Workshops include:

Devising Civic Theatre Projects | Michael Rohd
You’re beginning a project. You have a central inquiry, or an issue. You have some potential collaborators, and you’re seeking partners in community. What steps help you move towards purpose with intention? What questions help you focus in on aesthetics and strategies? What considerations help you shape process? From partnership building to project design, from developmental practices to workshop structures, from cross-sector approaches to rehearsal room public engagement, this session will help you think through and imagine a project you’ve begun, or build tools for projects yet to come. Based on approaches director Michael Rohd has learned/used to develop projects such as “Witness Our Schools,” “How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes” and “State of Mind,” Devising Civic Theatre Projects will leave you more prepared to center curiosity, engagement, participation and change in your work.

From Images to Evocative Theatrical Worlds  | Silvia Costa
Silvia Costa’s work begins with images—using visual research, physical exploration, and collaboration between these elements to build performances that emerge from the interaction of bodies, objects, sound, and the space itself. Moving fluidly between directing, writing, performing, and designing, she develops interdisciplinary processes that invite artists to think beyond traditional staging and discover new theatrical languages. In this workshop, directors will explore her approach to generating performance material through experimentation, visual thinking, and the transformation of simple stage elements into evocative and symbolic theatrical worlds.

For Workshop descriptions and bios, see La MaMa Symposium page.

For Kenan-sponsored participation, submit an application HERE by June 26, noon ET 

Workshops include: 

Playing Ancient Futures | Daniel Alexander Jones
An invitation to practice rooted in layers of history, embodiment, and speculation interdisciplinary artist Daniel Alexander Jones will lead a cohort in a series of focused contemplations and creative exercises in dialogue with personal pasts, the land, and imagined futures. Participants will write, move, and assemble through daily group experiences and individualized assignments culminating in a processional sharing.

Theatre of War and Rebirth | Vladamir Shcherban
How do you move when a gesture could cost you your freedom? How can you remain creative when reality slips away? How can you express yourself when words are forbidden? Based on one of the most notable contemporary anti-war plays, this workshop will take you on an exciting journey through various theatrical practices and techniques. You will rediscover the power of professional skills, metaphors, live theatre and self-expression. You will also learn how to create theatre from scratch and make art from improvised materials.

For Workshop descriptions and bios, see La MaMa Symposium page.

For Kenan-sponsored participation, submit an application HERE by June 26, noon ET

During the 10-day program, selected playwrights will participate in writing workshops led by Emly Mann while enjoying the peaceful surroundings of the Italian countryside.

Emily Mann is an American playwright, director and screenwriter. She served as the artistic director and resident playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ, from 1990 to 2020. Over the course of her 30-year tenure—during which McCarter won the prestigious Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre—she oversaw more than 160 productions, including more than 40 world premieres. Mann, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, was the first woman to direct on the stage of the Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theatre, the first to become the artistic director of Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, and the first to write plays that became known as “theatre of testimony.” She is the subject of a biography by Alexis Greene, “Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theatre.”

For Workshop descriptions and bios, see La MaMa Symposium page.

For Kenan-sponsored participation, submit an application HERE by June 26, noon ET

La MaMa Umbria program fee, accommodation in shared rooms at La MaMa's historic villa, nutritious home-cooked meals during the symposium, and international airfare are included thanks to the generous support of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.

Transportation from home to airport and airport to LaMaMa Umbria are not included; however, instructions and affordable options will be communicated by the La MaMa Umbria team. Confirmed participants will be responsible for booking and securing all their travel logistics, in collaboration with a member of the Kenan Arts staff. La MaMa Umbria staff will organize group visits to Spoleto and other Umbrian cultural sites. 

June 26, noon ET: Application deadline for the Kenan Institute sponsored opportunity at La MaMa Umbria

June 29–30: Selection committee 

July 2 : Notification to all applicants

July 10: Confirmation of participation 

July 20: All travel must be booked in collaboration with the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts

UNCSA Alumni may choose to apply to one of the three symposium sessions. Selection will be made in consultation with a panel including UNCSA faculty, industry partners, and staff from the Kenan Institute for the Arts based on the following questions:

1. Describe a current artistic inquiry, project, or creative question that is driving your work at this moment. How do you hope participation in the La MaMa Umbria Symposium will deepen, challenge, or expand your approach to theatre-making?
2. The workshops in this year’s symposium explore civic practice, visual dramaturgy, embodiment, memory, ritual, collaboration, theatrical experimentation, and creating documentary theatre. Which workshop session resonates most strongly with your practice, and why have you chosen this workshop?
3. Tell us about a time when collaboration, community engagement, or intercultural exchange significantly shaped your artistic process or perspective. What did you learn from that experience, and how does it continue to inform your work?
4. La MaMa Umbria brings together artists from diverse disciplines, backgrounds, and international contexts in an intensive communal environment. What perspectives, practices, or experiences would you contribute to the cohort, and what are you hoping to learn from fellow participants?

In addition to answering these questions, applicants are asked to submit a current creative resume/CV.

For Kenan-sponsored participation, submit an application HERE by June 26, noon ET.