Why do we make theatre? And for whom?
Who do you want to speak to with your work and how do you start a conversation? What are the elements of making theatre and showing it that begin to articulate the most compelling invitations. And how do we consider and authorize those who respond to our invitations – our audience – inside our work. This workshop will investigate dramaturgical,staging and producing approaches as they relate to these questions.
About Melanie Joseph
MELANIE JOSEPH is a theatre maker and the founding Artistic Producer of The Foundry Theatre. She has collaborated on the creation of 18 Foundry premieres — as co-creator, director, dramaturg and/or producer – that have collectively been awarded 11 OBIES and 4 Drama Desk nominations for Unique Theatrical Experience. Joseph is also the curator of Foundry Dialogues which, for 18 years, have been bringing artists together with stakeholders from other communities to explore together what we mean to be as citizens of a world that we ourselves create. For this hybrid work Joseph has twice been honored with the Ross Wetzsteon OBIE for “simultaneously creating cutting edge work and engaging artists in some of the thorniest issues of the world we inhabit.” She is a recipient of the Skirball Kennis T.I.M.E. Individual Artist prize, a Lucille Lortel Lortel Award for Artistic Producing, and has twice been awarded the Duke/ Mellon Mentorship grant for mentoring “theatre leaders of tomorrow.” Joseph is an active participant in both the Occupy Wall Street movement and the World Social Forum process, and from 2004-09, she was the U.S. President of the International Theatre Institute (ITI). Joseph holds a BA in Literature and Political History and a post-baccalaureate degree in Pre-Medicine from the City University of New York.
