah Storm, and me, Christine Toy Johnson. Robare Delaney Pruyn mixes our show. Our theme music is by Andrea Daley. The Dramatist Guild Presents: TALKBACK is distributed by The Broadway Podcast Network. This is our final episode for the season, but we’ll be back next fall. Who should we speak to next? What topics should we cover? Let us know by using hashtag #DGTALKBACK and as always to be continued. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Christine talks to Teresa Coleman Wash, Executive Artistic Director of Bishop Arts Theater Center in Dallas, Texas. We discuss the ways individualism and collectivism can go hand in hand in creating true community collaboration, using examples from Bishop Arts Theater Center’s programming and efforts during the pandemic. Teresa Coleman Wash is a producer, playwright, and founding artistic director for the Bishop Arts Theatre Center (BATC). Under her leadership, the theatre earned Theater Communications Group coveted Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, 13 Irma P. Hall Awards, approximately $4M in philanthropic support, and the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs’ prestigious Stanford Award for demonstrating exemplary fiscal management. She is a National Arts Strategies fellow having studied at Harvard Business School and holds an MA in Arts Management from Goucher College. She is the recent recipient of the Irma P. Hall Theatrical Excellence award, an Obelisk Award for Visionary Arts Leadership, and the National Guild for Community Arts Education Milestone Award. Her plays have been seen in New York, Atlanta, Washington, D. C., Detroit, Los Angeles, and Chicago.Bishop Arts Theatre Center (BATC) is an award-winning, multicultural, multidisciplinary arts institution with IRC 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt status. We are the recipients of the Dallas Business Journal inaugural 2021 Leaders In Diversity Award. Founded in September of 1993, our mission is to cultivate a diverse and vibrant arts community committed to social impact, while creating opportunities for local and emerging artists to develop new, contemporary, and lasting works that celebrate the diversity and resiliency of our community. We offer a full season of theater performances, jazz concerts, a speaker series, and year-round arts education programs. We are a cultural oasis for the next generation of acclaimed writers, directors, performers, and arts administrators. Governed by ten board members, we impact over 30,000 artists, art enthusiasts, and children each year via virtual and in-person seasonal performances and arts education programs.See the trailer for Profile Theater's audio production of Mlima's Tale https://profiletheatre.org/members-only/mlimas-tale-archive/TALKBACK is a production of the Dramatists Guild. It’s produced by Amy VonMacek, Sarah Storm, and me, Christine Toy Johnson and mixed by Robare Delaney Pruyn. Our theme music is by Andrea Daley. Our guest producers for this episode are Michael Lew and Shellen Lubin. The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK is distributed by The Broadway Podcast Network. Join the conversation online use hashtag #DGTALKBACK and as always to be continued. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the pandemic left so many things unsure this year, one thing was clear: connecting communities from across the world is easier than ever. In this episode, we’ll hear from artistic leaders from two theater companies that approach centering artists with disabilities in different ways. Christine speaks with Nicholas Viselli from Theater Breaking Through Barriers, a company that has been doing work centering artists with disabilities since 1979 and Sarah Hom and Anna Morton from the Roundabout Theatre Company, a company who has been working hard this year to expand their programming to be more intentionally inclusive.TALKBACK is a production of the Dramatists Guild of America. It’s produced by Amy VonMacek, Sarah Storm, Christine Toy Johnson and mixed by Robare Delaney Pruyn. Our theme music is by Andrea Daley. Our guest producer for this episode was Anita Hollander. The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK is distributed by The Broadway Podcast Network. Join the conversation online use hashtag #DGTALKBACK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christine welcomes playwrights Saviana Stanescu, Caridad Svich and recently former Artistic Director of the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe Daniel Gallant (Gallant was still the current Artistic Director at the time of this recording) to chat about ways they have helped amplify the work of immigrant artists. Self identifying "artivist" Saviana created "Liberties Daughters" a monologue series for immigrant women hosted by Nuyorican Poet's Cafe and Caridad created No Passport an unincorporated, artist-driven, grass-roots theatre alliance & press devoted to cross-cultural, Pan-American performance, theory, action, advocacy, and publication.Each discuss how the pandemic taught them to be creative in producing work online and how it lifted borders and led to new audiences.TALKBACK is a production of the Dramatists Guild. It’s produced by Amy VonMacek, Sarah Storm, and Christine Toy Johnson and mixed by Robare Delaney Pruyn. Our theme music is by Andrea Daley.The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK is distributed by The Broadway Podcast Network. Join the conversation online use hashtag #DGTALKBACK and as always to be continued. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we talk about the Dramatists Guild’s new Inclusion rider and the initiatives surrounding it. At the time of this recording the rider had not been released. We're happy to report that we've released the rider and you can get a copy here: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/inclusionThis rider is the first of its kind to come out of the theatre industry. Our goal is to empower and encourage playwrights to advocate for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Anti-racism in our own works while collaborating with our producing partners towards these shared goals. Our guests are playwrights and DG Council members Ty Defoe and Chisa Hutchinson.TALKBACK is a production of the Dramatists Guild. It’s produced by Amy VonMacek, Sarah Storm, and me, Christine Toy Johnson and mixed by Robare Delaney Pruyn. Our theme music is by Andrea Daley. . The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK is distributed by The Broadway Podcast Network. Join the conversation online use hashtag #DGTALKBACK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our first episode of our third season we’ll talk about the journey of bringing a culturally specific show to a predominantly white institution.Our guests are Rehana Lew Mirza, Rohi Mirza Pandya of SRC Partners and Natasha Sinha, who are working to bring the new musical Bhangin’ It (book by Rehana Lew Mirza and Mike Lew, music and lyrics by Sam Willmott) to their world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2022. Christine and our guests discuss the intricacies of telling a specific cultural story,the pitfalls of representation, and how building relationships with theaters can be the key to successfully communicating the need for cultural consultants.For more information on Bhangin' It and to purchase tickets visit: https://lajollaplayhouse.org/show/bhangin-it/TALKBACK is a production of the Dramatists Guild. It’s produced by Amy VonMacek, Sarah Storm, and me, Christine Toy Johnson and mixed by Robare Delaney Pruyn. Our theme music is by Andrea Daley. Our guest producers for this episode are Michael Lew and Shellen Lubin. The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK is distributed by The Broadway Podcast Network. Join the conversation online use hashtag #DGTALKBACK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TALKBACK returns with six new episodes on October 18 – and this season is all about collaboration! I’m your host, Christine Toy Johnson, and I can’t wait to share our conversations with you. We’ll be talking about bringing culturally specific shows to Predominantly White Institutions and how large institutional theaters are pivoting their focus to be more inclusive. We’ll be discussing the Guild’s brand-new inclusion rider, how immigrant artists have brought communities together to share their work throughout the pandemic, and so much more. Don’t miss a single episode. Subscribe to The Dramatists Guild Presents: TALKBACK on the Broadway Podcast Network, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our final episode of Season 2, Christine gets to chat with two longtime friends, Robert Barry Fleming and Charles Randolph-Wright about the concept of radical hospitality: the act of creating access where none existed by purposefully and actively removing barriers. Christine leads our conversation on how all artists can claim the space to tell their own stories and how radical hospitality can be extended towards the audiences for whom these stories are intended to reach. To learn more about Charles Randolph-Wright visit: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/members/charlesrandolph-wrightTo learn more about Robert Barry Fleming visit: https://www.actorstheatre.org/bios/robert-barry-fleming/To learn more about Actors Theater of Louisville visit: https://www.actorstheatre.org/This episode features Charles Randolph Wright and Robert Barry Fleming. The Dramatist Guild Presents: Talkback is a production of The Dramatists Guild of America . This episode was produced by Sarah Storm, Amy VonMacek and Christine Toy Johnson. Robare Pruyn mixed our show. Our theme music was composed by Andrea Daly. Special thanks to Tina Fallon, Tari Stratton, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at the Dramatists Guild.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The entire theater industry has found itself confronting a very specific access challenge this year. So many traditional boundaries have been broken. The fourth wall has been replaced with the Zoom screen, and the audience with a chat room. Christine chats with writers Nikkole Salter and Bianca Sams about how they’re thinking about work, audience, and opportunity - outside of the brick-and-mortar theater model with its traditional subscriber base.To learn more about Nikkole Salter visit www.nikkolesalter.com Follow them on Twitter @NikkoleSalterTo learn more about Bianca Sams visit www.biancasams.com Follow them on Twitter @BiancaSams1This episode features Nikkole Salter and Bianca Sams. The Dramatist Guild Presents: Talkback is a production of The Dramatists Guild of America . This episode was produced by Sarah Storm, Amy VonMacek and Christine Toy Johnson. Robare Pruyn mixed our show. Our theme music was composed by Andrea Daly. Special thanks to Tina Fallon, Tari Stratton, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at the Dramatists Guild.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Age is just a number, right? Maybe not when it comes to the entertainment industry. Playwright Sarah Tuft (MARVEL-OUS MONICA; IN WHICH MONICA LEWINSKY IS A SUPERHERO HELL-BENT ON REVENGE, 110 Stories) and actor Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Edward Scissorhands) tell personal stories about their careers and how age has played a factor. Sarah tells Christine how she refused to accept the status quo and is on the executive committee at Honor Roll-an action and advocacy group of women+playwrights over 40.To learn more about Caroline Aaron visit: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/members/carolineaaronTo learn more about Sarah Tuft visit www.sarahtuft.com and follow her on Twitter @sarah_tuftTo learn more about Honor Roll visit: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/thedramatist/honor-roll-we-gotand follow them on Twitter @HonorRollWritesThis episode features Sarah Tuft and Caroline Aaron. The Dramatist Guild Presents: Talkback is a production of The Dramatists Guild of America . This episode was produced by Sarah Storm, Amy VonMacek and Christine Toy Johnson. Robare Pruyn mixed our show. Our theme music was composed by Andrea Daly. Special thanks to Tina Fallon, Tari Stratton, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at the Dramatists Guild. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices