Latinx Theatre Commons


The Latinx Theatre Commons is a national movement launched in 2012, which promotes Latina/o/x equity in American theater through convening, scholarship, advocacy, and art. The goals, activities, and methods of its actions are determined, championed, and carried out by the LTC's volunteer, self-organized steering committee of predominantly U.S.-based theater-makers and scholars of Latina/o/x theater, working together and with community partners around the country. Abigail Vega, the LTC Producer and sole employee, was supported through the infrastructure provided by HowlRound: A Center for Theater Commons.

Timeline


  • December 1 - 4, 2016: LTC New York Regional Convening, where participants moved among nine venues, including INTAR Theatre, Pregones Theatre, and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, to engage in creative workshops as well as conversations. The programming was oriented among three tracks: leadership, aesthetics, and identity.
  • November 8 - 12, 2017: LTC International Convening was held during the Encuentro de las Américas International Theatre Festival, at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. This convening echoed the Encuentro Convening of 2015 but broadened its scope to include theatre-makers from Canada and Latin America. 260 participants witnessed fourteen productions and met in large and small groups to discuss the process, among other things, aesthetics, scholarship, and international collaboration.
  • April 14, 2018: Fornés Institute Symposium, produced in partnership with Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, will gather Fornés’ students and collaborators, as well as scholars and more theater-makers, to “celebrate her living legacy and collaboratively document her enduring impact.”

    Organizing structure

    • The Latinx Theatre Commons operates as a commons, wherein resources are shared with all who care for the resources.
    According to Indiana University's Digital Library of the Commons, "the commons is a general term for shared resources in which each stakeholder has an equal interest". Historically, the term commons is derived from the medieval English legal term for land that was designated by the lord of the manor for use by common folk for their own sustenance…The term was popularized as a shared resource term by ecologist Garrett Hardin in 1968. There are several types of commons in practice today: environmental commons; digital commons; and cultural, social, and intellectual commons.

    The work of the LTC is carried out by a volunteer Steering Committee of artists, scholars, and administrators from around the US who represent the complexity of the theatre field. Steering Committee members work on a variety of subcommittees to advance the LTC initiatives, such as those listed on the timeline, reflecting the tenets of advocacy, art making, convening, and scholarship. The Steering Committee is refreshed every six months with an influx of new members who join in the work. Steering Committee members rotating off often join the LTC Advisory Committee. Communication technologies facilitate work among multiple participants simultaneously. At the hub of all the subcommittees is the LTC Producer, the sole employee supported through the infrastructure provided by HowlRound: A Center for a Theatre Commons.
    On June 10, 2017, at the Theatre Communications Group National Conference held in Portland, Oregon, the LTC received the Peter Zeisler Award. In the acceptance speech, LTC Producer Abigail Vega states: "By their very nature, commons challenge our transactional, market-based ideology and propose an alternative reality rooted in abundance and the greater good."
    In January 2017, the Latinx Theater Commons adopted its current name in response to requests from the Steering Committee and community members at large and as an expression of its commitment to the principles of radical inclusion.

    Publications

    The Latina/o Theatre Commons 2013 National Convening: A Narrative Report by Brian Herrera. Boston: Emerson College, 2015.