Following the Institute, Yale's Theatre magazine, published by Duke University press, has devoted an entire issue to writing from Institute participants and Project Directors Quinn Bauriedel and Dr. Allen Kuharski.

ABSTRACT: The June 2023 NEH Institute—"Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theatre"—aimed to understand the work of the mant ensembles who have made work within the United States. Each ensemble has a unique story but the Romanian phrase that an ensemble has "the life of a dog" struck a nerve, positing that ensembles come and go. Maybe so, but this essay suggests that though their candle may burn out, the light they produce lives one. In an era or tremendous uncertainty and extremes of teenage sadness, ensemble theatre as a practice can, and has, galvanized a new generation to take control of the narrative and to make work that speaks directoy to the current moment. As seductive as the story is of artists emerging out of necessity during particuarly tumultuous times, it helps the next generation know that their work will leave a mark and that meaning within performance is how culture is created.

The magazine can be accessed here.

This two-week residential Institute had three primary objectives:

• First, it recognizes that the practice and teaching of devised theatre is moving faster than the archiving and critical study of this long-standing and increasingly important part of the American theatre landscape. The Institute aims to align these two arenas with a deep critical examination of company-based devised theatre, past and present.
• Second, the Institute intends to preserve and raise awareness of this vital but unevenly documented part of American culture: this highly collaborative but uniquely fragile art form has existed for generations in communities across the United States, but suffers from limited scholarship, criticism, and academic study despite its proliferation as a professional and educational training practice.
• Third, the institute will foster new collaborations among working artists, conservatory faculty, college/university professors of theatre and performance studies and their students, resulting in improved preservation, innovations in teaching methods, and heightened cultural awareness relating to American ensemble-based devised theatre and its impact over time.

Project Directors Quinn Bauriedel (Pig Iron Theatre Company and the University of the Arts) and Dr. Allen Kuharski (Swarthmore College) are leaders in the field, both in scholarship and in practice. They were joined by 16 diverse visiting faculty—representing the scholarly and professional sides of the subject—to help uncover, complicate, and illuminate the objectives above.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].