Course Description
Summary
What should a public-facing theater do? Stimulate local business? Enrich the lives of community members? Probe the biggest questions of our time? Support the passions of amateurs? Art-wash corporations? Provide a living wage for professionals? Revive a post-industrial town?
Public Theatre Lab is a space to reflect on ways institutions and individuals past and present have engaged these questions, and to imagine new models and possibilities for the near and distant future. Participants will be asked to engage books, articles, documentaries and guest speakers that explore these questions from community, national and international perspectives.
The semester long course will culminate with a final project that asks students to work in small groups to (1) Envision a new theater organization (amateur or professional), (2) write a mission statement (3) plan the first year of programming and audience engagement, and (4) develop a funding model.
