Heart Theatre AI Policy

Heart Theatre works with artists, educators, musicians, writers, filmmakers, students, audiences, and cultural partners from across the globe. We use technology when it helps people make stronger work, reach more people, and protect the time and attention that our work requires. We don’t use technology because it’s cool, and we don’t treat artificial intelligence as a replacement for the people who give the work its meaning. We need humans!

AI is already part of the creative world. It can help with research, early drafts, translation support, captions, planning, grant materials, scheduling, and communication. It can also make work feel anonymous when people use it carelessly. It can copy artists, expose private material, invent facts, flatten language, and make a sentence look finished without any human input. Heart Theatre’s position is clear: AI may assist the work, but people will always lead the work.

Theatre comes from our souls. It depends on our physical presence, our voices, the rehearsal room, the audience, and the trust that forms when people share time together. AI can support some of the preparation around that experience, but it cannot replace the experience itself. Heart Theatre will not use AI to replace actors, writers, directors, teachers, musicians, designers, students, or community participants.

We may use AI to move through practical work more efficiently, but a person must make the final decision. A person decides whether the language sounds true, whether a translation carries the right meaning, whether the material respects the story, and whether the work should carry Heart Theatre’s name. AI can help organize a draft or compare ideas, but it cannot take responsibility for anything we publish, teach, rehearse, perform, fundraise with, or share in public.

Heart Theatre will not present AI-generated material as original human work. We will not use AI to imitate a living artist’s voice, face, writing, performance, or style without permission. If AI plays a meaningful role in something public, we will be honest about that in plain language. We do not need to label every internal use of AI, but we will not hide it when technology shapes something an audience, student, funder, or partner experiences.

We respect artists and creative labor. Heart Theatre will not put private scripts, rehearsal notes, voice recordings, images, music, unfinished writing, or performance material into AI tools without permission from the people connected to that material. We also will not use AI as a cheap way around work that should be done by a paid artist. New tools can support the creative process, but they should not erase the skill, training, and imagination that artists bring to the room.

We will protect the people who share their stories with us. Theatre often depends on trust, especially in education and community-based work. A student may write something personal in a workshop. A community member may speak about family, loss, illness, or fear. A partner, donor, artist, or colleague may send private information. Heart Theatre will not put that material into AI tools unless we have permission and know the tool can protect it.

AI can help make some materials easier to access. It can support captions, summaries, plain-language drafts, and early translations. Those uses can help more people find our work. Final public language, especially in Spanish or any other language, should be reviewed by someone who understands the language and the culture behind it. A machine can compare words. A person knows when the sentence carries the right feeling.

We will check AI-assisted work before we use it publicly. AI can sound confident and still be wrong. It can miss certain facts, history, humor, pain, context, and cultural meaning. No public material should go out under Heart Theatre’s name unless a person has reviewed it for accuracy, privacy, fairness, and artistic value.

Heart Theatre will also share what we learn. Many artists, teachers, small theatres, cultural organizations, and community partners are trying to understand AI without losing the human part of their work. We are learning that in real time too. When we find a useful practice, a mistake worth avoiding, or a better way to protect artists and participants, we will share it through workshops, public conversations, written guides, and the projects we build with others.

We believe theatre people have something important to offer the AI conversation. We understand rehearsal rooms. We understand trust, voice, consent, timing, authorship, and what happens when a choice lands in front of an audience. Those instincts matter now more than ever. Heart Theatre will help artists and partners use new tools with confidence while keeping people at the center of the work.

Heart Theatre will keep using new tools, because artists have always worked with the tools of their time. The question is not whether technology belongs near art. The question is whether it serves the work or weakens it. We will use AI when it helps us prepare with more care, communicate more clearly, or make the work easier for people to access. We will leave it out when it copies an artist, risks someone’s privacy, flattens the language, or removes the human decision that theatre requires.

AI is a tool. Heart Theatre remains responsible for how we use it.

Casting Call

IMMEDIATE CASTING CALL Teatro del Corazón

Washington, DC

November 7, 2022

Casting for a paid professional production of "Master Class" by Terrence McNally

SYNOPSIS

Maria Callas holds a Master Class. Opened on Broadway in 1995 and 2011. The play features incidental music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Vincenzo Bellini.

AUDITIONS DATES:

November 19th - 5:30 - 9:00 pm pm at University of Maryland, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center  (Video submissions will also be accepted. Please send to stacy@corazonlatino.us by 11/19).

To schedule an audition, please reach out to jonesjd@cua.edu stacy@corazonlatino.us or  call 202-664-4013

Limted spots remaining.

Call backs will be held at the Writers Center and/ or at Atlas Performing Arts Center in late November and/or early December.

AUDITIONS DATES:

November 19th - 5:30 - 9:00 pm pm at University of Maryland, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

Prefer that you prepare a song from the show and be ready to read from the script.

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS:

• Operatic Aria to be sung (all roles except accompanist and stage hand)

• Operatic Aria to be played (accompanist role only)

• Headshot and theatre resume

REHEARSAL DATES:

Rehearsals begin on May 1 with up to 4 rehearsals a week.

Cast must be available for all performances.

Additional rehearsals will be scheduled during the two weeks prior to

Opening.

PERFORMANCE DATES 2023

Jun: 23, 24, 25 / 28, 29, 30, 31, July 1, 2 / 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 

(We may add dates to the run)

Weeknights 7:30 pm Weekends 2:00 pm 

WE ARE AUDITIONING NOW FOR THE FOLLOWING ROLES:

Sophie DePalma (First Soprano):Lead, Female identifying

Must be a strong operatic soprano and actress; thinks of herself as fiery but is soon overwhelmed and intimidated by Maria's criticism; International/National Tour/TV credits a plus; must be able to sing Bellini's Sonnambula aria, Ah non credea mirarti; attach an aria/legit musical theatre piece to your submission

Required Media: Headshot/Photo, Video audition (aria or song showcasing vocal range)

Sharon Graham (Second Soprano): Lead, Female identifying

Must be a strong operatic soprano and actress; sensitive, but courageous; not afraid to ask questions; works very hard; she is feisty enough to stand up and talk back to Callas, and must be able to cry on cue; International/National Tour/TV credits a plus; must be able to sing Verdi’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s letter aria, Vieni! T’affretta;

Required Media: Headshot/Photo, Video audition (aria or song showcasing vocal range)

Anthony ‘Tony’ Candolino Lead, Male identifying

Attractive and flirtatious; confident verging on cocky. Possesses openness

and courage, naive about the prepartion necessary to be an opera singer.

Serious about becomin an artist. A good listener. Must be able to sing

Recondita Armonia from Tosca.

Manny Weinstock (Accompanist)

Accomplished and professional accompanist; smart, savvy, good-humored; respects Callas; performer who can play the piano (and the arias in the breakdown) a plus.

Required Media: Headshot/Photo, Video Reel

The Stagehand (Supporting) 18+

A dedicated theatre stagehand; has speaking lines.

ABOUT TEATRO DEL CORAZÓN

With Master Class, Teatro del Corazón | Heart Theatre, a woman and Latino-owned DC-based professional production company, celebrates its inaugural in-person production. Heart Theatre is the first-of-its-kind center for the arts to consistently use emerging technology such as VR to democratize the arts and create a new generation of supporters of the arts.

Our Debut

Online Launch Event of Heart Theatre | Teatro del Corazón

 On Valentine’s Day, DC trailblazers launch a first of its kind digitally native production company promoting love, one performance at a time. 

*Streaming available through Facebook Live and YouTube*

(Washington, DC) Join Teatro del Corazón | Heart Theatre for its launch event online, and in the metaverse, with co-founders Stacy Whittle and Felipe Benitez, DC’s own Trio Caliente, and the Swedish artist Anna U Davis whose work is on display at IA&A at Hillyer.

Teatro del Corazón | Heart Theatre is a woman and Latino-led non-profit production company transforming the live performance landscape by connecting audiences to the creative content they love through physical, online, and immersive experiences.

This DC-based non-profit is a digitally-native and in-person hybrid production performing arts company. The theatre will produce existing works that uplift humanity while at the same time commissioning new pieces from established and underrepresented artists.

 The co-founders of this new production company believe in the vast possibilities of storytelling using existing and emerging media to reach audiences worldwide. Their motto: “United and connected, we can change the world. Because hate is so 2020.”

WHAT: Formal debut of production company with special guests shot in 2D and 360 videos filmed at the Hillyer Art Gallery

WHEN: Valentine’s Day February 14, 2022 8:00 pm – 8:30 pm

WHERE: Facebook Live , YouTube, YouTubeVR, and other Virtual Reality platforms.  

WHO:

●      Stacy Whittle, Co-founder, Heart Theatre | Teatro del Corazón

●      Felipe Benitez, Co-founder, Heart Theatre | Teatro del Corazón

●      Deborah Benner, Trio Caliente

●      Michael Bard, Trio Caliente

●      Benjamin Schnake, Trio Caliente

For interviews with the founders, please contact Karina Martínez karina@benitezstratgies.com.

About Teatro del Corazón | Heart Theatre

We believe that getting Teatro del Corazón | Heart Theatre in front of as many people as possible can help inspire and mobilize people to make a change, take action, love more, and hate less. And we want to help as many people as possible lead healthier lives.

We are the first-of-its-kind center for art, and we are a digitally-native and in-person hybrid production performing arts company. We produce existing works that uplift humanity while at the same time commissioning new pieces from established and contemporary artists.   

While we will have a physical space and center some of our work there, we will harness new technologies to bring the arts to everyone. This year will see us produce theatre, art, opera, and workshops in the metaverse to expand our audience to individuals on virtual world platforms.

In essence, we are a borderless theatre performing worldwide, live, online, and in the metaverse.

Connect with us on Facebook and at www.hearttheatre.net