HowlRound

Author: Caitlyn Egan

Short Summary

The purpose of HowlRound is “to help community, nonprofit, and racially oriented theatre companies talk to each other and develop new ambitions for themselves.” The goal is to amplify progressive ideas about theatre and invite open participation from other companies to create a theatre commons.

Website address: https://howlround.com/

Location: Boston, MA, USA

Co-Founders: P. Carl, David Dower, Jamie Gahlon, and Vijay Mathew

Profile

Mission: To be “a free and open platform for theatre makers worldwide that amplifies progressive, disruptive ideas about the art form and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners.” (source)

Values:

  • Generosity and abundance
  • Community and collaboration
  • Diverse aesthetics
  • Equity, inclusivity, and accessibility
  • Global citizenship
HowlRound is a knowledge commons that specializes in theatre, and their belief is that theatre can connect people across differences and strengthen commonalities. The HowlRound’s commoning activities consist of community members submitting content. These contributions may be writing for the HowlRound journal, producing a podcast, curating a series, or live streaming an event. Some of these contributions are paid, including submissions to the journal or producing a podcast. All contributions are expected to adhere to HowlRound’s values and are subject to review by editors.

There have been other projects that originate from HowlRound, including the Latinx Theatre Commons, The World Theatre Map, and the National Playwright Residency Program. All of these projects contribute to expanding the world of theatre and making theatre more accessible to people across the globe.

YOUTUBE qH_J06UwNmE A video explanation of what HowlRound does.

Governance

HowlRound functions as a peer-organized knowledge commons, and it encourages free sharing of intellectual and artistic resources. The group of co-founders runs the commons, and editors review content contributions; however, the sharing of knowledge is open to the public.

Projects

  • Latinx Theatre Commons: This commons was formed in 2012 under HowlRound, and was created to bring together Latinx theatremakers and amplify the visibility of Latinx performance. The values of the LTC include service, radical inclusion, transparency, legacy and leadership cultivation, and advancement of the art form.
  • World Theatre Map: This project is an open source software platform that allows a user to search for theatre groups across the globe. As of now, the project has been sunsetted due to decreased visitation to the site, however the code and database is available to the public to reuse and redesign.
  • National Playwright Residency Program: This program, established in 2013, provides three years of salary, benefits and a research and development fund for selected playwrights from across the United States. The goal is to advance playwrights by providing them with space, time, resources and access to the institutions where they work. The most recent cohort had 19 playwrights participating in the residency program, and they documented their experiences on the HowlRound website.
  • Devising Our Future Series: For HowlRound’s 10-year anniversary, a diverse group of theatremakers were invited to contribute to a journal series where they could share their vision of the future. The series was launched in February 2021, and contributions to the series in the form of essays were also accompanied by original illustrations commissioned by HowlRound and audio recordings of the text to ensure accessibility. The series will be complemented by HowlRound TV events that will bring together the series authors to discuss the future of theatre together.

Friends & Partners

  • The Fornes Institute, an initiative of the Latinx Theatre Commons
  • Emerson College Office of The Arts, which houses HowlRound headquarters
  • List of HowlRound Donors

Finances

HowlRound mainly receives funding from outside individual donations and corporate sponsors. They list each individual donor on their website to thank them for their contributions. There are also five foundations that sponsor HowRound’s activities: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Barr Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the National Endowment for The Arts. HowlRound also sells books in their retail store, including an Anthology of HowlRound essays and two books about theatre commons.

Origin Story

HowlRound began in 2011 as an online journal created by the above co-founders as a part of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage. In 2012 HowlRound relocated to Emerson College in Boston where it is now permanently located.

The concept for HowlRound evolved in response to a crisis of equity, sustainability and relevance in the nonprofit theatre sector. The writings of David Bower’s “The Gates of Opportunity” as well as other works inspired HowlRound’s concept. These works examined the lack of resources in the non-profit theatre community, with most financial support going to the wealthiest commercial theatres, and HowlRound was created to fix these problems.

See Also

Sources