Our History

Our History

On 1 July 2025, the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) and HowlRound Theatre Commons transformed the nature of their working relationship. Since 2012, the LTC was a flagship program of HowlRound but now operates independently. Grateful for over a decade of deep relationship with HowlRound and all we have been able to accomplish together, the LTC remains committed to the commons model as a way to implement its programs. To operate as a commons implies an agreement among “commoners” to take responsibility for the care and use of mutually shared resources. In the case of the LTC, the common resource which the LTC seeks to protect, foster, and share is Latine theatre. The commoners are primarily Latine theatre makers and scholars who know well the fields they tend, and how misinformation, discrimination, and colonialism devalue the fruits of their labor, if not threaten their ability to make theatre and professionally thrive. Given the nature of the need for social transformation in the theatre field with regard to its problematic engagement with Latine theatre making and theatre makers, it made sense to take on the work through an approach that defied the status quo. 

HowlRound Theatre Commons, a free and open platform that amplifies progressive and disruptive ideas about the artform and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners, whose founders supported the initial gathering in DC from which the LTC emerged, agreed to serve as the producer and co-organizer of LTC’s first event, the 2013 LTC National Convening held in Boston, and also became a philosophical thought partner as the LTC embraced the commons model in its own organizing practices. HowlRound, then a brand-new initiative housed at Emerson College, was itself learning how to function as a knowledge commons, so it made sense to support the emerging LTC as another embodiment of the commons. Throughout their partnership, HowlRound amplified the work of the LTC through documenting all LTC programming on the HowlRound journal, and livestreaming events on HowlRound TV. 

The work of the LTC since 2012 has responded to the invitation to do what’s necessary to support the field of Latine theatre making without duplicating the efforts of otherLatine identified arts entities. It is organized through four tenets of practice: Convening, Scholarship, Advocacy, and Art making.

In its new organizational structure, fiscally sponsored by Producer Hub, the LTC will continue to grow its legacy, grateful for the strong foundation it grew with HowlRound, stewarded by an evolving Steering Committee of 38 theatre field professionals and 36 Advisory Committee members. The legacy of the LTC and its history with HowlRound will remain present in the vast materials published on the HowlRound site since 2012, and the future will bring more collaborations, no doubt.