The Boston Theatre community is made up of artists, organizations, and enthusiasts united by the desire to provide and experience exceptional performances, inspired programming and unforgettable events. As a community we have grown and been strengthened through our ongoing engagement with each other, our diverse perspectives and our interest in dialogue.
On February 27 and 28 we convened the New England theatre conference, Home Grown and came together to talk about: How the Boston theatre scene has taken root, grown and flourished. And what steps do we take to keep it alive and growing
With inspiration provided by our keynote speaker, Barbara Lynch (Founder of The Barbara Lynch Gruppo http://barbaralynch.com), our panel of theatre innovators commented on parallels with the Slow Food movement (local, fresh, sustainable http://www.slowfoodusa.org). Over the last twenty years, the slow food movement has organized, educated and nurtured our appreciation of local food. We think we can learn from the movement how to nurture our community.
Who is the Boston Theatre community? Huntington Theatre Company, Managing Director Michael Maso reflected on the changes he has seen in New England theatre during his tenure. As we define ourselves, how do we engage with the community at large? What role does the theatre community play in both mirroring and shaping our multi faceted society? The Boston Theatre Conference aimed to engage all theatre practioners, including actors, directors, designers, technicians, dramaturgs, administrators, board members, educators and audience members in tackling these themes.
Taking a lesson from the slow food movement we want to grow our local theatre community by bringing everyone around the table. During workshops, performances, and panels we encourage relationships between the creators of the art and those who enjoy it, cultivate an appreciation for theatre by changing societal values towards the art and by examining alternative ways for people to engage and participate. Virtually we work through the bostontheatreconference.wordpress.com blog to define Slow Theatre for Boston in preparation for the conference.
Schedule of Events 
Sunday 2/27/11
2pm Registration
3pm Welcome
3:30pm Key Note Address – Barbara Lynch
4:00pm Break –
4:15pm Panel – Fresh, Local, Sustainable what can we learn from Slow FoodUSA, featuring
Melia Bensussen, Karen MacDonald, Rafael Jaen, Melinda Lopez, John O’Brien and Skip Curtiss
5:15pm Reception, including pop-up performance
6:30pm Tour of The Modern Theatre
Monday 2/28/11
10am Registration
11am Breakout sessions and Tours
12:15pm Break –
12:30pm Roundtable lunch discussions; box lunces
2pm Roundtable Follow-up, with leaders from each lunch group & moderator
3:45pm Break –
4pm Closing address – Michael Maso
5pm End of day
