About
Mission
HowlRound is a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide that amplifies progressive, disruptive ideas about the art form and facilitates connection between diverse practitioners.
Vision
We envision a theatre field where resources and power are shared equitably in all directions, contributing to a more just and sustainable world.
Values
We value:
- Generosity and abundance—all are welcome and necessary
- Community and collaboration over isolation and competition
- Diverse aesthetics and the evolution of forms of theatre practice
- Equity, inclusivity, and accessibility for marginalized theatre communities and practices
- Global citizenship—local communities intersecting with global practice
Our Story
HowlRound’s creation was a direct response to: 1) research that suggested artists were increasingly distant from the center of theatremaking within not-for-profit institutional infrastructure, and 2) the new possibilities created by technology to influence theatre practice. Our founding came at a time when we saw too many voices left off our stages, not represented inside of our institutions, and not recognized for their substantial contribution to our past and present. We set about to create a group of tools that would amplify voices and issues chronically underrepresented and unheard in the theatre.
We found an organizing principle in the “commons”—a social structure that invites open participation around shared values. HowlRound is a knowledge commons that encourages freely sharing intellectual and artistic resources and expertise. It is our strong belief that the power of live theatre connects us across difference, puts us in proximity of one another, and strengthens our tether to our commonalities.
HowlRound Theatre Commons launched as an online journal in 2011. It was created by P. Carl, David Dower, Jamie Gahlon, and Vijay Mathew as part of the American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. In 2012, the co-founders and all of the documentation and dissemination work of the AVNPI relocated to Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts under the banner of HowlRound. This included the HowlRound Journal; the livestreaming television channel, then called NewPlay TV and now called HowlRound TV; the New Play Map (which evolved into the World Theatre Map, a project we have now closed); and all convening activity. Co-founders P. Carl and David Dower moved on from HowlRound in 2017 and 2021, respectively.
In January 2026, HowlRound Theatre Commons left Emerson College to operate independently and became fiscally sponsored by Producer Hub. Jamie Gahlon stepped down as director of HowlRound at this time. Longtime staff members Ramona Rose King and Julia Schachnik became the organization’s co-directors, and they continue to work alongside co-founder Vijay Mathew and a dynamic and talented team, with the guidance of the Advisory Council.
HowlRound is a knowledge commons that encourages freely sharing intellectual and artistic resources and expertise.
Learn more
Interested in learning more about HowlRound's history and impact? Check out this executive summary and case study, "The Birth of a Theatre Commons: HowlRound from 2009-2017," by Helicon Collaborative!
Join us!
HowlRound is a condition—one that results in a howling noise when sound from a loudspeaker is fed back into a microphone. It’s an amplified feedback loop. This idea of a feedback loop represents the condition upon which HowlRound was born in 2011—as a place for artists to provide feedback, learning, expertise, frustration, and vision—in an effort to enliven the fields of theatre and performance to the aspiring and established artist alike.
All of our content comes from our community. We curate according to our values, and we curate by listening to you. And when it comes to written content, we curate through a rigorous editing process done in conversation with you.
Other commons have emerged from the HowlRound commons, including the Latinx Theatre Commons, which began as a result of a meeting convened by HowlRound and is now operating individually, and the International Presenting Commons.
If you’re here for the first time, welcome! Visit our Contribute Content Page to see how you can become involved, subscribe to receive our content in your inbox, or just send us an email and say hello. You are the commons. You are HowlRound.
Our Programs
HowlRound functions as an ensemble. We have four full-time staff and a number of part-time workers that make the magic happen. Want to reach out? Visit our Contact Page!
Julia Schachnik (Co-Director)
Julia (she/her) is a community builder and curator of impactful live programming. She was born and raised in Greater Boston and when she’s not at a live show around town you can find her obsessing over her tail-less cat, Steven.
Ramona Rose King (Co-Director)
Ramona (she/her) is a New Englander, a new mom, and a new play lover. Frequently napping.
Ashley Malafronte (Senior Editor and Learning Programs Manager)
Ashley (she/her) is a theatremaker, editor, and educator who grew up in the town from Gilmore Girls. She loves stories and really wants to hear yours— preferably over coffee or a bottle of wine. In her free time, you can find Ashley reading, hiking, kayaking, seeing theatre, or viciously defending New Haven pizza.
Munroe Forbes Shearer (Operations and Communications Coordinator)
Munroe (all pronouns) is a writer, designer, and big idea generator from Essex Junction, Vermont. Outside of the theatre world, Munroe can be found reading poetry, journaling, getting too competitive at video games, and scrounging around New England for half-decent gluten free food.
Vijay Mathew (Cultural Strategist & Co-Founder)
Vijay (he/him) is a culture producer, an idea cartographer, and father to a fifteen-year-old who wants to help people when he grows up. An aspiring vegan chef.
Thea Rodgers (HowlRound TV Producer)
Thea (she/her) is a theatre addict and wannabe astronaut who's streaming your station from nation to nation on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network. She talks a big game but when it comes down to it, you can probably beat her in Scrabble.
Yaşam Özlem Gülseven (Graphic Designer)
Yaşam (she/her) is a dramaturg, writer, and graphic designer based in Turkey. She believes her work in both fields improve each other.
Land Acknowledgment
HowlRound Theatre Commons is a digital platform without a permanent, physical home. We acknowledge the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies, structures, and ways of thinking we use every day. High speed internet is not available in many Indigenous communities. The technologies that are central to the work we do leaves significant carbon footprints, contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples worldwide. We invite you to join us in acknowledging all this as well as our shared responsibility: for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship.
Our fiscal sponsor, Producer Hub, is based on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Lenape people. We pay respect to the Lenape elders past, present and future, the traditional custodians of the lands. We acknowledge the truth of violence perpetrated in the name of this country and make a commitment to uncovering that truth through dialogue, partnerships, and learning.
