Access & Activism in Theatre—Samuel French & Playbill—Thurs, Sept 29, 2016—#IdentityWeek
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2016-10-11

Samuel French, Playbill, and HowlRound present #IdentityWeek, a free four-day panel event exploring racial, cultural, sexual, and gender identity in the theatre livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Tuesday, September 27 to Friday, September 30. 

In Twitter, use #IdentityWeek, and follow @MrSamuelFrench and @HowlRoundTV.

#IdentityWeek follows previous Samuel French and HowlRound events: #RightsWeek, which focused on intellectual property or artists; and #MusicalsWeek, which featured discussions about the creation of and representation in musicals. This marks Samuel French's third year of partnering with HowlRound for panel events and the first collaboration with Playbill.

The 2016 event was created in response to the issues of identity, inclusion, and representation onstage being at the forefront of our industry's collective conversation. “Samuel French is a stand for artistic integrity,” says Bruce Lazarus, Executive Director, Samuel French. “We are proud to provide a space to discuss the theatre artist’s role in this global shift of identity consciousness.”

Access & Activism in Theatre
This conversation will focus on the progress and challenges in the theatre community around access and inclusion for artists, administrators, and audience members. Topics may include advances in onstage representation of characters and performers of all abilities, the politics of casting an actor to play a character with a disability if that actor doesn't have the same disability, and more. Panelists include Phil Dallmann (Manager of TDF Accessibility Programs), Laura Kirk (Director of Audience Services for Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre), Christine Bruno (Disability Advocate for Inclusion in the Arts), and Alexandria Wailes (representing Deaf West). Moderated by Diep Tran (Associate Editor, American Theatre Magazine).

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