Milwaukee Rep Announces Keynote Speaker and Session Leaders for Intersections Summit

In March more than 130 community engagement practitioners, educators and artists from 26 states and 76 organizations will convene at Milwaukee Repertory Theater for the Intersections Summit, a first of its kind conference for regional theaters.

The submit, being held March 23- 25, 2018, will feature Keynote speaker Carmen Morgan the founder and director of artEquity, a national program that provides tools, resources, and training to support the intersection of art and activism. Along with Morgan, session leaders range from regional theater staff, artists and engagement scholars and practitioners.

Carmen Morgan is a national consultant leading conversations at the forefront of the field on equity, diversity, and inclusion issues. She and has provided leadership development, organizational planning and coaching for staff, executives, and boards for over 100 non-profit organizations. Carmen is on the faculty of Yale School of Drama where she addresses issues of identity, equity, and inclusion in the arts and has provided customized resources to theaters and arts organizations in the US and Canada, including Cal Shakes, Portland Center Stage, Steppenwolf, New York Foundation for the Arts, Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Center Theatre Group, to name a few. Carmen is a founding member of the California Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), a former Human Services Commissioner, and is currently on the Board of Directors for Black Women for Wellness, a community-based organization serving women in South Los Angeles. Carmen's work is rooted in popular education, community organizing, and a commitment to social justice. She remains dedicated to community building and activism, and has worked in the non-profit sector for over 20 years.

Discussion and breakout sessions during the Intersections Summit will be led by innovators in the field from around the country including Lucy O. Ahlbornand Anne McNamee Keels (Adventure Stage Chicago), Paula Alekson (McCarter Theatre Center), cultural strategist Claudia Alick, Maria Asp and Ellie McKay (Children's Theatre Company), Nan Barnett (National New Play Network), Chad Bauman (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Jeannene Bragg (Curious Theatre), Marcie Bramucci (People's Light), Doug Borwick (ArtsEngaged), Megan Carney (About Face Theatre), Kathryn Dawson (The University of Texas at Austin), Megan Diehl (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival), Stephanie Etheridge Woodson (Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University), Brian Francoise (Everyman Theatre), Kyle Gray (Santa Fe Opera), Leah Harris (Dallas Theater Center), Dwayne Hartford and Steve Martin(Childsplay), Israel Jiménez (Arizona Theatre Company), Pam Korza (Animating Democracy), playwright May Lee-Yang, Michelle Lopez-Rios (The Theatre School at DuPaul University), Lucia Lozano and Sheri Williams Pannell (First Stage), David Mallette (Management Consultants for the Arts), Rebecca Martinez and Michael Rohd (Center for Performance and Civic Practice), Anita Maynard-Losh (Arena Stage), Erica Nagel (McCarter Theatre Center), Elizabeth Nearing (Long Wharf Theatre), Brenna Nicely (American Repertory Theater), Rebecca Noon (Trinity Rep), director Rebecca Novick, Coya Paz(Free Street Theater), Mathew Schwarzman ("Beginner's Guide to Community-based Arts"), Joanne Seelig Lamparter (Imagination Stage), Mary Sutton(Alley Theatre), Kelsey Tyler (Portland Center Stage at The Armory), Mark Valdez (Mixed Blood Theatre/ALLIANCE THEATRE), Amy Wratchford (The American Shakespeare Center) and Joelle Worm (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee).

At the heart of the Intersections Summit is the recognition that community engagement efforts constantly intersect with the work of others-with colleagues in other areas of our organizations, with organizers and leaders in our communities, with donors, trustees, audiences, and artists. TheIntersections Summit is an opportunity for practitioners and supporters of community engagement to name the tensions and the strengths that occur at these intersections, to build shared capacity across institutional and geographic borders, and to envision a future for community engagement in the American theater.

Support for the Intersections Summit is provided by Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Mpact Program, a new initiative designed to use the theater's assets to create bridges between disparate communities, bring us together in the examination of varying worldviews, and discover creative ways in which programming can address community needs and maximize our collective opportunities. Mpact is generously supported by Northwestern Mutual, the Lubar Family Fund for Engagement and Education and the Herzfeld Foundation. Participation in the Intersections Summit is free of charge and by invitation only due to capacity limitations.

The Intersections Summit will take place this March 23-25, 2018 at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Portions of the Intersections Summit will be livestreamed onHowlroundTV, and you can participate via social media by tagging #IntersectionsSummitMKE. Please visit www.MilwaukeeRep.com/IntersectionsSummit for more information.