Theater Matters: Activism, Imagination, Citizenship.

“The questions of equity and inclusion — those questions are the ‘whys’ of theater.” – P. Carl

Can theater promote social justice? Can a play help its audience imagine — and then manifest — a more equitable America? How is art-making an act of engaged citizenship? Acclaimed poet, playwright, and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Claudia Rankine sits down with dramaturg and producer P. Carl, to discuss the ways contemporary theater and performance can help catalyze and promote social justice issues.

Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely; two plays, including Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue; and numerous video collaborations. She is the editor of several anthologies, including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. Rankine is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and teaches at Yale University as the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry.

P. Carl is a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston. He is also a writer and lecturer on theater, gender, inclusive practices, and innovative models for building community and organizations. He is an accomplished theater artist most recently a key creative collaborator (dramaturg and producer) on a range of diverse projects including Claudia Rankine’s new play The White Card. Carl is the founder of the journal HowlRound and co-founder of the subsequent online platform HowlRound Theatre Commons. In 2017 Carl was given a prestigious Art of Change Fellowship from the Ford Foundation, named Theater Person of the Year in 2015 (National Theater Conference), as well as an Alumni of Notable Distinction (University of Minnesota).