About This Event
On behalf of Maestra Music in partnership with Signature Theatre and Playbill, we are thrilled to invite you to the third annual RISE Summit hosted on Monday, September 14, 2026 from 10:00am to 5:30pm at Signature Theatre, 480 w 42nd Street, New York, NY 10046.
The RISE Summit will host a series of panels and seminars led by select Network Partners all correlating to this year's theme of BREAKTHROUGH.
A breakthrough isn't just a destination, it’s a series of moments across multiple stages of our lives. This conference is a space to cultivate honest conversations about the stamina required to sustain creative momentum and the structures we need to build to support one another. Too often, our culture treats a breakthrough as a singular, explosive moment, the sudden overnight success, the flash of genius, or the elusive "big break." But for artists and cultural workers, the reality is far more nuanced, cyclical, and deeply collaborative. We are aiming to redefine breakthrough as a lifelong, iterative practice.
The Summit highlights the significance of our collective work and its broad impact beyond the theatre industry, centering conversations dedicated to community building and professional career development.
Keynote conversation with Melis Aker and Director of RISE, Victoria Detres.
End of day musical performance will be led by Angel Band Project.
The event concludes with an onsite happy hour.
Panels:
1. Breaking Through: The Role of the Arts in Reentry and Collective Liberation, hosted by Drama Club and Kaleidoscope Dreams Foundation.
Reentry is often thought of as a legal or logistical process: finding housing, employment, or reconnecting with family. But before any of those things can happen, people must often break through something much deeper: shame, isolation, stigma, trauma, and the identities imposed on them by the carceral system. This panel explores the role of the arts as a catalyst for breakthrough during and after incarceration.
2. Breaking Through Oppressive Practices: Make a Scene, hosted by Theatre Advocacy Project, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC and Broadway Mental Health Foundation.
This panel will have their guests walk through their own experiences of hardship that were actually breakthroughs to set them on their current career trajectories, as activists and advocates for change within theatre. From those hardships their team will provide a 101 course of artists rights in the workplace, providing access to knowledge that might help audience members with their own breakthrough moments.
3. Opening the Stage Door: Navigating the Theatre Industry Through Mentorship, hosted by Maestra Music, The Miranda Family Fund and Black Theatre United.
Sometimes the only way to break through is with the assistance of someone who’s already done it. Several organizations in the theatre have formal mentorship programs designed to illuminate pathways for people who see where they want to be but can’t visualize how to get there. This panel will address some of the ways in which folks value the one-to-one relationships a mentor and mentee can share and will look at the ways these intentional pairings can disrupt the patterns that let some people in while keeping others out.
Please note tickets are offered at a sliding scale to meet participants at different needs.
About This Event
On behalf of Maestra Music in partnership with Signature Theatre and Playbill, we are thrilled to invite you to the third annual RISE Summit hosted on Monday, September 14, 2026 from 10:00am to 5:30pm at Signature Theatre, 480 w 42nd Street, New York, NY 10046.
The RISE Summit will host a series of panels and seminars led by select Network Partners all correlating to this year's theme of BREAKTHROUGH.
A breakthrough isn't just a destination, it’s a series of moments across multiple stages of our lives. This conference is a space to cultivate honest conversations about the stamina required to sustain creative momentum and the structures we need to build to support one another. Too often, our culture treats a breakthrough as a singular, explosive moment, the sudden overnight success, the flash of genius, or the elusive "big break." But for artists and cultural workers, the reality is far more nuanced, cyclical, and deeply collaborative. We are aiming to redefine breakthrough as a lifelong, iterative practice.
The Summit highlights the significance of our collective work and its broad impact beyond the theatre industry, centering conversations dedicated to community building and professional career development.
Keynote conversation with Melis Aker and Director of RISE, Victoria Detres.
End of day musical performance will be led by Angel Band Project.
The event concludes with an onsite happy hour.
Panels:
1. Breaking Through: The Role of the Arts in Reentry and Collective Liberation, hosted by Drama Club and Kaleidoscope Dreams Foundation.
Reentry is often thought of as a legal or logistical process: finding housing, employment, or reconnecting with family. But before any of those things can happen, people must often break through something much deeper: shame, isolation, stigma, trauma, and the identities imposed on them by the carceral system. This panel explores the role of the arts as a catalyst for breakthrough during and after incarceration.
2. Breaking Through Oppressive Practices: Make a Scene, hosted by Theatre Advocacy Project, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC and Broadway Mental Health Foundation.
This panel will have their guests walk through their own experiences of hardship that were actually breakthroughs to set them on their current career trajectories, as activists and advocates for change within theatre. From those hardships their team will provide a 101 course of artists rights in the workplace, providing access to knowledge that might help audience members with their own breakthrough moments.
3. Opening the Stage Door: Navigating the Theatre Industry Through Mentorship, hosted by Maestra Music, The Miranda Family Fund and Black Theatre United.
Sometimes the only way to break through is with the assistance of someone who’s already done it. Several organizations in the theatre have formal mentorship programs designed to illuminate pathways for people who see where they want to be but can’t visualize how to get there. This panel will address some of the ways in which folks value the one-to-one relationships a mentor and mentee can share and will look at the ways these intentional pairings can disrupt the patterns that let some people in while keeping others out.
Please note tickets are offered at a sliding scale to meet participants at different needs.
Getting There
Signature Theatre
480 W 42nd Street
New York, New York 10036
United States