Anti-Racist Theatre Workshop Opportunities - Preconference
Dear KCACTF Region IV Schools,
We are pleased to be able to invite you and your students to register to participate in these incredible workshop opportunities, sponsored by The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Office. The workshops are being held the Monday and Tuesday before the Region IV Festival officially starts on Thursday, Feb. 4 and are open to all members of our region, whether or not you are attending the festival.
Nicole Brewer, creator of Conscientious Theatre Training and originator of the Anti-Racist Theatre (A.R.T.) movement is teaching her unique approach which blends anti-racist theory, social justice, collectivism, healing justice and theatre exercises for an embodied understanding of racism and our agency to become anti-racist. In this course Nicole offers participants tools to craft their own unique anti-racist theatre ethos and delve into the three core principles of anti-racist theatre: harm reduction, harm prevention and relationship repair. Participants will be guided through self reflection exercises designed to strengthen their analysis of their position, power, privilege and begin to uproot their racist practices, policies, and protocols. All who believe the way forward for theatre is anti-racist and anti-oppressive are welcome. We all have a role to play. The future of art will be nourished by you. Join us in doing the work to make sure theatre is a liberated place for all.
SCHEDULE
Monday, February 1
3:00PM- 5:00PM
Workshop 1: Creating an Anti-Racist Theatre Ethos & Access Needs
Facilitator: Nissy Aya and TBD
Teaching concepts of A.R.T. ethos and how to embrace/apply more inclusive practice of access needs.
Tuesday, February 2
11:00AM – 1:00PM
Workshop 2: Anti-Racist Theatre Guiding Principles: folding A.R.T. into your practice now
Facilitator: Nissy Aya and TBD
Teaching 3 guiding principles harm reduction, harm prevention & relationship repair.
3:00PM – 5:00PM
Workshop 3A: Students
Facilitator: Nicole Brewer, supported by Kayla Kim Votapek
How we do anti-racist theatre together across difference.
Workshop 3B: Faculty/Staff
Facilitator: Hannah Fenlon, supported by Melissa Kievman
How we do anti-racist theatre together across difference.
REGISTRATION
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/artkcactf
PLATFORM
Zoom
INSTRUCTORS
Nicole Brewer is a passionate advocate for anti-racist theatre. She has spent the last seven years refining and practicing an inclusive method of theatre training and practices which she calls Conscientious Theatre Training (CTT). She has authored multiple articles about the need for the theatre industry to shift from racist and oppressive models to anti-racist and anti-oppressive. Why Equity Diversity and Inclusion Are Obsolete was reported by American Theatre as one of their top ten most read stories of 2019.
Nicole is invited all over the US and Canada to teach and speak about CTT and facilitate anti-racist theatre (ART) workshops. She’s also facilitated ART workshops in the UK providing workshops for The Globe and Cambridge University. Nicole is a board member of Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) where she works to shift how the industry can become more proactive to the needs of caregivers.
Nicole is one of the four producers of the COVID19 freelance artist resource website, freelanceartistresource.com. The producing collective also partnered with HowlRound to produce six weekly webinars that centered the needs of freelance artists impacted by the pandemic.
Ms. Brewer is on faculty in the acting department at the Yale School of Drama. She has worked at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a premier performing arts high school in Washington D.C. as visiting faculty (acting). Nicole was visiting faculty at the National Theater Institute (NTI) for several years. She was faculty in the theatre department of Howard University for seven and half years and has also worked at Northern Virginia Community College and Montgomery College teaching acting and introduction to communications courses.
Nicole is frequently invited to share her work on CTT and ART at conferences such as ATHE, SETC, TCG, The Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and in the UK at Goldsmith’s University.
Nicole Brewer earned her M.F.A. in Acting from Northern Illinois University and her
B.F.A. from Howard University. She’s worked professionally as an actor, director and educator.
PARTICIPANTS
150 participants max. We will keep a waiting list and discuss additions with Nicole. We would like Regional leadership to attend the trainings, and have an opportunity to invite you to these workshops in other Regions, so you don’t have to worry about taking the workshops while you’re also running your own festival.
