By Miya Williams Fayne
Elizabeth Carner fell in love with theatre when she was eight years old. She attended a performance of Peter Pan and was inspired to work in theatre one day. She recalled, “Peter Pan was the start of realizing that I wanted to inspire an audience, as a way to give back to the community.” (more…)
By Joshua Baggett
Despite it being an especially cold day in Evanston (the wind chill was a biting -7 below), several members of the current MSLCE cohort recently had the opportunity to broaden our entrepreneurial knowledge at Entrepreneurship 101. The MSLCE exclusive workshop was led by David Schonthal, who is a professor of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Kellogg School of Management as well as Senior Portfolio Director at the consultancy firm IDEO. Schonthal shared his wisdom on topics including business model generation, customer acquisition, and how to approach problems that arise when businesses are in the start-up phase. Special focus was given to creating and adapting the Osterwalder Business Model Canvas, which is a common strategy used across lines of business. (more…)
Theater number three in the historic Harper Theater, located off of Harper Avenue in Hyde Park, was filled to capacity a few weeks ago as an audience of community members, students, scholars, artists came together to see a free screening of the Emmy nominated documentary and Sundance Film Festival winner, American Promise. (more…)
by Thomas Wall
As graduate students, we are constantly seeking advice on how to advance our careers. But when that advice comes from an Emmy-winning film producer and CEO/Founder of her own media company, it carries a special weight. Thanks to the MSLCE program, we were granted the opportunity to meet, hear from, and most importantly learn from acclaimed filmmaker, businesswoman, and all-around trailblazer, Gigi Pritzker, on January 17th. (more…)
By ALYSSA HOLCOMB
The winter quarter is already off to the races for the current MSLCE cohort. We recently participated in an advanced Career Management Session titled “New Year Reboot: Your Career Strategy + Opportunity Search,” led by Mandi Glowen of the EPICS team. In the session, we focused on strategies and ways to enhance our process of researching, applying for and securing summer internships and post-grad positions. (more…)
By ALYSSA HOLCOMB
I’ll admit – initially, I was pretty nervous to take a masters-level course with “analytics” in the title. I’ve never been a numbers-minded person – I’d much rather take the reins with my words when explaining things. But after taking Agnes Horvat’s Culture & Arts Analytics class as part of the MSLCE program, I realized that there’s a way to combine both words and numbers when it comes to analyzing and discussing trends and patterns in the industry. (more…)
By Miya Williams Fayne
Although Amber Robertson has been dancing since the age of four, she believes that the MSLCE program is currently challenging her to “think about the arts in new and distinct ways every day.” (more…)
It’s something completely new wrapped in something familiar. In so many ways, Pablo Boczkowski’s Organizational Processes in Creative Enterprises course was unlike anything I had ever experienced in the classroom before. While I knew nothing about the three lenses approach to analyzing companies, heuristics and decision-making biases, or the pros and cons of variable compensation before taking this course, Pablo was able to explain these high-level concepts to my cohort and I, and put them in contexts that would be recognizable and relatable to us through real-world case studies involving companies and brands we had all likely encountered at one point in our lives.
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By ALYSSA HOLCOMB
A select group of MSLCE students, accompanied by EPICS staff Mandi Glowen and Jonah Zeiger, recently took a site visit of the Goodman Theatre, Chicago’s largest (and oldest) non-profit theatre.
The cohort met with John Collins, General Manager, and Kate Welham, Senior Director of Institutional Giving and Development Operations, in a two-hour session and tour of the iconic locale. Both Collins and Welham were very open during the session, answering questions with insight and candor while simultaneously maintaining a positive outlook on the future of the industry. (more…)
Adrian graduated from MSLCE in Fall of 2018. While in the program, he had had a Community Impact Fellowship with the Public Theatre in New York, participated in Northwestern School of Communications’ CommFest, and aspired to start his own creative management company. MSLCE recently had a chance to connect with MSLCE Alum Adrian Alea and ask him a couple questions about what he’s up to now, and what he values most about his time in the program.
I recently formed my own LLC (The Alea Company) which focuses on creative direction and production for theater, live events, and music videos in both commercial and non-profit industries. I concentrate on developing, directing, and producing content and stories that elevate the social consciousness of humanity and analyze the human spirit. Currently, I am associate directing Disney’s new musical in development and directing a musical adaptation of the award-winning novel Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia, featuring music & lyrics by IBEYI (Beyoncé’s Lemonade). I am finishing up post-production for my second music video “Nena Nena Nena” for singer-songwriter MICHA and will be directing Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks at Yale University come January 2019. Other projects currently in development include a TV mini-series based on the novel Monkey Hunting that centers around the 1800’s sugar-cane slave trade and migration of Chinese immigrants to Cuba, a theater adaption of Chekhov’s Three Sisters set in 1980’s Miami during the Drug Wars, and a new play by Obie Award-winning playwright Caridad Svich entitled STAND.
In Understanding Creative Enterprises and Organizational Processes, we had a final project where we had to develop a transmedia story based on existing intellectual property and pitch how we would create it by forming an organizational body. I pitched using Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth as our source text. With a truly dedicated and inventive team, we formed an organization that would expand the story through graphic novels, a sequel film, a theme-park installation, and a special ballet based on the original film. Coming into the program, my foundation was mostly in theater and artist management; however, this experience inspired me to continue to pursue developing and producing transmedia stories and experiences. (more…)
