ECD Travel Grant Recipients: Responses From Their First Conference

by Sierra Carlson

The chance to attend the 2018 LMDA Conference in Toronto was an amazing gift and I didn’t want to waste a moment. Dramaturgs and theatre artists from all around the world joined for three days to share work, drinks, and big questions. I set up a note-taking process the day before the conference to ensure that I wouldn’t miss a thing. The night before each conference day, I looked over the schedule and wrote in my own notebook which sessions I would be attending. Below this scribbled schedule I asked myself three questions that I would respond to at the end of the day. How was today? What did you learn? What will you do tomorrow?

In the spirit of radical honesty, I have chosen to share my journal entries from the conference week answering those three questions.

Day 1:

Today was an amazing day! This was my first day at my first ever LMDA conference, and I feel as if I found a home. I became good friends with a group of ECDs, young and more established. I feel better and better about my decision to have studied theatre. I have found an accountability friend. I am capable. Today I learned about a Canadian Podcast about the nation’s history. They were wonderful because they don’t frame themselves as historians, they’re just curious. I love that. The quote of the day… “RFBQ. Really F*cking Big Questions.” Drinks and dinner were weird yet fun. The buzzwords: Current. Dynamic. Nimble.

The Goal for Tomorrow: I want to network with older dramaturgs.

Day 2:

Today was rough. Today was work. Boy, was it exhausting work. Hot Topics sent me off on a great start with a DRAG of institutional and “professional” racism in a style resonant of Audre

Lorde and other POC disruptors. I died. I loved. And then…Fictional Identity. The panel discussion itself felt off. I wasn’t sure what I was watching or what I was gaining or why I was watching it. Then I went to lunch with another ECD to break that down. The ECD session that came next was informative and inspiring. I got to sit in a room and listen to a bunch of innovative dramaturgs at the beginning of their career.

The Goal for Tomorrow: I want to leave my mark.

Day 3:

Early morning. I got up to make it to the early morning session conducted by a new “old-friend.” The plenary session was eye-opening. I’ve never felt a room shift like that before. It was the feeling of energy. Electricity. Thought. “Money, Money, Money” was overwhelming. Money is overwhelming, debt is crushing, and employment is a big question mark. After that session, I took a stroll with a fellow ECD to talk about that panel and it suddenly wasn’t so overwhelming. The annual meeting was THRILLING. It was a sneak peek of what’s to come and I am buying a ticket to that show! I want a front row seat. In fact, I’m subscribing to whole gosh dang future. I want to see what happens next.

The Goal for Tomorrow: Don’t let this all become a memory.

Since I’ve returned to Virginia, I’ve been thinking a lot about the theme of this year’s conference: crossing borders. Crossing borders can be thrilling. It can mean travel, new experience, adventure, relationships. Crossing borders can be terrifying. It can mean leaving something or someone behind, new dangers, uncertainty. Having just graduated from James Madison University with a BA in Theatre and Dance, I am staring down a border that seems to be racing toward me rather than the other way around. The week of the 2018 LMDA Conference in Toronto, families were being separated after crossing a border. Today, as I write this, the Supreme Court has voted to uphold a travel ban that will limit who can cross a border based on the boundaries they were born within. My mind is buzzing and I’m not sure what to do with that yet, but It was my three days at LMDA that set something off, that lit a spark. Now I continue to ask myself the questions I asked each day at the conference. How was today? What did I learn? And most importantly, what will I do tomorrow?

Sierra Carlson is a graduate of James Madison University’s Theatre Studies Program. She has served as a dramaturg on several new play works in Virginia and New York. Sierra has already received multiple national awards for her work as a dramaturg, playwright, and critic. She is excited to start the next phase of her career as she pursues dramaturgy opportunities in Chicago.

Originally published in the June 2018 Newsletter