From this web page you can peruse our By-laws, look at plans for the ATHE 2001 conference , e-mail our Organizing Collective, read our Newsletter, try our links to related sites, and contibute to our plans for the future of this site.
You can also join our TASC electronic mailing list, begun in August, 1997. Send e-mail message to tasc-l@geneseo. edu. In the body of the message, type "sub tasc-l yourfirstname yourlastname". Omit the quotes and substitute your name where appropriate. Be sure to leave the subject line blank and send no signature file. You can also e mail Melanie Blood, who can add you to the list.The purpose of the Theatre and Social Change focus group (TASC) is to:
1. Recognize the role that theatre with a conscious social perspective has played in the history of world theatre.
2. Promote the research and practice of theatre whose specific focus is the dynamic relationship between theatre and society, and especially cultural analysis and theatre practice and theory which sees itself as an agent for social criticism and/or change.
3. Serve as a focus point for studying those theatres that have created theatre-making processes that can serve as model processes for social change (e.g., collaborative approaches, audience choice, group membership).
4. Incorporate as part of the analysis and training process the discoveries made in cultures historically ignored by the west (e.g., the Third World) such as community animation and theatre for community action.
5. Provide a network through which those making and/or studying people's, political, and otherwise socially active theatre can share work, theory, and support.
For the full text of TASC's By-laws, click here.
ATHE 2001 is titled "Practice, Theory, Technology, and the New Student." All conference submissions must address at least two of the ideas in the conference title.The conference days will change for the 2001 conference: it will begin at noon Thursday and extend to noon Sunday. Along with TASC's many panels that will be presented as part of ATHE 2001 in Chicago, TASC will be sponsoring its fifth Post Conference.
The deadline sor submissions for ATHE 2001 is Nov. 1 2000. Submission forms are online at the ATHE website.Submissions to TASC only should be sent to Melanie Blood, conference planner for 2000-2001, but starting in 2001, you may also send multidisciplinary sessions directly to the conference committee (see the online information at the ATHE website or e mail Melanie if you're still confused)
For more information on the TASC Post-Conference, or to help organiz it, e-mail Mark Weinberg, or Lisa Jo Epstein, post-conference coordinators.
TASC is governed by an Organizing Collective (OC), elected annually at the ATHE conference. The OC is led by our Forum Representative and Conference Planner; other members include our Newsletter Editor, Secretary/Treasurer, and Elections Coordinator. Past members of the OC and the Forum Representative-Elect and the Conference Planner-Elect serve as advisory members. Most business takes place via e-mail, including newsletter suggestions, conference panel selection, and generation of new ideas about the future of TASC.
TASC's 2000-2001 Organizing Collective would love to hear your ideas on theatre and social change and your reaction to this web page. Contact us at the following addresses:
FOCUS GROUP REPRESENTATIVE:
Tim Mitchell mmm14@cornell
CONFERENCE PLANNER (2000-2001)
Melanie Blood blood@geneseo.edu
CONFERENCE PLANNER ELECT (CP for 2002-2003)
Sharon Green shgreen@davidson.edu
NEWSLETTER EDITOR :
Michael Mufson mufson@mailhost2.csusm.edu
SECRETARY/TREASURER
Patricia Herreraherrerapatricia@aol.com
MEMBERSHIP AND ELECTIONS COORDINATOR
Amy Sarnosarnofra@beloit.edu
GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE
Valerie Smithvsmith@messiah.edu
MEMBER AT LARGE:
Lisa Jo Epsteinlisajo@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
PAST OFFICERS ON THE OC:
Beth Cherne cherne.beth@uwlax.edu
Mark Weinberg mweinber@uwc.edu
Cathy Plourde cathy.plourde@att.net
TASC publishes a newsletter three times annually. Beginning in 1998, newsletters will be published in electronic form only. Some topics included in TASC Newsletters include current projects of TASC, issues for advocacy, upcoming festivals and conferences, and TASC events at ATHE conferences. To add yourself to our electronic mailing list, contact our Newsletter Editor.
Click to read our Spring 2000 Newsletter
The Applied and Interactive Theatre Guide, at http://:pages.nyu.edu/~as245/AITG
Interactive Improv Theatre Network, at http://www.augie.edu/relat ed/itn/main.html
The OC has discussed many possibilities for the future of the TASC web site. Ideas include post-mortems of conferences related to TASC, such as the Pedagogy of the Oppressed Conference in Toronto, a syllabus course bank, and reviews of community based or political theatre productions. Let us know your thoughts!
Updated September 2000 by Melanie Blood