On Tuesday, March 11th, ArtsEmerson and Toshi Reagon decided to postpone the Boston presentation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower to OCT 1-4, 2020. A week later they gathered on Zoom to reflect on that decision, the state of the Now, and prognosis for the Next. Here in this video, David Dower and David C. Howse—artistic director and executive director of ArtsEmerson, respectively—talk with Toshi about that decision. For a full transcript of…
In the past few weeks, theaters throughout the world have gone dark and have shifted quickly to gathering in digital spaces rather than on our stages in order to flatten the curve and preserve the opportunity to reconnect outside of isolation in the near future. However, this reality has led to several performance cancellations or postponements, leaving artists without their creative outlet and searching for artistic sustenance elsewhere. Beyond even the ability to create during…
Today, March 26th, 2020 was the scheduled start date for Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. To explain how and why the venue will be empty tonight rather than filled with the songs of Bernice and Toshi Reagon, artistic director David Dower explains the conversations and events that led us to this moment over the last few weeks As we moved through the process of decision-making related to our response to…
ArtsEmerson artistic director David Dower started a conversation in 2015 that is still ongoing in the theater community. Namely, he wanted to carve out space to a comment on the idea that a theater company’s season, specifically one that reflected very little diversity, was not merely an accidental, random occurrence of happenstance. HowlRound published his revealing peak into the behind-the-scenes process of creating a diverse season in August of 2015.
ArtsEmerson today announces that it will suspend scheduled public gatherings beginning Friday, March 13, with the hope of continuing more regular activity by the end of April 2020. In all instances, ArtsEmerson is investigating whether programming may be rescheduled to a later date, and all ticket-holders will be notified directly with information and instructions as soon as possible. We request that you wait for an email with instructions rather than calling the box office. Staff…
