Third U.S. Delegation Travels to 2017 Santiago a Mil Festival

The Global Theater Initiative (GTI), a partnership between Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (The Lab), is organizing its third delegation to the Santiago a Mil Festival from January 17-22, 2017.

This year, GTI is partnering with the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) to bolster connections among Latin American companies and U.S. delegates from not-for-profit theatres and presenting venues.

"We return to Santiago to build on the relationships developed from our past delegations and to celebrate the diverse vitality of Latin American theatre," said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. "This delegation represents a wonderful opportunity to fulfil the Global Theater Initiative's commitment to strengthening, nurturing, and promoting cultural exchange."

Co-led by Kevin Bitterman, associate director of artistic & international programs with TCG, and Jojo Ruf, managing director of The Lab, the 2017 Delegation includes 28 U.S.-based artistic directors, curators, and producers including; Philip Bither, director and senior curator of performing arts, Walker Art Center (MN); Linda S. Chapman, associate artistic director, New York Theatre Workshop (NY); Criss Henderson, executive director, Chicago Shakespeare Theater (IL); Juli Hendren, artistic director, Tricklock Company (NM); Margaret Lawrence, director of programming, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College (NH); Kyoung H. Park, artistic director, Kyoung's Pacific Beat (NY);Anthony P. Rodriguez, producing artistic director, Aurora Theatre (GA); and David Dower, co-artistic director of ArtsEmerson (MA). In addition, the delegation will be joined by APAP Staff Scott Stoner, director of programs and resources, and Kalyn Saylor, programs manager. Find a full list of participants here.

For six days, more than 200 international performing arts professionals will gather in Santiago for the Festival's PLATEA 17 Programmers Week to experience over 50 productions, including dance, music, theatre, and work in public spaces and street theatre. This year, the festival's PLATEA program includes multi-national work from Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Palestine, Spain, Syria, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay. In addition, the program includes a series of symposiums, works in-progress, showcases, and one-on-one sessions and meetings to promote artistic residencies, the touring of work, and multinational co-productions..

"TCG's core value of Global Citizenship underscores our belief that members of the U.S. theatre community are citizens of a worldwide theatre community," said Bitterman. "We're looking forward to introducing our U.S. delegates to the global work and cultural leaders, including founding festival director Carmen Romero who is committed to cultural exchange between the U.S. and Latin America. The careful curation of this delegation allows participants to experience and discuss the work among colleagues, which can lead to more collaborative producing models and new presenting partnerships."

The delegation also represents an opportunity deepen the partnership between TCG and The Lab. Together, they developed the Global Theater Initiative over the course of 2015, prior to its official launch in February 2016. By combining the unique reach of TCG's international programming with the Lab's distinctive experience in humanizing global politics through the power of performance, GTI strengthens, nurtures, and promotes global citizenship and international collaboration in the U.S. professional and educational theatre field. Learn more about the Global Theater Initiative here.

"Following the success of GTI's 2016 Global Pre-Conference, this delegation is a wonderful way to promote cultural collaboration," said Ruf. "The Lab is thrilled to have a presence in the delegation for the second year in a row, and to have the ongoing opportunity to collaborate with a range of Chilean artists both during the Festival and in the U.S.."

More information on the Santiago a Mil festival can be found here and here.

The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, based in Washington, D.C., is the national service, advocacy and membership organization dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting field and the professionals who work within it. APAP's 1,500 national and international members represent leading performing arts centers, municipal and university performance facilities, nonprofit performing arts centers, culturally specific organizations, foreign governments, as well as artist agencies, managers, touring companies, and national consulting practices that serve the field, and a growing roster of self-presenting artists. As a leader in the field, APAP works to effect change through advocacy, professional development, resource sharing and civic engagement. www.apap365.org

The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (The Lab) harnesses the power of performance to humanize global politics. Housed in Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, The Lab has emerged as a leader, widely recognized as unique for its pioneering interdisciplinary approaches integrating the performing arts and international relations. The Lab creates and presents innovative, high quality work from around the world that is at the intersection of politics and performance. The Lab believes that theater can be spectacularly good at countering polarization through the empathy it enables in a live communal setting, and through its capacity to humanize others. globallab.georgetown.edu

For over 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for U.S. theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture, and promote the professional not-for-profit theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 11,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; and advocates on the federal level. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 14 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org