Fall Conference 2020

The official start of the 2020 fall events! Check in at the virtual “registration desk” to get acclimated to our online platform, then get to know your colleagues with some one-on-one digital speed-dating.

In business, L. Michelle Smith has lived it.

She is the CEO/founder of no silos communications llc a media and consulting company that blends talent development and strategic communications to develop high-performing, women executive leaders.

She is an ICF-certified executive and business coach at her private practice, NSC Coaching, where she has worked with executives at American Express, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, AT&T, Lenovo, Zapier, Mary Kay, Warner Media, CNN and more. She is also the lead trainer at NSC eLearning, a knowledge platform which houses online courses and other digital content for e-learning centered on leadership.

L. Michelle is also the author of No Thanks: 7 Ways to Say I’ll Just Include Myself: A Guide to Rockstar Leadership for Women of Color in the Workplace.

She is the creator, executive producer and host of The Culture Soup Podcast® which is heard in 38 countries and has been consistently at the top of the rankings on Apple Podcasts in the Business/Business News and Business/Entrepreneurship categories. Black Enterprise editors named it one of the top 35 podcasts for 2019, and the show’s episode “The Coaching Corner” has also been added to LinkedIn LIVE, Facebook Watch, Twitter/Periscope and YouTube Live Events.

Previously, she raced to the officer ranks in no time in her career, making vice president before the age of 30. Then she “fell” into entrepreneurship, marking her agency’s 7-figure sales milestone in year 5. She’s held officer-level positions for about half her career, but most recently answered the call at AT&T to build their D&I corporate communications capability from scratch. She did that in two years, then built another innovative, award-winning business model to complement it, inclusion marketing.

She has more than 25 years of experience as an elite, award-winning communicator and integrated marketer at global agencies, in corporate and her own boutique agency.

She is one of the most-sought after contemporary keynote speakers, facilitators, panelists and hosts on topics surrounding technology, business and culture, and has been featured across the country on some of the most important stages across multiple industries. Previously a contributor to Black Enterprise, L. Michelle is an adjunct professor of strategic communications at the Texas Christian University Bob Schieffer College of Communications where she also sits on the Board of Visitors.

Breakout affinity groups by role and department to get to know each other, discuss how everyone has been handling the unprecedented events of the past year, and assess how we want to move forward as a musical theatre community. These sessions will not be recorded.

Executive Leadership
New Works/Literary
Marketing
Development
Education/Community Engagement
Colleges/Universities

Want another group? Let us know!

New Forms of New Musicals
What new trends and technologies are driving development in musical theatre? What stay-at-home innovations will we keep even when we return to our theatres?

Moderated by Ciera Iveson (NAMT), with Marsha Brooks (Brooks & Distler), Kirsten Childs (Festival Alumni Writer, The Bubbly Black Girl… & Funked Up Fairy Tales), Tralen Doler (Broadway On Demand), Jason Eagan (Ars Nova), Tim Kashani (Apples & Oranges Arts) and Alison Koch & Kent Nicholson (Playwrights Horizons).

New Works for Old Audiences
When your subscribers expect “traditional” “classic” musicals but you want to branch out, what do you do? Find the right new musicals for your theatre! We’ll look at the wide range of new musical theatre styles to appeal to an equally wide range of audiences — and also examine some of the potential biases at play when we talk about “traditional taste.”

Moderated by Adam Grosswirth (NAMT), with Wayne Bryan (Music Theatre Wichita), Susanna Gellert (The Weston Playhouse Theatre), Robert Lee (NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program) and more to be announced.

Management Collaborations Across Companies
A case study of how Pittsburgh’s arts organizations are sharing resources to save time, money and overhead.

Moderated by Mark Fleischer (Pittsburgh CLO) with Marilyn Coleman (Pittsburgh Cultural Trust), Christopher Hahn (Pittsburgh Opera) and Cindy Opatick (Pittsburgh CLO).

Remote Education and Engagement
Moderated by Lisa Cooney (Paper Mill Playhouse), with Clifford Alexander (Theatre Under The Stars), Jennifer Mysliwy (Shea’s Performing Arts Center), Joyce Presutti (Ogunquit Playhouse).

A group of NAMT theaters has met regularly with AMS Planning & Research for several months to explore the impact of the COVID “intermission” and what it may mean for our organizations and the sector. Many of the questions we face were present before the pandemic, others are deeply entrenched, and some result directly from this extended pause.

Building on AMS’s paper The Long Runway to Return, AMS Principal Steven Wolff will set the context for a conversation moderated by AMS Senior Consultant Meg Friedman (a recovering stage manager!) including three of the discussion group’s regular participants, exploring topics including: What’s changing in the sector, our organizations and our work? What innovations are being explored? How is our purpose changing and is our definition of success changing?

With Steven Wolff & Meg Friedman (AMS Planning and Research), Susanna Gellert (Weston Playhouse), Eric Keen-Louie (La Jolla Playhouse) and Paul Stancato (Timber Lake Playhouse)

Miss part of the Fall Conference due to a conflict or your time zone? Selected sessions, including the keynote, will replay on Hopin until the next day’s programming begins. (You must be registered for the Conference to access this video at this time.)

Check in at the virtual “registration desk” to get acclimated to our online platform, then get to know your colleagues with some one-on-one digital speed-dating.

A message from NEA Chairman Mary Anne Carter

In her work and travels, Seena Hodges (Founder + CEO of The Woke Coach™) often hears people say things like, “I want to better understand how racism continues to erode the fabric of this country,” “I want to be a better, more inclusive organizational leader,” or “I want to know more about how I can make a difference through my organization.” Then, they all end with the same sentence: “But… I don’t know where to start.”

In this follow-up to last year’s workshop, join members of The Woke Coach™ Team for an engaging interaction that challenges all of the excuses that keep us from creating more inclusive, anti-racist organizational practices and being more intentional with our allyship. Participants will leave the session with a plan for executing the work that an authentic commitment to inclusion requires.

About The Woke Coach™
At The Woke Coach™, because we believe that racial equity is the defining issue of our time, we help clients move from ally to accomplice. We do this work by helping humans deepen their analysis, and develop an understanding around issues of racism, bias, allyship, and injustice in order to become the best, most understanding, empathetic version of themselves.

Your exclusive preview of the 32nd Annual Festival of New Musicals and first chance to meet this year’s writing teams!

Plus a special presentation from sponsor Concord Theatricals.

Open to all NAMT members and Premiere Pass holders registered for the Fall Conference or Festival of New Musicals.

New Works Gatekeeping: Disrupting Harmful Models
As leaders of institutions making choices about what work gets seen and who gets hired, nearly all of us at this Conference to some degree control who is allowed into the world of professional musical theatre. As the industry reevaluates and reexamines its practices in the wake of this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests and other social justice movements, what changes are we making at our organizations (including NAMT) to open the gates to all and make sure they stay open?

Moderated by Ciera Iveson and Adam Grosswirth (NAMT), with Blair Russell (Show Shepherd), Kelli Foster-Warder (Theatre Latté Da), Donna Lynn Hilton (Goodspeed Musicals), Natasha Sinha (Playwrights Horizons) and Schele Williams (Black Theatre United).

Making Your Organization More Accessible & Equitable
Real-world advice and best practices for making your hiring practices more open and equitable, plus a look at some new leadership structures being tried in the field.

Moderated by Eric Keen-Louie (La Jolla Playhouse), with Rick Edinger & Megan Mongahan Rivas (Carnegie Mellon University), Leigh Goldenberg & Yury Urnov (The Wilma Theatre) and Paige Price (Philadelphia Theatre Company).

Managing and Collaborating Remotely
Most of us have adapted to working from home in recent months but as those months turn into a year and possibly longer, what are some best practices for managing remote employees, especially in such a collaborative field? We’ll hear from some experts as well as some members on what’s been working for them.

Moderated by Bernie Griffin (The 5th Avenue Theatre), Elisbeth Challener & Regina Pyne (ZACH Theatre), Rachel Hands (Now IT Matters) and Eric Nelson (TRG Arts).

Making Performances More Accessible
Tools and practices for making shows accessible and welcoming to people beyond the “core audience,” both before and after COVID. How are our theatres becoming more open, accessible, affordable and centered in their communities? What additional plans have they made in recent months? And how might responses to COVID such as video and streaming continue in some form after we’re back to “normal” to help us provide greater access to different populations?

Moderated by Orlando Morales (The 5th Avenue Theatre), with Rachel Ciprotti (Seattle Chamber Music Society), Taneisha Duggan (Theaterworks Hartford), Thembi Duncan (Shea’s Performing Arts Center) and Sharron Frazier-McClain (Barrington Stage Company).

Outdoor Concerts & Events
Case studies for different models of working outside until we can get back to our regular stages — in different types of performance and different climates!

Moderated by Mark Hoebee (Paper Mill Playhouse), with Michael Barnard (Phoenix Theatre), Michael Baron & Ashley Wells (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma) Dan Breen (Ogunquit Playhouse) and Maggie LaMee (Barrington Stage Company).

As many of us look forward to getting “back to normal” or a “new normal,” what might we keep from this time? What new skills have we learned? What positive changes have we made? How have our ways of working changed for the better? What new ways have we found to connect with our patrons? What new stories do we want to tell? Please come prepared to share some of your top takeaways from this Conference as we head into the Festival of New Musicals.

Miss part of the Fall Conference due to a conflict or your time zone? Selected sessions, including the keynote, will replay on Hopin until the Festival of New Musicals begins. (You must be registered for the Conference to access this video at this time.)

A casual Q&A session with the theatre and musical theatre representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts. (Open to Fall Conference registrants only.)

With Greg Reiner, Ouida Maedel and Ian-Julian Williams (National Endowment for the Arts).