Expanding Where, Why, How, and With Whom Artists in the United States Work

HowlRound Theatre Commons: How do we live through these times? Surely, as Nick Slie of Mondo Bizarro Productions in New Orleans commented to me, making digital theatre is not the only response. For many of us, this is also a time for reflection, to contemplate what we do with our little span on Earth and think about our avocation. As a scholar of art that is described as “cross-sector,” “community-based,” “socially engaged,” etc., I’ve been using this time to talk with artists in the United States (yes, mostly over Zoom) who, at any time since the mid 1960s, have expanded where, why, how, and with whom they work. I mean all of these together—the “why” determining “with whom,” “where,” and “how”—and all linked to a passion for social justice.