NETneXt National Circle-Up Series - Fall 2023 Events
Join us online and in New Orleans for a series of NETneXt National Circle-Up events in September & October!
The national ensemble arts community is uniquely poised to navigate this moment of cultural change. NOW is our moment to come together to dream, plan, and actualize an evolutionary pivot to ensure a vital future for ensemble companies and artists, and for NET. Help turn the transformational practices of ensemble creation on NET itself to ignite our collective imagination and co-create what’s NEXT!
ABOUT THE SERIES
Designed and led by the NETneXt Bridge Ensemble (a transitional team drawn from the NET membership), the NETneXt National Circle-Up events are a call to action. The Fall 2023 series invites all current and past NET members into the community engagement phase of NETneXt, our collaborative process to devise and plan the future of NET.
This second phase of NETneXt is organized as a series of participatory community investigations that will “circle up” the NET membership for collaborative research and development (Co-R&D). To start, six online sessions (Sept 20-Oct 16) will lead up to a weekend-long, in-person/hybrid national gathering in New Orleans (Oct 20-22) with regional and online options for remote participation. Following these Fall 2023 events, we will continue this work through additional online NETneXt Co-Creation Circle sessions (through the end of 2023) with our national membership, colleagues from the broader arts field, and natural allies beyond our sector. We will then synthesize our learning into a formal operational plan (Winter/Spring 2024) to chart our path forward to what’s NEXT for NET.
Intended to inform and fuel a collective re-envisioning of NET, the Fall 2023 NETneXt National Circle-Up events will focus on:
sharing our stories and exploring ensemble practice in the arts and beyond (Sept 20 & Oct 4);
building intentional and specifically ensemble-rooted community agreements (Sept 27 & Sept 30);
and expanding our learning around solidarity economy networks for resource sharing (Oct 11), and practices for community care and accountability (Oct 16).
As we map the ensemble community’s achievements, assets, aspirations, and needs, we will explore ways that artist-led ensembles and collectives are uniquely positioned in the current performing arts ecology; what our collective power and untapped potential might be amid the shifting cultural landscape; and what organizational structures and shared commitments the NET community needs to build to best support and accomplish this work.
The NETneXt process will center frameworks for anti-racism, equity, and justice, through ways of seeing that are indigenous, intergenerational, interdependent, intersectional, and (playfully) imaginative.
NETneXt: New Orleans
At the heart of our community process, this NETneXt National Circle Up will activate our work both in person in New Orleans and virtually for those who can’t attend in person. Taking place over three days (October 20-22), this Circle-Up gathering is designed and produced by the NETneXt Bridge Ensemble with the support of NET’s staff and local NET members.
Throughout the weekend, we will ground ourselves by asking:
To evolve to a co-created, thriving, and sustainable future for the ensemble arts, and for NET – what collective commitments for engaged action and shared accountability are needed from the NET community?
What’s NEXT? And what does the NET that gets us there look like?
Transformative Justice: Community Care & Accountability (Zoom)
This Circle-Up session invites NET members to engage in crucial conversations around harm, healing, reckoning, repair, and reimagining. We will focus on how to both celebrate and critically examine our history as a field. Through case studies, panel discussions, and interactive dialogue, this peer-based knowledge exchange will delve into real-world applications, challenges, and breakthroughs in incorporating Transformative Justice and harm reduction principles within ensemble practices. Come help us forge a path toward a more equitable and sustainable future for arts ensembles and the NET community.
Solidarity Economy: Mutual Aid & Resource Sharing (Zoom)
A community learning panel on the intersection of Solidarity Economy frameworks and “Ensemble Practice.” Using a peer-based “popular education” approach, we’ll build a shared understanding of Solidarity Economy principles, tools, and practices, as they align with the NET membership’s ensemble values, collaborative processes, and shared leadership structures. We will explore together how the Solidarity Economy model can activate our collective power and help ensembles and NET to thrive.
Imagining & Building NET’s Future (Zoom)
This community devising workshop aims to ignite our collective imagination about what a new, co-created, and evolutionary version of NET might look like – rooted in ensemble practice and designed with care to address both the world we’re in NOW, and our boldest aspirations for what could come NEXT.
Community Agreements: Harm Reduction & Repair (Zoom)
In this virtual Circle-Up, we’ll draft a set of community agreements for harm reduction, accountability, and repair within NET, which the full NET community will refine and adopt as a living document at the NETneXt: New Orleans National Circle-Up in October. We’ll begin to identify helpful Transformative Justice practices around reconciliation and restoration (and will continue this work in the Transformative Justice: Community Care & Accountability Circle-Up on October 16, and at NETneXt: NOLA). We live in a world of hurt and harm, but also of care and creativity. With this in mind, we ask attendees to bring your lived wisdom, embodied experience, and sense of imaginative play to this work session.
Community Agreements Within Ensembles (Zoom)
How can we engage with and care for each other during the NETneXt national process, and beyond? As ensemble members and collaborative artists, we all have practices and ways of communicating. What are our shared expectations and commitments when we gather as a NET community? What should they be? In this first community agreement Circle-Up, we’ll start to develop collective language through peer-based knowledge exchange, listening, and learning. This will be an active work session to share and collect examples of community and collaboration agreements from the NET membership. Please bring your own offerings, lived experiences, and curiosities.
Community Stories: Helping Each Other Thrive (Zoom)
This first virtual Circle-Up event is an interactive storytelling, listening, and dreaming session to explore what binds us as a national ensemble arts community, what we gain by coming together, and how we are uniquely positioned to navigate this moment of cultural change.
NET Re-MET: A Virtual Mixer
Join NET for an informal virtual mixer on Monday, March 27 or Wednesday, March 29 at 5 pm - 6pm PT / 7 pm - 8 pm CT / 8pm - 9pm ET.
BREAK/through 2022
In hard times, what keeps us going? How do we safeguard our individual and collective health and well-being, tend to our tender hearts, and spark our creative spirits? How can ensemble practice—with its roots in shared power structures and collaborative processes—be a powerful tool in cultural organizing and movements for justice and collective liberation?
Online Programming
Building off our last Community Forum, we invited the NET community to gather again on Friday, September 3, 2021 around the remote connections made by individual and ensemble members this year. NET’s Community Forum: Continuing the Work heard directly from a group of our Winter 2020/2021 NET/TEN Remote Connection Mini-Grants recipients who opted to share their experiences in a live-discussion format, and were eager to dialogue with the NET community.
Featured Remote Connections made by individual and ensemble members: A Host of People, Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Duke City Repertory Theatre, Four Larks, One World Circus, Roadside Theater, Sayda Trujillo, and Wry Crips Disabled Women's Theatre
Inspiration On-Demand
In celebration of our 25-year mark in 2021, NET launched a year-long series to ignite the imagination: Inspiration On-Demand: Creators in Conversation. Each month, NET Board members joined their own mentors and other artists they admire in conversation. The archived recordings are now available for viewing.
Ensemble MacroFest USA 2020
COVID-19 UPDATE:
DUE TO THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK, NET'S NEXT TWO SCHEDULED MACROFEST EVENTS -- DENVER (APRIL 23-26) AND NEW ORLEANS (MAY 21-24) -- WILL BE POSTPONED.
We will continue to monitor the state of the outbreak as well as federal and local guidelines, and will make decisions with our host partners about the status of upcoming, in-person EMFUSA2020 events that are scheduled for June 2020 and beyond, as the situation continues to evolve.
Since we imagine that the "state of the art" for the ensemble community in 2020 will be defined, in large part, by the impact of COVID-19, we’re also envisioning new ways to connect (such as our virtual Town Hall) for these related conversations about how we’re creating our art, sustaining our companies, sharing our resources, and building our resilience in response. We’ll share info about these first of these new online sessions in the coming weeks, and will continue to keep you informed of schedule changes for the lineup of in-person EMFUSA2020 events as they emerge. We look forward to being with you (in person or online) soon.
ANNOUNCING NET'S ENSEMBLE MACROFEST USA 2020!
By the end of 2020, over 100 NET ensemble members will be celebrating either a milestone anniversary (in a multiple of five), or an anniversary of over 20 or 40 years in operation. The legacy of ensemble practice is strong, and we're taking the year to grow our network, take stock of our work thus far, and envision our community's path forward.
Join NET for Ensemble MacroFest USA 2020, a year-long, rolling, nationwide celebration of ensemble theater, featuring events in Albuquerque, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, Vermont, Western Massachusetts, and beyond. EMFUSA 2020 will explore the “state of the art” of ensemble practice and performance-making in the U.S. Each event will feature opportunities for work, model, and resource-sharing; group learning focused on building equitable ensemble practices; and region-specific sessions based on the event's location.
Upcoming events include:
Apr 23-26 | Denver, CO POSTPONED
with Su Teatro’s 6th Ever WordFest/Artists of Color Summit
May 21-24 | New Orleans, LA POSTPONED
with Alternate ROOTS & Mondo Bizarro
Jul 16-19 | San Francisco, CA
with foolsFURY’s FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble and Devised Theater
Jul 30-Aug 2 | Amherst, MA
with Ko Festival of Performance’s ENSEMBLE: Seeding the Future Convening
Sep 9-13 | Putney/Brattleboro, VT
with Sandglass Theater’s Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival: Roots and Wings
Oct 22-25 | Utica, MS
with Sipp Culture's Harvest Gathering
Nov 6-8 Hartford, CT
with NEFA NTP-National Theater Project’s Regional Convening
...and more locations and dates to be announced soon!
Past Events:
Read more about our first event, which took place New York City, January 10-11, 2020 here.
Mar 12-15 | Albuquerque, NM - CANCELLED
with Tricklock Company’s Revolutions International Theatre Festival
NET TLC Ensemble Exchange Lab
In response to NET members’ requests for more art-focused, hands-on opportunities to connect, learn, and share together, NET hosted our first Ensemble Exchange Lab this summer (July 1-7, 2019) in Ely, Minnesota to support collaborative knowledge-sharing and field cross-pollination.
Offered in partnership with NET member Tofte Lake Center (TLC), the Lab gathered an intimate group of NET-member-affiliated, ensemble-minded artists from around the country for practice-centered exchange and creative exploration in a retreat setting.
WHEN
NET TLC Ensemble Exchange Lab week:
July 1-7, 2019 (arrive Monday 7/1, depart Sunday 7/7)
WHAT
Tailored to the particular needs and interests of the accepted participants (and to be co-designed in collaboration with them), the week-long NET TLC Ensemble Exchange Lab balanced group activity, peer skill-sharing, technique and methodology exchanges, facilitated conversation, dramaturgical feedback, professional development coaching, and self-directed personal work and retreat time.
Specifically, the experience included:
Space and time to connect, co-create, and reflect in community and in nature with a small group of like-minded ensemble artists and practitioners.
Opportunities to work and play with ensemble-based peers: share information, techniques, tools, inspiration, ideas, and approaches to ensemble practice and collaborative creation; discuss the unique rewards and challenges of artmaking and working in ensemble; and explore, question, and imagine together.
Meeting design, facilitation, and dramaturgical feedback (tailored to participants’ needs) from TLC founder and dramaturg Liz Engelman and NET Board member Todd London.
Professional development guidance in organizational development, financial management, fundraising, or other requested areas with NET Executive Director Alisha Tonsic (tailored to participants’ needs).
Access to venues for creative explorations with the group and on your own: library, dance/yoga studio, art studios, workspaces, and numerous outdoor locations.
Shared lodging in one of three artist-in-residence cabins.
Cabins have full kitchens, private bathrooms/showers, 1-2 bedrooms/sleeping areas (each with 1-2 beds), and lake views.
Applicants are asked to indicate their preferences for shared or private sleeping arrangements (see “Costs” below).
Bedding, towels, and all cooking/serving items (pots, pans, utensils, plates, glasses, etc.) are provided.
Kayaks, paddle boards, canoes, and a sauna for exploring and enjoying the lake.
A group welcome dinner and send-off dinner on the first and last nights of the residency, as well as other shared meals throughout the week. Shared potluck dinners, picnics, and happy hour meet-ups at the dock were also coordinated with participants throughout the week as desired; participants were responsible for other meals on their own (each cabin has a full working kitchen).
Free time to explore the TLC property and the nearby small town of Ely...or to simply relax on the dock taking in the landscape and the loons.
Above two photos:
Smith & Shapiro Dance Company in residence at Tofte Lake Center; photos by V. Paul Virtucio
WHERE
Tofte Lake Center is set amidst 12 acres of forested land on the shore of Tofte Lake, a dedicated trout lake surrounded by the Superior National Forest in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. It is located near Ely, MN, approximately 4.5 hours north of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Having just celebrated its 10th anniversary, Tofte Lake Center is a non-profit organization (and NET member!) that provides residencies for artists who crave dedicated time to work on their projects, for creative individuals who seek individual growth through guided workshops or retreats, for organizations that want to make time to re/focus on their goals or mission, and for leaders to gather to exchange ideas with colleagues in their field. Through its artist-in-residence weeks, curated group projects, and guided retreats and workshops, TLC strives to create an environment where self and group expression can be extensively and intensively explored.
For more information about Tofte Lake and traveling to/from the area, visit the TLC website.
WHAT IT COSTS
Through significant support provided by NET and TLC (subsidizing roughly ⅔ of the week’s actual cost), we offered this pilot Ensemble Exchange Lab exclusively to NET members at a highly reduced rate.
Registration fees are per person, and include 6 nights lodging, 2 meals, creative/studio space, facilitated group activity, and peer skill-sharing, with dramaturgical feedback and professional development guidance tailored to attendees’ needs.
$450 per person, shared bedroom (shared w/ 1 roommate)
$600 per person, private single bedroom
Travel costs are the responsibility of the participant. NET can work with accepted participants to help arrange one shared transportation shuttle between TLC and the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport for Monday July 1 arrival and Sunday, July 7 departure, if needed.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications for Summer 2019 are closed. Please see the NET website for future offerings.
NET members in all membership categories (ensemble, affiliate, individual, student) are encouraged to apply. Ensemble and affiliate organizations may apply to send 1-4 representatives.
A note on accessibility: Tofte Lake Center is located in a wilderness setting that includes some natural barriers. Unpaved roads and pathways on the grounds sometimes follow uneven terrain, and ease of access varies by building/facility (ranging from fully-accessible ramp entrances, to rocky stairs). If you have accessibility questions, mobility concerns, or other accommodation requests that you would like to discuss prior to submitting an application, please reach out to us at exchangelab@ensembletheaters.net. You’ll also be able to indicate any particular needs on the application form, so we can connect with you about ways to support your participation.
QUESTIONS?
Email us at exchangelab@ensembletheaters.net
re:ROUTES - 2018 NET National Gathering & Symposium
NET's national community gathered in the Sonoran Desert for reflection, conversations, sunsets, workshops, local community highlights, leg-dangling poolside hangouts, panels, performances, networking, and Tucson’s renowned All Souls Procession Weekend (a city-wide series of grassroots, art-infused ceremonies, celebrations, and events culminating in a community ritual Procession & Finale performance, produced by NET member Flam Chen/Many Mouths One Stomach)!
This two-city event in Tempe & Tucson, re:ROUTES explored expansive and emerging definitions, notions, and manifestations of ensemble practice and collaborative creation through the themes/priorities of:
Artistic Disciplines, Forms & Aesthetics
Decolonizing Ensemble Theater: Power, Systems, Culture & Traditions
Civic Applications; Community, Ritual & Collective Resistance
Place: Local, Regional & Indigenous Work, Artists & Ideas
Cultural Pluralism, Equity, Justice & Anti-Oppression.
NET's National Gathering & Symposium events brought together performing artists, co-creators, practitioners, producers, scholars, educators, teaching artists, students, cultural workers, organizers, activists, policy makers, funders, and community partners.
CLICK HERE to download our digital program!
Community/Host Partners:
Borderlands Theater; Childsplay; Flam Chen/Many Mouths One Stomach; Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, School of Film, Danceand Theatre; Performance in the Borderlands ASU; Tempe Tourism; Visit Tucson
Watch the complete video archive of Gathering events on HowlRound TV!
Check out the tweets from the conference at: #NETreroutes
Event Sponsors:
Listening Tour Schedule
WHAT: NET Executive Director Alisha Tonsic will travel to 12 cities to meet with ensemble practitioners and collaborative creators. Each stop on the Listening Tour will provide an opportunity for attendees to co-create the future of ensemble performance through learning about NET’s current programs and services, sharing their own needs and practices, and participating in collaborative vision conversations about how to propel ensemble practice to the forefront of our culture. Participants will also have the opportunity to meet old friends and new colleagues committed to ensemble practice and collaborative creation.
WHO: Anyone who is interested in ensemble performance and collaborative creation: current NET members (and not), ensemble theatres, dance collectives, music ensembles, circus or puppet or burlesque troupes, comedy improv groups, cultural or community organizers, educators, students, individual artists and practitioners, faith communities, local legislators, community non-profits and associations, co-ops, the ensemble curious, and more! If you think you should be in the room, please come!
WHY: Because NET has a vision of a world where ensemble practice and collaborative creation are at the forefront of our culture, and we need YOU to make that vision a reality!
This Listening Tour is made possible in part by the EmcArts Innovation Lab for Arts Development Agencies.
Past Forward: 2017 NET National Gathering & Symposium
In partnership with our local host, University of Washington School of Drama, Past Forward: 2017 NET National Gathering & Symposium will bring together NET members, artists, practitioners, educators, scholars, students, activists, organizers, community partners, funders, policy makers, and others with an interest in collaborative creation across disciplines and sectors.
Founded in the mid-1990s by a small group of ensemble theaters, NET has grown and matured over the last two decades into a vibrant national community of 350+ member ensembles, affiliate organizations, individuals, and students from multiple performance disciplines. To celebrate NET’s past 20+ years of expanding ensemble practice, Past Forward will honor the diversity of the ensemble movement’s powerful legacy and collectively imagine our way to what’s next. We’ll explore the ever-evolving, multi-strand threads of our shared ensemble lineage from our beginnings into the beyond, tracing our footprints as we co-create a more expansive, equitable, inclusive path forward together.
Links:
Event Host:
Event Sponsors:
Community Partners:
2015 National Gathering: Maine
2015 National Gathering at Camp Winnebago* in Fayette, Maine.
August 28-August 31, 2015
Gather with us to say farewell to Mark Valdez, share plans about NET’s leadership transition, envision the next phase of NET, make art, see performances, take workshops, sit by the lake, and look at the stars.
*Camp Winnebago is the host site for summer retreats by the Irondale Ensemble Project since 1985
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
More Info:
Event Sponsors:
Symposia 2014-2018
What is Intersection?
Intersection was a symposium and multi-year investigation of the connectivity between professional ensembles and colleges/universities. Between 2014 and 2018 NET partnered with colleges and universities in New York City, NY (Eugene Lang College The New School of Liberal Arts + The New School of Drama); Chicago, IL (Columbia College Chicago); Seattle, WA (University of Washington School of Drama); and Tempe, AZ (Arizona State University) to present these national symposiums at their institutions.
Across the country, NET is seeing an increase in ensemble artists working within academia, with a concomitant increase in the inclusion of ensemble practices within curriculum. In addition, universities and colleges produce many of the next generation of ensemble artists. Recognizing these already significant interrelationships, NET hopes to identify ways to serve more intentionally as a resource and connector within and between sectors.
Among the issues to be addressed in the inaugural symposium will be ensemble pedagogy and training, the practices of ensemble creation within the university structure and time frames, and how NET might serve as a pre-professional bridge between graduates and ensembles, to build connections and strengthen and track post-graduate career progress for ensemble theater-makers.
Selected questions explored:
• How do we create, perform, teach, and practice ensemble within the university setting?
• What do students gain from learning ensemble practice in academia?
• What are examples and hallmarks of successful ensemble/university collaborations?
• How can universities/scholars and ensembles/artists work together to better serve one another and fulfill the goals of each?
• How does or can ensemble artmaking function as academic research? What tools, language, and structures are required?
Intersection explored these questions and others through hands-on learning, peer-to-peer conversations, interdisciplinary workshops and performances, and community brainstorming.
What is an ensemble?
As defined by NET: An ensemble is a group of individuals dedicated to collaborative creation, committed to working together consistently over years to develop a distinctive body of work and practices.
Event Sponsors:
MicroFest USA 2012-2013
What is the impact of art in your community?
The challenges facing America are immense... and the solutions will involve art.
MicroFest USA: Revitalize, Reconnect, Renew was a look at America and the role that art and artists play in creating healthy, vibrant communities. Part festival, part think-tank, the MicroFests galvanized local and national artists/activists/thinkers around placemaking efforts, while creating opportunities for learning exchange and inspiring new models across the United States.
The goals of MicroFest USA were to:
have fun, create art, and strengthen communities;
offer a field-wide learning exchange to strengthen cross-sector, civic-engaged work;
expand how we view and discuss creative placemaking;
foster collaborations among local and national artists and community leaders;
document learning and best practices for art-based community revitalization; and
advance ensemble practices as tools for community development
NET partnered with Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that works to make the arts an integral part of solutions to the challenges of communities.
National Summit & Learning Exchange
Honolulu, HI
Jun 13-18, 2013
View Documentation
Microfest USA: Renew
New Orleans, LA
Jan 17-20, 2013
View Documentation
Microfest USA: Reconnect
Harlan, KY/Knoxville, TN
Oct 25-28, 2012
View Documentation
Microfest USA: Revitalize
Detroit, MI
Aug 17-19, 2012
View Documentation
What is the Theater we want to create?
One Festival - 3 Cities. From October 2010 through February 2011, NET hosted a Micro-Festival in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Designed to build a national conversation in the ensemble theatre field around aesthetics, culture, and the ways ensembles create new work that defies traditional theatre practices and forms, these 2 and half-day “Micro-Fests” were a combination of performances and performance responses, catalyst conversations, master classes, and intentional conversations to provoke a deeper dialogue around the theme of each festival. We’re witnessing an evolution within the theater field: a shift towards Ensemble.
Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia, PA
Files: