Culturebot Long Table on Performance and Place at Fusebox 2012 in Austin, TX

CULTUREBOT and Under The Radar present “Scanning The Landscape” – a series of  Long Tables on the most current and compelling ideas at work in the field of contemporary theater and the conditions in which it is being made. Join leading practitioners, thinkers and supporters of contemporary theater for lively conversations on the state of the field and what the future might hold.

The Long Table is a performance installation, developed by artist Lois Weaver, that experiments with using the private form of a dinner party as a structure for public debate.  It encourages informal conversation on serious subjects and experiments with formats that inspire public engagement. The Long Table has been installed and performed as a public dinner party between artists, activists, academics, advocates and general audiences on subjects such performance, technology, social engagement and human rights.

These events are free and open to the public but attendance is limited to 60 people, so please arrive early.  Admission is first come, first seated. The events on January 12 & January 13 will be live streamed on NewPlayTv.

SCANNING THE LANDSCAPE AT UNDER THE RADAR

(participants listed are confirmed as of January 7, 2013)

Arts, Culture + Economy in a Post-Crash World
Saturday January 12, 2013
12:00PM-1:30PM at The Public Theater
How will the global economic crisis and political change in the EU effect US/Europe cultural exchange? Join international curators, cultural officers, artists and thinkers for a round table discussion.

Barbara Bryan (Executive Director, Movement Research)
Thomas Creed (Director, Cork Midsummer Festival)
Zvonimir Dobrovic (Founder/Artistic Director of Queer Zagreb and Perforations Festival)
Marta Keil ( Critic/Author and Curator of East European Performing Arts Platform Project)
Jan Kennis (General Director for Cultural Affairs USA, The Netherlands Consulate)
Barbara Lanciers (Program Director, Trust for Mutual Understanding/Company Member and Choreographer for Two-headed Calf )
Gideon Lester (Director of Theater Programs, Bard College)
Erwin Maas (Director/Royal Dutch Embassy Cultural Department)
Elin Norquist (Project Manager, Swedish Arts Council)
Mark Russell (Artistic Director, Under The Radar Festival)
András Szántó (Writer/Researcher/Consultant, Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York)

Social Practice and Performance
Sunday January 13, 2013
12:00PM-1:30PM at The Public Theater
Social Practice, Civic Practice and Socially Engaged Art – what does it mean to make socially conscious performance, often working working with non-artist communities? What are the aesthetic, political and practical challenges of making theater in community without making “community theater”? Or is that distinction no longer relevant? Join artists and curators and thinkers from multiple backgrounds for a discussion of this longstanding but newly vital field.

Wenzel Bilger (Program Director of the Goethe-Institut New York)
Gonzalo Casals (Deputy Executive Director, El Museo Del Barrio)
Jan Cohen-Cruz (Editor, Public: A Journal of Imagining America and University Professor, Syracuse University)
Edwin Culp (Associate Professor at the Communications Department, Universidad Iberoamericana)
Simon Dove (Independent Curator)
Melanie Joseph (Artistic Producer for the Foundry Theater)
Florian Malzacher (Artistic Director of Impulse Theatre Biannual 2013, Germany, and Freelance Dramaturge/Curator)
Michael Rohd (Founding Artistic Director, Sojourn Theatre)
Ruth Wikler-Luker (Curator & Producer, Boom Arts)
Sara Zatz (Associate Director, Ping Chong + Company)

The Theater of Tomorrow, Today
Saturday January 19, 2013
12:00PM-1:30PM at The Public Theater
From “algorithmic dramaturgy” to TelePresence technology, what constitutes “theater” is changing at phenomenal speed. As the Information Age continues to unfold and technology moves us ever more quickly into the future – what will theater look like in ten, twenty, 100 years? Join cutting edge theater makers for an imaginative discussion on the state of the art and visions of what may come.

Ash Bulayev (Curator, Dance + Theater at EMPAC)
Kenneth Collins (Founder and Artistic Director of Temporary Distortion)
Annie Dorsen (Director)
Mikhael Tara Garver (Creator and Director of Fornicated)
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Playwright and Dramaturg)
Dave Malloy (Composer)
Brian Rogers (Director, Video Artist, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Chocolate Factory Theater)
Ben Vershbow (NY-based Theater Artist and Technologist)

The Politics of Cultural Production
Sunday January 20, 2013
12:00PM-1:30PM at The Public Theater

The past few years have seen an increased level of discussion about “devised” theater in traditional play circles. Is all this talk merely a trend or a real shift in the American Theater landscape? Words like devised, ensemble and collaborative are used interchangeably to describe a wide variety of practices and aesthetics – but what are we really talking about, where did these practices come from and how does practice inform content? Join a group of artists, writers and scholars for a discussion of the past, present and future of non-traditional theater making.

Jess Barbagallo (Performer with Half Straddle, Big Dance Theater, Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf and The Builders Association)
Hannah Bos (Writer/Performer, Co-Artistic Director of The Debate Society)
Oliver Butler (Director, Co-Artistic Director of The Debate Society)
Lisa Kron (Playwright/Performer, Co-Founder The Five Lesbian Brothers)
Jennifer Miller (Playwright, Performer and the Director and Founder of Circus Amok)
Avia Moore (Director/Dramaturg/Creative Producer)
Dan Rothenberg (Founding member and co-artistic director of the Pig Iron Theatre Company)
Tina Satter (Artistic Director, Half Straddle)
Clyde Valentin (Producing Artistic Director of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival)
Paul Zimet (Artistic Director, Talking Band)