Focused on collaboratively creative performance companies, From the Ground Up connects with theatremakers to understand the artistic, financial, and social sustainability of physical, devised, and ensemble-based processes. Previous topics include hands-on devising practices, aesthetic principles, financial oversight, academic and community partnerships, nonprofit and philanthropic navigation, social justice, festival culture, and touring. To showcase examples for American ensemble practitioners, this podcast documents the individual roadmaps and efforts of makers from around the world.
This series draws upon Host/Producer Jeffrey Mosser’s experience as ensemble creator, director, and producer, and his passion for this form as a vital part of the theatrical landscape.
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Focused on collaboratively creative performance companies, From the Ground Up connects with theatremakers to understand the artistic, financial, and social sustainability of physical, devised, and ensemble-based processes. Previous topics include hands-on devising practices, aesthetic principles, financial oversight, academic and community partnerships, nonprofit and philanthropic navigation, social justice, festival culture, and touring. To showcase examples for American ensemble practitioners, this podcast documents the individual roadmaps and efforts of makers from around the world.
This series draws upon Host/Producer Jeffrey Mosser’s experience as ensemble creator, director, and producer, and his passion for this form as a vital part of the theatrical landscape.
Current members of Studio Luna chronicle their twenty-five-year history and the evolution of their practice, programming, and location—most notably from their origin in Chicago to Los Angeles. This was originally recorded live for the 2024 Theatre Communications Group Conference.
You on the Moors Now was the first foray by Jaclyn Backhaus into committing the improvisations and musings of an ensemble to the page while developing her own style. She joins the cast of the show at University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee to talk about the genesis of the play and iterations over time.
Universities and museums are some of the last strongholds of festival circuits providing rare exposure to international and avant-garde artists. This episode explores how ensembles find their way onto such a path, and what these organizations are doing to ensure enrichment for their audiences and sustainability for the acts.
Focusing on the overlaps between Ensemble and Applied Theatre practices, this podcast highlights Mark Weinberg’s work with Theatre of the Oppressed pillar Augusto Boal, collectives, and his growth from director interpreted work to audience generated work.
After beginning her theatrical work by writing for a collective, Deb Margolin has had an expansive solo career. She shares her comedic impulses, political proclivities, and writing process. She takes us through the highs and lows of socially sustainable work as a playwright who best understands her scripts through the body.
Dell’Arte International faced a financial crisis in 2023. They surpassed their fundraising goal by the end of that year. In this episode, former President and CEO Alyssa Hughlett walks us down the path they took that year to rediscover themselves as a school and an ensemble, and reintroduce the company to their community.
In 2023, Pig Iron Theater Company held the National Endowment for the Humanities Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theater Institute. The institute directors look forward to how the next institute might be adjusted and reveal insight on how the University of the Arts closure will impact Pig Iron School.
In 2023, Pig Iron Theater Company held the National Endowment for the Humanities Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theater Institute. The presenters, some interviewed in this episode, provided in depth perspectives on how their ensemble-based processes created connections to a wide variety of audiences.
Eleven participants share their experiences at the 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Theater Institute, which highlighted the impact of devised and physical theatre, its application in professional and university settings, and the limited scholarship around it.
Stewart Pringle, senior dramaturg at the National Theatre, sheds light on the theatre’s Generate program and discusses with Jeffrey Mosser the problem with the term “literary department,” when to take a risk, and why it’s important that the big fish in the big pond makes the investment in smaller-scale ensemble-based companies.
Artistic director of Belgian theatre company Ontroerend Goed, Alexander Devriendt talks through their process for imagining and developing participatory content. Alexander and Jeffrey Mosser also dig into financing art in Europe, the cost of touring internationally and how COVID has affected it, and sustaining family and art simultaneously.
Culture worker and theatre practitioner Dr. Cristal Chanelle Truscott provides a primer on her SoulWork process, applies it to her present processes, and expands our horizons as artists.
Creatives and book authors Mallory Catlett and Aaron Landsman dig into their new book based on their piece City Council Meeting, an exciting performance, rooted in a commonplace bureaucratic event, that develops dynamic participatory relationships with audiences and local government.
Playwright and director Karen Malpede joins Jeffrey Mosser to talk about her career and connections from the Open Theater to Theater Three Collaborative, as well as her partner George Bartenieff, an actor and champion for the avant-garde.
Since the “great pause,” funders have shifted their giving models. Ben Cameron has seen it from every side—and he talks all about it. Through anecdotes about his experiences at organizations from Theatre Communications Group to the Jerome Foundation, Ben offers many insights into how ensemble fits in a thriving theatre ecosystem.
Since the “great pause,” funders have shifted their giving models. Ben Cameron has seen it from every side—and he talks all about it. Through anecdotes about his experiences at organizations from Theatre Communications Group to the Jerome Foundation, Ben offers many insights into how ensemble fits in a thriving theatre ecosystem.
Bob Leonard chronicles his work from the People’s Bicentennial Commission and the Road Company through the founding of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and Alternate ROOTS. Together, Jeffrey Mosser and Bob connect the dots through the middle wave of ensemble-based theatre in the United States.
Carlos Uriona and Jennifer Johnson, co-artistic directors at Double Edge Theatre, connect with Jeffrey Mosser to discuss how working in rural Massachusetts for over thirty years has enabled them to share art on the world stage.
Jeffrey Mosser connects with Willa Jo Zollar, who is founder, chief visioning partner, and MacArthur Genius at Urban Bush Women. Together they talk about touring, the festival circuit, and strategy necessary to sustain a company for thirty years.
Focused on collaboratively creative performance companies, From the Ground Up connects with theatremakers to understand the artistic, financial, and social sustainability of physical, devised, and ensemble-based processes. Previous topics include hands-on devising practices, aesthetic principles, financial oversight, academic and community partnerships, nonprofit and philanthropic navigation, social justice, festival culture, and touring. To showcase examples for American ensemble practitioners, this podcast documents the individual roadmaps and efforts of makers from around the world.
This series draws upon Host/Producer Jeffrey Mosser’s experience as ensemble creator, director, and producer, and his passion for this form as a vital part of the theatrical landscape.
