Monday, October 26, 2026
9:30 AM - 6:15 PM
Z Space, Theatre of Yugen NOH Space,
& Joe Goode Annex in San Francisco
Conference Schedule
Overview
Check-in: 9:30 – 10:00 AM
Check in at the Z Space lobby to receive your conference materials and enjoy a small breakfast with other attendees!
Morning Plenary: 10:00 – 11:15 AM
Opening Performance
Welcome by Theatre Bay Area and Z Space
Land Acknowledgement
Performance
State of the State: Arts and Culture in California
Breakout A: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Unlocking the Promise of Prop 28: Strategies for Sustainable Arts Education Programs
What Lasts: A Movement Inquiry for Theatremakers
Multilingual Theatre: Producing in Our Own Words
AI and Theatre
Lunch: 12:30 – 2:00 PM
Lunch may be purchased as an add on to your conference ticket and picked up in the Z Space lobby!
Lunch Group: Dress Rehearsal: Donor Dialogues
Lunch Group: AI in the Field
Afternoon Plenary: 2:00 – 3:00 PM
Afternoon Performance
Presentation of Arts Leadership Residents and RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship
Keynote Address: What Comes After Estrangement? with P. Carl
Breakout B: 3:15 – 4:15 PM
Art in the Face of Demonization
The Art of Clown: Legacy Trailblazers Teaching Us About Today
Narrative Justice Storytelling: A Framework for Transformative Theatre
Breakout C: 4:30 – 5:30 PM
AB5 and Beyond: Employing CA Theatre Workers Today
New Journalism Theatre: Rooting New Work in Reported Truth
Get Practical: Hand-to-Hand Stage Combat Workshop
Closing: 5:45 – 6:15 PM
Closing Reflection
Add-on Sessions
Only available with conference ticket. Be sure to sign up when you register.
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
30-minute individual coaching with victor cervantes jr (Limit 4 sessions)
First come first served! 30-minute individual sessions with victor cervantes jr.
(Limit 4 sessions)
victor cervantes jr
victor cervantes jr (they/elle/iel) is a theatremaker, educator, and community organizer from Phoenix, AZ. they have served on the selection panels for American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award; American Musical Theatre Project; HERE Arts HARP Residency Award; NAMT: Impact & Exploration Fund Grant Award; Eugene O’Neill’s Musical Theater and Playwrights Conference; Playwrights Realm’s Development Programs; Princess Grace Awards; Terrence McNally Fellowship at Rattlestick; and the Theater Producers of Color Cohort. they served as the Associate Producer of New Work and Innovation & Strategy at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Associate Producer at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; and Co-Artistic Director of Middle Voice at Rattlestick. they have enjoyed teaching for ASU, Columbia University, Hunter College, NTI at The O’Neill Theater Center, NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, and schools serving the ASD community. First-Generation College Graduate: BFA NYU/Tisch School for the Arts — Lee Strasberg Centennial Scholar and Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar; and Laurents/Hatcher Centennial Award recipient.
3:30 - 5:30 PM
30-minute small group coaching sessions with Anthony A. Jackson (Limit 3 per session)
First come first served! 30-minute small group sessions with Anthony A. Jackson.
(Limit 3 people per session)
Anthony A. Jackson
Anthony A. Jackson is a director, educator, and arts administrator. As Director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, he leads a team serving students and adults across nine Bay Area counties. Previously at Arena Stage, he managed training programs and partnerships, and traveled to India and Croatia as a U.S. State Department guest artist, devising original plays with youth and community organizations. As an actor, Anthony has toured nationally and performed with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre, Arena Stage, and other regional theatres.
30-minute individual coaching sessions with Daria Hepps (Limit 4 sessions)
First come first served! 30-minute individual sessions with Daria Hepps.
(Limit 4 sessions)
Daria Hepps
Daria Hepps is a dynamic fundraising professional with over 25 years’ experience, exceptional communications and interpersonal skills, and a proven track record of success in forging strategic, meaningful, and long-lasting relationships with individual and institutional supporters, Daria Hepps is a trusted thought-partner for nonprofit leaders seeking to increase their organization’s fundraising capacity. Prior to her joining the internationally-recognized Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she served as the Associate Director of Development for 14 years (2009-2022), career highlights included serving as the Development Director of both Smuin Ballet and Aurora Theatre Company, where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees. As Berkeley Rep’s Associate Director of Development, she served as the strategic lead for institutional partnerships and planned giving; managed a portfolio of 60-80 individual and institutional major donors and closed gifts of up to $1 million; recruited, hired, trained, supervised, and mentored various development department staff; and worked closely with Trustees and other high-level volunteers on all Berkeley Rep’s fundraising committees (Corporate Council, Gala, Donors’ Circle, Create Campaign, etc.), as well as on the Governance Committee. Daria is proud to assist a wide variety of nonprofit organizations to create a world that is more empathetic, humane, and just.
Session Descriptions
More session descriptions coming soon!
Morning Plenary
Land Acknowledgement
Morning Plenary
Linda Amayo-Hassan
Linda Amayo-Hassan is an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Tribe. She’s a Native/Chicana actor, playwright, and director. Linda is the Founder & Artistic Director of Theatre Cultura, and a board member with PlayGround. Linda has performed at the Aurora Theatre, Shotgun Players, Oakland Theater Project and Town Hall. She had the honor of a summer residency at Berkeley Rep Ground Floor in 2024. Linda has an MFA from UMKC and teaches at Chabot College.
Plenary Panel
State of the State: Arts and Culture in California
Morning Plenary
California theatre is evolving. New partnerships are emerging, audiences are changing, and the challenges facing our field demand fresh thinking. Join leaders from across California for a conversation about the forces shaping theatre today and the opportunities ahead. Together, we'll explore where we're gaining momentum, what questions deserve our attention, and how we can build a stronger, more connected future for California theatre.
Panelist information coming soon!
Breakout Session A
Unlocking the Promise of Prop 28: Strategies for Sustainable Arts Education Programs
Breakout A
California’s Prop 28 represents a historic investment in arts education, but many districts and arts organizations are still figuring out how to use these funds strategically and sustainably. This session focuses on how theatre educators, administrators, and arts organizations can leverage Prop 28 to build long-term, equitable theatre programs rather than short-term fixes.
Participants will gain a clear understanding of what Prop 28 does and does not allow, including common compliance pitfalls such as supplement vs. supplant and the 80 percent staffing requirement. From there, the session shifts into practical strategy. How do we design theatre pathways that last? How do we partner with districts to expand access and deepen impact? How can arts organizations position themselves as essential collaborators in this new funding landscape?
Alli Gamlen
Alli Gamlen is an award-winning performer, director, and arts educator committed to equity and anti-racist practices in arts education. A Bay Area native, she has spent more than 20 years serving students, families, and educators through culturally sustaining and inclusive arts practices. Alli is a Musical Theatre Instructor at Studio A.C.T. and the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator at the San Mateo County Office of Education.
What Lasts: A Movement Inquiry for Theatremakers
Breakout A
What can we learn about longevity from making? Right here. Right now.
This session is a Choreographic Lab — an in-your-body inquiry experience designed for theater makers who want to step into the question. Using the tools of choreographic practice, we'll investigate what legacy, sustainability, and longevity actually feel like in the body. Not as concepts. As lived experience.
No dance background required. No performance pressure. Real, on-our-feet work that meets us where we are.
Every person in the room is a contributor. Your movement, your perspective, your presence will shape what we discover together.
Claire Alexander
Claire Alexander is a dance artist and educator based in San Jose, California. Her research centers on the body as a primary site of knowing, and how movement shapes the way we connect, communicate, and experience being human together. Her practice spans original choreography for theater and film, devised work, and embodied movement experiences for organizations and communities. Her roots are in youth theater and contemporary physical storytelling, where she developed a practice grounded in unprecious making, active collaboration, and creating with and for the people in the room.
Photo: Scott Donschikowski Photography
Lunchtime Discussion Groups
Lunch Break
During the 12:30 - 2:00 PM lunch break, conference attendees are invited to attend lunchtime discussion groups and workshops to deepen their connection to other theatre professionals and dive deeper into topics discussed in the breakout sessions.
Dress Rehearsal: Donor Dialogues
Join other theatre professionals and practice the art of light shmoozing over food to help strengthen your connections to your patrons and donors.
AI in the Field
Join this discussion group to talk with other theatre professionals about the impacts of AI in your work, the field, and our world. This conversation will be informed by information presented in the morning breakout session on AI, but attendance at that session is not required to join this discussion.
Presentation of Arts Leadership Residents and RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship
Afternoon Plenary
The RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship makes a significant investment in an individual female or nonbinary artist of color that will allow her to take the next step in their career. Nominees are selected by a diverse panel of established Bay Area theatre professionals.
This program is made possible through a generous grant from the RHE Charitable Foundation.
The Arts Leadership Residency funds aspiring artistic directors and managing directors in residence at Bay Area theatres for a 12-16 week residency during which the residents with be mentored by the artistic and/or managing director and lead a significant project during the season.
Keynote
What Comes After Estrangement? with P. Carl
Afternoon Plenary
What happens when we become estranged from our artistry? Instead of constantly revisiting the familiar conversations about the survival of theatre, this year’s California Theatre Conference keynote, acclaimed writer and HowlRound cofounder P. Carl, imagines what another ecosystem might teach us about the stories we’ve told, the ones we tell now, and those we imagine for the future. In this transformative session, P. Carl turns to the world of birds to explore new language, new ways of seeing, and new possibilities for our lives in the arts. Join us as we consider how a new lens on the world might nourish our Artistic Intelligence as storytellers.
P. Carl
P. Carl is a Senior Distinguished Artist in Residence, Department of Performing Arts, at Emerson College in Boston. He is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition (Simon & Schuster, 2020) and the play adaptation of the book Becoming a Man, commissioned and produced by American Repertory Theater (ART), Harvard, in February of 2024. The play was nominated for Outstanding New Play by the Boston Theater Critics Association. He was the Spring 2020 Anschutz Fellow at Princeton University, awarded a 2017 Art of Change Fellowship from the Ford Foundation, the Berlin Prize fellowshipfrom the American Academy for the Fall of 2018, and the Andrew W. Mellon Creative Research Residency at the University of Washington. His work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine, and Lit Hub. He is currently working on his next book, Vagrants, and a new play, Rare Birds, commissioned by ART.
Carl received a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and a Master's in Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and holds a PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota. He was born in Elkhart, Indiana, and now lives in Rhode Island with his spouse, the writer Lynette D'Amico.
Breakout Session B
The Art of Clown: Legacy Trailblazers Teaching Us About Today
Breakout B
The Bay Area has a rich tradition of Clown and Physical Theater, with an exciting range of organizations including performance companies, training programs, and healthcare clowning. Join this session where trailblazers and keepers of these artistic traditions share what they find crucial in Clown in the current moment, socially, politically, and artistically. Inviting us in as they look forward to the future of Clown and Physical Theatre and share their hard-won knowledge from the past.
More panelists coming soon!
Josh Matthews
Josh Matthews (They/He) is a teacher, actor, and clown/circus performer. He has traveled around the world with his theater company, Under the Table, performing original physical comedies. Josh Has performed at The Lincoln Center (NYC), The Big Apple Circus (NYC) and Third Rail Projects (NYC) to name a few companies. Josh has been a teaching artist and guest lecturer for the past 25 years, some of the organizations Josh has worked with have been the New Victory Theater, Word For Word theater company, American Conservatory Theater, Occidental College, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York University. Currently Josh serves as a lead clown and artistic director for Medical Clown Project.
Judy Finelli
Judy Finelli is one of the cornerstone figures of the American New Circus Movement. After graduating with a BFA from NYU School of the Arts in 1970, Finelli appeared in circus, theatre, film, and television before moving to San Francisco to perform and direct with the Pickle Family Circus. She appeared in Robert Altman’s live-action film of Popeye (written by Jules Feiffer), and her television appearances include Sesame Street, and The Mike Douglas Show. Live performances include the Circo dell’Arte, a Luciano Berio concert at Carnegie Hall, the Theater for the New City, and Circus Vargas. In 1984, she co-founded the San Francisco School for Circus Arts (now Circus Center) with Wendy Parkman, before becoming the Artistic Director of the Pickle Family Circus in 1987. After leaving the Pickles in 1990, Judy has focused on teaching and directing students and shows throughout the US. She has taught at the International Mime Festival, NYU School of the Arts, Juilliard Drama School, the American Conservatory Theater, the Ringling Clown College, the Prescott Circus Theater, and the Sons of Cayuga Circus Studios. In 2015 she staged the juggling finale for Circus Bella. She is the subject of a forthcoming documentary Still Judy: The Judy Finelli Project, by award-winning director-cinematographer Lisa Denker. is one of the cornerstone figures of the New American Circus Movement. After graduating from NYU School of the Arts (BFA ‘70), Finelli appeared in movies and on TV before moving to San Francisco to perform with the Pickle Family Circus. In 1984, she co-founded the San Francisco School for Circus Arts (now Circus Center) with Wendy Parkman before becoming the Artistic Director of the Pickle Family Circus in 1987. After leaving the Circus in 1990, Judy focused on teaching and directing students and shows in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jeff Raz
Jeff Raz has performed nationally and internationally for decades, starring as an acrobat, juggler and clown in circuses including Cirque du Soleil and the Pickle Family Circus, and as an actor in theaters from Berkeley Rep to Broadway. He has written three novels inspired by his career, The Circus Trilogy, and 20 plays. His latest book, An International Circus Affair; How Chinese and American Acrobats Bridged, Back-bended, and Leaped over Global Issues to Change Circus on Two Continents, is a history of the Nanjing/San Francisco circus connection. Jeff is a graduate of Dell’Arte International, where he has also taught, and was the co-founder of Vaudeville Nouveau, The Clown Conservatory and the Medical Clown Project. In addition, he has directed dozens of circus, dance, puppet, and theater productions and worked globally as a communications consultant.
Narrative Justice Storytelling: A Framework for Transformative Theatre
Breakout B
As theatre makers, we believe our work does good, makes change, and positively impacts thought around us, but what does that mean in measurable terms? This session introduces participants to a framework called Narrative Justice Storytelling (NJS), which was developed over the last seven years by Dr. Timmia DeRoy, a professor at UC Berkeley and life-long theatre director, to enable the facilitation of social transformation through storytelling. NJS includes a series of practices and principles designed to empower those who have been and continue to experience harm to identify their own power and heal self and community. This session will provide participants with the opportunity to discuss case-studies of the impact-focused work they have done in the past, or are planning for the future, utilizing NJS to understand more deeply its efficacy and potential.
Dr. Timmia DeRoy
Dr. Timmia Hearn DeRoy is a practitioner and scholar of social justice-based theatre and film. She directs, writes, produces, dramaturgs, and teaches. She was a founding member of the Trinidad and Tobago PRIDE Arts Festival, former Director of the School for the Arts at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, the Caribbean’s oldest theater company, and former Marketing Manager at the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival. She works in areas of post-colonial theater practice, transnational feminist praxis, and Disability Justice, and engages in community-oriented and social change focused theater across the Diasporas to which she belongs. Timmia’s directing credits include 10,000: A One-Woman New Play Development by Victoria Taurean (2020) at the Lawrence Arts Center, In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (2019) at the KU University Theatre, an original I Am One musical comedy called Buss de Mark (2016) which premiered at the PRIDE Arts Festival in Trinidad, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (2013/4), Two Can Play by Trevor Rhone (2013/4), and An Echo in the Bone by Dennis Scott (2012) at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. Timmia has taught both acting and playwriting in Trinidad and Tobago as well as the United States and Nepal. She additionally has worked as a new script development consultant in both theater and film, and provides dramaturgical frameworks that decolonize scripts and directing practice. Timmia holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Kansas, and a B.A. in Theatre Studies from Yale University. You can see her work at TimmiaHearn.com
Breakout Session C
New Journalism Theatre: Rooting New Work in Reported Truth
Breakout C
Explore the world of New Journalism Theatre and learn what it takes to incorporate primary sources into your playwrighting! Playwrights Julius Rea and Megan Calfas will share tools for how to incorporate interviews, reporting, and true, personal experiences into the process of new play development. Rea and Calfas believe reflecting our realities onstage with informed, rigorous reporting can ensure that as theatre artists we tell stories that have impact for our community. By staying grounded in truth and telling stories with local relevance, theatremakers can build a sustainable relationship with our audiences and create theater that has the potential to inspire lasting change. Dig into the world of New Journalism Theatre and discover how to incorporate personal experiences can inform your next work!
Julius Rea
Based in the SF Bay Area, Julius Ernesto Rea uses playwriting, conflict resolution and arts producing to hold an empathetic mirror to the world—encouraging deep listening and deeper discourse. With a background as a journalist, he obtained a degree in Philosophy at San Francisco State University. He co-founded The Forum Collective, a multidisciplinary arts organization that focuses on new journalism, theatre, and community-focused events. Currently fiscally sponsored under Playground SF’s Innovator Incubator, the company has received support from the Sam Mazza Foundation, the California Arts Council, and Zellerbach Family Foundation. As a playwright, Rea has participated in Crowded Fire Theater’s Resilience and Development Lab, and is now part of the 2026-27 Playwrights Foundation Resident Playwrights Program. In 2025, he premiered The Day the Sky Turned Orange as the playwright / book writer, produced by SFBATCO and Z Space. He is a previous recipient of a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Arts Leadership Residency and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Creative Corps Initiative Grant.
photo: Cheshire Isaacs
Megan Calfas
Megan Calfas is a 2026-2027 Resident Playwright at the Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco. Her play, Sleepover, was performed at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She co-directed two sold-out runs of the original show Crushing at the Dixon Place Theater in New York City in April 2023 and at the Bayfront Theater in San Francisco in February 2025. She has coached over 200 people on telling their true, personal stories live on stage and has, herself, performed stories for Back Pocket Media, First Person Story, and on PBS with Stories from the Stage. As a journalist, she has reported on the environment for theLos Angeles Timesand investigated maternal mortality in Zanzibar. She is on staff with the Stanford Storytelling Project.
Nurture Bay Area Theatre
Organizational partners and in-kind donations make our events possible! We have sponsorship opportunities at multiple levels for TBAConnect. Reach out to Meghan@TheatreBayArea.org to learn more about the sponsorship opportunities available or select your preferred sponsorship online!