Working from Collective Vision: Community-Driven New Work Development (Summer 2021) (Online)

Working from Collective Vision: Community-Driven New Work Development (Summer 2021) (Online)

Sept. 17 - Sept. 19

Friday:  6:00pm - 9:00pm Central Time
Saturday/Sunday:  1:00pm - 4:00pm Central Time

Instructor: Derek Lee McPhatter

Class by application only.  Applications due September 3 by 5pm CT.  Selected applicants notified by September 14.

APPLY HERE

Beyond our stages, theater artists can find opportunities with community organizations, social justice programs, education and other fields seeking to use arts to empower real people to tell their own stories.

As dramatists we bring honed storytelling skills to these opportunities, but how do we responsibly bring those skills to the project?  And how can we be sure we’re creating work that authentically reflects their creative sensibilities?

An answer may lie in a focused approach to collective vision. We’ll explore case studies of community-focused theater projects, and examine ways to help non-traditional artists find consensus around theme, style, major dramatic questions and even character.  This course invites artists to activate their gifts in service of other communities, not to speak for them, but to empower them to speak for themselves.  Participants will complete the course with their own custom rubric for developing new works that they can bring into their own community-driven projects.
 

This free class is being offered as a part of our Anti-Racism & Inequality Free Class Series, and is part of our continued commitment to stand alongside those fighting for social justice, and against inequality. In accordance with the instructors vision for this course, this class will be open to students of diverse, multicultural backgrounds, including students who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, those who are Deaf/disabled, and folks who are committed as white allies, with top preference given to underrepresented voices.

Derek Lee McPhatter is committed to new work that engages diverse communities, emphasizing narratives at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality and technology. Derek is developing NightQueen, an afro-surreal performance suite, as a 2021 Creative Capital Awardee. Between 2016 – 2019, Derek served as librettist, book-writer and/or lyricist for five new community-driven theatre works with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, four of which played to sold-out houses at Chicago’s acclaimed Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

Classes will be held via Zoom. Instructors will send out Zoom invites one day before class begins. We encourage students to set up a Zoom account for themselves before class if they have not already to ensure when class begins you are able to jump straight into the art!