Part-Time Job: 10 Hrs/Wk Managing Conspire Theatre, Austin

Posted at 501(C) Community:







Part Time Managing Director for Conspire Theatre, Austin

Conspire Theatre is a 501c(3) non-profit arts organization that facilitates theatre and creative writing programs for women during and post-incarceration in Austin, TX. We provide a creative approach to healing from trauma, increasing self-esteem, and reducing internal and external stigma. Our vision is that every woman realizes her potential as a creative, worthy being.

Since 2009 we have taught weekly classes for women at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle. In July 2013 we launched Performing Possibilities, an ensemble-based theatre program for women who have been released. For more information, please visit www.conspiretheatre.org.

Conspire Theatre seeks a quarter-time (10 hours/week) Managing Director to oversee the day-to-day operations of the theatre and help lead the company to continued growth and success. Initially the position will be for 4 months. Pending funding, the position could expand and continue long-term. Initially, this is a quarter time (10 hours/week) position, and offers a $600 monthly stipend. This position will be expected to work from home, with highly flexible hours.

Applications due by January 17; start date is February 1, 2014.

Click to read full job description and contact information at www.CTXLT.com

Conspire Theatre, Austin: Interviews with Artists Working with Incarcerated Women

Discussions with the co-founders of Conspire Theatre, Austin, TX: Katherine Craft in a KLRU interview from February, 2013, and Michelle Dahlenburg speaking with www.cuedialogue.org on October 11:

Michelle Dahlenburg is the co-Artistic Director of the Austin, TX-based Conspire Theatre, a company that provides theatre programs for women during and post-incarceration. I recently talked with Michelle about her work.

So to begin, could you talk a little bit about Conspire? Your mission, your work, how you got involved.

Sure. So the mission of Conspire Theatre is “to offer incarcerated women and their allies a healing and empowering experience through theatre and creative writing. Our vision is that every woman realizes her potential as a creative, worthy being.” We’re working on shifting some of the language with our mission statement, actually. We don’t like the label of “incarcerated women,” and are trying to shift more towards “Theatre with Women During and Post-Incarceration” as our tagline, especially as our projects grow and change.

Oh interesting. So has that become part of your focus as well, working with women post-incarceration?

Yes, just recently! Before I get into that, though, I’ll give you a quick background of conspire and how I got involved, if that’s okay?

Yes, that’s perfect.

In 2009 my friend Katherine Craft had just finished her MA in Applied Theatre. She founded Conspire Theatre in Austin as a 10-week theatre/writing workshop for women incarcerated at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle, TX (near Austin). Meanwhile, in 2008, I was in Chicago preparing to go to graduate school in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities)at UT. I found out about Still Point Theatre Collective in Chicago, who do many great projects, one of which is working with women during and post-incarceration. I saw their show “Strong Women” with released women and got really interested in working with women currently incarcerated. I met with the artistic director there and we talked about a possible internship with them. So in summer 2009 after my first year of school, I went back to Chicago and did an internship with Still Point. I got to co-teach a class at the Cook County Jail with another teaching artist. It was really hard, and intense at times, but the work was incredibly rewarding. I loved it.

So then I went back to Austin and happened to meet Kat. We both had a similar interest in using joy and play as a way of connecting with women in jail, as opposed to having the women just talk about why they were in jail/prison (also important, but sometimes tends to [. . . ]. In summer 2011, I was finishing my thesis, and Kat asked if I would be interested in teaching at the TCCC with her. I said yes, and we had a fantastic 10-week workshop. At the end of the summer we decided to take the next step and move Conspire Theatre from an occasional 10-week project to becoming an organization.

Here’s how the programming stands now: the whole project is called “The Possibilities Project.” It has two parts: “Rehearsing Possibilities” and “Performing Possibilities” RP is the in-jail program. We have two weekly classes, one in minimum security and one in max. They last about 1.5 hours each and are pretty self-contained each week because the participant turnover is so high. So it’s very difficult to do something like a play. So we structure it so there’s a small sharing of some kind at the end of each class, because we might never see some of them again. So that’s challenging. It’s taught me a lot about how to create space and connections REALLY quickly.

(read more at www.cuedialogue.org)

PERFORMING POSSIBILITIES, Conspire Theatre, July 14, 2013

Sunday, July 14^th at 5:00 pm

The Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo St Austin, TX 78702

(click for map)

Tickets available on-line:

Since 2009, Conspire Theatre has led theatre and creative writing workshops for women incarcerated at the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle. This July marks Conspire’s first project with women in the free world. On Sunday, July 14^th, Conspire Theatre will premiere its first ever public performance, Performing Possibilities.

From July 12^th through July 14^th, Conspire will lead a three-day theatre workshop with women who have been to jail or prison. This will culminate in a public performance and community dinner catered by Bridget Dunlap’s new restaurant Mettle.

Over the final quarter of the 20^th century, U.S. criminal justice policies underwent a period of intense politicization and harsh transformation. Draconian sentencing laws and get-tough correctional policies led to an unprecedented increase in jail and prison populations, driving the United States’ rate of incarceration head and shoulders above that of other developed nations[1]. The number of women serving sentences of more than a year grew by 757% between 1977 and 2004—nearly twice the 388% increase in the male prison population[2].

Women coming out of jail and prison face stigma that make finding stable housing and employment difficult, but many make huge efforts come back into their communities and make positive change. Join us as women tell their own stories of struggle and triumph, sorrows and joy set against the larger backdrop of incarceration in Texas.

About Conspire Theatre: Founded in 2009, Conspire Theatre offers incarcerated women and their allies a healing and empowering experience through theatre and creative writing. Kat Craft and Michelle Dahlenburg are the co-Artistic Directors. To learn more visit www.conspiretheatre.org or watch a short video about our work at http://www.klru.org/women-and-girls-lead/kat.php. 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Conspire Theatre fundraiser at IndieGoGO

Please support Conspire Theatre’s life-changing workshops for women inside the Travis County Correctional Complex. 

Conspire Theatre, a sponsored project of the Austin Creative Alliance, offers incarcerated women and their allies a healing and empowering experience through theatre and creative writing. For three years, we’ve been running Rehearsing Possibilities, a successful theatre and creative writing program for women in minimum and maximum security at the Travis County Correctional Complex (TCCC) near Austin, Texas.

Thanks to last year's campaign, this year we served more women than ever before.

Click to go to the IndieGoGo page where Conspire Theatre seeks to raise $6000.

Upcoming: Conspire Theatre Fundraiser Happy Hour at Lustre Pearl, July 31

presents

Happy Hour at Lustre Pearl

Tuesday, July 31, 5 - 8 p.m.

at Lustre Pearl, 97 Rainey St. 78701 (click for map)

10% of sales will support Conspire's work with incarcerated women at the Travis County jail

Conspire Theatre, a sponsored project of the Austin Creative Alliance, offers incarcerated women and their allies a healing and empowering experience through theatre and creative writing. We've been working with women incarcerated in the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle for three years now. This program, Rehearsing Possibilities, uses theatre as a powerful tool to help women address trauma and addiction, build community and self-confidence, and teach communication and conflict resolution skills

We're kicking off our annual online IndieGogo fundraiser July 31st, and we want you to join us! Don't worry - there's NO cover charge. All you need to do is show up, have some wonderful drinks (alcoholic or non) at Lustre Pearl, and know that 10% of all sales for the night go to Conspire Theatre!

"Conspire reaches down inside us and pulls talent from us we never even imagined we had. It unlocks doors that have been locked for so many years and allows us to be who we really are." - Rehearsing Possibilities participant.

The Uses of Joy: Conspire Theatre, by Katherine Catmull, Austin Chronicle

Found in this week's edition of

The Uses of Joy

When Conspire Theatre helps incarcerated women, it's all in the game

by Katherine Catmull

"In a very serious world, we must not forget the importance of play." – Conspire Theatre's mission statement

I used to work in an office with a rule about when we could take lunch, which was a constant source of annoyance to me. What if I get busy and don't notice the time till 2 p.m.? Get your laws off my ham sandwich, oppressor!

I would not do so well in prison. In the women's minimum security unit of the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle, razor wire loops-the-loop along chain-link fences, keeping you in, keeping everything you love out. When prisoners walk between buildings, they must keep their hands behind their backs and stay just outside of one of the long red stripes painted on the sidewalk. And of course, that's the least of the structures and strictures of life for incarcerated women.

That's what makes what Conspire Theatre brings to the prison so odd.

It looks like a classroom, any classroom: cinder block walls, fluorescent lights, a whiteboard. (As we suspected in junior high: Classrooms and prisons have a lot in common.) Ten women enter, some in their 30s or 40s, most younger, all wearing prison uniforms of wide gray and khaki stripes. Prisoners still wear stripes – who knew.

Read full text by Katherine Catmull at the Austin Chronicle . . .

Video Appeal from Conspire Theatre for Support via Indiegogo

Received directly: a video appeal for support for Conspire Theatre, a program supporting incarcerated women

Conspire Theatre from Katherine Craft on Vimeo.

[Apple readers: can't see the video? Click here to go to Vimeo]

Since 2009, Conspire Theatre has been conducting theatre and creative writing workshops with incarcerated women at the Travis County Correctional Complex. Our class gives these women a space in which to try on new possibilities for making different choices, and for exploring what holds them back in their lives. For many women, our class is "the only place where no one tells us to shut up and sit down." Both the Travis County Sheriff's Office and the women themselves welcome our presence, and now we want to do more.

There's a new program at the jail for women in Maximum Security, and the social services coordinator has invited us to start a brand new class for them. Conspire Theatre seeks to raise $3,000 by September 1st to enable us to expand our long-running program for incarcerated women into Maximum Security at the Travis County Jail. You can help us by making a gift today!

• Here is a link to the fundraising campaign we're running on IndieGogo now - there's a fabulous video on the page that explains what we do. Click here to see it.


• CultureMap Austin also wrote an article about Conspire that went live today. Click here to read.


• You can also read more about us on our website at www.conspiretheatre.org