AMT Talks with Tyler Thomas
Director and theater maker Tyler Thomas discusses her work with the Commissary, a theater collective formed during the pandemic to investigate conversations (both seminal and unheard) between radical black writers and artists of the late 20th century, as they devise strategies for survival, liberation, and transformation. Together, she and the Commissary created a digital anthology series, Lessons in Survival, developed with and produced by Vineyard Theatre, (NYT Critics Pick, Top Ten Theater for 2020), 1971, a live adaptation of the famous interview with James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni originally produced by Soul!, and Why Would I Dare?, a live streamed performance of the trial transcript of Crystal Mason's hearing (produced in partnership with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and New Neighborhood) to help amplify Ms. Mason’s fight for justice. This AMT Talks will feature live and recorded snippets of their unique performances, which utilizes an in-ear technique that invites the actor to perform verbatim material, exactly as they are hearing it.
Tyler and members of the Commissary will discuss their process and work over the past 4 years, practicing critical new forms of listening & collaboration, as a means of navigating times of uncertainty and collapse, with solidarity, hope, and ancestral strategies.
Tyler Thomas is a New York-based theater director and Susan Stroman Directing Award recipient. Most recently, she has developed and directed new work at Pasadena Playhouse, Vineyard Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Rattlestick Playwrights, Geva Theatre, Northern Stage, and The Flea. Tyler is a former 2050 Fellow with New York Theater Workshop, Foeller Fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab. She has been a Visiting Artist at the Athens Conservatoire in Greece and Guest Artist at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. Tyler holds a BFA in Drama and MA in Arts Politics from the Tisch School of Drama. She is currently the Associate Artistic Director of the national arts and health initiative, One Nation/One Project, inspired by the Federal Theatre Project. Learn more at: www.artsforeverybody.org.
The Commissary is a grassroots, multi-generational theater collective that began creating during the pandemic. Most recently in residence with the Vineyard Theatre, their primary work centers on new investigations of historical, found, and verbatim texts as a means of exploring radical listening and embracing difficult conversations on the path to collective liberation.