The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Publications & Research
Capturing the tone, celebrating the work: A conversation with Wendy Rogers and Sara Rudner (Dance Advance)
“It’s my honor to say a few words before Sara Rudner and Wendy Rogers speak to us and show video examples of the work they made together. I want to begin by mentioning a “behind the scenes” moment I just witnessed: Wendy was chatting with Sara about something she had been observing. I have no idea what it was. But it was so moving to her that she had to get up and demonstrate. Not only demonstrate, but also run around in a circle. And then Sara doubled over in laughter. They were looking at each other like there was no one on the planet they would rather be talking to. And I believe that’s why we’re here.”
—from Lisa Kraus’ introduction to the conversation
with Wendy and Sara on September 29, 2007.
New Challenges for The Wooster Group’s Kate Valk (Theatre Initiative)
Legendary avant-garde performer Kate Valk is up for a professional challenge. This season, Valk—the only original member of New York’s Wooster Group still performing with the company—acts in Richard Maxwell’s innovative staging of O’Neill’s early plays, joins the directorial team for a co-production of Troilus and Cressida with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and collaborates with director Peter Sellars and dancer Michael Schumacher on a performance of sacred Buddhist texts. Theatre Magazine editor Tom Sellar talked with the actor about these exciting new ventures.
Read this article about Kate Valk >
Read a previous transcript of Kate Valk talking about her performance as O’Neill’s Emperor Jones >
Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World (Heritage Philadelphia Program)
Letting Go?, a new anthology edited by Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski, investigates path-breaking public history practices at a time when the traditional expertise of museums and historical institutions is constantly challenged by evolving trends in technology, community-based programming, oral histories, and contemporary art. The anthology features 26 newly commissioned thought pieces, case studies, conversations, and artworks by 19 leading cultural practitioners, including Nina Simon, Michael Frisch, Kathleen McLean, Fred Wilson, and more.
Anna Deavere Smith on Let Me Down Easy (Theatre Initiative)
Playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith spoke with Catherine Sheehy about the evolution of Smith’s one-woman show Let Me Down Easy and the theater’s important role in helping audience members to know “that stranger sitting next to you.” Sponsored by PTI, this event was part of the American Playwrights in Context series at the Philadelphia Theatre Company.
Download a complete transcript of the interview here (PDF) >
Estelle Parsons Talks about Acting (Theatre Initiative)
While in Philadelphia to perform August: Osage County, Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons met to talk about acting with local theater professionals assembled by the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Click here to link to three filmed excerpts from that discussion.
Center Conversations: Idealware’s Laura Quinn and Andrea Berry on E-mail Fundraising (Cultural Management Initiative)
Watch a Center Conversations video with Idealware’s Laura Quinn and Andrea Berry, in which they talk about the basics of a good e-mail fundraising campaign. Idealware is a Portland, Maine based company that specializes in advising nonprofits on all things related to software.
Creating Site-Specific Theater (Theatre Initiative)
Why perform "site-specifically," outside of formal venues? How can site work change the audience's perspective? What are common pitfalls of site-specific work? Melanie Joseph, Anne Hamburger, and Michael Rohd—three nationally renowned theater professionals with the shared goal of making compelling theater—met with members of the Philadelphia theater community to explore these questions and describe their own site-specific shows.
Download a transcript of the event with photos (PDF) >
Václav Havel Speaks to Theatre Professionals (Theatre Initiative)
Václav Havel, renowned playwright and former President of the Czech Republic, visited The Wilma Theater in May 2010 to see the American premiere of his first play in 20 years, Leaving, a wry political tragicomedy about a recently retired chancellor of an unnamed European country who struggles with questions of truth and power. The Philadelphia Theatre Initiative hosted President Havel at the Wilma for an interview conducted in front of an audience made up primarily of theater professionals.
Click here to watch a video excerpt or complete footage of the interview >
Download the interview transcript (PDF)
Photo by Karl Seifert.
Creating New Work for Theater (Theatre Initiative)
Read the complete transcript of a panel discussion between Todd London of New Dramatists, Victoria Bailey of Theatre Development Fund, David Dower of Arena Stage, Diane Ragsdale of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and moderator Ben Pesner as they describe their research findings about our national system of new play development: what's working, what's not working, and how to fix it.
Download Creating New Work for Theater transcript (PDF)
Theatre As Delivery System: New Paradise Laboratories’ Fatebook (Theatre Initiative)
The following case study chronicles Fatebook, a 2009 production by New Paradise Laboratories. Fatebook was innovative in form, creative process and content: a show developed and experienced partly online and partly live. The Philadelphia Theatre Initiative commissioned arts journalist Charlotte Stoudt to research and follow the show in the hope that theater professionals around the country might find the methodology behind Fatebook useful in their own work. (Photos by Jacques-Jean Tiziou.)
Theatre As Delivery System: New Paradise Laboratories’ Fatebook (PDF) >
Document(s) comprises a library of commentary on people and issues in the dance field. This repository of interviews and editorials by writers and thinkers on dance includes writing commissioned by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.
No Idea is Too Ridiculous: An Experiment in Creative Practice (Heritage Philadelphia Program)
For the past two years, Heritage Philadelphia Program has worked with the fabulous Kathy McLean on a workshop and small grant opportunity for constituents called “No Idea is Too Ridiculous,” which grew out of our interest in developing a project that would allow our constituents to explore creativity and risk-taking, and learn from one another during their explorations.
Gray Area: Provocations on the Future of Preservation (Heritage Philadelphia Program)
On October 19, 2011, the Heritage Philadelphia Program funded Gray Area, a moderated panel discussion organized by DesignPhiladelphia. Panelists included Tod Williams (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects), Lloyd Alter (TREEHUGGER.com), Mark Alan Hughes (founding director, Greenworks), Randall F. Mason (Associate Professor and Chair, PennDesign) and Susan S. Szenasy (Editor in Cheif, Metropolis Magazine).
Stories from The Robeson House: Lives Touched by a Renaissance Man (Heritage Philadelphia Program)
The Heritage Philadelphia Program worked with WPCA, with additional support from the Center's Marketing Innovation Program, to create Stories from The Paul Robeson House: Lives Touched by a Renaissance Man, a book that harnesses the age-old practice of storytelling and reflects on Robeson's impact through first-person accounts of those whose lives he touched.
Award Speeches (Pew Fellowships)
1992-1997
