On Friday 1 March, NoPassport and NYU School for Individualized Study will present the 7th annual NoPassport Theatre Conference, Dreaming the Americas: Staging New Theaters/Challenging Hierarchies. The free one-day conference was initiated and will be curated by Caridad Svich and co-curated by Sharon Friedman and Kristin Horton of the faculty at NYU Gallatin. Dreaming the Americas explores the intersection between art and late capitalism, and the power of imagining new models for theatre action and social change.
The keynote speaker will be Todd London, Artistic Director of New Dramatists, with opening remarks by John Clinton Eisner, Artistic Director of the Lark Play Development Center. The variety of impressive panelists includes Carlo Alban (storyteller), Seth Baum, PhD (research scientist, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, Co-Founder, Osmocene Productions), Polly Carl (Editor, Howlround), Steve Cosson (Founding Artistic Director, The Civilians), Jorge Ignacio Cortinas (theatre artist, Fulcrum Theater), Migdalia Cruz (Playwright), Martin Denton (nytheatre.com), Brian Herrera (Princeton University), Oliver Mayer (USC), Matthew Paul Olmos (playwright), Jeremy Pickard (director, playwright, Captain, Superhero Clubhouse), Lisa Phillips (Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, Earth Institute, Columbia University), Ken Prestininzi (Brown University), Saviana Stanescu (IASNY), Dana Whitco (Institute for Performing Arts, NYU), Patricia Ybarra (Brown University). The event takes place on Friday 1 March 2013 from 10.00am–8.45pm at the Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1 Washington Place. More information on the conference here.
The night before, on Thursday 28 February, a special free pre-conference event will be held at 6.00pm at the Drama Book Shop, 250 West 40th Street. NoPassport Press will present a book reading and signing of the ever-ebullient Todd London’s new The Importance of Staying Earnest: Writings from Inside the American Theatre 1988-2013, now available here. Mr. London’s last book was the controversial Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play.