A curator and producer working across independent and institutional contexts, Thomas Benjamin Snapp Pryor (Ben Pryor) has produced more than 150 performance engagements of 22 evening-length dance, theatre, and performance works by artists including Miguel Gutierrez, Trajal Harrell, Ishmael Houston-Jones/Dennis Cooper/Chris Cochrane, and Deborah Hay (among others) and realized with 83 museums, performing-arts centers, festivals, and cultural institutions in 54 cities across 16 countries. Pryor created American Realness, an annual festival of performance and discourse, to call attention to the proliferation of choreographic practices transcending the historic notions of American dance. From 2010–2019, the festival served as a launching pad for artists entering the national and international performing-arts field. Pryor has curated programs for Centre National de la Danse (Pantin, France), Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse, France), Les Subsistances (Lyon, France), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna, Austria), and Hollins University MFA Dance program (Roanoke, Virginia). He is currently senior producer for Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. SLC, 2021–
Graduate Courses 2023-2024
MFA Theatre
Creative Practice, Organizing, and Producing
Graduate Component—Fall
This graduate level component is an intensive in artistic planning and production. From conceiving a project, planning, budgeting, and fundraising for its creation, promoting the premiere, taking a work on the road, and archiving it for the long term, this class will prepare students with a basic knowledge of what it takes to put your work into the world. In addition the class will look at the national and international contemporary performance field with a ground level introduction to working artists, residencies, presenting organizations,festivals, museums, and more. This class meets on zoom. Open to graduate students and undergraduate seniors.
Faculty
Grants and Fundraising for Independent Artists
Graduate Component—Spring
This class will serve as an introduction to grants and fundraising for independent artists. We will explore managing a grants and individual giving calendar, local, state, and federal funding sources, and delve deep info project based grants for independent artists including The MAP Fund, Creative Capital, New England Foundation for the Ats National Dance & Theater Projects, National Performance Network's Creation and Development fund and more. In addition we will explore crowdfunding methods and individual solicitation. Classes will be a mix of lectures via case studies of successful grants, guest appearances from foundation program officers, and workshop sessions through which students share progress and challenges in completing mock grant applications throughout the semester. Grad Component open to undergrad Juniors and Senior.
Faculty
Previous Courses
MFA Theatre
Creative Practice, Organizing, and Producing
Graduate Component—Fall
This graduate level component is an intensive in artistic planning and production. From conceiving a project, planning, budgeting, and fundraising for its creation, promoting the premiere, taking a work on the road, and archiving it for the long term, this class will prepare students with a basic knowledge of what it takes to put your work into the world. In addition the class will look at the national and international contemporary performance field with a ground level introduction to working artists, residencies, presenting organizations, festivals, museums, and more. This class meets on zoom.