What is the TNT Annual Conference?

Consumption, Creation, Connection By Jacob Coakley

According to Bill McKibben's book Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future in 1900 there were 1,300 opera houses in Iowa. That number slowly tapered off throughout the 20th century as ever-more-ubiquitous mass media (films, radio, TV), meant that fewer and fewer people were actively involved in creating entertainment, until the landscape is what it is today - the generally accepted notion that to thrive and prosper as a theatre artist one had to move to New York, or Chicago or L.A.

Jacob Coakley: As editor of Stage Directions, a 20-year-old magazine dedicated to helping theatre artists of every stripe and skill-level improve their craft, Jacob Coakley writes about all aspects of theatre, from theatre management to new play development to technical theatre techniques. He is also a regular writer for the Las Vegas Weekly, where he has chronicled the burgeoning independent theatre scene in Las Vegas. Jacob trained as an actor and writer but after moving to New York he quickly realized his future lay off the boards and he transferred into the offices of regional theatres, running the computer networks at Manhattan Theatre Club and then Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where he designed and programmed their first Web site in 1995. Returning to school in 2003 he was awarded the Haas Fellowship while at U.C. Berkeley to research inexpensive projection techniques for small theatres, and spent a year interviewing theatre companies about their techniques as well as collaborating with an actress and director to produce Authentic, which tells the story of an adaptation of an alleged Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and the lawsuit surrounding it. He is also a bit of a cheese nut, which explains his latest project, a comedy about escaping financial ruin by making artisanal cheese.

Contracts, Riders, and the Ladies who lunch . . . Tracy Alexander
Are you really ready to rent your theatre out to others?

This workshop is all about preparing to rent your spaces out to other organizations and the general public. Learn about maintaining a Production Calendar, creating general guidelines to protect your property and your sanity, and tips for sharing your spaces without losing your shirt. Half the battle is knowing what "fits" - what fits into your season, your stage, and your community. This workshop will help you to find the perfect fit.
Two-hour (double session) - Friday

Social Media Marketing for Your Theatre    Jacob Coakley

Press coverage for the arts is diminishing, which means theatres have to find new avenues for reaching their intended audience and convincing them to come see a play. The good news is that thanks to the Internet there are more ways than ever to reach your audience. In this workshop we'll cover a few of the new ways you can reach out to all of your fans on the Internet, including Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp! and more. As with all things new, you can't use the old way of interacting, so we'll also discuss the online etiquette and form of each new media branch in order to maximize its potential. And to convince you this isn't all a waste of time, we'll also talk about strategies for measuring the success of your new media campaign.
Two-hour (double session) - Saturday

God Of Your Own Universe
Sean K. Thompson

Award-winning playwright/screenwriter and bestselling novelist Sean K. Thompson presents a humorous, entertaining, and informative workshop on how to take the little voices in your head and evolve them into characters... how to take your life's "if only's" and transform them into plots... how to take every "oh-yeah??" rebuttal you didn't think of in time and mold it into dialogue... and how to mix all of these into a universe of your own creation: a produced (and hopefully published) play. Sean will walk you though the wonderfully endless possibilities of birthing a play -- from inception in your mind's eye to "graduation" on the stage -- and how to work with the accompanying emotional ups and downs and messiness that make childbirth look easy. With heavy audience participation, Sean will assist you in how to avoid bad authoring decisions such as writing a very special musical episode of "Heroes", how to dress like a real live professional playwright while patronizing a Starbucks, how to get an audience that does not consist entirely of your own family and friends who owe you money, and even how to deal with hate mail addressed to your fictional characters. And, if there's any time left over, he will also tell you how to write a play that someone else will want to produce.

So You Want To Direct - Chester Eitze - an interactive exchange of developing the director's approach, visualizing the physical production, birthing the show, nurturing the actors and analyzing the results. An introduction to Notes on Directing, British director Frank Hauser's notebook, will be shared. Handouts will be available.
Two-hour (double session) - Friday

New York, New York! Simply The Best Group Trips! - Dennis Gilmore

Theatre, Museums, Restaurants, Brunch, Shopping, Tours, Seasonal Events and much more . . . Come join the conversation on how you can make your Theatre Trip an enjoyable and profitable adventure for your theatre and your patrons. We will explore what your trip will include, how much it will cost, how it can be a fund raiser for your theatre and when is the best time to travel. We will give you all the answers to your trip to New York and Broadway!

Costuming - Josh Jordon
Description to come.

Josh Jordan - Born in Pasadena, Josh began theatre training at the age of eight with the Jr. Art Park Players and later from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. Josh went on to receive a BFA in theatre from the College of Santa Fe, in NM, and an AA from FIDM in San Francisco, CA, where he was a nominee for the 1997 Levi Strauss Award.

Making Skull Caps: The art of constructing skull caps for costume headpieces.

Fred White is a 28 year member of the Art Park Players in Deer Park, Texas. He serves on the board of Texas Non-Profit Theater Association for 5 years now and has been Vice President for the last 2 years. Fred is an active actor and director with many local theaters. He also designs and builds costumes and sets for a yearly Mardi Gras Ball through the Krewe of Olympus.

Directing & Acting In-The-Round - DeAnna Hargrove

No backdrops, no cheating-out, no kidding! It's arena theatre and you can learn how to adapt most any script to this intimate, natural performance style. We will discover...

Blown Away, Drowned, and Am I Stupid: The Death and Birth of a Theatre - Kim Mytelka

This workshop examines and discusses the trials and tribulations of being devastated and destroyed by a natural disaster (in this case, Hurricane Ike), and finding the ways and means of starting over again, and believe it or not finding the silver lining!

Taming the Beast - Meeting the Design Challenges in a Difficult Space - Jim Wadzinski

You have to put a set onstage, design lights, or create sound in a new or difficult theatre. Put on your creativity cap and rise to the occasion. Jim will discuss some of the challenges he has encounter and conquered. Great chance to bring any special projects or problems you would like some help with.

The Story Walk
Engela Edwards

This physical workshop includes theatre games for actors, which illuminate energy, ensemble, focus, creativity, and trust through stage movement, audience awareness, and improvisation. This very theatrical workshop has practical applications when developing your character. The ideas explored relate to self-awareness, setting and achieving goals, teamwork, and creating in a positive environment.

Texas Commission on the Arts
Brenda Tharp

Brenda Tharp, Program Administrator, joined the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) in 1996 and currently serves as the administrator for the Theater and the Touring Presenters Performing Arts Panels. As the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator, she is a state resource for making the arts accessible for all people. During her tenure at TCA, Tharp has successfully completed certification in the Texas Accessibility Academy, the National Cultural Access Initiative, and the National Endowment for the Arts' Art and Accessibility Symposium. Additional duties at TCA include administering the Young Masters Scholarship program, as well as the Health & Human Services component of Arts Respond grants, and working with the TCA Touring Roster applications in Dance, Theater, and Storytelling. She has reviewed grants for other state arts agencies and received the Ovation Award from Texas Nonprofit Theatres for outstanding service to the field. As an arts administrator, Tharp worked with a variety of arts groups, including: the Performing Arts Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin, the Austin Circle of Theaters, Zachary Scott Theatre Center, PlayFest - a professional children's theater festival, the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, and the City of Austin Cultural Contracts office. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor's degree in the American Studies honors program and a minor in Business. Additionally, Tharp is registered as a tribal member of the Cherokee nation.

Arts Advocacy and Texans for the Arts
Joe Wilson

Joseph R. Wilson is the Director of Grants at the Houston Arts Alliance. In his capacity, Joe oversees a staff to administer competitive grants programs that distribute over $2.5 million City dollars to an average of 150 arts organizations plus 20-30 individual artists each year. Additionally Joe administers state, county and other grant funding programs. Joe counsels grantees as required to meet the legal requirements of the various grant programs and supervises the audit of their reports. He often represents HAA in community workshops and gatherings and is President of the statewide advocacy organization, Texans for the Arts.

Prior to his position at the Houston Arts Alliance, Joe served in senior administrative capacities in Kansas City, MO including Director of Programs at the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, General Manager and Executive Director of Kansas City's Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, and Executive Director of the historic 1,080 seat Folly Theatre in Kansas City. Before Kansas City, he served as Executive Director of the 1928 historic 1,800 seat Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Detroit for nine years.

Joe received an Ars Baccalaureate in English & Speech at Regis University in Denver, a Masters in Theatre Directing at the University of Connecticut, and did post-graduate work in Theatre at The University of Michigan while on a Shubert Theater Fellowship. He served as General Manger and Adjunct Professor in Theatre for the University of Michigan Professional Theatre Program in Ann Arbor, and created the program for Masters in Theatre Management.

At times taking a leave of absence from The University, he served as General Manager for two summer stock theatres.

Joe is a former board member of League of Historic American Theatres, Arts Presenters, Kansas City Jazz Commission and has served on or chaired various grant panels for National Endowment for the Arts, Michigan Council of the Arts, Ohio Arts Council and Missouri Arts Council, Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance.