publications
Boards Are Broken, So Let’s Break and Remake Them
By Michael J. Bobbitt
American Theatre Magazine, January 2021
Nonprofit theatre boards are unrepresentative, out of touch, and more often oppressive than supportive. We can and must do this better.
There Must Be Happy Endings: On a Theater of Optimism & Honesty
By Megan Sandberg-Zakian
The 3rd Thing, February 2020
"In There Must Be Happy Endings, Megan Sandberg-Zakian offers her readers a gift: a gorgeously written, poetic, evocative account of what theatre is, what theatre has been, and what theatre might be. Weaving together childhood memories, play analyses, theatre criticism, and accounts of directorial practices, Sandberg-Zakian voices an artist and a human who is deeply compassionate, deeply political, and unwavering in her belief that theatre matters. She makes us feel like we’re in the room with her and her various interlocutors—playwrights, actors, designers, directors, and critics—and over a glass of wine or cup of coffee or bowl of ice cream, she allows us to think with her, muse with her, feel with her, imagine with her. Each essay in the book is a gem, its writing polished and its emotion raw; as a whole, they capture the nuances of a theatre artist’s life, her creative processes, her influences, inspirations, worries, frustrations, and most of all, joys." – Stacy Wolf, author of Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America
We Don’t Want Your Statements, American Theatre, or, The Solidarity We Actually Needed
By Al Heartley and Kelvin Dinkins, Jr.
Howlround Theatre Commons, June 2020
What is unconscionable is that some theatres wish to act only when there is staggering evidence of racism and oppression rather than believe the lived experiences of their Black artists, administrators, board members, and audiences.
How Karamu House Went From Deficit to Durability
By Al Heartley
American Theatre Magazine, September 2019
Four years ago the Cleveland theatre was losing money. Now, thanks to savvy, responsive leadership, it’s running a surplus.
What Does a Producer Do?
By Al Heartley
American Theatre Magazine, April 2019
As a new generation of producers become nonprofit artistic leaders, they are redefining the parameters of the job.
The Empty Space: A Look at How Theaters Have Filled Gaps in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
By Al Heartley and Jocelyn Prince
The Nonprofit Quarterly, Fall 2016
There is general consensus among nonprofit arts administrators and boards that our increasingly multicultural society is a reason to embrace diverse perspectives in the arts.
Connectivity in Action
By Jocelyn Prince
Howlround Theatre Commons, October 2013
I now believe that as administrators and artists in non-profit American theaters, we must train ourselves to be allies—not just in our theaters with our co-workers and fellow artists, but also as allies to our audiences in our local communities, in our nation, and in our world.