Diversity Theatre

[Gaynelle Beltramo]

RITDiversity Theater is a university wide program that advances diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for faculty, staff, students, and community partners using theater-based methods. Live theatre, playback theatre, film and other forms of visual and performance arts are developed as design tools for creating impactful and interactive workshops and classroom experiences.

Plays and short sketches that showcase academic and organizational development issues between faculty, staff, and student groups. Presentations include published plays and customized scripts written by the Director of Diversity Theater and performed by Diversity Theater facilitator-actors.

Community and team building workshops using the Playback Theatre model, an international form of improvisational theater where participants share personal stories around a common theme that are enacted on the spot by Playback actors and musicians,

Playback Theatre workshops offer a dynamic multisensory storytelling experience using music, theatre, and movement. Participants get to know each other better and develop inclusive practices. Diversity Theater holds PBT rehearsals and information sessions on campus throughout the academic year. Contact Director Tina Chapman DaCosta for more information.

Buddy must master the art of letter writing to communicate with Eleanor, a beautiful sophisticated woman he meets while visiting Cleveland. Can Buddy overcome his brash writing style and the long distance that may increase if Buddy is called to join the Tuskegee Airmen in WWII? Will Eleanor take a chance on love with a small town boy with big ideas? Dear Eleanor reminds us that love takes courage.

Hands on training workshop for faculty and staff to foster a deeper understanding of what it means to be an active bystander. Participants engage in role-play to practice bystander techniques. Presented with ADVANCE RIT. Provides a safe place for skill building and practice.

Designed with the Multicultural Center for Academic Success, a two-hour workshop that showcased the effects of stereotype threat in the classroom through short vignettes. Increases awareness of stereotype threat and its impact upon student learning.

Training in the use of theater-based methods for facilitators, group leaders, and Diversity and Inclusion practitioners. A variety of theater-based facilitation methods are presented, such as hot-seating, improvisation, vignettes, film, music and movement. Participants receive hands-on training of the methods.

In each of the past seven years, major tech companies have released diversity reports, charting the number of women and people of color they employ. The numbers are reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but companies have dedicated more and more resources to publicly displaying their commitments to diversity. The displays are impressive. The results are not.

Diversionary Theatre is the third-oldest LGBTQIA+ theatre in the United States, providing quality live theatre that aims to amplify the diverse voices of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities while promoting social justice for marginalized groups.

Diversionary Theatre would like to acknowledge that our theatre resides on the land of the Ipai-Tipai, also known as the Kumeyaay Nation. We pay respect to the many elders, and to the tribe of this land; past, present, and future.

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The origins for the American Performance as a textbook came specifically from a college-wide Arts elective lecture course that I have developed and taught since 2014 at California State University, Fullerton titled Theatre and Cultural Diversity. Teaching the lecture series and developing curriculum for this class has been one of the joys of my professional life as it allows the opportunity in every academic year to interact with scores of national and international students from many backgrounds all representing the beautifully diverse nature and identity of our modern multicultural American society.

The aim of the Theatre and Cultural Diversity course is to educate university students on the rise and role of multicultural representation in the American Performing Arts by positing the following questions:

We then seek to answer these questions by examining the exquisite contributions that artists from the African American, Asian American, and Latino American communities have created over the last 250+ years and their vast influence on American pop-culture and society working in professional theatre, music, film and in television responding and reacting to the events of the era in which they lived with the expression of their humanity through the application of their Art.

The content of The American Performance is primarily organized in the manner of my college course and is a vast expansion and culmination of the many lectures, writings, and research that I have used over several years to tell the story of how the growth of racial and ethnic diversity within the American Performing and Cinematic Arts has been one of the greatest engines for social, cultural, and political change throughout the history of the United States.

The impetus to write The American Performance stems from my desire as an educator to provide a comprehensive primary reader and resource for my students to have as much contextual information as possible on the topic of cultural diversity within the Performing Arts and the historical moments, social trends and cultural events that have shaped so much of our shared American experience. Over the many semesters teaching on this topic I would often reinforce with students that to fully understand the slow progress in American history for positive, and more authentic representation of BIPOC communities or persons throughout all aspects of American entertainment, we must initially highlight and appreciate the historical times and events (both the good and the bad) that these important artists of color were experiencing, and the ever-changing socio-political realities that shaped the attitudes, voices, and popular performance styles that, over time, have become commonplace, familiar, widely popular and authentically American.

Support American Theatre! A just and thriving theatre ecology begins with information for all. Please join us in this mission by joining TCG, which entitles you to copies of our quarterly print magazine and helps support a long legacy of quality nonprofit arts journalism.

Nicole Brewer is busy making her ancestors proud as an anti-racist theatre consultant, director, actor, and educator. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and three imperfectly perfect children.

Support American Theatre: a just and thriving theatre ecology begins with information for all. Please join us in this mission by joining TCG, which entitles you to copies of our quarterly print magazine and helps support a long legacy of quality nonprofit arts journalism.

The Alliance Theatre acknowledges and supports the list of demands made by We See You White American Theatre, and we are grateful for the time and care that went into the creation of this Living Document. We believe in the wide-ranging vision for a more equitable industry, imagined by a collective of multi-generational, black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) theatremakers. We continue to reference this powerful document and look to it for guidance as we move forward. We agree to be transparent in our responses, and about our action and growth towards being the Alliance that Atlanta truly deserves.

We believe that acknowledging and embracing differences in identity is essential to a dynamic cultural conversation. This is why we are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of our organization and programming.

We believe that our most valuable asset in our pursuit of excellence is the staff of The Alliance Theatre. We are therefore committed to equitable hiring practices, annually reviewed compensation levels measured against national field standards, and a compassionate culture of respect, support and feedback designed to help each member of our team to grow, thrive, and do their best work.

All too often, the default body in American theatre is white, and new play evaluators, casting directors, directors, producers, and indeed playwrights too often assume that if a character is not explicitly described to be non-white, then they are.

All too often, the default body in American theatre is white, and new play evaluators, casting directors, directors, producers, and indeed playwrights too often assume that if a character is not explicitly described to be non-white, then they are. The character list for Death of a Salesman reads:

From grade school to high school, I participated in traditional plays at a local community college that were consciously cast as multi-racial, multi-generational, multi-national, multi-ability, multi-gender-identified...you get the point. The amazingly conscious and sensitive director, Clay David, was all-inclusive and it made for a warm welcoming environment for both the actors and the audiences.

Perhaps if "encouragement" is not working, the responsibility should be on theatre companies to take the initiative and cast more diversely? I agree with the message of this piece- that theatre should be more inclusive for performers and other theatre artists of color, but I think your analysis of the playwright's role in this problem is flawed in a number of crucial ways.

First of all, you seem convinced that the playwright should be as specific as possible in their character description, in terms of a character's racial background, gender, and personal history. While I understand that deliberate vagueness in character descriptions can be seen as laziness, being as explicit as possible about these details when it isn't crucial to do so can also stifle actors' and directors' creative freedom when interpreting the work. It's not the playwright's job to write out the lighting cues for every scene; why should they micromanage the direction of the show on the page as well? A good playwright realizes that any production of their work is going to be a collaborative effort, and that realization comes with an acceptance of their own boundaries.

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