Theatre Alumni Take Part in The Path Forward Virtual Conference
Theatre alumni Shayok Misha Chowdhury ’16, Celine Song ’14, and Mei Ann Teo ’14 will be guest speakers in The Path Forward Virtual Conference, which aims to teach artists new tools for success in the pandemic era.
Actor Gregory Connors founded The Path Forward Summit in response to growing alarm and uncertainty surrounding the indefinite halt of the entertainment industry. During the Conference, arts professionals will give fellow artists advice on how to adapt to and push through the current circumstances.
The Conference’s over 35 prerecorded Zoom interviews will cover subjects including theater, film and television, voice over, editing, writing, marketing and branding, education and training, financial wellness, and negotiating. Topics such as the future of live theater, the virtual audition, the monetization of work, the building of a home studio, the evolution of actor training, and the investment of variable income will be discussed, among others.
Chowdhury is a Brooklyn-based director, writer, and creator. He is a Resident Artist at HERE Arts Center, a member of BRIClab and The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, a former Resident Director at The Flea and The Drama League, and an alumnus of Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab.
Song is a playwright. She is a member of the Public Theater’s 2016—17 Emerging Writers Group, Ars Nova’s 2014—15 Play Group, and The Orchard Project's inaugural NYC Greenhouse 2018. She was a 2017—18 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a 2014 and 2016 Great Plains Theatre Conference Playwright, and she was a 2017 semifinalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship. She has also been awarded fellowships, residencies, and commissions from MTC/Sloan, Sundance, the Millay Colony for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation.
Teo’s creative work spans music theater, intermedial participatory work, reimagined classics, and documentary theatre. Teo was the director spotlighted at MIT’s Symposium Next Wave: The Future of Asian American Theatre, and she has spoken at national conferences including Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Network of Ensemble Theatres, and Arts In the One World.
The Conference will air online on October 1, 2020 at 9 am EST and will be available until October 7, 2020. Viewers must purchase an EventBrite ticket and click on the included link to access content. All proceeds will be donated to the Actors Fund.