Building on the success of the programmatic arcs from our 2013 TCG National Conference: Learn Do Teach in Dallas, in 2014 we focused our energies into four main areas of exploration. To make these arcs even more intentional and impactful, we centered them around key questions to ensure our border-crossing goals were present in every session. We also integrated our core values of Artistry and Diversity & Inclusion into every aspect of our programming.

{Art | People} How are relationships changing between theatres and communities?

From work that breaks theatre out of the black box and into the streets, to work that redefines the community as a co-creator, to participatory theatre that puts the audience’s agency center stage; the barriers between art and people have been radically redrawn at an accelerating rate. Participants in {Art | People} sessions emerged with new ideas and proven best practices for breaking down the barriers between theatre and communities.

{Survive | Thrive} How can we move our financial practices from surviving to thriving?

The genesis of the resident theatre movement imagined theatres properly capitalized to deliver on their missions for their communities. As our annual report on the fiscal health of the field Theatre Facts has shown, that founding vision remains out of reach for many theatres. How many of the barriers to achieving lasting vitality are truly intrinsic to our field, and which can be overcome by rethinking capitalization practices? Participants in {Survive | Thrive} sessions engaged with the knowledge accumulated at our capitalization-focused 2013 TCG Fall Forum on Governance and took away strategies to achieve financial security and programmatic vitality.

{Theatre | Technology} How can the live arts better engage with our digital culture?

As the rate of cultural change from disruptive technologies increases, its impact is often seen as detrimental to theatre and other live arts. Yet many theatres are harnessing those technologies—through marketing resources, backstage tools and in the work itself—to innovate and strengthen their programming and infrastructure. {Theatre | Technology} sessions asked big questions about crossing the boundaries between the live and the digital, and traded nuts and bolts tactics for taking advantage of the latest technological advances.

{Conflict | Confluence} How can we have productive conversations about difference?

Let’s face it: in the theatre field, we disagree as often as we agree, and those disagreements often shed more heat than light. How can we create space for the taboo topics and difficult conversations we need to have: between departmental silos, between funders and institutions, between all our intersections of diversity? How can conflict of ideas lead to positive growth? Participants attending {Conflict | Confluence} sessions not only learned strategies for managing complexity and difference within their own institutions, but also together reimagined some of the most significant perceived barriers that divide our field.