Welcome to Micro-Fest: USA, The National Summit

Welcome to NET’s National Ensemble Summit 2011: Rowdy, Radical, and Relevant!

The Network of Ensemble Theaters in association with the Minnesota Theater Alliance, the Southern Theatre, and the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota bring you 3 days of art-making, action-oriented dialogue sessions, and wheel-barrow races!

From August 11-14, 2011, the Minneapolis Summit will galvanize conversations from NET’s national initiative, Micro-Fest: USA, exploring the creative process from:
Beginning (Race, Culture and Aesthetics)
Middle (Process: New Work Development) and
End (Genre Defying Work)

This Summit is a convening for theater artists, presenters, funders, cultural workers, and radical thinkers to wrestle, construct, and name the actions that will deepend the impact of ensemble theater.

By day, NET will gather at the University of Minnesota to discuss the field, the organization and the art.  Visionary speakers such as Ricardo Levins Morales and Laurie Carlos will share with us thoughts about leadership in changing cultural climates. Art-making workshops will be led by local and national NET members. We’ll spend time in small groups generating new language for and about ensemble practice. In partnership with the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas we will create a “National Action Plan” for ensembles to do in their own communities.

By night, we will see shows that are a part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and that explore the themes we are focusing on during the Summit.  And of course, we will hang out in restaurants (or the dining hall) and plot the ensemble Revolution – or just hang out with friends talking about theater, life, and love.

On Sunday we will synthesize the weekend’s workshops and conversations with a series of artistic interpretations of the Call to Actions, followed by an afternoon in the park of rowdy games like 3-legged races, regional teams tug-of-war and water balloon battles – because we know that the ensemble that plays together, stays together.

In addition to Summit activities, NET will be providing a Pre-Conference session on August 11 on The ABC’s of Today’s Touring Landscape, led by MK Wegmann from the National Performance Network.